Battle Mechanica Update (8/8/09)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

After months of hiatus, I've finally managed to playtest an early draft of Battle Mechanica with a couple of friends, one of them the great rob-jr himself. This version had minimal rules and was played with only two factions, each with a small number of units. We used Mage Knight minis to represent the units and a map from a D&D campaign. Of course, the size of the bases of the minis were too big for D&D battlemaps, so we had to improvise a bit on that one. It went pretty well though, and the playtest allowed me to spot the flaws in the game.

First, and most importantly, was the target roll. In layman's term, a target roll is the number that the player must get (or exceed) when rolling a dice in order to claim a success. The target roll was originally 6, but after last nights playtest, I found that the magic number is 5.

Second, the grid's square should be bigger so that it could accomodate more that one figure. I noticed that if the figure's base (such as that of a mounted unit with a base of 1" by 2") is bigger than the size of the square, it's difficult to position that figure to attack an enemy that is situated diagonally. This is not really a big issue, but this is just some of the problem that comes with using a square grid map.

Third, the number of figures per unit. I had initially set each unit to 10 men (with the exception of certain units, such as the solitary Commander and a 6-men cavalry squadron). I'm still trying to figure out the proper size for a unit, and I'm also wondering whether I should try an unconventional approach to unit composition (like that of a mix-matched band à la D&D adventuring party).

Fourth, line-of-sight. Should I allow figures to shoot through members of the same unit (like in Warhammer: 40K) or should I strictly follow rules of line-of-sight (no obstacles from shooter to target)? I find that it's much more fun with former, and works well if I opt to go for the "unconventional approach to unit composition").

Fifth, the wargame's direction itself. Should I make this boardgame lean more towards conventional wargame, or should I make it totally outrageous? There a tons of war boardgames out there, and most of them took the traditional route for war boardgames (most of them simulated historical battles), but I think that if I really wanna make this game stand out, I should turn 180° and create something totally out of the norm. I think I'll do that.

That's all for now. Time to make a revision of this game and playtest it again next month. You can read about a review of the playtest here or, if you haven't, check out rob-jr's latest creation, The Nasi Lemak Stand.



Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Battle Mechanica Update (2/17/09)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

I've pondered long and hard on this issue and I've finally decided which grid system Battle Mechanica will use: square grid. Despite the flexibility of the hex grid, I found that the square grid was far simpler to incorporate into the game. Simplicity of design won over simulation of realism.

So why Square Grid? Well, the reason why I chose to use hex grid in the first place was because it models diagonal movements nicely. But I found that hex grid doesn't work well on rectangular boards, since it's difficult to make all the hexes on the edges equidistant with their opposite counterparts. That was the only real issue for me.

Square grid solves this problem, and a whole lot more than I care to admit. It may not model diagonal movements well but it is simpler to implement and easier explain to would-be players.




Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Battle Mechanica Update (17/12/08)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

After a long period of meditation and soul-searching, I'm back. I've also brought some updates for Battle Mechanica. The rules was almost a complete overhaul, but the major changes were necessary in order to make this game both easier to design and play.

I won't go into lengthy detail on the changes. Instead, I'll just briefly highlight on what are the major changes.

List of major changes:

1. The battleground is now tile-based. This is one of the biggest changes to the system. The game no longer needs rulers and templates. Instead, the hex-tile system will take care of all the measuring.
   
2. The attributes in Unit Profiles has been changed. The new set of attributes are: Hand-to-hand Combat, Ranged Attack, Strength, Control, Movement, Special Ability, Experience Level.
   
3. Rounds and Phases have been simplified. Each Round consists of 3 Phases: the Check phase, the Reinforce phase and the Activate phase.
   
4. Units are now represented by a single miniature to indicate the unit's type, and Strength counters to represent the unit's strength (just like a traditional board wargame).
   
5. The Hit Zone system has been removed. It's no longer needed since a unit will only consist of a single miniature.
   
6. The combat system has been simplified. It still uses attribute comparison, but the combat now is much simpler to play.
   

