Hey guys, so I had an idea for a strategy board game, and was just looking for advice. It's a two player game, taking place on a hex grid (shown above). Each player controls 3 "champions" with unique stats and abilities. The goal is to control all 7 control points (one for every hex). Controlling the points gives resources (gold and mana), which is used to buy equipment and crystals. These can be combined with others to purchase better equipment/crystals (almost like a crafting system).
The turn structure works in "rotations," which consist of 2 turns: A Movement turn and a Combat turn. During the combat turn, each player takes turns moving their champions (they can move all 3 at once). In the combat turn, players take turns deciding who to attack with their basic attack.
Champion cards have an attack stat, a movement stat, a passive ability and two active abilities. All champions have 20 health. Abilities can be cast at any time, and can be cast "in response." If multiple abilities are cast at once, they occur in order, last to first. For example, if one champion is targeting another with a damage spell, a player can decide to dodge it with a movement ability, and the movement casts first.
Champions can move as many tiles as they have movement. A champion with 5 movement can move 5 tiles. Some abilities allow the champions to jump over other champions, or dash forwards in a direction. If a champion is "out of combat," they may have double their movement. Being in combat is defined as not to have taken damage or given damage, as well as not being targeted by a legitimate ability or attack last rotation (a melee champion can't try and target another champion from across the map and having it put them "in combat").
If a Champion's health drops below zero, they die. Their piece is removed from the board, and the player adds one to their respawn dice (starts at zero). They then add X respawn counters to their fallen champion, where X is their respawn dice. Every rotation, you remove one of the respawn counters. Once a champion does not have any respawn counters on them, they are respawned and placed in your team's respawn zone.
During the game, there is a shop where players can buy equipment and crystals from. Ten cards are drawn from the deck, and are placed face up. During their Movement turn (I might just make a Shop turn, later), players may buy the cards from the shop with their gold/mana. At the end of rotation, the shop is filled up again. If the shop is full, the last two cards drawn are placed back into the deck, at the bottom.
Equipment may be attached to champions to give them stat boosts and a passive effect. Champions may only have one equipment at a time, and if new equipment is added, the old has to be discarded. Crystals give an active effect, and can be used at any time. Once a crystal has been used, it can't be used until it is recharged with it's mana cost.
In reference to the board, the black crossed out tiles are walls, which can't be jumped over, moved through or target through. The colored crossed out hexagons are respawn zones. The colored hexagons in the center of each hex is a control point, which each give a certain resource at the start of every rotation. Purple gives Mana, Yellow gives gold, Red/Blue/Pink give both. Champions can't enter the enemies hex until they control all other points. A control point is captured when there are two allied champions inside it at the end of rotation. If an enemy champion is also in the point, it cannot be captured. Once a point is captured, it cannot be recaptured for one rotation.
Thanks for reading through all of that, lol. I'd like to sell it as a single box, containing all equipment/crystals and champions, and have themed expansions come along later (like a steampunk one or a jungle themed). It's very heavily inspired by MOBAs (Multiplayer Online battle Arenas) like League, and has a heavy focus on movement. Many of the champions has a movement ability or something that modifies movement. Hopefully in the next month or two I can finish the cards and do some extensive playtesting (I've only played a few rotations with friends at school or with my brother).
Any advice would be great, of course, as well as opinions. Thanks guys!
Interesting. I've been having some thoughts of a rock paper scissors system, almost. If you've ever played Runescape 3, (post-evolution of combat), it's pretty much that. Melee > Ranged > Magic. My only problem with that is that it forces a Melee/Ranged/Magic team, instead of having nontraditional teams be viable. Maybe if there were only 2 Champions or 4, it could work but that messes with other parts of the game. Could be interesting though.