Halp! New name for BATTLECRATES game system.

It's possible. I'm more likely to rename the company after the game if that were the case though. :)

You're right, no the BATTLECRATES name pushes players' expectations the wrong direction.

I do like the idea of referring to the cube shapes (dice, packaging, square tiles/cards) as long as the action is there too. Ironically the unit dice are not rolled, but spun up/down depending on damage (1-3 hearts) and status (Ready or Exhausted.)

So to give a little more information on gameplay to see if it spurs on any other ideas...

It's for 2-4 players (demo pictures are 1v1 for initial balance testing purposes.) Players receive gold and power resources and one city on the map that can spawn units.

In front of them are 4 unit cards (Light, Heavy, Flying, and Support.) Two unit dice for each card are placed into the available unit pool, ready to be spawned onto the map. Each unit has a passive effect always in effect (i.e. "May move one space after being attacked.") and one ability that can be activated by spending power resources (i.e. "Flame Breath - deal 1 damage to each adjacent unit".

Players also have a Commander card that gives them two powerful abilities (i.e. "Barrage - Perform a 4 ATK on each enemy unit within 2 spaces of the Sky Fortress base.")

On a turn, players may spawn a unit and activate it, or choose a Ready unit on the map and activate it. After activating one unit, a player may take one action: move/attack, boosted move (+1 MOV), or focused attack (+1 ATK), or do nothing. Then that unit is Exhausted (flipped over).

Combat is handled by rolling d6's (critical hit, hit, hit, shield, shield, power+) with the attacker going for hits, and the defender going for shields. Damage spins down the unit dice until its zero or less at which point the unit is returned to the unit pool.

Depending on the scenario, the map may have several control objectives such as monuments (VP), wellsprings (power), and mines (gold) as well as 1X pickups.

Players alternate activating one unit each, until all units are Exhausted and players cannot or choose not to spawn new units. This ends a round, at which point player receive additional gold/power resources, check for victory points, Ready all units, and begin a new round.

Player attempt to get 10 Victory points triggering the end of the game. After equivalent turns are taken, player with the most VP wins. VP is earned by killing enemies, controlling monuments, damaging a player's base, and completing achievements that change throughout the game.

Each player chooses a faction currently that comes with one of each type of unit and a commander. With multiple core sets (2 factions each), players will be able to draft unit cards from their entire collection, mixing and matching abilities to field the perfect team. Each core set also comes with at least 2 scenarios and unique terrain type for each faction (Crimson Dragons = lava, Undead Legions = misty bog, etc.)

All this gets densely packed into cube packaging, about 4"x4"x4". Hence the "crate" in the previous name.

Current factions (working names) planned may include: Crimson Dragons, Sky Pirates, Undead Legions, Black Lotus Ninjas, Dinosaurs 2.0, etc.

Does that spur any other name ideas?