Additionally, the game will also introduce new features listed below:

List of planned features:

1. Simulate fog-of-war effects.
   
2. Implementation of reserved points that players can use to create game-changing effects.
   
3. Create game-affecting traits for terrains (for example, swamp slows down movement).
   
4. Create factions for the game
   
5. Create basic units for playtesting.
   

That's all for this post. I'm hoping to finish the basic ruleset of this game by the end of this year. In the mean time, if you missed ClickStartPlay.com's HobbyCon 2008, go here to see a coverage of the event.

Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Battle Mechanica Update (22/10/08)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

I have a small but important update. Battle Mechanica will make a big change of direction: Battle Mechanica will now be a tile-based boardgame/wargame. It will be less like Warhammer: 40K and more towards Heroes of Might & Magic.

Why change?
Warhammer: 40K (and similar games like Warmachines and Confrontations) requires a level of complexity to make the game playable AND balanced at the same time. Ultimately, its the notion of managing dozens of tokens, paper models or miniatures that will bog down the design.

The new design will take a simpler approach, mechanics wise. Battle Mechanica will move more towards being a boardgame, while maintaining that wargame feel that one would get when playing the games mentioned in the previous paragraph. It will also make the design easier (compared to the previous design) which would allow me to move on to other projects faster. Lastly, it makes the game stay true to the credo of Experimental Playground: being simple to learn yet fun to play.

I'll give more update on the new tile-based design in my next post.

Battle Mechanica Progress Update (6th Oct 2008)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

Another small update. I've added a "General Rules" section to the rulebook, which contains brief information of the following:

1. How distances are measured
   
2. Unit formations, Unit Types and Characters
   
3. Unit movements
   
4. Model's field-of-vision and how to check a its line-of-sight
   
5. Model profiles
   
6. A brief overview of the game's flow of play
   
7. Made some changes to the types of Ranged Attacks:
   
8. Changed 'Burst' to 'Directed Burst', which is a fan-shaped area-based ranged attack, like flamethrowers.

I'm working on the Turns and Phases next, and after that I'll be working on the rules for Movement. Before then, check out this post from Life In Borneo about the recent bloggers gathering in North Borneo, or visit the forum that I frequent to, ClickStartPlay.com. I go by the handle shiVER.



Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Battle Mechanica Progress Update (29/09/08)

This is just a progress update for Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work In Progress (WIP), which means that the game is incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

Hello again, everyone. Just doing a small update. This game has undergone constant rules re-writing since my first post in November, though nothing significant. Anyways, here is the update on this game.

1. Combat still uses simple attribute comparison, but now a new system is added to resolve Combat faster: The Hit Zone system. The Hit Zone is a universal system that determines how many casualties can be inflicted on a unit. Simply put, if an enemy unit is within your unit's Hit Zone, then they can become the target of its attack. But it goes both ways - if your unit is within enemy unit Hit Zone, then it can become the target of their attack.
2. Added three types of range attack: Missile (direct long-range attack), Barrage (indirect long-range attack) and Burst (variable-range area attack). Burst can also be combined with either Missile or Barrage.
3. Melee Combat is now known as Hand-to-Hand Combat. Just reflecting my preference, that's all. Nothing significant.
4. Added to the core rules on how to determine Casualties, which rely on the Hit Zone system.

That's all for now. I'll post more info next week. In the meanwhile, you might want to checkout my digg profile and see the stuff that I dugg recently. Or follow me on Twitter and tweet "Hi" to me.


Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Battle Mechanica - Overview of the Game, Part 1

*Note: I have changed the name of this game to Battle Mechanica, since the name Battlefield has been extensively trademarked and copyrighted by EA.*

This post is a continuation from my previous post here. In this post, I shall present an overview of play in Battle Mechanica. Please bear in mind that this is a Work-In-Progress, which means that the game is still incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

UNIT PROFILE
All units have a profile that represent their abilities in this game. Below is an example of a unit's Attributes, with a brief explaination on each:

Combat
The unit's fighting ability in both ranged and hand-to-hand combat, as well as defending themselves in said situation.

