Im prototyping a simplistic multiplayer game. Started out as a homage to nuclear war

but has infuenses from defcon as well. Its much less serious though.

You have a map with cities and try to destroy or capture enemy cities (see screenshot).

Units are very simple:

Infantry: spawned by cities to a certain cap (depending on city size +2 for each army base in it) . Can just defend, not move at all.

Tanks: built continuously by factories. Can attack cities and seize them

Nukes: send a couple of these before invading a city:)

Cruisers: like tanks but moves in waters

Subs: short range nuke launched from sea.

No aircrafts at all! Which is not realistic at all in a modern setting but right now I dont see them adding fun gameplay. Any comments?

Im not sure if Im going with cards (that you increase the spawnrate with by adding labs) which are powerful one-shot abilites (super nuke, spawn reinforcement tanks, start nano-plague in a enemy city etc)

OR

Have a simple research tree which unlocks bonuses. I guess a research tree lowers the tempo more than the cards?

Any feedback, comments?

Interested to see this more fully developed.

Maybe post in the Developers Journal section of the site

For a fun, simple game I would DEFINITELY go with cards for maximum chaos and replayability. Defensive cards (railgun to block incoming nuke?) might very nicely compliment offensive cards and could be a way of going outside the normal rules.

I wasn't clear if units can attack units or if they are meant only to attack cities. Also can infantry be shifted? I know they can't move on the battlefield but am curious about if they could be teleported to a neighboring city. Thinking this could allow for a good tension between cities that are defensive versus productive.

Units can fight if they meet on the map (outside cities). Tanks will defend cities alongside the infantries there (but maybe at half strength, they should work as offensive units).

Infantries right now just work as a regenerating thoughness of cities. You need to commit an attack or else the defense (the infantries) will respawn over time. That's the idea.