I have been working on a card game that features the fog-of-war mechanics in a RTS (real time strategy game), as in cards stay hidden until a player reveals them or when they are attacked. Each player will have separate decks and play in a common “in-play” zone. Players can play their cards on a grid, like a chess board, each card will occupy a certain square and will remain there till it moves or is destroyed. Cards that are adjacent can give effects to other card, or you may attack adjacent opposing cards as well (at most a card can have 8 adjacent cards to it).
The game like other CCGs is a 2-player game that focuses on trying to destroy you opponents’ main structure.
Here is a same of the grid, each number is a place for a single card.
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
The two main structure are on 3rd (player A) and the 23rd (player B) slot, each player will place these main structure there (it is a card as well). Each player will place their main structure card on these spots. The game turn will be broken down into phases and the turns will be communal (like VS), so a player will start a phase with an action, and the following player will the same action, then it will process to the next phase. After the turn ends the next player will start all the actions first.
Playing Cards: Players will place a card face-down on the board (adjacent) to any their cards. The card face down represents the fog-of-war. Players can then turn cards face up to play them; a unit card will represent a small army or hero. So any card can be played face down, and does not necessarily be played immediately, other card types like locations, traps, or auras.
Resource: Currently I'm use this morale based resource, for each card you have on the board it adds to your morale (the bigger the army the better the units will join your battle), so if the total number of cards on the board (face down or up) is less than or equal to the cost of the card, you may play it (their are modifiers of course). This was working well with my Rush versus Control setup, but became horrible when it’s Control versus Control. I may have to use a location production system to balance it out.
Moving Cards: Cards face up can move to an adjacent spot that in unoccupied. I plan to keep this to one move per player.
Attack Phase: You can exhaust/tap a card to propose an attack on another card, if its a face up unit card they enter combat, or you can attack a face down card, if its a trap card it will be resolved, if not it is destroy like it lost in combat. Cards that are destroyed in combat are collected as a spoil card, which can then be used for other effect like combat boosts or be traded for resources. Cards that are held as spoils do not enter the graveyard, but goes into the spoil zone for the winning player. This is just a mechanic to prevent some graveyard recursion. So certain cards can be withheld from a player, once it is used it will go back to the opponents graveyard (or considering the out of game zone).
Other Ideas: I still working on this, but I have keywords like “Assault” After you win a battle this card moves into the destroyed card’s square. I was also considering terrain cards where you get effects when a card is on top of it. Range units are giving my trouble as well, as I don’t want them to be overpowered. Most effects that I’m trying to create target in a column, row, or even diagonal range. Combat is still in the works, it’s currently a double K.O. system still, and I was trying to have a single K.O. unless it’s a tie, but it’s difficult to swing back with a system like that combined with the resource system above. “Scout” cards are another mechanic to peek at face down cards as well.
Win conditions: Destroying your opponents base is one way, another one I was considering was obtaining X amount of spoil cards. There is of course special win condition cards as well.
Archetype:
The setting of the game is fantasy medieval, where war and siege take place often. So far I have only three color/factions that work with the fog-of-war system.
Orc: Basic rush deck, the orc archetype tries to reach your opponents main base to destroy it. Because they come in numbers, major of the effects will be based of how many orcs are in play (under your control) thus making you want to play your cards all face up. They want to show intimidation by the largeness of their army.
Human: Location control deck, this archetype focus on defend building high cost and high defend structures to keep out any invaders and reach maybe a special win condition.
Elf (or NINJAS!): Another archetype is playing with the fog-of-war, several effects will be based on a number of cards played face down and contains lots of trap cards. So attacking straight on may not be the best idea.
The idea is still in concept phase, with my ever changing prototype. Any ideas, comments, and suggestions will be much appreciated!
@Pastor_Mora
First of all thanks for the input, its very much appreciated! :)
I imagine that the 08 & 18 positions will be occupied by defenders. So, a simple guess will be that with only three victories (say, 13, 08 & 03) you could get right past your enemy gates. If you luckily start with a heavy unit, your enemy is done in no time.
Yes positions 13, 08, and 03 hold the most important squares, I put more defense values on the units/location to avoid a total stomp out like that, there is a type of "team attack" so you can swarm around this single unit and use two units to bump out this. Also if you attack first this turn, the next turn your opponent does, so he can fill up the slot back with one of his cards, you will need at least 6 turns and beating your opponents straight (even on his initiative) to get to the main base. I limit one card to be set down a turn to avoid a total rush too.
It looks like you could try 01 & 25 as starting positions.
You are correct, those four corner positions end up never being used during play testing... I could consider starting from those zones, the fights will be much longer, but I will try this out I feel this will add more use of the board and that the diagonal attack will be much strong, I'll adjust accordingly.
Instead of the attacker choosing its battles, the defender is choosing his counter-attack. And you could reasonably agree that he will have three positions to choose from (with diagonal and range attacks). Plus, if you allow multiple attacks on a single position, the enemy is toasted for shure. Initiative is one of the most important (beneficial!!) factors in battle, and it seems you are turning it into a deathtrap.
The advantage should always go to the aggressor, but its too much advantage in my game as destroying a unit means losing board position as well as losing a resource, I'm trying to make a double K.O. occur, that makes both players resource go up by one, after combat it goes down by one, so it tends to sit at 3 to 4 resource for a player, but because I made defense stat higher, if an attack plays an attack pump and the defender does not, too much advantage is gain. I will trying a location resource system as well, and I'll post my results here again after more play testing.