Resilience
The unit's hardiness, which determines the unit's ability to withstand injuries.

Control
The unit's ability to think on its feet. It is the sum of their intelligence, wits, psychological well-being, leadership quality and discipline as a single unit.

Movement
The unit's movement in inches.

Special Ability
The unit's special ability, such as Flight and Cavalry Charge. If they have any special equipment (magic weapons for instance), it is counted as Special Ability as well.

Experience
The unit's combat experience. The more experience the unit has, the stronger they are.

Stay tune for Part 2 of this article. In the meanwhile, check out Lee Hng's JEP1 and Rob-Jr's Dwarf Tactics, two other experimental tabletop games currently in development. Please leave some comments while you're there!


Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Battle Mechanica - An experimental diceless wargame

This post is a continuation from my previous post here. In this post, I will discuss about the general idea behind Battle Mechanica - my first attempt at creating a diceless wargame - and the (still early) core mechanics of this game. Please bear in mind that this is a Work-In-Progress, which means that the game is still incomplete and is subject to change at any time by the designer.

What is Battle Mechanica?
Battle Mechanica is an attempt at creating a tabletop wargame that forgoes the use of dice-rolling to determine an outcome. It instead uses diceless combat resolution that uses simple calculations to make the game easier and faster to play, while remaining tactically realistic and engaging.

This game was inspired by a lot of gaming systems. Its core mechanics was primarily inspired by Little Fantasy Wars and Hordes & Heroes, while the units took inspirations from Games Workshop's Warhammer: 40,000 universe. It uses paper cutouts as units and terrains, but players may use miniatures and 3D gaming terrains instead as long as they in proper scale.

Why use a diceless system?
Dice-rolling systems rely on chance to resolve an outcome, where your success is entirely dependant on having as much dice in your hand as possible. It also tends to lead players into taking extreme risk by hoping for a miracle roll - which is antithetical to a sound, tactical approach. In actual warfare, generals do not take chances; though commanders do at times take calculated risk, they do so only after meticulous planning.

By taking out artificial randomizers (such as dice) from a wargame, players will have to execute brilliant tactics rather than counting on blind luck to win a battle. Just like in a poker game, a diceless wargame is where you play against your opponent's skill, not your opponent's luck.

The diceless combat system - In a nutshell
The system uses simple attribute comparison to determine whether a unit could cause casualties upon the ranks of the enemy. In melee combat, for instance, two opposing units simply compare their Combat attribute against one another - the unit with a higher Combat attribute therefore will cause casualties on the other unit, while the other unit will most likely only be able to weaken it's enemy (that is, injuring or wounding the enemy ranks).

This simple system is used in many aspects of the game, from determining whether a charge could break the ranks of an enemy infantry to calculating whether a unit of spearmen could falter after the third wave of attack.

In my next post, I will briefly explain some of the aspects of the system, including Units and their Characteristics, so stay tuned! In the meanwhile, you might be interested to check out my other blogs, Epiphany! and The Borneon Ninja. If you like stagnant blogs, I recommend the latter.


Battle Mechanicum by Daniel Marcus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Greetings from another member of Experimental Playground!

Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a gamer and have a passion of creating new ideas, and one of them is coming up with new game design. Most of the time, these flash of inspirations will either end up in as a material for an RPG campaign or it gets forgotten (which tend to happen because I rarely keep track on them). So it was a godsend when Rob decided to start this blog. Finally, there's a place for me to pour my ideas into and share it with everyone, especially those that have the same passion as me.

My Homebrew Games

Let's get to the meat of things - homebrew games. This blog is about having fun with the boardgames that we create, and that's what I intend to do. I have three games currently in early development. They are:

1. Battle Mechanica - A diceless tabletop wargame set in a steampunk world.
   
2. Dancing Shadows: St. Hallow - A diceless boardgame with elements of mystery and horror.
   
3. Tales of Medda-Loren - A story-driven RPG boardgame that aims to be light on mechanics and heavy on storytelling.
   

I'm currently working on Battle Mechanica, and I will explain briefly the workings of the game in my next post. Stay tuned!