A Basic Rundown of The Mechanics for My Solo Skirmish Wargame

Each troop type has a number of tokens, these tokens are the same as the troop type’s stats. For example a unit with speed 4, shoot 4 and close combat 3 will have 4 speed tokens, 4 shoot tokens and 3 close combat tokens. The tokens for every unit are then placed in a bag or cup, and mixed together.

One player draws a token from the bag, and the token is then immediately resolved. For example Bill draws a speed token for the Orthodox Sword Sisters. Each Sword Sister still in play is then allowed to move up to 4”.

MOVEMENT

A move is always 4” unless a special rule states otherwise, this is because speed is determined by the number of tokens a troop type has, not the distance it moves each time it performs a move action. You can apply effects to movement such a rough terrain costing half movement etc.

SHOOTING

A hit is scored on a 4+. Each model has a choice between firing upon its nearest enemy model in cover or its nearest enemy model in the open, unless the nearest enemy model is in the open in which case that model must be fired upon. Models in cover will be hit on a 5+ or a 6+, but this is determined by the cover they are in. For models to be in cover they must be obscured from the firing model by half or greater. When a model is hit they lose 1 shield point.

MELEE

A melee or close combat attack is performed when two opposing models are in base to base contact and one of their close combat tokens are drawn. A model causes a hit on another when they roll a 4+. If a model moves out of base to base contact the other model is allowed an immediate free attack (meaning a token doesn’t have to be drawn) against them which hits as normal on a 4+. When a model is hit they lose 1 shield point. If a model is not in base contact with another they may perform a move action instead, but this move action must be towards the nearest enemy model.

SHIELDS

If a model is hit and is reduced to 0 shield points it is killed. When all tokens have been drawn from the bag the turn is over, all tokens are returned to the bag, all models’ shield points are fully restored and a new turn begins.

There will also be a number of special rules,but these have not yet been decided upon and potentially a magic system that works the same way as my previous solo game idea - there will be an additional stat for magic. When a magic token is drawn you put it to one side. When another magic token is drawn, or the turn has reached its end, you must declare what you want to do with your stored magic. Your opponent then declares an equivalent action. Pick up a number of dice equal to your stored tokens and roll them, on a single 6 your action is performed, on a roll of no 6s the opponents action is performed. You cannot combine the stored magic of multiple troop types, each troop type uses their magic individually.

Thanks for stopping by!

WGP

Balancing My Tabletop Skirmish Game

So I have my basic rule system, and twenty something fairly unique characters across five different factions, three main factions with six or seven characters and two factions in the very early stages development. I've played a good number of games solo, and am starting to discover what each faction has working for it, and where its weaknesses lie. Even though games usually run fairly close when you have an equal number of characters, it's fairly clear that some characters are devastatingly powerful, and make others look fairly 'meh', not that those characters aren't good in different ways, but some are just objectively better than others. This has turned my attention to developing the necessary evil of a points system, making those weaker characters more valuable because they free up points to be spent on other things.

But where to begin? What could I use as a starting base system, to then be tweaked by considering other variables?

A long time ago I was listening to a 40k podcast about tournament play, it was really interesting to see what tournament players valued in their various lists, two key factors kept popping up in the discussion, I'll call them damage output and damage absorbtion. Damage output is the number of wounds a unit is likely to cause when activated, damage absorbtion is the number of wounds a unit can take before it is killed. I thought if I can just calculate these two factors for each character in my game, and add them together, it should give me a good place to start, which I can then modify with movement, ranges of weapons and non-damaging special abilities later.

When a character activates in my game they follow a basic system of phases - special ability, shooting, movement, fighting. This means I can total up their basic damage output by totalling the average damage in each step. First up - 'The Lord of Bones', he's one of those hard as nails characters for my undead faction 'The Cabal'. His damage output would work as follows - Special abilities: The only damaging special ability he has is called 'Touch of Death' it's a power 5 (power is the number of D10s you roll) melee attack (meaning you roll those 5 D10s equal to or under the characters fight stat, which in this case is 8) which ignores armour. Since we're not considering armour because that would have to do with the opponents damage absorbtion it doesn't really apply here. To use touch of death the Lord of Bones has to pass a special test, rolling equal or under his 'special' value of 6 on 1D10. To work out the output of this ability I'll multiply 5 by 0.8 (his fight stat), and multiply that by 0.6 (his special stat, using a D10 system sure makes this easy!). My total is 2.4, I won't drop the 4 right away rounding down to 2, I want everything really raw to begin with. After using a special ability the character would shoot, the Lord of Bones has no ranged attacks, plus to use Touch of Death he'd need to be in base to base contact so we can forget shooting. He'd then move which we're not considering yet, plus he wouldn't really want to anyway, because he's already in base to base! Finally the fight phase. The Lord of Bones has a power 8 melee attack, against his fight stat of 8, so let's multiply 8 by 0.8, giving us 6.4, a total damage output of 10.8 for the activation.

