So where did we leave… Ah right; while I was brainstorming about the factions, the mechanics thread evidently led me to the combat system. I mean that I need one. Here, I’ve really started to dig into similar games that I played (and even some that I did not yet) for reference. The first thing to come clear was that terrain height has to be involved in the equation.

So basically that it’s important to note the direction of the attack. I wanted the fight to be swift and straightforward, so I decided to use dice – but I also wanted it to be smart. The first pillars to this latest were the height difference and the attacking-defending role. (The last aspect to the fight is that I wanted to include some “perudo-like” bluffing scheme into the dice rolling. I have to note here, that I still trying to find the place for that into the game, without making the fight too clumsy.)

So, with this two-variable system, there are six roles players could find themselves in during fights, on the attacker-defender and high-identical-low position matrix. Now, what do these positions mean game mechanic-wise? First I was trying to fit these into the bluffing system; like:

• if the defender occupies the lower position they can’t retreat
• if the defender occupies the higher position they can retreat even after revealing the dice

But I wasn’t even sure how the bluffing occurs in these situations. What is the bet? What is the reward? Soon the whole fighting started to look very clumsy, stuffed and incomprehensible – even for me. There could be a lot of factors:

• • • • • initiating role
        • terrain height
        • number of dice
        • differences in factions’ dice
        • differences in defending-attacking dice
        • number of units

• • • • • type of units
        • alliances
        • modifying cards

Yet I wanted the fight to be simple, fast, straightforward, elegant. So, I was still just noting everything, thinking, inventing, gathering ideas. The last nail was to this coffin, when I started to calculate probability, considering the number of dice sides, the markings on them and the number of dice involved.

The main reason for this latest is that I found the simplest way to fight is just roll one die for the attacker and one for the defender, subtract the numbers and the faction with the lower number loses as many units. Now, this to be less random, the die could have special numbering on them. Maybe this numbering is dependent on the role in the battle, maybe on the factions themselves… And maybe not only one die per faction, rather the dice number is dependent on the position?

So I was really occupied with this dice magic for a while, yet new and newer aspects come into the equation: hidden dice rolling in nice, dedicated cups; ranged attacks; option, and meaning of the retreat (e.g. in the Game of thrones game it’s all about the retreat); battle as a separate action from moving; the meaning of the fight (Is it for removing game pieces only? What kind of game pieces? Who could fight?) – and I really wanted to include game theory somehow – for which I needed some opportunity for negotiation, bluff, cooperation at least. But maybe this is not for the fight system.

Soon (fingers crossed) I will return with the second part of the combat system. See you!