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So, this is a thread to stop us cluttiering up the historical wargameing thread with a stupid idea for a cool board game that will most likley never happem. The idea is simple, its a war game with no control over the battles. it's more about taking control of a unit during the Napoleonic wars and trying to get as much glory as possible. oh and cash. Time to copy paste from the HWG thread! Grey Hunter posted:Working off the British army way of organizing would be fun - you bought your commission, and now your trying to make cash off it - so when you cash out in ten years time, you get more than you paid. lilljonas posted:Now we're cooking with fire. You could also have different deployments, with a risk/reward balance and different random events that hits different theaters. Do you try to get sent to the Peninsular battles or to the colonies? Will a crippling malaria epedemic strike while you're in the West Indies? Grey Hunter posted:Tracking the battalions should be a thing, trackers for morale, experience and strength. things should be cheaper when at home stations - so a good place to raise and train troops, but with no chance for glory. so you get shipped out to the Colonies, win a few battles but take some heavy losses - do you stay in the colonies and pay the higher price to replace those losses, or come home and rebuild, forgoing the glory? lilljonas posted:I love it. Maybe separate themed versions of the base game? One could be Peninsular (with British and French having different crappy things happening to them, both sides struggling with supplies, guerillas etc), one at sea, etc. French could have standing within the Republic as an alternative victory point tracker vs the British monetary victory. So, so far we have a few things - Mostly card driven. No control of the battles once they begin. (results should depend on chance and how well you have prepared your forces) To be decided Multiple theaters or a single one all players on one side, or on different sides? pretty much everything else. Let the spitballing begin. I've typed up some quick ideas here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8K9YQc6e7SJNZf6dx4TIwjGc5J7JdH4mpu9rjGDn9s/edit?usp=sharing but everything is very vague at the moment! I already feel there is more need for focus on the actual campaign.... Grey Hunter fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 15:48
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Following from the historicals thread because I love this idea.
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Sep 28, 2021 15:54
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Yeah this game sounds hilariously miserable. If I could convince friends to play whatever comes out the end I would
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Sep 28, 2021 16:27
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Probably need an abstract board OR let's appropriate RISK like Pandemic did.
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Sep 28, 2021 16:44
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This is a great idea - this kind of game space is really under-used, and I think it raises the potential for all kinds of wacky hijinks and fun stuff while also reminding people that generals/colonels etc are people with their own agendas other than just winning battles. There's a club game called "over the hills and far away" that is very similar to what's proposed - players are regimental colonels and have to balance throwing/attending balls and managing their social status in London with their military duties - https://www.scribd.com/document/57077343/Over-the-Hills-and-Far-Away This is an idea I've kicked around for a while, and here are some thoughts on random mechanics that might be fun: Resources include money, political influence, and glory. Money is gained by embezzling funds, by gambling, by renting troops out, and by private means ("he's worth a thousand pounds a year!") and is spent for throwing balls, outfitting troops, and achieving political influence. Political influence is gained by glory, by money, and by family status, and is spent to get a position in government or to win command (or force somebody else to take command) of specific deployments. Glory is only gainable by victory on the battle and generates an annual political influence payment. Multiple hidden win conditions: Commanders pick a life goal that could be getting rich, getting elected Prime Minister, becoming the most victorious commander in history, having an entire career without deploying overseas, etc. Players don't know the others' win conditions. There's a dueling minigame/element, where players can duel each other and refusing a dual leads to a collapse of all political influence and potentially being forced out of the army.
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Sep 28, 2021 16:51
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Abstract board or a pure card game more than a proper map
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Sep 28, 2021 16:58
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There are a ton of opportunities for a Community Chest / Chance deck to incorporate dumb random events that actually occurred. Dumb rng isn't necessarily bad design as a fringe component, just avoid cards like LOOSE A DUEL, YOU LOSE. But cards like OOPS! A SECOND FIANCEE EMERGES would be where you squeeze in added detail and flavor.
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Sep 28, 2021 17:00
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I’ll write more later on but my initial thought is that it’s be much easier to balance one army at a time (say, british, and then have french as a spinoff or expansion) than to try to balance two quite different type of victory condutions and mechanics from the get-go. I also propose as working title for a British to be ”Stiff upper lip” or something similary silly.
