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Easy enough to understand these rules?

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X3M
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For my current experimental (simultainious) war game, one that has a very dynamic game play. I have devised simple rules, no table for references needed (huray...)

Hexagon based map. Only different height in terrain and some terrain are a forest.
Where 1 unit takes on 1 other for 1 action point. 1 hit is 1 kill.
Differences are only in range and speed. And the weapon might be able to overcome a certain obstacle.
You earn action points, 1 per turn. Free to spend any action point. So you can safe up a lot.
Each unit can only use one action point per turn.
Either shoot or move. You place the action points, then you select them one by one together with all other players.
Regardless of the possible range, 2 fighting units fighting each other, at exactly the same time. So a tie is possible.
If you cannot respond to someone, you are out of luck ;).

Red die, 50% chance. (3 hits/3 miss)
Blue die, 83,3% chance. (5 hits/1 miss)
When rolling your dice, all dice should show a hit marker, one miss is a complete miss.

There are 5 ways to alter your unit effectivness. This alteration is simply by adding dice for reducing accuracy.
1a - Every forest between you and the target adds 1 red die for fighting players.
1b - A player that stands still automatically hides if it is standing in a forest. In that case, 1 red die is added.
2 - If the opponent is on a higher level, the difference in level is added in blue dice.
3 - If the opponent is on a higher level, the difference in level is substracted from your range.
4 - If the opponent is not visible due to higher levels in between, you cannot fire at all.
5 - When you decide to move away instead of standing still or fighting. For each speed, a blue die is added. However, the maximum number of dice is the range of your opponent. This same rule is used for units that pass by and are targeted during the movement.

There are several weapons that can ignore the above 5 rules.
- Artillery, ignores rule 1a and 4. (the highest top in between decides on rule 2 and 3)
- X-ray, ignores rule 1a+b, 2 and 4.
- Homing missiles, ignores rule 5.
- Splash, ignores rule 1b.
- Something to ignore rule 3 completely?
More weapon suggestions are welcome, as long as they ignore 1 or more rules.

***

Key points: easy game, simple map, simple units, strategy only by map?

Easy to learn?

Understandable, or more explanation needed, ... where?

These rules have been tested, the game play is currently mediocre. Improvements?

How would you weight the different weapons, speed and range in this game?

Dagar
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I understood them well

I understood them well enought, but you have to have good iconography for the single rules and which weapon ignores which rule. Working with numbers there is not intuitive. But I think you had some other presentation form in mind anyways.

I find X-Ray to be too powerful. In comparison with artillery, it should at least not ignore rule 4, maybe even one rule less.

Maybe it could be more fun if there were dedicated counter measures to the strongest weapons, so if one player plays Homing missiles and the other on plays decoy flares, the effect of homing missiles is nullified, maybe the lucky countermeasure player is even rewarded for reading his opponent that well.

X3M
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Thanks for your reaction. You

Thanks for your reaction.

You are right, X-ray is indeed the most powerful. Most players only have 1 or 2 of these units. The opponent could swarm in once he/she has saved up action points.
One hit, and this unit is gone from the board. While they can only hit one of the opponent. They carry a lot of risk too. I have yet to determine how much this unit should be worth exactly. Right now we have 1 X-ray equals 5 normal.

Homing missile, actually only works when your opponent moves. If it is standing still, than the homing missile works like a normal weapon. The weakest part to this unit is when dealing with towers. It is rather weak compared to all the other weapons. It only keeps effectiveness against moving targets. But knowing my players, they don't move when a homing is watching. They fight first. Or swarm in with a lot of cheap units.
Right now, the homing missile is about 2 normal units.

I will give that flare idea a thought. But I don't know yet how to implement such thing. But then again, a shield against X-ray would come in handy.

Should I allow these units to carry this counter devise constantly? But still a one time use?
Or should I allow players to pay one more action point during the combat phase for such event?

IcePeddlerGames
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This game sounds really fun!

This game sounds really fun! I looked over your rules with an "I need a step by step guide" mentality, which is where my questions came from. I hope you find it helpful.

I was serious with the questions. This game has me intrigued!

X3M wrote:

Where 1 unit takes on 1 other for 1 action point. 1 hit is 1 kill.

When rolling your dice, all dice should show a hit marker, one miss is a complete miss.

I snipped your rules a little. These two rules seem to contradict each other. I think you mean "if any unit is successfully hit by an attack it dies. In order to have a successful attack you must roll a hit marker with all rolled dice." Is that correct?

