What Games Use Tactical Combat in Minimalist Ways?

I agree that's a very true statement.

But dice may be easier for "younger" players. I have a design that's more of a Tactical "simulation" and I've narrowed it down to a "dice system". It allows players to play simultaneously while still taking turns where one player is the dominant player, while the second player "responds" to the other player. But both may be attacking...

Also for the sake of components. Dice require less elements/components.

A quick roll of dice also provides a "gamey-feel" for youngsters too.

HOWEVER I agree that your postulation is correct: "thinking out-of-the-box". Perhaps I could replace the dice with a small set of cards? (Maybe) But again this would definitely make you go: "Hmm..."

Interesting that you bring that up. Like I said I too was working on a Tactical game in nature and this does bring up interesting thinking. Or at least the thought that a dice system could be replaced by a more strategic card system, using a limited deck.

But I have no clue how that would work...

I think some of the LUCK would be "foreshadowing" your opponent's move. It's LUCK but could it also be a part strategy?

Definitely interesting... Thanks @Squinshee.

Gives me something to think about... A very worthwhile exercise.

Update: Cards could be played simultaneously also. And that implies turns could work the same way as with the dice system! :D

Neuroshima Hex was the first game to come to mind.

Part of the tactics could be the timing of a weaker attack, the deflection of an attack to turn it to your advantage, the targeting of specific locations (map or body). Depending how complex you wanted the tracking of the combat results to be you could look at chaining cards together so that maybe they deflect, step in close & then use a weak, but perfectly targeted, attack to a vulnerable point for a greater end benefit.

Just saw this game, and it appears to have some interesting tactical combat. Enemies have 4 targetable sides. There's a lot of planning movement to try to maximize attacks and also avoid being hit. The game uses miniatures, but I'm sure something similar could be done with cards or tokens.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steamforged/dark-soulstm-the-board-...

Moved to it's own thread: http://www.bgdf.com/node/17981

If you haven't seen it, I think Tannhauser did a good job of tactical combat. Each player controls a team of troops. It splits a map of small circular spaces into coloud-coded areas. You can only see inside your area (or, if you're on an intersection between two areas, you can see into both/be seen from both, so eg at a corner between two corridors).

The scenarios could have done with a bit of polish (even in the 2nd edition) but the raw combat mechanics were pretty solid.

Well yes, you are right. What I was thinking was how well the game took every aspect of the original, and made pretty simple system incorporating and abstracting them all. What came out of me was just the combat bit (which still has some of the essence of the original).

Another example of a real simple system is in the game of Dust.
It's basically Risk but with a few additional layers; Some units give tactical superiority, and the winner of that category strikes first; Some units can make a special bombing attack that cannot be counter attacked; and then there's a pile of special cards which allow the player to make one big special action.
Dust, as a Risk clone, has dice of course, but there's pretty good pull with the mass vs. tactical vs. bombing approach to its combat.

I think you have to break it down to how to create tactics in a game, not which games have it.

To put it simply, tactics boils down to this: Meaningful Choices.

If you're creating a game with tactics, you must provide an environment where the player can make a lot of meaningful choices, but you don't want to overwhelm the player with so much choice that they go into analysis paralysis during the game. It's what I call K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). You can still create a tactical game while giving the player a low amount of choices...like choosing a pistol (with low damage, needs aiming, has range, lots of bullets) as opposed to a shotgun (with high damage, doesn't need much aiming, low range, and low bullets).

When I'm looking for a mechanic, I don't ask other people because they don't know what I'm looking for exactly (and to be honest, there's not much in your description). I think about what I want the player to feel, then find (or tweak) a combat system that emulates that to give meaningful choices. It may be a longer road, but I think it will be more rewarding.

I'd do some researching. Dice Tower has a lot of videos...many many card game videos (including mine, but I don't think my mechanics would work in your game).