So yeah. I've had this idea that won't get out of my head, and it has been bothering me for a long time. Just what the title says: a hex-based fantasy wargame, run in a forum-friendly format. Obviously it will be a lot of work to write up enough material for it, and even more to just keep things going and process turns. Hence the interest check.
If there are enough people here who'd like to participate, I'm going to go ahead and pound out a ruleset, short list of scenarios, and a list of units. Suggestions on any of those fronts are welcome.
As for the poll, that's essentially how the game would work.
Competitive: I make two threads, one each for RedFor and BluFor (and quite probably an OOC thread); when a battle starts people would choose one of the two sides to work for, and would refrain from visiting the enemy thread. I'm hesitantly willing to trust an honor system and believe that nobody here would cheat and metagame, but if anyone has suggestions for a place where I could set up a whitelisted thread or forum for each side, that would probably better in terms of keeping everyone honest, though it might drive things down in terms of the number of people playing.
Both sides would have a whole lot of leeway re: how they handle their forces. The most obvious would be to collectively hash out everything, but another would be to give each player a few units, though that could run into problems if somebody had to drop out and nobody noticed.
Cooperative: The same sort of organization as the first, except that everyone is working together against me, and I only have to worry about stopping myself from metagaming. Personally, I think the competitive option would be both more challenging and better for me (leaving me on neutral GM ground), though I would likely have to set a time limit on turns to keep people from getting bored/taking too long.
Ultimately, though, I'll go with whatever gets the most votes. Assuming anyone cares at all; less than 6ish people for competitive or 4ish for cooperative and I won't be in any rush to do things. Now then, on to a bit of sampler material, none of which is final.
Here's the first map I've made, with a few example units placed and a key added to the side. In this scenario, both RedFor and BluFor would be attempting to either eliminate every enemy unit or hold their HQ and the enemy HQ for 8 turns. BL 1 corresponds to the ballista. So yeah, fairly evident that this is very much a WiP.
In regards to the coordinate system: Columns are lettered. The rows of hexes are numbered like such: every hex east in a line from a given numbered border hex or adjacent to the north-east or north-west of that line of hexes is a member of that number's row. So for example the RedFor Ballista is in a forest hex, EE 6. The BluFor HQ is in hex C 4.
In this example, the BluFor commander is unaware of the RedFor Ballista unit; if they attack the Light Cavalry, then the RedFor Ballista (with a decent RAN and high RST) could land a heavy hit on Sw1 next turn. However, if they move the Transport Dragon northeast to scout, it could spot the Ballista, allowing the Swordsmen to charge to attack it, likely wrecking it. Alternatively, the Swordsmen could board the DT and withdraw.
Layout:
[Unit Name] ([Unit designation]): [Unit cost]
STR: Unit’s HP; how fit this unit is for combat.
ATK: Strength with which this unit attacks an adjacent unit.
RAN: The range of this unit’s non-melee attacks. Only appears on ranged units.
RST: Strength of this unit’s ranged attacks. Only appears on ranged units.
DEF: Strength with which this unit defends itself against attacks.
LOS: The range of sight of this unit.
MOV: The number of hexes which this unit can move in one turn.
SPEC: Special abilities or notes about this unit.
Examples:
Pikemen (Pk): 100
STR: 10
ATK: 4
DEF: 6
LOS: 4
MOV: 4
SPEC:
-Formation: +100% ATK vs. mounted units. +200% DEF against mounted units when Fortified.
Longbowmen (Lb): 150
STR: 8
ATK: 2
RAN: 5
RST: 10
DEF: 2
LOS: 5
MOV: 4
SPEC:
-Volley: May make two ranged attacks in one turn.
Ballista (BL)(Siege): 350
STR: 6
ATK: 0
RAN: 8
RST: 15
DEF: 0
LOS: 6
MOV: 2
SPEC:
-Flaming Bolt: Reduce Forests to Grassy Plains and Structures to Rubble. RAN 4, RST 8.
Red Dragon (DR): 550
STR: 20
ATK: 15
RAN: 3
RST: 8
DEF: 8
LOS: 8
MOV: 10
SPEC:
-Flight: Uses only 1 MOV per hex regardless of terrain.
-Inferno: Fire a ball of flames at a target hex within 4 hexes. It burns any unit on that hex for 6 ATK and persists for 3 turns.
Eatherus (Etr) (Hero): 700
STR: 15
ATK: 6
RAN: 7
RST: 12
DEF: 6
LOS: 8
MOV: 8
SPEC:
-Stormfront: Summon a thunderstorm on target hex for 5 turns. Storm attacks any units on the target hex with ATK 10, and any on adjacent hexes with ATK 6. This attack has a RAN of 5.
All those examples are just that, and are of course subject to change if and when I hammer everything out. Sadly, my lack of talent with the visual arts prevents me from making adorable little unit icons.
Grassy plains do not affect anything.
Forests provide +50% concealment (units can only detect enemies in forests at half their LOS range) and costs 2 MOV per hex.
Hills provide +25% DEF for any unit on a hill hex as well as +1 LOS.
Water costs 4 MOV per hex. All non-flying and non-boat units have -25% ATK and -50% DEF while in water.
Shallow water costs 2 MOV per hex, and has a -25% DEF penalty for any unit caught in it.