Now let's consider his damage absorbtion (which is far easier!). The Lord of Bones has an armour of 8 and a health of 12. Lets say 10 hits are scored, those dice are picked up and rolled against his armour, any that exceed it causing 1 point of damage each. Which works out to 1 in 5 dice scoring 1 point of damage on average. Meaning a total of 60 hits would need to be scored to score 12 points of damage. So his damage absorbtion is 60, plus his damage output of 10.8, gives us 70.8 so far. Let's use this same system to total another character: The Demon Slayer and see how he compares.

The Demon Slayer is one of those tougher characters, but is fairly weak against the Lord of Bones, mainly because the Demon Slayer's power comes from his high power melee attack and decent armour, meaning to use his greatest strength he exposes himself to being attacked in melee by the Lord of Bones and his armour ignoring Touch of Death. The Demon Slayer's only damage causing ability is 'Holy Weapon' this gives a +2 to his fight stat when fighting Demons, for now I won't consider this ability at all, there is only one Demon in the game, so it's unlikely to have a great effect just yet. The Demon Slayer like the Lord of Bones has no ranged attack, so we'll move straight onto his melee attack - power 9 fight 7 (9x0.7) gives us a damage output of 6.3. The Demon Slayer's damage absorbtion however would be a little harder to calculate. He has an ability known as Protective Aura, which means when damage is caused against him he ignores the first point of it. I won't consider this yet however, because it's brought to my attention a few other issues with a points system. Not only do I need to consider the likelihood of a character making their special ability test, I also need to consider the likelihood a player would choose that ability to use in the first place, which really comes down to what kind of player is using the character and what specific situation the character is in. For example an ability like 'Holy Weapon' would be invaluable in a game where the enemy are almost entirely demons, however when no demons are available it would be useless. I think variables like that can only be worked out through playtesting, so for now lets just work out his base damage absorbtion. Armour 7, Health 12. So 3 in 10 hits cause damage, (12x10=120, 120/3=40) giving us a base damage absorbtion of 40, plus the damage output of 6.3 gives us a total points cost of 46.3.

Now just for my own benefit, here are most of my characters all pointed up, and a note as to whether the costing is too low or too high:
Orthodoxy
The Demon Slayer 46.3
The Bishop 25.5 low
The Paladin 49.6
The Sword Sister 25
The Spear Sister 25
The High Guardsman 20.5

Security Sciences
MK1 HMG Killbot 26.2 low
MK2 HMG Killbot 35.7
MK2 Inferno Killbot 35.7
MK2 Killbot Sergeant 32.2 low
Sniper 24.3 low
Mechanic 26.1

Cabal
The Lord of Bones 70.8
The Blood Knight 85.6 way too high, should be Paladin/ Demon Slayer level
The Fallen Knight 41.1
The Necromancer 22 low
The Gargoyle 79.8 way too high
Giggles the Dead Jester  19.5 low

It seems damage output/absorbtion is not the only thing to consider in this game. The Gargoyle and Blood Knight are good examples of this kind of thinking blowing their abilities way out of proportion. The Gargoyle has an ability known as 'Turn to Stone', this means when dammaged, if the gargoyle passes a special test, and you spend enough action tokens on him to activate him he turns to stone negating all damage done against him. His special is 5, and from experience I've always had enough action tokens to pull off his ability, especially when coupled with a character with the 'Command' ability, so I went with his base stat. So, 50 percent of the time you can't kill him, and 50 percent of the time you can, I went with the maximum 120, his health multiplied by 10, and then his absorbtion if he never managed to pull of his ability 30, and averaged them giving me a total absorbtion of 75, a Paladin and a half, or Demon Slayer and a half, the very model designed to kill him!

There's still a lot more to consider, more characters to cost, and more on the way in the post!

Thanks for stopping by!
WGP

New Recruits for my 'New Earth Engine' Factions

So I settled on the name New Earth Engine as at least the working title for my skirmish game. Here are some new recruits:

For the Orthodoxy...

The Demon Slayer, a melee nightmare, who predictably specialises in dispatching demons.

The Spear Sister, a kickass nun who works well at range and in melee.

The Sword Sister, another kickass nun, similar to the spear sister, but more powerful close up.