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Sep 28, 2021 17:00
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Agent has blown up some of your grain stores
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Sep 28, 2021 17:01
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Yeah, looking at my draft, it would be easier to have the campaign deck focused around a theater. So a peninsula one that has lots of sieges and guerrilla warfare, then a invasion of Russia that has winter. So you can easily flavour your game.
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Sep 28, 2021 17:14
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Following for interest and glory. Hidden victory conditions is a must. Also agreed the silly style seems to lend itself to a card game more than a map game. Not sure how to balance core and spin-off theatres though, but sorting by nation with access to multiple geographies might work better than sorting by geography with access to multiple nationalities. 
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Sep 28, 2021 19:44
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The kind of thing that springs to mind immediately is a deckbuilder like Sentinels of the Multiverse where instead of a supervillain there's a "campaign" deck, and you're trying to build your deck by trading off between buying cards that help on campaign but aren't worth any social points and cards that give you social points but which are useless or actively hinder you on campaign. If you allow cards to be placed in play permanently as "logistics" or whatever then you could mess with hand size meaning you have more options but you'd still need to be careful with which cards you buy when so as to prevent a disasterous loss for your career or ending up being a senile bachelor who's still charging into battle on a horse, but backwards and in his underwear. Also allow cards to be "sent home" to save VP for later in certain circumstances. These should probably be determined by the campaign deck, so you'd need to have the right cards in hand when the campaign flips the right event or whatever. Also something fun might be a mechanic to put one player in command of the campaign and give them some bonuses when either of the above happens, and to give them a bonus VP for every battle won, but also let people who aren't in command pass the buck for failures to commander to avoid VP loss on a defeat. This would require some way to shuffle command around too for maximum backstabbery. Nothing says "19th century warfare" like "Jeeves was put in charge on day 20, but this peeved Wollensteincroft who had previously been the army commander, so he was slow to move his Heavy Dragoon Brass Section into position and the battle line was outflanked by a passing orchestra".
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Sep 28, 2021 19:55
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Shoulder muskets! Aim! Aand.. checks cards, sees no ammunition actually scratch that, affix bayonets! ... Look, fellas, I just fed you last month - what are you complaining to me about? ... Taking the stronghold seems like a sure bet - in fact, with such overwhelming forces, it won't be very glorious at all. Tell you what, limber the cannons and have the grenadiers take the day off - there, now that's a properly heroic assault! I might even win a medal..
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Sep 28, 2021 19:57
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C... posted:Shoulder muskets! Aim! Aand.. checks cards, sees no ammunition actually scratch that, affix bayonets! This is exactly the kind of decision making I want to see. I also love the idea of the problematic officer getting given forlorn hope duty. Have to have a system for casualties? Like individual ones I guess?
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Sep 28, 2021 20:00
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ilmucche posted:This is exactly the kind of decision making I want to see. I also love the idea of the problematic officer getting given forlorn hope duty. I think casualties could be abstracted into a ”hit point” type thing. Maybe with some negative effects as your numbers dwindle, like missions that are harder (or impossible) if you lack enough troops? If you’re a colonel you’d have troops in the hundreds, but you’d still start to get worried if a dozen men deserts in the middle of the night. I also love the idea of having to choose between pure victory points type cards that might be worthless on the campaign ("A Pompus Penpal in Parliament, +2 prestige") competing with short term things that'll actually keep your men alive, like, you know, gunpowder or a local spy that keeps you safe from guerillas. lilljonas fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 20:16
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I was thinking that units could be represented by a single card with a tracker on them for supplies, morale, training and numbers. A lot of info can be condensed on there. Battles are the hard part, I can think of two options at the moment. A- a simple card flip with a card with win/draw/lose conditions. "Ambush - win if morale + Training 12+ lose if morale +training 10 or lower. Every regiment loses 2, losing regiments lose an additional 4" This is quick, but not much flavour. The other option is to have another deck with a bunch of enemy regiments that get delt out and fight it out. This would take longer, but could be more tactical.
