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[Tack]

So yeah, running recruitment for the Chaos faction of my 40k themed Cult Race

Seems the division between the Tzeentch and Alpha-Legion worshippers has made everyone sullen and unresponsive.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, a few ideas I'm throwing out here.

XCOM vs Aliens

An asymmetric Arms race between an XCOM expy organisation, and an Ethereal expy organisation. XCOM needs to protect and maintain the trust of their member states, while the Aliens need to gradually disable and take over the Earth. In typical XCOM style, battle will not be huge fights between grand armies, but rather small clinical strikes from the aliens than need to intercepted by the XCOM team.

Notable things

The basic structure of the game is a bit different from most traditional Arms Races, in that there's no linear map. The aliens have spaceships, and can land anywhere they want. A panic system replaces the territorial control of the arms race system, but it's more or less similar.

In order to make this work, the turn design is different. Both sides will not be taking actions at the same time, instead, they follow the following table.
               Aliens                XCOM
Phase    : Revision             Design
Phase 2 : Planning Attack   Revision
Phase 3 : Design                Planning Interception
Phase 4 : Battlephase 

The Design, Revision and battle phase are similar to other games. The Planning phase is somewhat different. During the plan phase aliens choose which nations they want to attack with what purpose and equipment. During the Interception phase XCOM gets a list of what ships they've seen, and what stuff they can shoot down.

Another notable thing in the XCOM games is taking an enemies stuff and reverse engineering it for yourself. That will be introduced as well. As a reward for successfully completing missions, tokens can be granted that reduce the cost of various designs. Since resource improvements will be relatively rare, the token mechanic will be important to field expensive, powerful units.

The last thing is missions. In a way similar to the tactic mechanic that's used in Spire Race, missions are things that can be designed or revised and that alter the behaviour of your forces on the field, and which forces are best. A chryssalid is very good if you plan a terror mission, but if you want to infiltrate the governement, you may want to send a thin men or faceless instead.

[Kashyyk]

I'm always a fan of XCom. In order to balance the alien tech advantage, the aliens usually have to be played as idiotic in order to give humanity a chance. Is that where your missions idea comes in, or do you have other thoughts for that?

[10ebbor10]

The mission thing ties into it.

The first thing that mitigates the Alien Tech advantage is that they're absurdly outnumbered. There are only a few UFO's, and very few aliens. They can't simply land and overwhelm an entire country because they don't have the numbers to do that. So, the aliens will have to deploy relatively few, relatively small squads on surgical strikes, so that they can then convince or force nations to make deals with them.

The second thing that mitigates the Alien Tech advantage is a need for human DNA. As XCOM 2 shows, adding human DNA to aliens gets you much stronger aliens, and distilled human will thus be a part of many better units.

The third thing is that I'm not going to give the Alien Faction all the toys the Ethereals had. At least, not from the start. You start with Sectoids, a small UFO, and basic plasma pistols. All other stuff is stuff you have to design or revise. If you want a justification why you don't get them, I'm blaming it on allergies to the Terran biosphere.

[Funk]

I'm always a fan of XCom. In order to balance the alien tech advantage, the aliens usually have to be played as idiotic in order to give humanity a chance. Is that where your missions idea comes in, or do you have other thoughts for that?

Limiting the amount of the aliens transport helps.
As might fudgeing the units, have some ambiguous alien units and we can avoid too much salt over alien weapons being weak.

[Happerry]

The third thing is that I'm not going to give the Alien Faction all the toys the Ethereals had. At least, not from the start. You start with Sectoids, a small UFO, and basic plasma pistols. All other stuff is stuff you have to design or revise. If you want a justification why you don't get them, I'm blaming it on allergies to the Terran biosphere.

I'm sure the temple ship will finish up the paperwork needed for mass Sectopod deployment sometime next century. Until then, why not use local resources to produce a few? Can't be too hard, right?

...Well, anyway, I'd definitely play this.

[Cnidaros]

I would definitely play an X-COM themed Arms Race as well. Although, what determines the rate of technological advance of the Alien side?

Also, I'm thinking of making a limited Arms Race. Specifically, one in which the players only design for their country's air force or navy (leaning towards air force as it's more exciting). Other technology such as machineguns and cannons can be requisitioned from the army, or designed with a revision phase if it doesn't meet your needs. The army of both sides will be equally matched, depending on the air force or navy to swing the battle outcomes. Any thoughts on this format?

[NAV]

That sounds like it will end up with 2 very similar sides making the same things, even more so than a typical arms race.

[RAM]

That sounds like it will end up with 2 very similar sides making the same things, even more so than a typical arms race.

Well you could make them religious fanatics. One side doesn't use spirals and the other doesn't use spheres...

[Draignean]

...Chroist.

One side can't coil wires/rope around things, the other side can't use bearings.

I don't know who is more fucked.

[Aseaheru]

 The no coilers. Long range communication is hard without coils, but there are bearings that can go without balls.

[Blood_Librarian]

Bearing boys cant make proper wheels or motors, as they'll have such a short lifespan because of wear that it'll eventually fall apart.  Unless of course they mant bearings as in every type of bearing, ball bearings included.

Coilless men won't be able to use electromagnets, transmissions, motors, some times of engines, and maybe some types of industrial machinery

[Failbird105]

no no its not bearings they can't use, it's spheres. Nothing spherical

[Blood_Librarian]

Ah, that opens up the usage of some inferior bearings, unlike the coilless people who are basically domed for most things.

[Draignean]

It's a race. Can the anti-spiral boys prove that subatomic particles can be modeled as spheres before the anti-sphere gang discovers that DNA takes on a spiral shape?