Turn sequence - First thoughts

Some Starting Ideas

The turn structure is probably the best place to get started in designing a game since it gives the barebones skeleton of what the game feels like.

As mentioned in the previous post I want command and control to be a a significant part of the game. Another principle I'd like to follow is having game sequences where there is a component of early planning and then a reactive part. For example one of my favorite games, Star Wars Armada, had a system where each player would program which special action each ship would do in advance. Depending on the size (and inversely the flexibility) each ship had a certain number of dials which would need to be set in advance. Each dial gave a ship a different bonus during that turn, such as the ability to repair or turn at tighter angles.

This means that if you have a bigger ship, like a star destroyer, you would have to prepare 3 turns in advance what their command would be.

Dials from Star Wars Armada, you have to stack them on top of each other and them execute them in order.

I do also like the system of random turn orders such as what you would find in some board wargames such as the Battles of Napoleon Series by Sound of Drums or the Birth of America trilogy by Academy games. In those games different colored cubes for each faction are placed in a bag and the activation sequence is defined by which cube is pulled out.

I am a big fan of randomness being injected into a system to set up interesting decision spaces. This makes the game flow more smoothly as you cannot predict exactly everything that will happen but rather you need to adapt to what the current situation is. If I would have to pre-program my entire turn in advance, selecting which units will move and in which order, I'm likely to overthink and overcomplicate things.

Now that we've gotten these initial thoughts out let's write a draft of a possible turn order. This will likely be revisited in the future as we add more mechanics and realize that other, previously write, aspects of the game just do not work with the most recent additions.

Components

Each player will have a deck of cards with 3 copies of each letter defining their combat groups. For example if I have 3 combat groups I would have 9 cards with 3 copies each of the letters A, B and C.

These cards, when drawn, will activate the corresponding group for an action.

In addition each side will have a copy each of:

• Fire (when this card is drawn each side will simultaneously fire and apply any damage)
• Fighters (Deploy, move or activate all fighters)
• Shields (Recharge the ship shields)

Each player will, at the beginning of their turn, choose how many cards for each of their groups they want to place in their deck (minimum one each) and then add the mandatory cards and shuffle all of them together.

I've made a mockup of what the design for these cards could be:

Last component would be some kind of chits to count how many reshuffles each player has. Every time the deck runs out the player would discard one. Once the last token is discarded their side is exhausted and has to retreat. 

Turn sequence

1. Players select how many times they would like to activate each battle group, then add those cards and the mandatory ones to their deck and shuffle.
2. Players alternate drawing cards and executing it. If the card applies to both players they alternate activating units starting with the player that drew the card.
3. If a player draws the last card in their deck they prepare it again as step 1 then continue.
4. That player also discards one of their reshuffle chits.
5. If a player has no reshuffle chits they initiate a retreat sequence.

This play sequence means that when a player is constructing his deck they need to balance being able to activate a single group multiple times or being able to rapidly refresh cards that let you gain shields or move your fighters ( I might need to add another beneficial mandatory card if it turns out the balance is skewed towards longer turns).

One option would also be to let the players decide the card order in their deck, this would add more strategic planning but might make the game take longer and reduce some of the fun aspects of the unpredictability. I'll likely add this as an optional rule.

Next post will be about map gridding and movement. I'll probably also start writing a google doc summarizing the rules so that it's ready for playtesting once I finish the first draft.