Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

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halo 3000
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Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by halo 3000 » Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:48 pm

Ok guys, I was gonna write this up in a word document, but I just figured to get it to you guys sooner I would type it up here.

These rules are in the alpha stages. Some things are not very smooth yet, and I haven't made up my mind on some things.

Things You Will Need

1.Non Lego stuff

Just a tape measure, some dice, and Paper. Different colored dice are a good idea, but not necessary. You are going to need to keep track of some stuff, so write it down on paper.

2. Lego stuff

For the battlefield, you are gonna want some terrain that blocks the line of sight of units. This could be anything from mountains to buildings.

Each players base will have 4 different buildings you will need to play.
1. Command center
2. Factory
3. Barracks
4. Power station

Also some walls
Image

5 Resource stations, one of which will be worth more than the others, so build it to look special.

Image
Resource station
Image
Resource station, worth more

You will also need to build:
50 Tanks
35 APCs
12 Artillery

You can raise or lower these numbers, but this is the max amount of each unit that I have decided upon. You probably won't have all these on the table at one time.


Pre-Game setup

Before you can jump into the strategic action that is Colony Wars, you must first set up the battlefield.

I play on a roughly 4x2 feet area.

First place the terrain and resource stations. Resource stations should be spread out evenly around the battlefield. The Resource station worth more should be in the middle. Leave roughly a 10x10 inch square in the corner for the the player's bases

Then both players will roll the dice to choose sides. The highest roll gets to choose which corner to put their base in.

Place buildings however you want in your 10x10 inch corner. Then set up walls.

Image
Example of a battlefield I set up

Game phases

After the battlefield is set up, players roll off again to determine who goes first. Highest roll wins.

Colony wars is played in 5 phases

1. Production
2. Movement
3. Combat
4. Infantry Actions
5. Post Production

Phase 1: Production

The production phase is where you build stuff.

The two buildings you build stuff from is your barracks and your factory. Tanks and Artillery are built from your factory and APC's are built from the barracks

Both the Factory and Barracks have 1 production slot and 1 upgrade slot. These can be upgraded to increase the number of production slots, but more on that later.

The first thing you do in the production phase is total your Resource Points. This is your money in the game. It's abbreviated as RP. RP is gained at the beginning of your turn.

Power Station- 10RP
Resource Station- 5RP
Big Resource Station- 10RP

Count up the total RP you gain that turn and add it to your reserve. Write it down!

Next its time to build your units. Units are built instantly upgrades are completed in post production
Production Options wrote:Factory Options
Tanks- Squad of 5- 5RP-Uses 1 Production Slot- Built instantly
Artillery- Squad of 3- 10RP- 1 Production slot- Built instantly

Upgrades
Tank- Speed Upgrade- adds 2 inches of movement - 5RP- 1 Turn
Tank- Reactive Armor- Every time a tank sufferers a hit that will kill it, roll the dice. on a 5 or 6, the hit is ignored- 10RP- 2 turns

Artillery- Better stabilizers- Increases the Accuracy to a 4+ instead of a 5+- 10RP- 2 turns

Factory- Extra Production Slot- adds another production slot. Lets you build 2 units per turn. 10RP- 2 turns

Barracks Options

APC- Squad of 5- 5RP-Uses 1 Production Slot- Built instantly
Unmanned APC- Squad of 10- 5RP-Uses 1 Production Slot- Built instantly

Upgrades

APC speed upgrade- adds 2 inches of movement- 5RP- 1 turn
APC reactive armor- Every time an APC sufferers a hit that will kill it, roll the dice. on a 5 or 6, the hit is ignored- 10RP- 2 turns
APC anti armor rocket- adds a anti tank rocket to the lead APC. Weapon strength d6+1-5RP- 1 turn

Infantry: specialized breaching training- roll 2 dice instead of one and pick the highest if you are the attacker in infantry combat.- 10RP - 2 Turns
Infantry: Storm Troopers- replaces one standard marine squad with a Storm Trooper Squad. -10RP -2 turns

Barracks- Extra Production Slot- adds another production slot. Lets you build 2 units per turn. 10RP- 2 turns
After all units and upgrades have been purchased, subtract the total RP you spent from your reserve you have written down.

