I made a thread last time that in movies and video games, warfare battles seems very interesting because there are a series of details and strategies that each side can use or take advantage of. I might have found a mechanic that could do the job without the need to add a battle field detailed battle on the side. My goal is to simulate a tactical battle field without having one.
Each player would have access to a certain number of strategy cards which are either acquired randomly or determined by some elements of the game. Here are the elements that can gives you strategy cards:
Terrain: These contains natural defense like mountain, rivers, passes, etc. that the player can take advatage of. It could be possible to fix the cards you get in each area of the board so that all battles on the same hex always have the same terrain cards. Which would create through the game some historical content ( Yep invading that hex was very hard)
Heroes/Commander: Commanders can bring new strategy cards according to their commanding ability. Again, maybe the cards aquired are fixed by the hero's abilities.
Traps: You could have previously setup traps on the field which could be triggered in the battles to come.
Formations: Maybe all formations are available by default, you try to take a formation that is best for the battle to come.
There might be other elements.
All the non-random strategy cards, like terrain, will be known by your opponent before the battles. But other strategy cards would be hidden. Before rollling the dice, each player will select a certain amount of strategy cards. I don't know how much, maybe one of each type. Then player reveal and roll the dices.
The strategy cards would give bonus/mallus or/and would power up/down the abilities of certain units or/and would nullify the abilities of certain units.
I don't want to have too much Mindgames, so probably the abilities will not depend much of what the other player used as cards, but rather by what is the army composition of the ennemy. For example, if the ennemy has a lot of archers, you might use some strategy card that gives you better protection vs archer without considering your opponent's strategy card.
In my game each hex is an area of the world map. There is no units on the board, only army markers and city. When a player use an army marker to invade an area, we "detail" the battle more by bringing in play the units the player has in his army. So on the world map, it's pretty abstract and during battle, it is more detailed.
But again, I don't want to do side battles. I had a formula which allows me to resolve the whole battle in 1 roll. It use the following system: roll A dice, keep all dice <=B and add C to each die kept. The total value determine the winner. It might also be possible to win without killing the enemy army. Abilities and technologies will influence these variables.
Now, I found that it was a bit bland to just roll, and check who is the winner, but I don't want side battles to make the game too long. So if I could have strategy cards that influence the variables above or add/negate unit abilities, it could give a feeling that you are actually running a real war.
I also like the fact that you can have an memory of a fight in a certain area or against a certain heroes which has a combination of card harder to defeat.
I also realized that terrain cards will only be used by the defender. The attacker rarely take advantage of the battlefield. So either I give the cards in the player's hand, or the attacker choose which terrain cards he is going to attack. ex: Will he risk attacking the cliff or will he risk passing in the valley.