As has been suggested by certain good fellows at another forum, in which I asked bold questions on the lucrativeness of selling and earning from board games, I have decided to post a large part of what I have conceived and written on the rules for a game that takes its basis and inspiration from an evolution of the hit board game, Nexus Ops.
I can give the proper summary, concise, on the appeal and uniqueness of the game, its core gist and what it offers, a background on the theme or how and what the game achieves, that separates it from others. Or at least I believe people want to know a description of what the game is about, and how it is like. So I will start with this first.
The game is based on the framework of mechanics already established in Nexus Ops, which was a solid foundation that I saw capable of prompting and generating the further expansion of ideas. So, working within the dynamics of that framework, I diverge from the formula of Nexus Ops in the most obvious way, the one real error in the game, from a design perspective at least, in how there is no differentiation between the Factions. And this by itself is a source of inspiration, given then, how the idea of creating four different but balanced Factions, naturally arises. And so, this is the basic progress that entered me, when I saw the strong potential of bringing out the best of the solid system already established in Nexus Ops, and taking that rather simple game to a whole, more advanced level of complexity.
The basics of the game is simple, it is about managing an economy, with the different Factions proceeding in different ways to achieve that, so as to produce units that engage in all-out constant warfare across the larger board of the game, compared to Nexus Ops. And, even though the victory of the game is secured by the earning of 30 Victory Points, which might sound a lot by most standards, I admit (that it might need to be lowered to maybe 20 or 25), but I can't say so with sufficient grounds at this point, the game, something of the nature of a combat-focussed board game on the par of comparison with Nexus Ops and StarCraft, that there are Faction-specific mechanics that provide the function of something like a secondary side-game or mission, of which driving purpose is to improve the combat efficiency of your units, through the accomplishing and use of active goals on the side, almost a game within a game. In a sense, it is so upgraded in feel and level of complexity from the basic framework of Nexus Ops, even as much as it has depended on it for its formula, it is in fact so transformed that it reaches a stage of emulating the experience of an RTS into a board game, better than any others before it. You get to build buildings that increases your tech-tree access to even more powerful abilities to augment the fighting capability of your forces, all of which were worked on in extension to the prime basics of the game established in Nexus Ops.
So, with the addition of attributes to units, instead of the linear one-sided evolution of units increasing in power with their costs, and the differentiation of the four Factions into entirely separate entities, with the inclusion of buildings and terrain type effects...there's a lot going for this game, perhaps even more than I have said or even shown awareness of. I will post what I have conceived so far in the next post after this. For those that are interested, add in what you like to the design process, and I give my due thanks and regards.
Chaos Stone the Board Game
Glossary:
Resource: The Resource in this game is called Chaos Stone.
Assault: Assault Range and the term Assault itself refers to the distance of 0 separation of tiles, in effect referring to Attacks made against enemies on the same tile, in what is referred to as close combat.
Initiative Comparison: An Initiative Comparison refers to having both opposing sides roll a D6 and adding the value to their Initiatives, with the result that is greater succeeding in effect for its corresponding side.
Building: You can only have one Building on a tile. One of your units must be present before a Building can be built. Defensive Buildings provide +1 to the Armour Level of units on the same tile, and have an Armour Level of 1 against Attacks made against them.
Figurine: Each Figurine has a dial at the bottom, showing one of three settings: D for Deployed, M for Moved, A for Attacked. Once the Turn is over, all settings are reverted to D. For those Figurines with multiple Defence Levels, they have a second dial that records the number of remaining Defence Levels they have, a numerical value up to the max Defence shown on their statistical reference card.
Attack Damage Levels: The game involves the rolling of D6 and D3 dice. D6 is the standard 6-sided die rolled, while D3 is a D6 die rolled, but taking the result and dividing it by two, and then rounding up. You may never reroll a reroll. Attack rolls can never be modified or improved beyond (2+), but if the Attack roll is subjected to negative modifiers, because of the enemy's Armour Level or Cover Level, modifiers from abilities like the consumption of Chaos Stones to augment the Attack of the Warplasma Fusil can be used to negate this protective effect. A roll of 1 is always a failure.