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Sep 28, 2021 20:54
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Card-based, but you play the cards onto a map. Who the gently caress wants the game but doesn't want a map? Also the french and russians are the first two expansions, one of Prussia or Austria is the third.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:01
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I don't know about a map. You'd have to figure out how all the other companies are moving around and stuff.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:52
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My personal opinion is that, while I and I'm sure everyone interested in this game loves maps, it would work best as a straight up card or card with counters/tokens game. A map would add unnecessary complexity, given that the meat of the game is simulating officer life rather than the battles themselves.
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Sep 28, 2021 22:25
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I think an absolute map isn't right for this game - it's not a grand tactical game, after all. I could see a map of different theatres / fronts / back in England, more like worker placement or location tracking for event purposes. E: the 'map' being location cards that are drawn from the event deck and folks can bop around between them could be a good way to go!
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Sep 28, 2021 22:33
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Following this thread from the historical one, since it was a very intriguing convo! If you end up making rules for a naval one, I'll put forth the suggestion "Windjammer" as a name
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Sep 28, 2021 23:38
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What if Sharpe's Rifles, the board game? Because it sounds like Sharpe's Rifles the board game. Which is a good goddamn idea.
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Sep 29, 2021 00:02
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:What if Sharpe's Rifles, the board game? Because it sounds like Sharpe's Rifles the board game. Which is a good goddamn idea. My thought was "it's the Sharpe series, but you play as his useless dilletante commanders"
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Sep 29, 2021 00:16
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lilljonas posted:I think casualties could be abstracted into a ”hit point” type thing. Maybe with some negative effects as your numbers dwindle, like missions that are harder (or impossible) if you lack enough troops? If you’re a colonel you’d have troops in the hundreds, but you’d still start to get worried if a dozen men deserts in the middle of the night.
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Sep 29, 2021 03:01
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Arquinsiel posted:I'd abstract casualties further into a "discard a card" mechanic, with battles being resolved somewhat like crisis checks in BSG but with shifting goals based on your secret objective and if you are in a better position to gain by winning or by ensuring that someone else takes the blame for losing. discard from play? I'm guessing you'd have a few officers on the table, for instance in the forlorn hope idea it could be a way to discard the bad officer from play after using his money to requisition additional units?
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Sep 29, 2021 03:19
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C... posted:My thought was "it's the Sharpe series, but you play as his useless dilletante commanders" Simmerson: The Deckbuilding game You could also call it "forty shillings on the drum"
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Sep 29, 2021 03:21
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ilmucche posted:discard from play? I'm guessing you'd have a few officers on the table, for instance in the forlorn hope idea it could be a way to discard the bad officer from play after using his money to requisition additional units? On reflection I am actually just thinking of this as a reskin of Shadowrun Crossfire.
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Sep 29, 2021 03:30
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There should be random chance cards like "Napoleon declares war!" means everyone who was using the cash for bribes instead of training the troops gets tripped. Conversely " "Napoleon declares peace!" causes everyone who's on the front to lose to those who were sitting at home. Basically, Napoleon ruins everything. You never actually see him, he just does thing from afar and is a presence in everyone's game,. but never actually shows up. Extra rule- there's a card where Napoleon DOES show up in person, but there's an extra rule to say to remove the card before play. This only applies to the Peninsula campaign.
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Sep 29, 2021 05:29
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Comstar posted:There should be random chance cards like "Napoleon declares war!" means everyone who was using the cash for bribes instead of training the troops gets tripped. Conversely " "Napoleon declares peace!" causes everyone who's on the front to lose to those who were sitting at home. Basically, Napoleon ruins everything. You never actually see him, he just does thing from afar and is a presence in everyone's game,. but never actually shows up. I was thinking about something similar yesterday. Like a ”War and Peace” toggle, where an active war makes the game more deadly but also allows you to score glory at a much higher pace, while during peacetime you’ll be able to focus on skimming off money etc… until it’s war again, and you might have skimmed off too many resources. The war and peace could, as you say, mainly be toggled by random chance, as it would be out of the hands of a colonel.
