This week I have put together a greatly collaborated RTS board game (without a board). It is very easy to get the hang of and requires a lot of attention and strategic planning.
You start off with a headquarters, a base, a civilization, whatever you want to call it for now and your job is to build an array of buildings and units through the process of a sort of "deck organization" if you will... What I mean by this is that you will have a deck of about 80 cards that have all the essentials you need in order to create your empire, army, civilization (you get it). On each card will be six different options or "actions" you can chose from to put/use in different areas:money (economy), resources, research points, moves (how many moves your units can take that turn), attack/defense bonuses, and lab points (allows you to do special abilities on the field). The tough thing here is you can only chose one for that turn. For example if you chose money you will put the card in your money pile, if you chose moves you will use it towards allowing you units to move the amount that is on the card.
Moving units is simply moving the unit by its length. No ruler needed just remember or hold its original position and move it in any direction by how long it is. So if you have a builder, which is about half an inch, that you want to move three spaces, move it 1.5 inches or hold its initial position with a finger and move it so that the end of the unit touches that point three times.
Attacking units are either ranged (measured by steps which is about the length if your finger) or not ranged. Ranged means if and enemy unit is within however many steps in your range, you can attack it, otherwise the unit must physical touch the enemy unit to attack. Units have hit points (HP) and attack points (AT). Seeing who wins a battle/conflict is rather simple and bypasses many unnessasary "health" calculations of the units. Instead of keeping track of the health of mobile units, the HP and AT are pretty much just markers. If the attack of this unit equals or exceeds that units' HP, that unit dies, if it doesn't it's considered a "miss" or a representation of the failure for that unit in carry out it's duty.... Now, to see how much attack your unit actual gives out is determined through dice and attack/defense bonuses. The die will have side 1=0 side 2=0 side 3=1 side 4=1 side 5=1 and side 6=2. This will decide how much the attack the unit has will be multiplied by. So if a scout has AT: 1 and you role a 1 that unit gives off one attack point for every unit it touches. So in reality it can only kill units with an HP of 1 (only if an attack/defense bonus is administered can that change)
There are a lot more elements to the game but that is the overall structure I'm dealing with
Comment, critique, criticize! All is welcome
Feedback and ideas are my main concern
Thanks!
To me... Having a board would almost hinder the game. Plus production cost would be significantly lower and it allows the player to costomize their experience. If they want a longer game, they will play farther apart. If they want a shorter game closer together etc.