Force Field Factions

Force Field Factions
Roger Burton West
An abstract strategy game loosely inspired by Homeworlds and RAMBots
:Players	Players:	2
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Medium
Trios per color:		3
Number of colors:		10
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		10
Five-color sets:		6 (3 rainbow, 3 xeno)
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Chess board
Setup time:		1 minute
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		None
Game mechanics:
Theme:		Abstract
BGG Link:		N/A
Status: Initial design (v1.0), Year released: 2007

Under development

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This game is currently under development, in the Initial Design stage. Feedback is strongly encouraged! Feel free to give comments on game design or structure on the talk page.

Requirements

• Six Treehouse sets, three Xeno and three Rainbow. Or ten normal stashes.
• Chessboard.

Setup

One player takes the black pieces; the other takes white. They are set up on opposite sides of the chessboard, much as for a conventional chess game but with only one row of pieces, with sizes 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3. (The other opaque pieces are not used.)

The transparent pieces are put into a pool for use by either player.

Play

Black starts and turns alternate thereafter. During a turn, the player selects one of his pieces and may do any or all of the following, in this order:

• Remove a force field from it;
• Move it (including any attacks);
• Add a force field to it.

Movement

Each piece has a number of movement points equal to the number of pips it carries. One movement point may be used to:

• Point the piece in any of the nine directions: rectilinear, diagonal, or upright;
• Move the piece one square in the direction in which it is pointing;
• Attack another piece (see below).

Attacks

A piece may attack another if it could move into the defending piece's square were the defending piece not there.

A piece normally has an attack value of 1 and a defence value of 1. An upright piece has a defence value of 2. Both attack and defence values may be modified by force fields. If the attack value of the attacker is greater than or equal to the defence value of the defender, the defending piece is removed from the board and the attacking piece occupies its square; it may face in any direction, at the attacking player's option. (Exceptions to this are described below.)

A piece may be used to attack more than once during its move, as long as it has the movement points to do so.

Calculating attack and defence values before committing movement points to an attack is highly recommended.

Force fields

The translucent pieces represent force fields which can be generated by some of the opaque pieces. A 3-pip piece cannot generate force fields at all; a 2-pip piece can generate one force field at a time; a 1-pip piece can generate two simultaneously. These are represented by adding the appropriate colours to the opaque piece, in a nest formation. 3-pip and 2-pip force fields are identical in effect; only the colour matters.

A 1-pip piece may not carry a 3-pip force field unless it also carries a 2-pip force field. It may carry two force fields of the same colour.

Force field powers

• Red: add one to attack value
• Green: a successful attack will push the enemy piece one square in the direction of the attack (and any other pieces in line, until an empty square is reached or a piece is pushed off the edge of the board)
• Blue: add one to defence value
• Yellow: double available movement points
• Cyan: tbd
• Purple: a successful attack converts the enemy piece to a friendly piece of the same size (with no force fields). This only applies if a friendly piece of that size has already been taken (i.e. you can't use this to get more pieces than you started with). The attacker remains in its original square, with any facing; the newly-converted piece may take any facing.
• Orange: an attack that fails by one point removes the enemy's force fields, but still cannot capture the piece. The attacker remains in its original square, with any facing.
• Clear: piece is "out of phase"; other pieces may move through its square (and even end their turns there) and cannot attack it, but it cannot move or attack. If this force field is removed when another piece is in its square, or if another piece goes out-of-phase while in its square, both are destroyed.

Winning

When one player has no pieces of a single size left, the other player has won.