10 Rules of Warfare

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

So the other day I made up a new fantasy miniatures game. The reigning champion in this field, Warhammer, is such an unplayable money sink that an improved system should be able to overthrow it easily. My system is clean and simple, yet retains a surprising amount of tactical depth. It even comes with 10 different armies!

1. All players have a warband made up of three figures. [So the cost of entry is low and you can have multi-sided fights.]
   
2. There are three types of figures:
   
   
   
   • Warrior: Can move 4". Has an attack of 3 and a defense of 5. May only attack things he's in base-to-base contatct with.
     
   • Archer: Can move 2". Has a defense of 2. May only attack things he's *not* in base-to-base contact with. Attack starts at 6 and drops 1 for every inch between Archer and target.
     
   • Knight: Can move 6". Has an attack of 5 and a defense of 3. May only attack targets if he moves along a straight line into base-to-base contact or if he begins his turn in base-to-base contact.
     
   
   
3. Players may use any of the three figures to make up their warband. They can have one of each or three of a kind or any combination in between. [So the elf army is three archers, the dwarf army is three warriors, etc.] They also get 3 6"x6" squares of "terrain features to place anywhere on the board. Each terrain piece so placed must have enough gap between it and the terrain piece nearest it that you could fit another terrain piece between them (so roughly 6" between terrain pieces).
   
   
4. Roll a d6 to see who goes first. Ties re-roll.
   
   
5. On your turn:
   
   
   
   • Pick one of your figures that you haven't activated yet.
     
   • Move and attack OR attack and move OR move OR attack with the figure.
     
   • Place an activation marker next to it to show that you've activated it.
     
   • Play passes to the other player (or the next player in turn for multi-sided fights).
     
   
   
6. When it's your turn and all of your figures have activated, you can pick up all the activation markers and go back to step 5.
   
   
7. When only one side has any figures left on the board, that side wins.
   
   
8. When you move a figure, you can move it through terrain features at double cost (so for every inch you move you count it as two inches). You can also move a figure off the table edge but that counts as fleeing the battle and that figure can't come back.
   
   
9. When you attack with a figure, you roll a d6 and add your the attack value of your figure. Your opponent rolls a d6 and adds the defense value of the target figure. Higher roll wins and the loser is removed from the board. If they tie, nothing happens but both figures are marked with an activation marker (if they don't have one already).
   
   
   
   • If the target is within a terrain feature, it rolls 2 dice and adds the higher to its defense.
     
   • If the target has an activation counter on it, it rolls 2 dice and adds the lower to its defense.
     
   • If both of the above conditions are true, the roll is normal.
     
   
   
10. Each player has a "magic spell" that they can play on their turn. This magic spell lets them pick up all activation markers from their figures and then activate all of their figures at once (i.e. they run through step five for all of their figures on the board without passing control to the other player). Once all figures have been activated, they must choose one of their figures and remove it from the game (it gets "sacrificed").
    
    
    
    • If the player sacrifices his last figure, he's out of the game.
      
    • If the player sacrifices his last figure, but there are no other figures left on the board before it gets sacrificed, that player earns a Heavy Metal Victory.
      
    
    

That's it. 10 rules, 10 armies 10 times the fun.
Tom

Comments

Not too bad

[drwex]

Your archer lacks an offense, however.

This sounds like the kind of thing you should take to Arisia's Fast Track.

Re: Not too bad

[bluegargantua]

No, he's got an attack of 6 - # of inches to target.

Re: Not too bad

[ssvanguard.livejournal.com]

But since he can't attack adjacents, the 6 will never happen, right?

Or, you can just play Heroscape. :-)

Re: Not too bad

[bluegargantua]

You don't have to move your full distance so the archers could run up just short and then shoot at the full 6. But you better hope your guys do well or there's a chance they'll get creamed on your opponent's go.

Heroscape is too expensive.

later
tom

[agthorr.livejournal.com]

In step 9, the attacker is removed from the board if they fail? Surely that doesn't include archers. :)

What if the attacker is within a terrain feature? If two warriors are on a hill together, it seems like neither should have an advantage.

How do you avoid stalemate problems? For example, if it's down to a knight versus two archers, the knight will not want to close with the archers, and the archers will be unable to close with the knight.

[bluegargantua]

It's people like you that make this game no fun.

Um...if Archers fail they get demoralized and run away so yeah, they remove. :)

Terrain gives a bonus to defense not offense. If you're attacking me and we're both the woods it's easier for me to avoid you than it is for you to come to grips with me.

Stalemate problems are resolved by not playing with big cowards. Probably some sort of "shot clock" where if you don't make some sort of attack within X number of turns with one of your units you lose a guy or forfeit.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

If I turn this into an iPhone game, will you want some dough / acknowledgement for it?

[bluegargantua]

Both.

But you better hurry... these guys are taking a shot at it.

later
Tom