games

Some random thoughts, because my brain is like that.

• Someone please suggest a name.
• This wargame is designed to sorta simulate what we're seeing in Ukraine atm, and what a future war might look like. A single game of GAME_NAME represents a few weeks and should take most of a day. While there are some experiments wrt game systems, it's also supposed to represent something.
• The system is hex-based. One of my friends got an enormous printer from a warehouse sale so we want to use that for stuff. Using hexes also gets rid of a lot of time wasted on minor adjustments in range and inter-player arguments, while not having the weirdness associated with squares. Also you can do scatter with d6s.
• Each day there are two day turns and one night turn. During night turns, firepower and detection ranges are reduced.
• I'm using count-up systems for a few things. This is one of those game design experiments. Think, like, Super Smash Brothers damage system. The simplest one is probably Fatigue. Units have levels of fatigue, which they can gain to do special actions (e.g. ignore suppression). All attacks roll against Fatigue. e.g. An infantry platoon has 5 Strength and 1 Firepower, let's say has 4 Fatigue. That means it rolls 5 d6, and each 4 or more counts as a success (6s count as 2 successes). As the unit does things and takes casualties, it gets worse and worse. Fatigue can be alleviated by supply units.
• I'm trying to track as many things on the miniature as possible. Attrition, Fatigue, and EM emissions are pips placed around the edge of the base. In the centre is the unit type (infantry, artillery, tank). This is a hypothetical assuming I can be bothered cracking out the pin vice and 3D printer.
• If you align with "The West", certain high profile victories can net you "Advanced Support", a supply of higher tech weapons and equipment. This isn't solely the purview of The West, but they have more points of it. Advanced weapons have high damage output, but have low endurance and high EM emissions.
• If you align with more heavy industrial nations, you get more legacy vehicles and artillery. Anything with an engine, heavy cannons etc. Once again, not entirely the purview of heavy industrial nations, The West has them too. These have decent damage output and endurance.
• Grabbing towns with aligned importance (I guess the example is playing Russia and taking a Russian aligned city) gets you more manpower. Manpower is low damage, but cheap and has very high endurance. Use this for controlling large portions of the battlefield.
• How alignment works I haven't really figured out. Maybe something with cards and a hand.
• Aircraft aren't really represented on the board, they're just support powers you bring in. AA creates bubbles of either denial or forces the enemy to sacrifice their air support card after use. idk. Helicopters allow you to plonk down troops a distance from the enemy.
• EM emissions (RADAR, drone control/video feed, smart-weapons etc) gain you EM pips, which can be used by opponents to activate other abilities. The most basic common interaction is an infantry platoon uses drones to scout out a nearby forest. They reveal some enemies, but also gain some EM pips. An enemy uses an EM kit to reveal the first unit with a bonus to detection range depending on the EM pips gained. Those same EM pips can be used to launch a medium tactical strike with a bonus number of dice equal to those EM pips. The OG unit loses its EM pips at the start of its next activation.
• The vast majority of a unit's variation in toughness comes from terrain around it. Toughness is directly the number of successes an enemy needs to get to cause a point of attrition. Cover, distance, and smoke add to toughness.
• Using my wonky initiative system. Units close to enemies go first. Works well enough and promotes aggression. Given how entrenching, cover, and retreating work, this is good. Don't want two armies just sitting there.
• Haven't really thought much about deployment systems. Trying to get basic unit interactions out of the way first.
• Roads make go fast. Forests and marshes make go slow.
• There is a basic unit detection system. At the start of the game, all units are hidden. Both players can see the Fatigue and EM emissions of hidden units because it would be too annoying to manage that separate to the model. Hidden units can't be attacked, and can be spotted by getting close to an opponent, or certain drones or army support abilities. Units can't re-hide. Also, using weapons reveals you.