If I am the defending unit do I actively defend in some way, or do I need an action point to defend? I understand that terrain will give me a passive defense, but if someone attacks am I completely at the mercy of the dice?

X3M wrote:

You earn action points, 1 per turn. Free to spend any action point.

Do I earn 1 action point to share with all of my units, or does each unit earn an action point per turn? Also, I was able to logic what you meant but you might want to change your wording to "You are free to spend any action point at any time."

X3M wrote:

Each unit can only use one action point per turn.
Either shoot or move. You place the action points, then you select them one by one together with all other players.

How is order of selection decided?

X3M wrote:

Regardless of the possible range, 2 fighting units fighting each other, at exactly the same time. So a tie is possible.
If you cannot respond to someone, you are out of luck ;).

Can you clarify this a little? How do we tie exactly and what happens in case of a tie? What responses do I get? If I'm completely out of action points and someone attacks my unit does it automatically die? That's the way I took "out of luck".

X3M wrote:

1a - Every forest between you and the target adds 1 red die for fighting players.
1b - A player that stands still automatically hides if it is standing in a forest. In that case, 1 red die is added.

For simplicity I would recommend numbering this 1 and 2 instead of 1a and 1b.

X3M
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Great points

IcePeddlerGames wrote:

I snipped your rules a little. These two rules seem to contradict each other. I think you mean "if any unit is successfully hit by an attack it dies. In order to have a successful attack you must roll a hit marker with all rolled dice." Is that correct?

If I am the defending unit do I actively defend in some way, or do I need an action point to defend? I understand that terrain will give me a passive defense, but if someone attacks am I completely at the mercy of the dice?

Yes, all dice need to roll a hit.
If even one shows a miss, it is a complete miss.

At the beginning of each turn, you decide which units will take action. You place the action point on this unit.
If an unit is attacked, this action point can be used for defence (even if you where planning something else).
If you already used this unit, or didn't even put an action point on it. The unit is completely at the mercy of the dice.

IcePeddlerGames wrote:

Do I earn 1 action point to share with all of my units, or does each unit earn an action point per turn? Also, I was able to logic what you meant but you might want to change your wording to "You are free to spend any action point at any time."

For now, we have only 1 action point each turn. If you have 10 units, only 1 will be able to take action.
I think this rule needs a change though.

The wording:
"You are free to spend any action point at the beginning of your turn."
"Limited to 1 for each unit."
"Limited to your action points that you had in stock."

IcePeddlerGames wrote:

How is order of selection decided?

Oops! Completely forgot about the order of turns.
Order of players is decided randomly at the beginning of each turn. With dice for now. But a bag with numbers will replace this.
In order of the players, each decides to place their action points. Once placed, they cannot change this any more.
Then the action phase begins. The first player starts with selecting one unit with an action point. And gives it an order.
Each other player may react to this by selecting their unit with an action point.
If player one moves, other players might intercept.
If player one attacks, the target might defend.

IcePeddlerGames wrote:

Can you clarify this a little? How do we tie exactly and what happens in case of a tie? What responses do I get? If I'm completely out of action points and someone attacks my unit does it automatically die? That's the way I took "out of luck".

If one player decides to attack, and the other player is able to defend. Both units need to be in range of each other for this.
Both players roll their dice. A hit means that the other unit dies.
Both players miss: both units stay alive.
One player miss: his/her unit stays alive.
Both players hit: both units die.

If you attack an unit that has no action point. That unit is not able to shoot back. Thus there is a chance that it will die.
The attacking unit has no risk whatsoever in this case.

Numbering the rules. Perhaps you are right. 1a and 1b are almost identical. I thought that by placing them together with 1a and 1b would alert the players on the fact that there are 2 situations when defending.

Thanks for your reply.

X3M
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Hard to balance

This new game seems to be somewhat very hard to balance.
The first set of units was a mirror like chess pieces. To get variation, small differences need to be made.

Examples:
Artillery A has 10 range
Artillery B has 12 range
Tank A has 10 range
Tank B has 12 range

Now, simply adding 2 range on top of 10 means that the unit has +20% costs.

But the difference between those who cannot shoot over the terrain and those who can, grows exponential.

How to determine this balance? Any advice?

Dagar
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Joined: 01/23/2015
I think there is about three

I think there is about three ways you should get your game balanced:

1) Playtest
2) Playtest
3) Playtest

Josh 'Dagar'

X3M
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Dagar, thanks for killing

Dagar, thanks for killing this topic.

Play test will not show the answer.

This is also one of the reasons why I don't show up here any more.

Some issue's need math or a normal discussion.

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