Turn: A Turn refers to the actions taken by a player, irregardless of who, and so when referred specifically as "in each Turn", the effects occur not just in your player's Turn only, but all other players' Turns as well. The collective Turns of all individual players is referred to as a Game Round, starting from the first player with the initiative.
Victory: The only way to lose in this game is if all your units and Buildings are wiped out from the board, or to win, a player gains 30 Victory Points from controlling the Nexus for 30 Game Rounds. For each Round a Faction holds control of the Nexus, its Icon moves up once on the Victory Point Track.
Components:
Victory Point Track
-1 Victory Point Tracker for each Faction
One-Hex Terrain Tiles
-2 Plains Terrain Tiles
-2 Forest Terrain Tiles
-2 River Terrain Tiles
-1 Nexus
Two-Hex Terrain Tiles
-1 Plains/Forest Terrain Tiles
-1 Plains/River Terrain Tiles
-1 Forest/River Terrain Tiles
-1 Plains Terrain Tiles
-1 Forest Terrain Tiles
-1 River Terrain Tiles
Three-Hex Terrain Tiles
-1 Plains/Forest/River Terrain Tile
-1 Plains/River/Forest Terrain Tile
-1 Forest/Plains/River Terrain Tile
-1 Forest/River/Plains Terrain Tile
-1 River/Plains/Forest Terrain Tile
-1 River/Forest/Plains Terrain Tile
Tokens
-First Player token
-36 Exploration tokens
=3 3-Mine tokens, 6 2-Mine tokens, 9 1-Mine tokens, 3 3-Deposit tokens, 6 2-Deposit tokens, 9 1-Deposit tokens
-100 Red Chaos Stone Resource counters
Dice
-
The Civilisation of Humanity (Blue)
-Faction Sheet
-Reference Cards for the Units
-Headquarters Terrain Tile
Cards
-10 Human Research Technology Cards
-20 Special Operations Mission Cards
Tokens
-30 Rank Promotion tokens
-80 Mission Point tokens
-30 Supply tokens
Figurines
-15 Riflemen
-12 Snipers
-9 Stealthsuits
-9 Combat Walkers
-6 Battle Tanks
Buildings
-1 Headquarters
-18 Refineries
-6 Factories
-6 Research Facilities
-6 Bastions
-6 Outposts
The Animagusi Coven (Red)
-Faction Sheet
-Reference Cards for the Units
The Evolved Bionids (Green)
-Faction Sheet
-Reference Cards for the Units
Cards
Tokens
-100 Genetic Material tokens
The Great Rhuds (Grey)
-Faction Sheet
-Reference Cards for the Units
-3-Hex Warren Terrain Tile
Cards
-10 Chaos Stone Technology Cards
Tokens
-10 Warpwind Cloud tokens
Figurines
-18 Scavengers
-15 Fusiliers
-12 Runners
-12 Tunnellers
-9 Moulders
-6 Plaguestone Throwers
Buildings
-1 Warren
-12 Burrows
-12 Tunnels
-6 Warplightning Towers
Terrain Tiles:
Plains: Units move and behave normally on Plains, but certain units may be able to gain bonus Movement speed when moving through or from or to such a terrain tile.
Forest: Units in a Forest terrain tile gain a +1 to their Armour Level, and reduces the Initiative of enemy units Attacking by 1, in the first round of combat. Shots may not be fired at enemy units where the shots have to pass through a Forest, or a Defensive Building like Bastions or Outposts, for that matter. Once a Building is built on such a tile, the Forest terrain is cleared, and so provides no more bonuses to Armour Levels, or negative modifiers to the enemy's Initiative. Armour Levels provided by terrains are collectively called Cover Levels. These act as normal Armour Levels, adding onto the cumulative effects of standard Armour Levels, but have distinction in those cases when Armour Levels and not Cover Levels are affected and modified. Cover Levels never apply in Assault.
River: Units moving across a River suffers a -1 to their Movement speed, down to a minimum of 1. When you build a Building over a River terrain tile, the River restricts the Movement of enemy units only, instead of your own. If an enemy has 3 Movement, and it attempts to Attack a Bastion built over a River terrain tile, it can only reach it if it is a distance of 2 Movement away, not 3.
