Strategy Points instead of Action Points

What I want to see is that players have like 10 squads. But only a few can perform an action.

If a squad is smaller. In the old version the action would be weaker for a same cost.
But I want to change this into, you pay for each unit in that squad, deal.

Also, if a squad is split into 2 new squads. One of them has to wait a turn if the other does an action. This also makes it weaker. But having less cost for an action would make thinks more balanced. And the weaker players have a better chance.

Of course, having one squad perform multiple times should be harder.
But if a squad is 7 times weaker, then performing 3 actions instead of 1 should be a must.

In a sense, a big enemy squad moves. And a smaller squad moves into range, then attacks twice.
With a bit of luck, they certainly refund themselves this way.

SP where already taken to the next round.
I am looking into making squads even smaller and simpler.
Right now, I have unit value's AND squad value's, ranging between 4 and 24.

I hope to find a way to balance them and have value's like 1 to 6 or something.

Another positive effect for changing this. Happens to be the possible squad sizes.

In my prototype, we got 3600, 4800 and 6000. Where an unit that costs 700, would give players a maximum of 5, 6 and 8 units on the board. And SP for the last week system, 100, 600 and 400. (Shamefully, this was displayed on the USC)

In my public, we got 24 and 25. Where an unit that costs 7, would give players a maximum of 3 in both cases. And SP for the last week system, 3 and 4.

Now, for my public, we already tested 7 x 24 SP. And then 120 SP (5x 24).

Ok, so my goal should be, cutting into the unit value's even more. It would be ok, if the wooden fence is going to cost 1. But this is going to be hard for me.

Has the mechanic a chance you think?

It doesn't matter how much a maximum squad can be worth. But we just had a brilliant idea.
In order to count the SP. We thought of counting with a clock.

I am not sure how to describe it without a proper picture. So, picture a clock.

1 squad can have a maximum value of 12. So the wheel has 12 numbers on it. If 12 is used, the little arrow goes down by 1.
But if only 10 is used, the little arrow goes down by 1 and the big arrow goes up by 2.
This way, you can keep track of the ammount of SP per round.

Of course, if the SP per squad can be a maximum of 24, we have the wheel divided into 24 numbers.

If we for example get 5x 24, the big arrow remains. But the small arrow goes up by 5.

Then if for example the squad that does an action costs 17. Then the small arrow goes down by 1. But the big arrow goes up by 24-17=7.

Now, I call this brilliant.... but do you think a 12 year old would manage?

Or a card like in Tradewars. Works as well. :)

While it doesn't matter if the player has 6 units of a value of 4 each. Or 3 units of a value of 8 each. Or 2 units with a value of 12 each.

It does matter when a unit has a value of 5. Because then only 4 or 5 are allowed. With 4, we got a -4 total value. With 5 we got a +1 value. This means that if I do not tackle this properly. Some players might have a much bigger army. Or by standard choices, have a more efficient army anyway.
After all, 2 actions in 1 round result in a cost that is 3 times that of 1 action in 1 round.

So, here is an idea:
Players can get just 1 more unit than is allowed.
This means that a cost of 3 means 9. But you can only command 8 at the same time.
Cost of 4 means 7 units, you can command only 6.
Cost of 5 means 5 units, you can command only 4.
But that one extra unit of 5 can be in another squad.
etc. etc. etc.

Now, each army will be having units that cost 2 or 3.
And perhaps, I should allow even more units that way.
If a maximum for the whole faction is limited as well.

I don't know if this is smart to do. Because players would need to count before a game starts. This will be a lot of down time.

I rather have stricter rules to deal with. Like for example, telling the players which units they are allowed to have. I suspect I really need to design a faction completely and decide for them. I can't have them design a faction themselves by selecting the units they want...

What do you think?
Any suggesitons on how to improve on this?

Well. Not sure if I really am going to have my designs follow the 24 plan. It looks like that a lot of numbers give synergy here. For example, a -4 can be exchanged with a +4.

This should be the list:
24 x 1; can be used for +1 or -1
12 x 2; can be used for +2 or -2
8 x 3; can be used for +3 or -3
6 x 4; can be used for +4 or -4
4 x 5 or 5 x 5; +4 or -1
4 x 6; can be used for +6 or -6
3 x 7 or 4 x 7; +3 or -4
3 x 8; can be used for +8 or -8
2 x 9 or 3 x 9; +6 or -3
2 x 10 or 3 x 10; +4 or -6
2 x 11 or 3 x 11; +2 or -9
2 x 12; can be used for +12 or -12
1 x 13 or 2 x 13; +11 or -2
1 x 14 or 2 x 14; +10 or -4
1 x 15 or 2 x 15; +9 or -6
1 x 16 or 2 x 16; +8 or -8
1 x 17 or 2 x 17; +7 or -10
1 x 18 or 2 x 18; +6 or -12
1 x 19 or 2 x 19; +5 or -14
1 x 20 or 2 x 20; +4 or -16
1 x 21 or 2 x 21; +3 or -18
1 x 22 or 2 x 22; +2 or -20
1 x 23 or 2 x 23; +1 or -22
1 x 24; can be used for +24 or -24

Playters should avoid doubling the second half of the list. Since the resource managment should have roughly only 1/3th of one maximum squad or biggest region.

Of course I can also reduce the value per squad or biggest region.
This can be 20, 18, 16, 15, 12 or even only 10.

For now, I have discovered a way to have the basic infantry cost only 2. And the RPG infantry cost only 3. My goal always has been to have only 6 of the basic infantry. But these will not have health tracking at all.
The basic tanks would cost 4. These have 4 health each. But only 3 is tracked by 2 pins.
So, if we have 6 infantry, then we have 3 tanks that are a maximum total of 9 pieces in total. But of course, only if they are all 3 damaged. This is practically hard if they stick together. Because I will only allow a frontline and support line in a battle.

A middle line seems to be to difficult for 12 year olds.

Anyway. A basic faction could have 6+4+4 soldiers, 4+3+3 vehicles and 3+2+2 tanks.
This brings me to a total of 31 unit pieces. And room for 24 damage pins.
That would be 55 "mobile" pieces.

Damage pins are shared between players.

Yeah, I should finish a faction design and share this in a new topic.