This is designed to be a bit like Risk, but what I'm really shooting for is a strategy game that's simple, fast-paced-ish, and has good depth to it without losing its simplicity. As usual (read: every forum game I've ever run ever) I haven't actually designed this game yet and it'll be made up on the spot as I write out this post, so LET'S SEE HOW IT GOES
The Game: :canadian:
Made to support 2-6 players. I will design a symmetrical, circular, Free For All styled map, made to fit however many players we get. Each player will have a defensible starting location on the outskirts, bordering some neutral territories before running into areas within another player's influence. Acquiring these territories gets you more gold per turn. Gold is used on buying everything from units to upgrades, etc. It'll all make perfect sense soon.
In the center of the map will be a territory that grants huge gold on the turn it's acquired, before normalizing to a (still high) gold per turn after. He who controls the center grows a lot more powerful on each turn he holds it. This basically means expanding outwards is a lot better than holing up most of the time.
You'll be taking territories by battling the units stationed there. Battles will be fought with 3 kinds of units: Archers, Infantry, and Cavalry. Each is strong against or weak against the other, kind of like rock paper scissors. This changes a bit if you upgrade a unit type, but I'll explain that later.
Battles:
In battle, one unit will destroy one unit before dying. A battle of 50 vs 51 will leave the winning side with 1 unit left normally. But it gets deeper than that. Here's a basic example of what's strong against what:
Archers -> Infantry
Cavalry -> Archers
Infantry -> Cavalry
So in a battle of 50 archers vs 50 cavalry, the victorious side will win with 25 cavalry left.
"But Devour, what if my country has 25 archers and 25 cavalry verse 50 infantry?" I hear you ask. Well my man, when you have multiple different units on a country, they have to take their turns. Think of it like having some units in the front while others wait in the back line. People will have to tell me if they want their Archers in Line 1 and their Cavalry on Line 2. Infantry on Line 3 if they have that too. In this setup, the Cavalry won't fight until all the Archers are dead. I know it's kind of gimmicky but hey, it's the price we pay for simplicity.
Spending Gold:
All units cost the same, regardless of type or how upgraded they are. I'll decide/balance the exact numbers later. If you spend gold on units, they won't be available until the next turn. Additionally, you can only spawn units on a place that you have a Castle. That's an upgrade you can buy. Wew lads.
Upgrades will be things you can do to utilize your huge piles of $$$$$. Here's the gist of all the different upgrades you can get:
A Unit Upgrade levels up a specific unit type by 1.
Level 2 Archers will be able to fight Level 1 Cavalry as if they are not weak to them, and they will be twice as strong against level 1 Infantry. But level 2 Cavalry will be normal against level 2 Archers again. There's no limit to how much you can upgrade a unit, but it gets more expensive every time.
A Province Upgrade gives a permanent perk to a province. You can get Walls (Expensive. Basically levels up all attacked units by 1), a Castle (lets you spawn units in that province rather than just at your capital), or a Mine (make more gold in that province).
If you conquer someone's province, you get all their upgrades as long as you own it. But if you think you won't hold that province for long it only takes until the end of next turn to raze it all down and remove the province's upgrades.
Important Clarification:
After upgrading a unit type, your current units of that type on the map are not upgraded. You'll have to spawn new ones
Starting:
You can pick a specific start depending on your playstyle. Aggressive, Defensive, or Scientific.
All starting provinces have Castles in them.
Aggressive: Start with a few extra units. Your first Castle only costs half as much, allowing you to expand better.
Defensive: On turn 3, walls will be built on every province you own.
Scientific: A unit type of your choice begins the game at Level 2.
Making Moves:
PM me your actions for each round. It'll be pretty intuitive: Just say which units from which province you want to move where, as well as the order you want them to battle in. Upgrades will be simple as well, literally just tell me what you want.
Also, you can move an army one country per turn. You can move as many armies as you have space or units for at the same time.
Winning:
The game ends when someone has become so powerful that there's no way he'll be stopped. Probably by permanent control of the center.
This will all be organized into neat spoiler boxes when the game begins, to make it easy to look through everyone's upgrades and gold and etc. For now, sign-ups are available. We won't be starting until Skeleton's Break the Game remix is over at the very least.
Players:
-Vorpal
-Aquila
-Person
-Ai
-Doom
-Arch
Edit: The map and numbers have been released!
Fucking huge (Click to Show)
-Your capital will be at one of the stone tablets on the outskirts.
-You can advance over any green line in between each circles. The only access to the center is in territories within equal reach of your neighbors.
-Each territory will be defended by independent units that you must battle with to take them.
-It will be possible to conquer the water as if it's a territory, but a very large number of independent units will be stationed there, making it pretty much impossible until lategame. It also won't give gold when taken--just access to all the bordering provinces.
GOLD INFO
Territories:
-Capitals will give 400 gold a turn. Territories will give 150 gold a turn.
-The golden center will give you 2000 gold when you take it, and 600 gold per turn passively.
Units:
All units will cost 20 gold each.
Upgrading a unit will be an expensive thing that gives huge benefits. The costs are:
Unit upgrade costs (Click to Show)
Battering Ram
-Costs 1500 to build. Spawned at a castle.
-When attacking a province with a wall, your army gains a power level equal to how walls upgrade the defending army.
-Destroyed when used
-Can't kill enemy units in battle
-Always attacked last in an army
-Marked by a B on the map.
Province Upgrades:
Castles will cost 2000 to build.
Walls will cost 1500 to build. The cost is mitigated because of the free level upgrade to all units inside, which becomes hella cost effective at higher levels.
Gold Mines are designed to pay for themselves in 2 turns at level 1. Each upgrade becomes less cost effective. Some tricky diminishing returns shit going on here:
Mine upgrade costs (Click to Show)
The map will be populated with your starting units and the map's independent settlers once we begin.
