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 Copyright Eric Pietrocupo


E-Mail: ericp[AT]lariennalibrary.com


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Castle Siege

Page: GameIdea.GameIdea201004300955PM - Last Modified : Mon, 27 Jan 20 - 2311 Visits
How much do you like this idea?

4 stars Rating 8.0/10 from 1 votes
Vote Distribution: 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 1 – 0


Very Good (10/10) The game is very interesting, make it as soon as possible.
Good (8/10) Great idea but some modifications are required.
Fair (6/10) Interesting but a lot of things are missing.
Bad (4/10) Would need to completely redesign the idea in order to work.
Very Bad (2/10) It will never be interesting, abandon the idea.
Already Exist (0/10) Do not waste time of this game idea.

Status: CLOSED

  • Little idea of how the mechanics will work.
  • A 2 player game is a good thing.

Progress: Partially designed
Priority: Low
Number of players: 2 players
Expected Play time: 30 - 60 minutes

Description

A game where you siege a castle, one player is the defender and the other one is the attacker. Players have access to various kinds of units and castle layout to spice things up.

Objective

I want to try making a game that recreates the feeling of laying out a real siege.

Inspiration

The "king arthur's world" video game is a source of inspiration. Else, movies like "lord of the rings" was another source of inspiration. Stronghold and Castle Panic are actually 2 board games that implements such kind of theme. Some ideas could be taken from there.

Priority Evaluation

Theme vs Mechanics: Based on theme, there are little mechanics to borrow.
Video vs Board Game: Could be released on any platform.
Single vs Multi player: Could be adapted as a single player game, but I think boths sides are interesting to manage as a 2 player game
Rating = 3/12

Digitizability

- Cartography: Cartography will be required for the castle map.
+ No Scripting: There should be no special abilities in this game.

Mechanics

It is hard to find a set of mechanics that could work. For the map, I though first of using an hex map where each hex is separated in 4 areas. Each area would hold a unit and hex would be used to manage movement. But I ended up with hundreds of tokens on the board which really did not worked out.

Else I thought of having a series of areas that can either be controlled by a player or the other. Each area would be connected to each other saying in which direction troops could be move. The problem with that is that I prefix the areas the player can attack from. It prevent players from using creative tactics.

Still, I was thinking of removing the troops movement. Since all troops are connected to each other, you only need to bother about the front. So you don't need to move troops within areas you controls.

For the combat mechanics, I am thinking about using the law of average and a concept of troop flow. For example, if you use a bridge path, the flow of troops would be much lower making it harder to kill the enemy on the other side. Same thing if you used for example siege tower. For the resolution, I simply use a system of troop ratio that determines how much troops are killed on the other side according to your flow.

As for the special units, player would have a deck of card. they gain cards every turn and when they attack they use a card. The card has various special abilities that could help you progress in the siege. It might also be possible to make various deck configurations.

Problems that prevent development

Many of the problems have been explained above. The idea that I don't want to move 200 tokens on the board every turns. The map design that must allow various strategies, etc.

I am also not sure if I want a fantasy theme in the game, I could make a more historical game by having a realist theme. It would also makes more sense to have a castle, since there is no flying creatures for example. Still I could add a fantasy theme as optional expansion material.

Development Log

DateTypeDescription
04-dec-2016IdeaI have taken a look at a game called W1815 which has the interesting feature of being a war game with no movement. Troops are simply removed or added to the board. You play cards that has predefined attacked behavior and target. A similar mechanism could be used here, maybe both player play a card, and the result gives casualties to certain castle locations. A card system like battle master could work. There could also be different siege attacking options like in Stronghold.
06-aug-2016IdeaIf played as solitaire, possibly this game could be playable as a pen and paper. Because when a part of the castle is destroyed or captured by troops, it generally remains under it's control. So you could simply mark with a pen up to where have the troops invaded. You can mark units that dies and when you loose too many you lose the game. Castle defense like state of siege could also work, but in that case you do not push back the enemy, you only prevent it from progressing.

Back to my list of Board Games and Ideas

Prototype Pictures

Attach:file_thumb.jpg Δ Δ | Picture Description

News, changes and updates

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