Structures provide a +50% DEF bonus, +1 LOS, and cost 2 MOV per hex.
Fortress hexes grant +100% DEF and +2 LOS.
HQs grant +150% DEF and +1 LOS, as well as healing 2 STR per turn for any unit on or adjacent to it.
Border: Impassable. Duh.
Team Border: All units for a team start no more than 2 hexes from their border. Impassable.
There are other terrain types which aren’t in the example/first battle map which have other effects; sand, swamp, ocean, mountain, etc.
As above, the rules are subject to change, but this is essentially what I’ve got roughed out at the moment:
The game proceeds in turns; the starting side is selected by coin toss.
1. Healing, lingering damage. Any healing effects and multiturn effects (such as the Stormfront from our example hero unit or the Red Dragon’s Inferno special attack) are calculated. Siege units which require multiple turns to set up tick. Construction of fieldworks, etc. tick. DEF is restored.
2. Movement. Each unit is moved in whatever way is ordered, within their individual MOV ranges.
3. Attacks. Any unit adjacent to an enemy may attack it. Ranged attacks and ranged special attacks also occur here.
4. Turn Close: Units which have not attacked can Fortify to increase their DEF by 25%. Units can Hide to increase their concealment by 25%. Both Hiding and Fortifying are broken by attacking or moving.
In combat, one unit attacks another, judging their ATK value against the defender’s DEF value. 50% of the attacker’s ATK (or RST, in ranged combat) is dealt directly to the defender’s STR. The other 50% of the attacker’s ATK reduces the defender’s DEF by that amount for the rest of the turn. Ranged combat functions in the same way, except for not requiring the attacker to be adjacent to the unit they are attacking. In the instance of a defender’s DEF being reduced to 0, any further attacks would deal all their damage to the defender’s STR.
In this way, attacking the same unit with multiple units of your own is encouraged. Take for example two units of Swordsmen with ATK 6 assaulting a unit of Knights with DEF 10 and STR 14 on open ground. Sw1 attacks first, reducing Kn1’s STR to 11 and DEF to 7. When Sw2 attacks, they reduce Kn1’s STR to 8 and DEF to 4.
Now suppose that two units of Longbowmen on the same side as the two units of Swordsmen attacked Kn1 at range. Lb1 would drop Kn1’s STR to 6 and DEF to 2. When Lb2 attacked, they would reduce Kn1’s DEF to 0 and the remaining 3 damage from that half of the attack would be added to the other, dealing 8 damage to Kn1’s STR, destroying the unit.
If a unit drops below 50% STR but survives, its ATK and RST are reduced by 50%. In all cases of percentage increases or reductions, numbers are rounded logically. 7.33 would round to 7; 12.75 would round to 13. When a unit with an odd RST or ATK attacks, the ‘odd’ point of damage is dealt to DEF.
All bonuses stack additionally; ex. a unit of Scouts that Hid in a forest hex would have 75% (50% from the forest + 25% from Hiding) concealment. A unit of (say) Spies with a native bonus to concealment could Hide in a forest for 100% concealment. In that last case I’m not quite certain of what to do; I could make them invisible until an enemy unit is adjacent to them or make them invisible until an enemy unit attempts to move onto their hex (and then do I simply reveal them or count it as the moving unit initiating an attack?).
For an example of terrain bonuses affecting combat: Unit 1 is attacking Unit 2. Unit 2 is on a hill and fortified. Unit 1's base ATK is 10, while Unit 2's base DEF is 8. The fortification bonus added to the hill terrain bonus is a combined total of +50%. Therefore, Unit 2's effective DEF is 12. When Unit 1 attacks, Unit 2's DEF is reduced by 5, leaving at 7 for the remainder of the turn, while unit 2 also takes 5 damage to its STR.
I hope that is sufficiently clear (at least for a fairly rough outline). Hopefully it is also clear why this is an interest check and not the game start thread.
I'll be clear up front with this: It'll be a heck of a lot of work just processing turns in large battles with nothing but a hand-calculator and lots of MSPainting, and I won't always be able to do so promptly, due to things such as university stuff, work, laziness, other obligations, exhaustion, and laziness. That said, I won't ever outright abandon it, though I may put it on hiatus if I'm going to be away from internet and/or sanity for more than a couple of weeks. This is going to be very long term in any case; depending on how prompt people are about making decisions and how quickly I update a given battle could last for months.
Heck, the ideal way to handle things might even to be to set up a free forum somewhere and run everything but recruiting there. In fact, if people are interested, I'll see about setting that up.
A final note:
IF SOMEONE WITH MORE SPARE TIME/MOTIVATION THAN ME WANTS TO TAKE THIS IDEA AND RUN WITH IT, I'LL GLADLY SHARE THE REINS OF GM-ITUDE. That would be another point in favor of setting up a forum for it.
In some ways, this is the game equivalent of a plot-bunny; the pressure to express it is there, even if it doesn't go anywhere. Even if I go through with it, it could be weeks before I finish setting everything up. I suffer from something of a chronic lack of motivation, and I'm hoping to help cure myself of it with this.
Poll
8 (80%)
Author
Topic: Interest Check: Hex-based Fantasy Wargame (Read 1819 times)