Finally a member of the High Guard, the regular military arm of the Orthodoxy, he's light on his feet and best at range.

Next up Security Sciences...

The Sniper, who, as you would imagine, is best picking people off from afar.

The Agent, imagine James Bond, he's lightly armed and barely armoured, but can seriously screw with your plans and oddly is tough to kill.

Finally, in the tradition of SS Killbots, the HMGbot.

Last of the new recruits, for the Lamented...

The Gargoyle, who is quick, deadly in hand to hand, and if he feels like he's taking to much heat can always turn back to stone to negate any damage.

Here are the three factions in totality so far...

The Orthodoxy

 Security Sciences

 The Lamented

Thanks for stopping by!

WGP

Playtesting the 'Anything Goes' Sci-Fi/Fantasy Skirmish Game

So I've recently been more serious about my home-brew rulesets and have actually been buying miniatures and play-testing things. Because my mind is a constant mess of deciding on whether to go Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Historical I decided to produce a skirmish game that allowed for all, and not only that, but that also had rules simple and direct enough that people brand new to gaming could easily get their heads around it.

Don't worry too much about fluff for now, but I'll just say the game actually takes place within a virtual world (kinda like the matrix) which allows for odd things, like a knights armour withstanding SMG fire! Here are the two forces I play tested today:
An Allied force of Orthodoxy and Security Sciences.

The Bishop - A powerful Magic user.

The Killbot Sergeant - Agile and good at range.

The Inferno Killbot - Armed with a Flame Thrower.

The Paladin - A tough as nails close combat specialist.

The Brawling Mechanic - Good in hand to hand and able to fix the killbots.

 The opposing force - The Lamented

The Necromancer - Another powerful Magic user.

The Young Vampire - Agile and deadly.

The Blood Knight - The toughest Warrior in play, and with a few screws loose.

The Fallen Knight - The third toughest Warrior in play, who occasionally lapses back into his noble ways.

The Dead Jester - Capable of causing organ rupturing laughter.

The table (2'x2') is simply set up with a good spread of terrain features, since board edges are randomly determined you want to keep things even, or you may fall prey to your own traps! Once both players are happy with the terrain objectives are placed alternately, there is 1 objective in the game per miniature, I was playing out a 5 vs 5 so there are 10 objectives, with 5 on the table at the beginning of the game. To keep things really tense the objectives are not designated a number of points but are added to your objective dice pool, which at the end of the game is rolled, with the winner being the player that rolls highest. You will lose 1 die from that pool each time one of your miniatures is killed. The five objectives on the table are placed alternately and must be at least 6" apart (rolling off to see who places the first), again you want an even spread because starting board edges have not been rolled for yet, so you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot. Board edges are then rolled for - a player rolls 1D10 (it doesn't matter which, roll off for it if you want) going clockwise from any board edge - 1,2 = first board edge, 3,4 = second, 5,6 = third, 7,8 = fourth and if a 9 or 10 is rolled the opposing player chooses the edge. The player rolls and gets the edge rolled for. The opposing player does the same (re-rolling if they get the edge already taken). The first player rolls again for the remaining two edges. Then the game begins - miniatures do not begin on the table but move in from one of the board edges of their controlling player. The game is over when all the models on one side have been killed, or all the objectives have been claimed.

Here's the game after the first player turn. The Orthodoxy and SS have the right hand edge and the bottom edge, the Lamented have the top and left hand edges. The SS Killbot Sergeant has moved in from the right hand edge.

 Each player is given 2 action tokens per model, when they want to activate a model they spend action tokens to do so. The first time a model is activated it costs 1 action token, from then on each activation costs the number of action tokens already spent on the model. Once both players have spent as many action tokens as they are able the game turn is over, they get all their action tokens back and a new game turn begins. When a model is activated it goes through 4 phases - 1) Special Abilities 2) Shooting 3) Running 4) Fighting, you can claim an objective if you are in base contact with it instead of performing a special ability. I'm aware 'phase' systems aren't too popular, however I have found they are great for first time players or people entirely new to this kind of gaming. Combat is designed to be simple and decisive - each weapon has a range and power, and you can only use ranged weapons if an enemy is not in base to base contact. Pick up a number of D10s equal to the power of the weapon and roll them, you're aiming to roll equal to or under your relevant stat - fight for melee and shoot for ranged attacks. The dice that hit are then re-rolled - this time attempting to roll higher than your targets armour, each dice that rolls higher causes 1 point of damage. Models usually can take between 8 and 12 points of damage before they are killed.

