Hi there i am a newbie when it comes to board game design(partial to video game design myself) but i am making an alian vs human game. Called Takeover: Earth. It is a 2-8 player game. When players play as The Army of Earth or the alians. The game focuses around battle out comes. There are 7 battles to be fought. Ex: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 all players start at 4 if alians win it goes 1 battle to the left if humans win to the right. So if alians win battle 7 or if humans with battle 1 the game ends. What i need help on is combat system. I know i want stats like Heatlh, Attack, range and defense. I was thinking on a hit/miss system. Like attackers hits against defenders hit defender loses life=to attackers win. But i think i don't know. I fell that system is bad for this game play. What i need help on is the combat system if anyone can help me out much appreciation.
New game need help combat system
It sound to me that what you are designong is a 2 player card combat game. One player playes as the aliens and one as the humans. The both races have difrent cards that gives them a distinct and unice feel to them but are in balans making it come down to hand management and a litle luck of the draw...
I do not se how you can make the game an intresting one if you have 8 players, it probobly yould just be 7 players just sitting and whating on there turn, or in a good case onley 6 players since one on the oposing side should be able to defend...
Or how is the game balanced in a 3 player game, 3 humans? 2 vs 1? I se a lot of problems in youre future if you try making it a 8 player game where they play difrent sides. On the other hand a 8 players on the same side type of game is a whole other ball game.
If you think the 2 player card combat game sounds intresting there is several out there that have a difrent feel to them, one that comes to mind with the whole 7 difrent combats thing you menchend is "battle line" it is set in ancient time wher 2 players battle eatchother in 7 difrent battles, if you win 3 in a row or 4 totaly you are the winner here. _But I think you look at the game and get some inspiration from it atleast.
Hope it helps...
Shure you can use cards for combat I think there is several games that uses that type of mecanic. I just played one of them last night as it hapends StarCraft the board game. You have a hand of cards and at the start of every combat you draw new cards and you can play one card per skermish(per unit that is fighting). The cards have a attack and a defens value on them, also a smaler attack and defence value. If the pictur on the card do not match the type of unit you playe dthe card with the unit uses the smaler (and crapier value) but it the pictur is the same as the unit type then the unit uses the big/good value on the card. It is a simple enoug system i think it would fin quit nicley to youre game, it that is what youre looking fore.
Also the one player controling 2 armies tend to slow down the game considerably, just thought to give you a heads up on that...
Will you use a tactical level of combat (man vs alien) or a more broader one (spaceship fleet vs aircraft squadrons)?
With 8 players you'll get a lot of downtime. Even if you combat can resolve fast. I suggest you figure out a way to let players "interrupt" other player's actions off their turn. I used a simultaneous counter-atteck system in one of my games, that allows any player to counter-attack the attack of the active player. For example,
South Alien attacks England player. South prevails.
Now any human player (including England, or other) can counter-attack the South unit.
This adds to cooperative play and keeps everyone potentialy active, eliminating downtime.
I also suggest you do a 2 (or 4 max) players demo and then work up the rest. It will be easier for you (and others) to test, and you can still have a full game in your hands to offer afterwards (I'm imagining every player will have unique units and skills).
Keep thinking!
One more question: How fast of a combat resolution do you want? Do you want something as simple and fast as Risk or Axis and Allies (or possibly even faster), or do you want an interesting but in-depth battle (like, a mini's fight in between each game)?
Sounds like an interesting game.
How many unit types were going to be used? For example, can the humans have infantry, tanks, rockets, jets, nukes? Same thing with the aliens - do they have scouts, drones, cruisers?
To use cards, or to use dice... I think Hamlet asked himself that question.
I can only provide a suggestion, which is to ask yourself how you want your players to interact and how much luck you want involved in your combat resolution. While cards can reduce the randomness that dice have, your game sounds pretty complex with many battles. Dice might work easier. Plus, it can be cheaper to manufacture dice than whole decks of cards.
Cards can work well though if you want players to strategize in certain ways. There will probably be some luck with cards, ie how players obtain them, but many players prefer cards in combat because they know what strength they are going into battle with and can make choices based on that.
One possibility is to play a game that is dice heavy and then try one that uses cards. Decide which format seems to feel like a better fit for your game.
Good luck!
Thanks for responding! Well the game was designed to make only 2 sides Humans and Aliens. 3v3. If odd number one player will control 2 armies/sects. The Humans have USA, China, Russia, and England. While the Aliens have sects of there empire(meridianus, oriens, occasus, and iussum)Latin for South, East, West, and command(couldn't find North...) but what i need is a dice base system or can i use cards for board(minis) combat. If i can that would be unique. Well any futher help will be appreciated. Thanks