Resource and unit-building structures

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Kirillyos
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Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Kirillyos » Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:16 pm

Okay, so since we're all fans of wargaming here, I presume many of you are familiar with the type of resource-accumulating and unit-making structures that form an inherent part of the interface for Real-time and turn-based strategy games like Command and Conquer, Warcradft, Starcraft, Age of Empires, Heroes of Might and Magic, etc

Ore miners, slave workers, oil derricks, lumberjacks and the like collect resources - metal, dollars, wood, sheep - and in turn, those resources get made into battlefield-ready units at your friendly neighborhood barracks, war factories, airfields, and orbital shipyards.

My goal in this post is to get some brainstorming going on how to adapt this system to Brikwars.

Something like:
construct/capture resource building, which brings in X amount of CP/random bricks per turn, then construct barracks/war factory to pump out reinforcements (kinda like an enhanced version of the mechanic and his "field construction" ability). And you have an obvious tactical incentive in the form of extra units (or lack thereof) to defend your own structures and capture/destroy those of your foes.

I'm sure plenty of you more experienced Brikwarriors have better ideas on how to implement these concepts in a more efficient, balanced, or bloodily-entertaining way, so please, I'd really like to hear them.
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IVhorseman
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by IVhorseman » Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:20 pm

This topic has come up a million times, and each time has crumbled under the weight of it's own rules.

The best idea would be to keep it simple. "worker" units that are mining would make attacks with tools vs. random objects (axe vs. tree, pick vs. stone, plasma collecter vs. reactor core etc.), and when the resource object is "killed" it spurts out 1d6 CP. Whether or not the minifigs need to actually carry resources to your production structures is up to you, but units would obviously be churned out of there.

I'd stick as close to the mechanik rules as much as possible (only building on your own turn, etc.) for simplicity's sake, but actually having to build whatever only using the bricks nearby doesn't make sense with the whole resource conversion thing. How else do you turn rocks into tires? So yeah, dig into your lego bin and build things up to however much CP you have accumulated.

For the most part, brikwars battles are too short to have time to build unit production structures in the field, so i suggest just having each "base" fully formed at the start of the game and pay for the structures as normal. If you DID build them in-field, I'd suggest just having a mechanik do it as normal.

Good luck with the attempt. There's a lot of cool things that can come out of this, but it would make each turn VERY long. It's part of why I suggest only building on the other person's turn.

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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Kirillyos » Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:37 pm

IVhorseman wrote: The best idea would be to keep it simple. "worker" units that are mining would make attacks with tools vs. random objects (axe vs. tree, pick vs. stone, plasma collecter vs. reactor core etc.), and when the resource object is "killed" it spurts out 1d6 CP. Whether or not the minifigs need to actually carry resources to your production structures is up to you, but units would obviously be churned out of there.

I'd stick as close to the mechanik rules as much as possible (only building on your own turn, etc.) for simplicity's sake
That sounds like a workable idea.
IVhorseman wrote:but actually having to build whatever only using the bricks nearby doesn't make sense with the whole resource conversion thing. How else do you turn rocks into tires?
Like this:
Image
IVhorseman wrote: For the most part, brikwars battles are too short to have time to build unit production structures in the field, so i suggest just having each "base" fully formed at the start of the game and pay for the structures as normal. If you DID build them in-field, I'd suggest just having a mechanik do it as normal.
I was thinking it might also help in situations where the players don't have a lot of LEGO to go around - have a pool of pre-built units/structures sitting off to the side, and then players can "build/summon/requisition/deploy" them once they have enough CP saved up.