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Sep 29, 2021 07:07
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Is everyone in the same campaign, or on different campaigns? If it's one campaign, I like the idea of handling the battlefield as a Sentinels-style individual decks vs. enemy forces and random events. You'd need a way to handle everyone both fighting on the same side while trying to protect their interests. some kind of blind bids like in Game of Thrones; you must raise X troops to win this round. Succeed and you advance, minus your spent resources. Fail, and the enemy breaks through...and they hurt the lowest bidders first. Players can boost themselves, and maybe sabotage others or steal resources (maybe even glory). Call it some pun of Sharpe, or replace Sharpe with "Dulle." Another idea, a different type; a resource placement/development game. You play a noble English family, sending your Bright Young Men off to the wars to gain glory and wealth. You sent out your pawns to different posts; high-risk ones like wars, low-risk ones like colonial ones. As they campaign, they climb the ranks, giving them greater payouts in wealth and glory. Dying early eliminates a piece and reduces their potential payout, but earning enough glory will burnish the family name, helping the others along. Just watch for Scandals and politicking. I imagine this as a board game, with dice for resolution and cards to affect things/bypass die rolls.I call it "Fool Britannia."
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Sep 29, 2021 07:55
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lilljonas posted:I was thinking about something similar yesterday. Like a ”War and Peace” toggle, where an active war makes the game more deadly but also allows you to score glory at a much higher pace, while during peacetime you’ll be able to focus on skimming off money etc… until it’s war again, and you might have skimmed off too many resources. Plague and Pestilence had a similar toggle, and I think it sounds perfect here. Once a player drew the Plague Ship card (which must be revealed immediately) the game went to a plague footing. That game might not be a bad place to start for inspiration, tbh. It was relatively simple and had great art and theming.
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Sep 29, 2021 10:51
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moths posted:Plague and Pestilence had a similar toggle, and I think it sounds perfect here. Once a player drew the Plague Ship card (which must be revealed immediately) the game went to a plague footing. You could a similar thing with a march into Russia version, where you start walking into Russia and then halfways into the game you start to march back. lilljonas fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Sep 29, 2021 |
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Sep 29, 2021 12:36
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Maybe not quite what you're looking for but there's this https://www.clashofarms.com/LegionofHonor.html https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39941/legion-honor might not have some of the role playing aspects though.
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Sep 29, 2021 15:46
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New campaign mode: Survival (Afghanistan). How long can you prop up the mission? How many troops and civilians can you pull out? Will you have enough left to take part in the revenge expedition?
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Sep 29, 2021 22:11
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FLASHMAN that is all
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Sep 30, 2021 01:27
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Cobalt-60 posted:New campaign mode: Survival (Afghanistan). How long can you prop up the mission? How many troops and civilians can you pull out? Will you have enough left to take part in the revenge expedition? I'd say to soon, but this could apply to pretty much any time period in the last two hundred years...... So. Current thinking - Decks - Troop deck - These come out at a certain rate to allow players to reinforce their regiment. mostly bog standard infantry/cav/artillery with a few special units to keep things interesting. Each card has a combat strength and morale tracker, but the min/max values depend on the card. the also have a supply cost to keep them running. Enemy formation deck - This should be the other regiment, in a battle these are drawn depending on the battle, and have a combat score you need to beat to win. Theater event deck (Split between peace/war top/bottom of card to keep number of decks down?) - these contain your global events - ranging from "war were declared" to "Battle!" to "Debutantes ball" or "Poker Game" these are the major problems all players should be facing. Battle deck.- A simple deck that randomizes everyone's experience of the battle, giving everyone a unique challenge, and to keep things simple in the event deck. Officers deck This contains your Simmersons and your Sharpes - officers who want commissions, and either give or cost you money. The better the officer, the more they cost, but a poor officer gives you points, and can have some other benefits - The Prince of Orange may be a -5 commander, but he not only gives 5 guineas as a commission price, but also gives the regiment +5 prestige! Though if you happen to get him killed on the field of battle, that's -10 prestige. Scheme cards - drawn and kept in hand to affect events - tactics or special training for war, other things for peace. should be a mix of boost for yourself and events to play on other players. That "finely tailored suit" is not going to help much on the field of battle, but when trying to win the hand of the attractive heiress, it;s a godsend. meanwhile, the "Enemy Sniper" may not help woo the ladies, but it's rather useful to try and get rid of that rather pompus prince scoring your opponent a lot of points..... (this needs a better name) Wives, mistresses and hangers on. - a deck of other characters who may pop up from time to time - these could be tokens to cut down on the number of decks. Tokens Guineas - your standard money AND half your victory points. yep, you have to spend VP to gain VP in this game! Supply - this is an abstract of everything your regiment needs, fancy units need more. when at peace, supply is mostly worthless, but you'll regret letting it run down if war is suddenly declared! when at war it is consumed by events (FORCED MARCH!") or battles. it must be bought with cash and will be constantly draining away. The central board The board is a stylized split between the home front and the campaign - no map, but zones for actions to be played into, and for cards to be drawn. players spend actions to do things like draw from the scheme deck, recruit troops, pay for supplies and the like, players should not be able to do everything they want! Player Board This is where the player keeps all their stuff, with slots for supply, cash, regiments, the wife, the mistress(es) and anything else they pick up along their career.
