I have idea! (bad one, but still something) EDIT: Sorry for the wall of suggestion text!
When you play a card, you decide if it's military or back row, and then some cost for changing places should be in place, or a special rule
I would like all attacks and then all blocks to be simultaneous, to speed up the game.
Maybe create "middle turns"
You declare attackers and end your turn.
You declare blockers at the beginning of the turn.
Combat is done in-between turns to put it that way.
Therefore only 2 posts are needed for a 2 player game turn. Yay!
I would like the biggest creature to fall to numbers, to stop someone getting a 6/6 and their opponent just giving up. Special counters can be nice, but I would really like to be able to overcome a slightly larger creature through brute force alone.
I have an idea that's so crazy it's weird. Create squads. Meaning cards can attack individually, or as a group. Balancing? Only cards with similar stats and similar abilities can form a squad formation.
(Adding that rule to Soldiers-only would be also okay).
Squad - creatures that are different in power and toughness not more than 1.
so:
Woodcutter 2/2
Axeman 2/2
Recruit 3/2
Miner 1/1 - big nono as he has 2 less power than recruit. And a (X) ability
Dwarf Marksman 2/1 - also illegal squad member as he has {Ranged} and others don't
As you can see 6/6 creatures are rare, and hard to collect over time insead of smaller creatures.
That way you can block 6/6's and kill them. AND "one blocker" kinda applies, as squads are treated
as one creature when attacking or blocking. So no surprise squads. When you attack, you know your opponent formed a squad. So no surprise gangbang blocks. Also no gigantic 6/6 squads, or squads thet are every single creature you have
I would like some safety offered to vulnerable creatures without making them immune to attacks. At present one archer can destroy someone's economy.
Military is a great idea. But as Toady said. No protection is foolproof in DF.
Maybe it should be that way.
Player 1 has 3 Goblin brutes and a siege archer in military.
Player 2 has a dwarf recruit and a squad of 2 Woodcutters (which are counted as 1 creature when attacking or blocking) in military
Player1 Is able to send one Brute and the siege archer directly at opponent fortress, just because he has more creatures in the military.
So the key here to attack protected units is outnumber the opponent.
I am also thinking of giving everyone one food every round, so as to prevent starvation as a result of cooking all your seeds.
The consequence of that should be the increase in costs of some cards. And a big deal right now is the depletion of your metal resource. That has to be dealt with.
So far I am thinking of the suggestion I made earlier of having a military, should there be a cost for entering or leaving the military?
I am tempted to take the easy route out and steal MTG's damage system, but I don't want to.
I thought earlier about making creatures heal only 1 damage a turn. About combat itself I'm not sure. Don't know really how to do that. Something that is inspired by DF for sure.
I also know that biomes just have to become more important, because they aren't enough now.
I think the combat isn't that bad itself. Just the blocking part. When you are pushed constantly then you have your ass beat up badly without even a chance to kill a single attacker with your blocker. That has to be fixed.
Also 10 FS is not enough. I'm thinking 20 or 30.
Right now a blocker can only kill the attacker if it has toughness bigger than attacker's attack.
I have an idea for combat system but it's crazy also.
So hear this:
Creatures here have a lot more attack than toughness right now, so I'm thinking
-You have your creatures yes?
-They have attack and toughness for example a 2/2 Woodcutter.
-I think that blows of creatures should happen at the same time. Or attacker first, blocker second
-But they should be dealt to opponents attack. Yes you read right! Attack!
-If all the attack is depleted then the blow lands on toughness.
-Attack damage heals immediately after combat, but damage heals 1 point at end of turn, or not at all!
-Blockers deal damage equal to their toughness if they survive the first blow.
ex. Combat:
a 2/2 creature(1) attacks and is blocked by 2/2 creature(2).
creature (2) has 0 attack left, and is dealt 0 damage
Attacking creature (1) is dealt 2 attack damage (0 left) and 0 normal damage.
ex. Combat2:
a 4/4 attacks and is blocked by 2/3
4/4 deals 2 attack damage to the 2/3.
2/3 has 0 attack left
4/4 deals remaining 2 points of damage to 2/3
2/3 has 1 health left.
2/3 deals 3 damage to 4/4
4/4 has 1 attack for rest of combat.
End turn: 2/3 heals 1 damage and has 1 damage left
In case of ranged creatures. Well, they don't receive damage from blockers unless they are ranged too. Constructions don't deal damage and don't heal. Unless otherwise noted.
I hope it's all understandable.