If you're playing with LEGO-CAD battles, however (LeoCAD, LDraw, LDD), then of course it's fairly easy to just copy-paste pre-built units/structures from another file.
IVhorseman wrote:Good luck with the attempt. There's a lot of cool things that can come out of this, but it would make each turn VERY long. It's part of why I suggest only building on the other person's turn.
Thanks man, you've given me a lot to think about with this concept.
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Gungnir » Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:02 pm

What if the structure is the main objective?
There's only one OT mine on the table, and whoever has control of it gets 1 unit of OT at the beginning of their turn. Whoever gets to X units of OT wins.
Again, it's up to the discretion of the players as to whether or not they need to cart it back to base in order to score.
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Pwnerade » Sat Mar 30, 2013 7:09 am

Just have bricks on the field that your troops can grab, and then have mechanics assemble them. As for creating infantry, have minifig parts that your medics and/or mad scientists can assemble. Battles over piles of torsos sounds like good fun to me! :twisted:
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by pkbrennan » Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:00 am

Anyone got rules for a Dr Frankenstein minifig that can assemble minifig parts on the field? That would be ossum if we had such a speciality...
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Kirillyos » Sat Mar 30, 2013 12:58 pm

Gungnir wrote: There's only one OT mine on the table, and whoever has control of it gets 1 unit of OT at the beginning of their turn. Whoever gets to X units of OT wins.
Newbish question: what is "OT"?
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Tzan » Sat Mar 30, 2013 1:39 pm


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Gungnir
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Gungnir » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:12 am

pkbrennan wrote:Anyone got rules for a Dr Frankenstein minifig that can assemble minifig parts on the field? That would be ossum if we had such a speciality...
There was some talk of that in another thread. The BW 2010 feedback thread, I think? I'm not sure.
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by pkbrennan » Sun Mar 31, 2013 7:59 am

Ok, how is this for a 2 CP Speciality:

A Ripperdoc / Frankenstein can spend his or her turns assembling body parts at the rate of two body parts put together per turn. So if a body and legs are just missing its head, it should take one turn to assemble with a suitable head. If the Ripperdoc / Frankenstein has to assemble legs to body and then head to body, it would take two turns. Once the minifig has been assembled, a dice roll is made:

1. Critical fail: The minifig comes to life but immediately attacks its creator.
2-3. The lights are on but nobody's home - it's alive, but subject to the submissive speciality, and has to be lead by a unit commander in order to do anything like fight, march, etc.
4+. A fully functioning minifig has been created which may act as normal for the side that created it.

Critical Success - The Almighty Bennie has smiled on you, and you have somehow created a Hero. Assuming there are now more than one Hero on that side, all the rules for multiple heroes on the same side immediately come into effect.

We can call the Specialist a FrankenFig, and the Speciality "RipperDok". Give them the same stats and base cost of the Medik and off we go:

FrankenFig:

Base cost 6 CP

Skill: 1d6 [1d8 RipperDok]
Move: 5"
Armour: 4

Speciality: RipperDok (2 CP)
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by IVhorseman » Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:01 pm

Does anyone know where that other thread went? I think it had a better idea than this but I can't recall for sure.

I like the idea so far, but potentially creating a hero is a bit much.

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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by pkbrennan » Mon Apr 01, 2013 6:46 am

Is it, though? It's a one in eight chance of it happening. And multiple heroes are balanced out by the Crankiness rule.

Anyway, the point of the game is to cause as much humorous mayhem as possible. You want totally balanced? Warhammer 40,000... :P
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by IVhorseman » Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:10 pm

The point of the game is to actually keep it running. Having multiple heroes means multiple heroic feats, means more time wasted trying to figure out how this particular hero can cause the most damage possible. Even with crankiness (and the extra half-second or so to remember to apply it each time), I feel like players would just find worthless units of their own to kill off left and right in order to maybe get a new hero or two. I'm not saying that's not balanced, but it IS kinda counter-intuitive, and I feel like a lot of games with this ability would just turn into a race of who could churn out the most heroes.

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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by pkbrennan » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:53 am

I suppose you *could* tone it down a bit by making a critical success give you a specialist of your choice (heavy, pilot, squad leader, etc)...
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Re: Resource and unit-building structures

Post by Kirillyos » Thu May 09, 2013 8:11 pm

Hey y'all, sorry I haven't been around lately - I've been recovering from surgery and these pain meds have made me woozy enough that I had to retype that sentence five times now.
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