Nexus: Units controlling the Nexus at the centre of the board gain 1 Victory Point and have 1 Chaos Stone Resource generated for their controlling player. Buildings may not be built on the Nexus.
Turn Order Sequence:
The game revolves around a Game Round, which is a Round in which every player takes their Turn, resolving each Step within a Turn in entirety, before progressing to the next player and so on. Each player, in clockwise fashion, start taking Turns, beginning with 10 Chaos Stones Resource for the first player, and 3 more Resource each for subsequent players beyond the previous, that can be used for any number of purchases.
Deployment Step:
Units purchased may be Deployed in the starting tiles of your Base, or from Factories and other unit-producing Buildings on the board. May build one Building each on tiles with your units on them.
Movement Step:
Move each unit of yours once, according to its rules for Movement. You may Retreat units from a contested tile, and then Attack if your units have a Ranged weapon, during the Battle Step.
Exploration Step:
Reveal the hidden Exploration tile of each unexplored tile that has a unit of yours present, by flipping it over. There are two types of Exploration tiles, a Mine with a value of 1-3 Resource of Chaos Stones that can be Mined and harvested, or a Chaos Stone Desposit, that gives an amount of Chaos Stones from 1-3, without the need to Mine the location initially. Once revealed and given its containing amount, the Deposit provides no more Chaos Stones.
Battle Step:
For units that are able to Attack at this point, Battle commences according to the rules of Attack for those units. Units in the same tile as the enemy's will always have to Battle, even if they have no Assault (close combat) ability. Units may only choose to Retreat during their Movement Step, in fact Retreating is considered entirely the same as Movement. If not, they are to be engaged in Battle, which is one of the strong points of Assaulting or close combat in this game; within a distance of 0 tile separation, on the same tile as the enemy, when Battles are resolved in an Assault situation, both parties naturally get their chance to Attack, in the order of their Initiative values proceeding down. The same cannot be said for Attacks made at a distance, from Range.
Attacks made have to roll greater than and equal to the Attack value of the Attacking unit. If the target enemy unit has Armour Level(s), for each Armour Level and Cover Level of the enemy unit, the roll you need to make in order to successfully Attack is subjected to a -1 modifier. A successful Attack means that the Defence value of the targeted unit is reduced by 1. Should this bring the value to below Defence 1, the unit is destroyed. Area-Effect weapons and powers ignore Cover Levels, but not Armour Levels.
Resource Step:
Gather up the total amount of Chaos Stones Mined and harvested by your Buildings or units. If the tile is contested with the presence of other enemy units, then no working of that Mine happens, unless the Building, for instance the Human Refinery, still remains and is not destroyed in Battle.
Research/Mission/Evolution/Consolidation Step:
May Research as many Technologies as you have Research Facilities, for The Civilisation of Humanity for instance, paying the cost in Chaos Stones as stated in the number in brackets, next to the name of the Research Tech. The Faction Secret Mission Cards are drawn here, one each.
Statistics Details:
Name – Resource Cost:RC Range:R Movement:M Initiative:I Attack:A Defence:D Special:S
Name refers to the name of the unit.
Resource Cost (RC) refers to the cost in amount of Chaos Stones required to purchase the unit.
Range (R) is the maximum distance away in terms of hex-tiles that the unit can Attack with its weapon(s). You may not use a Ranged Attack against enemy units on a tile which contains your own friendly units.
Movement (M) is the maximum distance the unit can move in a given Movement Step, considering all modifiers.
Initiative (I) is the value in consideration for Detection of Stealth units, and the deciding order in Assault, with the units with the higher value Attacking first.
Attack (A) refers to the number the unit has to roll equal or above to, in order to inflict a point of Attack Damage on the target enemy unit. If the target enemy unit's Armour Level causes the unit's Attack to rise above 6+, in order words making the Attack impossible, multiple units may combine their Attack, for every point above 6+ requiring an equivalent amount of such units, making one single Attack of 6+ together, at the expense of the number of Attacks they can usually make separately.
Defence (D) refers to the number of such Attack Damage Levels the unit can sustain before becoming destroyed.
Special (S) refers to Special Abilities that the unit might possess.