Now is a good time to show you the stat cards for the different units

M= Movement
AR= Armor
R= Weapon Range
AC = Weapon Accuracy
D= Weapon Damage
Tank wrote: Tank
The main combat unit in the game. Good armor, firepower, and decent speed.
Image
M 6" AR 3 R 12"
AC 3+ D 1d6
APC wrote: APC
Fast unit meant to transport infantry around. Can be bought unmanned and used as a light tank.
Image
M 8" AR 2 R 12"
AC 3+ D 1d6-1

Special rule
Fast: Adds +1 to reaction test rolls
Artillery wrote: Artillery
Powerful long range guns meant to destroy enemy units from afar
Image
M 4" AR 2 R 24"
AC 5+ D 1d6+1

Speacial rules
Artillery: Does not need line of sight to fire.

Barrage: Fires 3 shots per unit.

Slow: Subtracts 1 from reaction test rolls.
Movement Phase

Pretty straight forward. Each unit can move up to the amount on the profile. Can also elect not to shoot in the shooting phase to go an extra amount equal to half of the total inches the unit can normally move.
Example: A tank can move 6". It can elect to boost instead of shoot and move 9" APCs would move 12" and artillery would move 6"

Squadrons

All units in the game are bought in squads of 10,5 or 3. These squads don't have to stick together however. You can have them go in different directions if you wish. Make sure that it is easy to see which squads are which

For sake of time, you don't have to precisely measure each unit when it moves. Take the unit closest to the direction you want to move the group, measure it precisely, then place the other units around the one you measured.

Combat phase

The First thing you do in the Combat phase is plan your attack. Declare which squads are attacking which. This is very important when it comes to the reaction test.

Example: Player 1 declares that squads A and B are firing at Player 2's squad 1, and squad C is firing at squad 3

Squads cannot split fire, so make sure you separate them in the movement phase

Reaction Test

Next is to take a Reaction Test.The Reaction Test determines which squad shoots first in an engagement.

Both players roll the dice. In order for one player to go before another, he must beat the opposing player's roll by 2. If neither player rolled 2 higher than the other, they fire at the same time.

Example: Players 1 and 2 take a reaction test. Player 1 rolls a 4. Player 2 rolls a 5. Since both are within 1 of each other, they fire at the same time.
Another Example: Players 1 and 2 take a reaction test. Player 1 rolls a 2. Player 2 rolls a 4. Since player 2's roll is 2 higher than player 1's he shoots first.


If the player whose turn it is at the time of the test gets to go first, he then fires his squads at the at the enemy squads he selected. Do this one squad at a time. If one squad completely destroys the targeted squad, the other squad does not get to shoot, so plan your attack wisely!

Example: Squad 4 completely destroys all the units in Squad F. Squad 5 also had targeted Squad F. Squad 5 does not get to choose a new target.

If the other player (the player whose turn it isn't) wins then his squad gets to fire at an enemy squad that targeted him.

Example: Player 2 wins the reaction test. His squad was targeted by the enemy's Squad 4 and 5. He elects to fire at Squad 4.

If no one wins, all firing is done at the same time. The player whose turn it isn't still gets to choose which squad to shoot at.

Combat

Combat is done in 2 phases

1. Shooting
2. Damage

Shooting

When a squad shoots, it fires one shot per unit in the squad(except artillery).

Get one die per shot and roll them all at once. To determine which shots hit, look at the units Accuracy. Tanks and APC's have a 3+ accuracy, so rolls of a 3 or higher hit their target. Shots that don't hit are discarded.

Shots that do hit, hit the units in the enemy squad closest to the shooting squad

Damage

After determining which shots hit, roll the dice again to determine damage. To destroy an enemy unit, the damage roll must exceed the enemy units armor rating. destroyed units are removed from the battlefield and put back into the unit reserve.

Example: Tank Squad A shoots at Tank Squad 3. Squad a must roll higher than a 3 (Tanks armor rating) in order to destroy it.

Mixed Squads

In instances where a squad has more than one type of unit in it, roll the damage dice one at a time.

