Hello All,

I made a prototype of a fantasy TBS (heavily) inspired by Axis and Allies. For combat, I added turn phases and probability for a target to shrug off damage. I'm curious if this adds, in your opinion, the right amount of decision-making to a still very simple combat model. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. The PC executable for the prototype can be downloaded at https://valambrian.itch.io/valambrian-holy-wars

Thanks,

Valambrian

Your game reminds me of Age of Wonders.

Shrugging off damage after battle is quite good, it doesn't affect battle and balances out with the fail/die-chance; this way players don't have to check health on the main-screen.

Turn-phases aren't so great, it quickly becomes repetitive picking the same defenders again, and with both a phase for melee and for ranged you it feels like twice as many rounds.

I'm also not sure about whether having first strike for ranged adds strategic depth to the game.

Maybe make it so that when combat starts, the players alignes his own troops(from left to right) according to who should suck up the melee-attacks first, and align the enemy troops according to who should suck ranged damage up first.

Thanks! Having multiple phases allows to have paper - scissors - rock relationships, where archers can shoot chargers, who dominate melee fighters, who in their turn use their shields to deflect arrows. Looks like it's not enough to introduce non-trivial decisions to every battle, though. Thanks again for taking time to check it out! I owe you one.

I'll try and check this out

One way of using phased turns is to provide more versatility/initiative to certain units.  For example my Territories has three different phases for air power.  You can do this with your archers by giving them a phase at both the beginning and end of the round.  You can either allow them to fire during both phases, or allow them to pass on firing during their first firing phase in favor of firing during their second, giving them the option of firing either first or last at their discretion.

I see, i was already wondering what charge meant, so there 's actually 3 attack phases where the attackers in the last phase have extra defense against the attackers in the first phase ?

16 hours ago, valambrian said:

Looks like it's not enough to introduce non-trivial decisions to every battle, though.

I dunno 'bout that, when i played it i was struggling with to figure out the combat formulas,

(50% standard hitchance, 10% in/decrease for every stat-point?)

personally i would design combat in such a way that no orders are necessary after the point troops are send to invade a territory.

Another thing you should know about phased turns is that most people get an important aspect of how to use them backwards.  You natural instinct is that if something is faster, it should move first.  This is wrong.  If something is faster or more agile it should move last, which represents its ability to react to the slower thing.  The actual term here is "initiative", which most often translates to speed and agility.  But, actually, anything that should justifiably "have the initiative" should move last and attack last.

7 hours ago, Dramolion said:

I dunno 'bout that, when i played it i was struggling with to figure out the combat formulas,

(50% standard hitchance, 10% in/decrease for every stat-point?)

It's somewhat more complicated than this. As you progress through the game, you unlock additional types of attacks. The full rules are:

To hit, attack skill + 6d - d6 roll has to exceed defense skill + shield + d6 - d6 roll
If the attacker's roll is 5 (+6-1), it's a critical hit (always hits, ignores armor, deals double damage)
RANGED attacks ignore defense skill
SKIRMISH or MAGIC attacks halve it (round down)
Shields perform at 150% against SKIRMISH attacks (round down)
They perform at 200% against regular RANGED attacks
GUNPOWDER attacks ignore shields
MAGIC and LIGHTNING attacks halve the shield value (round down)
MAGIC SHIELD spell adds 2 to the shield value after the rules above were applied
ILLUSORY attacks ignore shields, including those created by MAGIC SHIELD spell
If an attack hits, attacker rolls for damage, defender's armor value is subtracted
AP (armor piercing), GUNPOWDER and LIGHTNING attacks halve armor value
FIRE attacks ignore armor
Critical hits ignore armor
STONE SKIN spell adds 2 to the armor value after the above rules were applied
ILLUSORY attacks ignore armor and effects of STONE SKIN spell

I got your point about simplifying combat to the point where you don't have to issue any orders during fights. I'll meditate on it.

1 hour ago, Kavik Kang said:

Another thing you should know about phased turns is that most people get an important aspect of how to use them backwards.  You natural instinct is that if something is faster, it should move first.  This is wrong.  If something is faster or more agile it should move last, which represents its ability to react to the slower thing.  The actual term here is "initiative", which most often translates to speed and agility.  But, actually, anything that should justifiably "have the initiative" should move last and attack last.

 

Thanks, Kavik Kang, I'll take this into consideration.

:-)

I can tell by your terminology and shorthand that you are a table top RPG player.  Another thing you might you since you are using dice, an Avalon Hill thing that few RPGs used, are assigning special effects too results revolving around 1's, 6s, and doubles.  So rolling doubles might represent a direct hit or armor penetration and increase the damage done.  There might be a penalty that accrues for each 1 rolled, or a cumulative bonus to an aspect of the roll for each 6 rolled.  Or whatever you can think of that works within whatever system you are using.  You can get a lot of results out of a single roll of 2 or more dice.

These "extra results" don't necessarily need to be related to the combat, either.  6's might give you money, for example, within the strategic level of the game.  In my Territories combat system rolling 1's in a combat die roll provide a bonus to your relations to the nation the battle is taking place in, for your restraint of firepower within their borders.