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Sep 30, 2021 10:05
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This morning's shower thoughts: Imagine something like a draw mechanic at the start of your turn (or end of your last turn) where you get to draw up to X cards. The twist is that you get to choose which deck to draw from. So for example if there's a resource deck where you can draw recruits, equipment etc, and there's a threat/mission deck, or something like that. Maybe 2-3 decks to choose between. Or tons of them, as in the listing above. Basically to get the player some agency so it's not down to luck, but you might still be in a situation where your lower command has been killed off and you keep pulling mewling idiot corporals every turn. To make matters worse, let's just make MOST troops have some big drawbacks to push home the theme. :P The resource cards could be played as either the resource, to be used to face threats, or "sold" to your money pile for a number of money on the card. Threat cards could be played into a threat pile, hidden, and all players build up the same threat pile. So you know some of what's in there, like that the third card is going to kill a soldier, but not what the other players are putting there. Missions could be hidden or open, or maybe both? Missions could often require you to face X number of threat cards, in the order they are piled up. Threats could either be "disarmed" if you have the right resources, or simply cause a specific type of damage (maybe even taking away money from your stockpile!). I'm also thinking of a final tally where different things could earn you points. For example, the one with most "glory" gets x points, the one with the healthiest regiment gets x point, and those are added to the final tally together with the money. I.e. you're vying to be highest on the social ladder once this whole ordeal is over, which is based on both money, fame and the respect of your peers. lilljonas fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 11:48
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Officers should go face up or you can blind hire some dude off the top of the deck and surprise! It's a failson with money or a god tier captain but now you have to find ways to pay the bastard
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Sep 30, 2021 11:54
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ilmucche posted:Officers should go face up or you can blind hire some dude off the top of the deck and surprise! It's a failson with money or a god tier captain but now you have to find ways to pay the bastard Even worse if the officer card is hidden to the players until he sees combat for the first time. :O Or you could have cards that makes your opponent's officers worse, such as playing a crippling alcoholism on his favourite sergeant. E: semi-random threat pile idea. The deck could, automatically, add X threats at the start of the game and then Y threat cards per turn. That makes sure that there are threats in there. But you can also choose to put in threats yourself, either ones you know the opponents will have difficulties with or ones you think you can pass yourself. But the pile keeps piling up, so your plans might be outdated pretty soon. lilljonas fucked around with this message at 12:03 on Sep 30, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2021 11:57
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lilljonas posted:Even worse if the officer card is hidden to the players until he sees combat for the first time. :O lilljonas posted:This morning's shower thoughts: All good ideas - the X could be related to what your paying, so pay say 2 Guineas per card. ilmucche posted:Officers should go face up or you can blind hire some dude off the top of the deck and surprise! It's a failson with money or a god tier captain but now you have to find ways to pay the bastard Luck of the draw vs strategic play vs bidding. I don't want any 100% terrible officers, but there should be a mix between getting cash and getting good officers. then the prince of Orange example, where they are really powerful in someways, but a risk. And there should be 100% a way of making other officers weaker, what we need to avoid is the euro problem where everyone is off playing their own game, we want backstabbing, we want character, we want everyone to groan when the failson survives the folorn hope and gets himself promoted....
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Sep 30, 2021 12:08
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