Finally decided: AirMech CCG

just saying, might be better to announce such things as a blog post than a forum post.

I have seen some of your posts on these forums and I would encourage anybody to try and make board games and card games. I have noticed that all your ideas seem to be basically a board game/card game version of an existing video game. What is your goal with trying to replicate existing video games as board games/card games?

Personally I find replicating a game on a different medium does not turn out very interesting. Have you ever thought of the possibility of designing your own game? sure, by all means, use other board games/card games/video games as an inspiration.

Just suggesting that you try creating a game from scratch, maybe using inspiration from other games. You might find it as an interesting experience...

Well. It depends on the other mechanics what is possible. Also if it is a card game or board game, that difference is important. I got lucky with my action point system. But even that isn't a perfect simoultain game. I believe that with cards it is possible to get closer to this. And it contains a sort of fog of war.

If one card hids a number and another an unit to buy. Then production of aditional units is in a fog of war.

If one card contains a squad of 1 tank. Or 2 vehicles. Or a group of infantry. All worth the same. We even can keep the fog of war.

You can even protect one squads identity if you want by throwing in a protector. For this I need to give some worked out examples to understand. But it would be an card game only. Stratego style of some sort.

Onle question remans. Do you want to keep track of units health? And how are we going to do that while keeping the fog of war? Putting counters under the card? One thing is sure. For this we need the health to be low. Stuff like tracking 108 health is not an option for a game like this.

(And it needs more work too)

When I have the time, I will put a bit together. Just to see if health truly can be discarded with the idea that I have in mind.

In that way you can have the RPS like in all those RTS. While maintaining the MtG way of fighting. Just with cards.
And the predictability should remain low. It is all in how the players gain their forces.

Of course there are weapons that are less effective. However, using sufficient of those squads could still lead to a destruction. Just like how several elves can take down a worm in MtG. Thus a situation that is unlikely will still be common.

However, I wonder if a battle should continue until one of the 2 groups is annihilate completely. Or a one time shot and survivors on both sides can retreat.
Either way has it's imbalance properties.
With complete annihilation, the game ends very fast.
With retreat, the durable units will remain the longest.
I normally go for the second though. There is enough destruction.

First strike will become very important in the form of range weaponry. Why? Because if health is not existent, then each range is a +100% on weaponry.
The same goes for speed.

Some example cards:
Rifle Infantry Squad
20 Units
1 Armor (20 total Health)
1 Damage
2 Speed
2 Range

Grenadier Squad
12 Units
1 Armor (12 total Health)
9 Damage
3 Speed
1 Range

Rocket Soldier Squad
4 Units
1 Armor (4 total Health)
49 Damage
1 Speed
3 Range

Battle Tank Platoon
4 Units
25 Armor (100 total Health)
25 Damage
2 Speed
2 Range

***

Units indicates how many there are in one card.

Speed indicates how many cards there can be in one group. A card with speed 0 will be alone and cannot protect others. Others however with speed 1 or higher can protect the unit with speed 0, or simply hide behind it.
A group with Speed 0, 1 and 2 can be just as big as Speed 2, 2 and 2.

When Damage > Armor, it is a kill. Remaining damage is lost. But you need to be able to kill all units at once for defeating the card.

When Damage < Armor, it is partially damage and you need to add up until a unit is defeated.

Highest Range shoots first, cards may already die.
However, if the Range is lower then the amount of cards in 1 group. This card cannot fire. Not even after cards have already died. (not sure about that last rule, need to play test)

***

With these 4 as examples. Not only do the Rocket Soldiers overkill. Since they have 1 more range, they have the first strike. A Battle Tank Platoon stands no chance. But if there are 2 Battle Tank Platoons, just 1 Rocket Soldier Squad will die. But a 2v2, the Rocket Soldiers will win again.

Now, there are limitations. You can only use 2 Rocket Soldier Squads as a maximum at the same time due to the Speed. While the tanks can have 3 cards. In that case. 2 Platoons die, and 1 Rocket Soldier Squad dies.

However, if the player with the Rocket Soldiers also has a Platoon him/her self. He/she can place this in front. The Speed(2) indicates that the group of cards can contain 3. With the Platoon in front. The Range however, needs to be 2 at least as well to be able to fire across.
There are situations where you only use grenadiers and tanks. But due to situations, the tanks are in front of the grenadiers. The Grenadiers in the back cannot fire.

There is of course also out ranging against towers. But with these rules, there are plenty of units protecting the towers.

And with groups, the front line dies first.
You could add cards to revert things etc. Like attacking the flank or the back. These could be added to a group of cards for one round.

***

With the above, we need to design more cards.
But also see where the game seems to be repeating itself. The more diversity, the exponential the path's become.