Having played many space board games I often find combat to be a very flat experience with little tactical options aside from unit placement. As such I set a goal for myself to design a core combat mechanic that would allow an extremely large amount of variation and options well maintaining ease of use and being simple to learn, to that end I have created the "Modular Stacked Combat" system.
The basic premise is simple and having been designed for space battle I will use them for my example.
-The Set Up-
Ship sheet showing 9 ships, three classes and three series divided into a 9x9 grid
Series 1 Frigate Series 1 Cruiser Series 1 Dreadnought
Series 2 Frigate Series 2 Cruiser Series 2 Dreadnought
Series 3 Frigate Series 3 Cruiser Series 3 Dreadnought
Each ship would feature a design much like eclipse, with each ship being able to be customized with different weapons, power systems, shields, movement, or CnC units.
With merely theses components it is completely possible to build a functional combat system not unlike that of eclipse or TI3. The issue being that optimal fittings would quickly become renown, not unlike vanilla TI3 and fighters and large ships being the optimal fleet composition.
The second component to the combat would be "The Stack". A feature that adds a second variable to combat that would serve to create a massive amount of variation and options. In a regular attacked all ships would form a "Stack" the basic stack being the "Uncoordinated Assault" that follows Frigates-Cruiser-Dreadnoughts. Many variations being possible IE. Cruisers-Dreadnoughts-Frigates, Series 3-Series 2-Series 1 and many more. This second aspect to the fight is what creates the large amount of options.
Units in the stack are then put up against the opposing stack and battle would commence.
-The Battle-
Each weapon would have a range limit with the standard being one, meaning a ship with one range could only it hit ships directly in front of it. So a Frigate-Cruiser-Dreadnought fleet versing a Frigate-Cruiser-Dreadnought fleet all equipped with range one guns would mean the frigates would have to attack first, then the winning frigates could attack the Cruisers behind them and so forth until one player has retreated for is defeated. Both sides would roll hits simultaneously and would decide how to distribute damage across their enemies units, keeping range of weapons in mind.
-Why?-
The combination of modular ships and "The Stack" create a massive amount of options. Do you ship a dreadnought covered in shields in the front with a massive amount of long range cruiser or frigates behind it? So you stack all your ships with range appropriate weapons and hope to merely overwhelm your opposition? With longer range weapons being exponentially more power expensive for a ship leaving them with less defenses or a slower speed.
-Conclusion-
Simply my musing on a robust variable space combat system. Feel free to voice any advice or opinions, nothing is set in stone.