The Dead Jester moves in from the left hand edge.

The Orthodox Paladin moves in from the bottom edge, and the Jester moves into base contact with the objective.

The Inferno Killbot runs in from the right getting into base contact with the top right objective, and the Necromancer runs in from the left to get near the top left objective.

The Killbot Sergeant claims the bottom right objective and dashes for the centre.

The an objective is claimed a new one is placed by the opposing player anywhere in play provided it is at least 6 inches from any objective currently in play. Here a new objective had been placed on the far left, and the Young Vampire has run on to claim it.

The Paladin uses an ability called 'Smite' on the Dead Jester, and then shoots magical energy from his sword, and then charges in and attacks him from behind with a devastating strike, in total scoring 5 damage, the Dead Jester only has 3 health remaining.

The Fallen Knight lumbers in from the left and attempts to cause the Paladin some harm, but alas, his armour is just too good!

The Blood Knight moves in from the top and takes some fire from the Inferno Killbot, who then inturn is wounded by the Magical attacks of the Necromancer.

The Blood Knight continues his charge and the Inferno makes a hasty retreat, no point dying and losing the objective he just claimed.

On the left the vampire leaves the objective behind an tries to put pressure on the centre, and not pictured is the Bishop moving on from the right.

The Fallen Knight fails his special ability test and 'lapses into nobility' unfortunately for the Lamented this means he charges the nearest Vampire or Necromancer and tries to kill them.

Here's the table at the end of the first full game turn.

With the Mechanic still not in play the Inferno retreats further from the Blood Knight hoping the Mechanic can get on and heal him in time.

The Dead Jester attempts to do harm to the Paladin, but again his armour is too strong.

The Bishop smites the Blood Knight and moves into cover from the Necromancer.

The Vampire moves nearer to the centre, putting pressure on the objective.

The Mechanic moves in on the bottom right, near enough to heal the Killbot and claim an objective, but he can't do either on the turn he comes in.

The Dead Jester attempts to flee the Paladin...

But fails.

The Inferno is felled by a Magical attack from the Necromancer.

The Killbot Sergeant moves into the central objective.

The Vampire charges it too and a fight ensues.

On the far left the Necromancer is throwing everything he's got at the Paladin...

But can't stop him getting near the objective.

The Blood Knight makes a move on the right.

I forgot to take a couple of pics here, but it seems the Killbot Sergeant claimed the central objective and then backed off from the vampire, the Blood Knight loomed even closer, and the Mechanic claimed the bottom right objective.

Here's an image showing the two new objectives - another one in the centre and another top middle.

On the left the Paladin has claimed the objective and is caught between the Necromancer and Fallen Knight. This spelled the end of the second full game turn.

In the centre the Killbot Sergeant made a dash between the Blood Knight and the Vampire, putting pressure on the central and top mid objectives.

But on the left the Paladin is felled by the Necromancer.

The Vampire gives chase.

Leaving the central objective open for the Bishop to claim.

The Vampire beats the Killbot to the objective, and readies for a fight.

The Bishop attempts to cause as much damage on the Blood Knight as possible, but with his high armour and invulnerability special ability little damage is caused.

The Necromancer opens up on the Bishop...

And a Magical shootout begins. From this point on the Lamented were way behind, their new strategy being to hold onto the final objective and kill as many enemies as possible reducing their opponents objective dice pool, before claiming the final objective and ending the game.

Top mid the Vampire claims the top mid objective and charges into the Killbot.

The game turn ends with a bloody duel between the Mechanic and the Blood Knight, both are battered.

With death looming for both the Mechanic and Blood Knight, the Bishop attempts to use armour ignoring Magic to bring the Blood Knight down...

But he misses allowing the Blood Knight to deliver the final killing blow to the Mechanic.

The Bishop fires again, this time hitting his mark and bringing down the frenzying Knight.

The Necromancer, feeling all is lost, claims the final objective, the one he sat on for most of the game. I could have played on, hoping the Vampire, Fallen Knight and Necromancer could bring down the remaining Killbot and Bishop, but I ran out of time.

A blurry pic of the models still in play at the end.

The two objective dice pools are rolled scoring a clear victory for the combined forces of the Orthodoxy and Security Sciences.

The play test went really well, and was also really enjoyable, I was consistently presented with tough, game changing decisions to make and it really held my attention; which is especially good, since although I was playing solo, I wasn't playing a solo game. Also despite there being no points system to speak of (because I'n in the really early stages of play testing) the game really came down to the wire, had I had more time, who knows what the outcome might have been.

Thanks for stopping by!
WGP