After a long delay I’m finally back on game design tasks. Last year I hit a wall when working on an American Civil War game I’ve been calling Lots of Blocks Battle Simulator. I want this game system to be flexible enough to be used for just about any black powder conflict, so command and control and the combat mechanics need to be somewhat generic, but still fit typical results from the era.
My main issue was combat mechanics, I didn’t love the system I had created. It worked fine but felt…not right? My goal with combat was to completely avoid any kind of complex calculations, tables, or long list of die roll modifiers. Nothing wrong with any of those in wargames, I just wanted something simple that I could teach to an 8 year old, a novice gamer, or someone with an exceedingly short attention span like myself.
Units in the game are represented by the eponymous Block. Each block represents a body of troops, but no distinction between Infantry, Cavalry or artillery is made as this is all abstracted in the rules and scenarios parameters.. Blocks move from position to position and combat occurs when blocks oppose each other at a single position. During combat each block rolls 2 dice when organized, or 1 when disorganized (face up or face down), hitting on 5+. Die roll modifiers are printed directly on the map next to positions. The modifiers primarily reflect terrain advantages held by the defender or disadvantages experienced by the attacker. For example, a combat occurring at a bridge with the defender occupying a hill. The Defender would have better fields of fire and protection from being uphill, while the Attacker would suffer from an inability to properly deploy and make use of the fire capability. The symbols present would be a +o. The + means the defender is hitting on 4+ and the o Attacker hits only on 6.
Ive got some play testing scheduled for this week, so we will see if my new ideas work hard or hardly work.
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