Infantry actions

Infantry can perform two actions

1. Capture buildings
2. Assault Enemy buildings

Building Capturing

Infantry's main job is to capture and hold buildings and Resource points

For infantry to capture a building or resource point, move an APC within 2" of the Building then place the infantry stud on the baseplate.

Infantry can only hop out and move into a building during the Infantry Action Phase.

Buildings can only hold a garrison of 5 squads.

Image
This Resource Station is occupied by 2 squads

Infantry Combat

Infantry's second job is to assault and clear out enemy buildings and Resource points.

To assault an enemy occupied building, move the an APC within 2" of and building and place the infantry stud on the baseplate.

Only 5 squads can assault a building at one time

Then both players roll dice one at a time. The highest dice roll wins. If there is a tie, the defender wins. This is continued until either the defender kills off all the Attacker's squads, or the Attacker kills off all the Defender's squads

Storm Troopers

Storm troopers are elite infantry.

Storm Troopers allow for 2 rerolls during Infantry Combat. multiple squads of Storm Troopers will give you multiple rerolls.

In infantry combat, Storm Troopers will die last. Regular Marine squads will die quicker than these elite troopers.

Post Production

In this phase, upgrades advance in turns.

Upgrades are completed or they advance a turn if they take longer than one turn to complete.








Like I said guys, these rules are in their Alpha stages. PLEASE ask me questions if one arises. FEEL FREE to give advise or input on these rules. TELL ME if a rule doesn't work

GIVE ME FEEDBACK ON THIS.

Thanks!
"My name is Art Vandelay. I'm an architect."~George Costanza

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by IVhorseman » Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:50 am

The first thing that sticks out to me is that tanks are only slightly more powerful and move slower than APCs, yet I could get 10 unmanned APCs for the price of 5 tanks. Through superior numbers and bullshit kiting, I can see a big group of APCs quickly overwhelming a group of tanks. They even have a faster reaction time, so they're pretty likely to fire first. Even without the gun upgrade I could see this strategy working well, but I haven't playtested it so I can't talk shit.

You also mentioned artillery being pretty OP in some of your first test-games, and with the ability to shoot further than anything else with higher damage AND fire three times as often, I can see why. If you lowered the accuracy even more it probably wouldn't hurt - firing 3 times in a turn means at least one of the shots will probably hit it's mark.

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by Quantumsurfer » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:10 am

Glad to see it.

I'll have to think about it some. I've got some ideas but I'd also like to playtest some. We should skype a small battle sometime.

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by Maverick » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:44 am

I am going to try this. A million thumbs up's

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by Gungnir » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:21 am

I like it. Also, I love these microscale builds.
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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by halo 3000 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:19 pm

IVhorseman wrote:The first thing that sticks out to me is that tanks are only slightly more powerful and move slower than APCs, yet I could get 10 unmanned APCs for the price of 5 tanks. Through superior numbers and bullshit kiting, I can see a big group of APCs quickly overwhelming a group of tanks. They even have a faster reaction time, so they're pretty likely to fire first. Even without the gun upgrade I could see this strategy working well, but I haven't playtested it so I can't talk shit.
I did a few test rolls and yea, you are right. The APCs usually got to to shoot first and took out 2-3 tanks. The remaining 2-3 tanks only killed 2-3 APCs. So the APCs would win that one.

Normally, you shouldn't be buying the unmanned APCs till later in the game. It will put you at a severe disadvantage if you don't go out and grab the resource points early, because if you don't your opponent will.

I tried to make them as a counter for artillery. I may add a rule that if they moved full speed, artillery can only hit them on a roll of a 6.
IVhorseman wrote:You also mentioned artillery being pretty OP in some of your first test-games, and with the ability to shoot further than anything else with higher damage AND fire three times as often, I can see why. If you lowered the accuracy even more it probably wouldn't hurt - firing 3 times in a turn means at least one of the shots will probably hit it's mark.
Back then I had them at 5RP a squad. So my friend built 4 squads and was rolling 36 dice on a squad of 10 tanks.

Statistically, if one squad of artillery shoots 9 shots at a Squad of 5 tanks, 3 are going to hit and at least 2 tanks are going to die. That's not too much I don't think. I think the cost offsets their strength. plus, early game, you are only getting 10RP a turn, so that's all the units you would buy for that turn.
Quantumsurfer wrote:I'll have to think about it some. I've got some ideas but I'd also like to playtest some. We should skype a small battle sometime.
Absolutely! I forgot to add some rules in, such as the object of the game, and ambushing. Play a game or two and tell me what you think.
Maverick wrote:I am going to try this. A million thumbs up's
Thanks! Tell me how it goes.
Gungnir wrote:I like it. Also, I love these microscale builds.
Thanks! I'm gonna get around to posting more pictures and instructions for the buildings.
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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by IVhorseman » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:06 pm

halo 3000 wrote:Normally, you shouldn't be buying the unmanned APCs till later in the game. It will put you at a severe disadvantage if you don't go out and grab the resource points early, because if you don't your opponent will.
Personally, I'd just scrap getting a factory altogether so I could have two barracks. That way, I could crank out a manned and unmanned squad every turn. If that's illegal, alternating between manned and unmanned squads on each turn and putting a priority on adding a barracks production slot ASAP would probably work fine. Saving points by simply not buying anything at the factory will slightly impact the advantage of numbers, but ultimately I think making tanks a harder counter vs. APCs would make the game more interesting.

Am I right that you're using a rock-paper-scissors format? Artillery > Tanks > APCS > Artillery? If so the full-speed evasion might work well to make APCs win fights vs. artillery, but if you do I'd remove the clause that lets APCs shoot first (or give tanks better armor).

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by halo 3000 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:35 pm

IVhorseman wrote:I think making tanks a harder counter vs. APCs would make the game more interesting.
Ok, that makes sense. The way I had it planned out in my head was Tanks should kill other Tanks on a 4+ and APCs should kill APCs on a 4+

I would have to bump the Tanks armor and damage up by 1 in order to maintain that if I decided to increase armor

What if I made it to where Tanks kill APCs on a 2+? That seems to easy to kill though. I could make it to where all units shooting at APCs have -1 to shooting roll. What do you think?

I'm thinking about scrapping the Unmanned option all together, but I really like it. In the end its all bout the dice rolls. I've had APCs kill 4 tanks in a round of shooting and also had them kill none.
IVhorseman wrote:Am I right that you're using a rock-paper-scissors format? Artillery > Tanks > APCS > Artillery? If so the full-speed evasion might work well to make APCs win fights vs. artillery, but if you do I'd remove the clause that lets APCs shoot first (or give tanks better armor).
That's not how I planned it but that's how it's shaping up to be, haha
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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by IVhorseman » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:39 pm

If you make APCs too easy to kill, it makes infantry transport really difficult. APCs shouldn't be able to reliably kill tanks, but it should be possible. I think just giving tanks better armor and maybe more damage should cover it.

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by halo 3000 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:43 pm

IVhorseman wrote:If you make APCs too easy to kill, it makes infantry transport really difficult. APCs shouldn't be able to reliably kill tanks, but it should be possible. I think just giving tanks better armor and maybe more damage should cover it.
But if I up the damage on tanks that makes it easier to kill APCs.

Idea: lower the damage of the APC's gun to kill tanks on a 6. Have option to raise it to 5+ with an upgrade.
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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by IVhorseman » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:49 pm

That, or make full-speed APCs harder to hit. It also allows them to get within better range to hit artillery, which further emphasizes the rock/paper/scissors balance. Both work well.

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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by alphafalcon541 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 7:18 pm

I love it so far but will enjoy playtesting it at some point, personally I would like to see everything a little bit scaled up (possibly mfz scale) but I do enjoy the look. This is what I prefered http://www.brikwars.com/forums/viewtopi ... =6&t=11031 atleast in look
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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by Quantumsurfer » Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:11 am


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Re: Colony Wars: Just the basic rules

Post by halo 3000 » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:48 pm

Sweet! I'll look over it a little later. I'm sick in bed with a lot of homework to do.
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