Ice Arena

Ice Arena
User:Grendel
Ice Arena is a tactical arena combat game.
:Players	Players:	2 - 4
:Time	Length:	unknown
:Complexity	Complexity:	Medium–High
Trios per color:		5
Number of colors:		4
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes:		4
Five-color sets:
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
dice, tokens, hex board
Setup time:		N/A
Playing time:
Strategy depth:		Medium
Random chance:		Dice
Game mechanics:
Theme:		The wikipage input value is empty (e.g. <code>SomeProperty::, [[]]</code>) and therefore it cannot be used as a name or as part of a query condition.
BGG Link:
Status: Initial design (v1.0), Year released: 2005

Ice Arena is a tactical arena combat game. The goal is to destroy all opposing forces.

Status

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.

What you need

• 4 Icehouse stashes: red, green, blue, and yellow. If possible 2 stashes of each color.
• The long rectangular plastic boxes that the stashes come in.
• 2–4 players

Building the Bots

I probably want to add a limited resource thing here. Or maybe not. Here's a filler setup. Each player receives a number of pips to spend on bots. Try 20 for each player. Players build their bots at the cost of 1 pip for a small piece, 2 for a medium, and 3 for a large. Each bot must consist of at least one small piece of a certain color to distinguish bot ownership (the red player, the yellow player, etc.). That piece must cap the bot. Additionally, each bot must contain at least one large and medium. Since a bot is a stack, we take the large and medium that are adjacent to be the primary and secondary attributes, respectively. Each bot starts with 1 Attack, 1 Defend, 1 Move, and 1 Ability. Modifiers are listed below.

Play

Each turn consists of a) picking your dice, b) ability, c) defense, d) attack, e) move, and f) misc. Each bot may pick up to 1 die for every medium or large piece in its stack: d4s for moving, d6s for defense, d8s for abilities, and d10s for attack.

1. Picking Your Dice: Each bot picks several dice indicating the actions it will take this turn. Each bot may pick up to 1 die for every medium or large piece in its stack: d4s for moving, d6s for defense, d8s for abilities, and d10s for attack.
2. Ability: You may not pick more d8s than you have points in Ability. Roll the number you picked plus your ability: i.e., if you have 3 Ability and chose 2 d8s, roll a total of 5 d8s. For each result at or under your Ability and at or under 5, you may use 1 special this turn. You may now use small pieces for a cost of 1 special per extra piece - every bot may place 1 piece for free. After using a small piece, draw another at random from the remaining small pieces. Bots with lower Ability place pieces first.
3. Defense: You may not pick more d6s than you have points in Defend. Roll your d6s. You may then choose to roll additional d6s at the cost of 1 special per die. The maximum number rolled is added to your Defend for this turn.
4. Attack: You may not pick more d10s than you have points in Attack. Roll your d10s. You may then choose to roll additional d10s at the cost of 1 special per die. First all small red pieces attack, if possible. Then all 1s are resolved, then 2s, then 3s, etc. See below for attacking rules.
5. Move: You may not pick more d4s than you have points in Move. Roll your d4s. You may then choose to roll additional d4s at the cost of 1 special per die. Add the total rolled to your Move for this turn. Bots with lower Move must move first, ties being resolved randomly.
6. Misc: You may spend a number of special equal to one more than your base Ability to add one small piece of any color to your bot, in order of most damaged bot. You may spend a number of special equal to one more than your base Ability to rearrange your large and medium pieces (used to change primary and secondary attributes). You may now remove Corrosion.

Piece Roles

Each piece of your bot has a function. Large pieces boost attributes and grant the ability to use a special power. Medium pieces simply boost attributes. Small pieces can be used on the arena for attack, defense, maneuverability, etc. and also denote a bot's current state of repair.

• Blue - movement oriented
  • Small: Place in any empty hex reachable by the bot, pointing in a direction. That hex is entered from the back and left in the direction pointed as if the hex wasn't there. Otherwise, that hex is blocked to movement. If the small blue is pointed upward, the hex is blocked from all directions.
  • Medium: +1 Move.
  • Large: +1 Move. May cross over small blue pieces, spending movement. Still cannot land on blue hex.
• Green - defense oriented
  • Small: Place in any empty hex adjacent to the bot, pointing upward. Redirects attacks in the direction pointed. If a bot is on a green hex, it can only attack in the direction the small green piece is pointing.
  • Medium: +1 Defend.
  • Large: +1 Defend. At any time, may spend 1 special to reorient or push adjacent small greens.
• Red - attack oriented
  • Small: Place in any empty hex adjacent to the bot, pointing upward. This piece is always aimed in one of the six standard directions or upwards, and can only fire exactly in that direction. Laser(11) fires any time a bot would be hit by it. If pointed up, hits all bots at most 2 hexes away.
  • Medium: +1 Attack.
  • Large: +1 Attack. At any time, may spend 1 special to reorient or push adjacent small reds.
• Yellow - special ability oriented
  • Small: Place in any empty hex no more than 3 hexes away from the bot, facing upward for convenience. Bots in a yellow hex gain +1 Ability for each small yellow in that hex.
  • Medium: +1 Ability.
  • Large: +1 Ability. At any time, may spend 1 special to toss all adjacent small yellows to locations no more than 3 hexes from where they started.

Attack Rules

Attacks can score hits or critical hits. It takes 2 hits to do 1 point of damage or 1 critical hit to do 1 point of damage. Each time a bot takes a point of damage, it must immediately play one of its small pieces without paying a special and without redrawing, if possible, or otherwise discard a small piece. If a bot loses its cap (i.e., all of its small pieces), it is destroyed. Every bot is equipped with two standard weapons, a rifle and a shotgun, and a unique weapon dependent on its primary and secondary attributes. Each weapon has a critical threshold (CT) and a range. The shotgun's critical threshold is 9: if a 9 or 10 (at or higher than CT) is rolled, a critical hit is scored. If the opponent's Defend is higher than the CT, a regular hit is still scored. The range of a weapon dictates which opponents can be targeted and which hexes are affected.

Weapons

• Rifle(11): Fires up to 10 hexes away.
• Shotgun(9): Fires up to 2 hexes away.
• Mortar(11): Ability/Ability. Spend 2 special to fire. No range or blocking limitations.
• Laser(10): Move/Ability. Spend 1 special to fire. No range limitations.
• Minigun(10): Defend/Attack, Defend/Move. Fires up to 4 hexes away.
• Flamethrower(9): Attack/Ability. Spend 1 special to fire. Pick a hex 2 away. All bots in or adjacent to that hex are hit unless flame is blocked.
• Smash(8): Attack/Attack, Attack/Move, Move/Attack. Target an adjacent bot.
• Mines(7/11): Defend/Ability, Ability/Defend. Spend 2 special to fire. Place a token up to 1 hex away. During any attack phase you may detonate mines for free, hitting all bots within 1 hex of the mine. 7 CT applies only to ground zero. May have at most Defend+Ability mines placed at one time.
• Corrosion(11): Move/Move, Move/Defend. Place a token under an adjacent bot. On subsequent rounds, you score 1 regular hit against that bot each round for free. Opponent may choose at any time to take 1 critical hit (discard 1 small piece) to remove 1 token of corrosion.
• Acid Stream(10): Attack/Defend, Defend/Defend. Hits all bots in a line up to 6 hexes away.
• Strike(9). Ability/Move. Spend 1 special to fire. Jump up to two hexes away and then target an adjacent bot.
• Throw(9). Ability/Attack. Spend 1 special to fire. Target an adjacent bot and move it anywhere up to two hexes away from you.

Winning the Game

A player has won the game when no bots but his remain in the arena.

Miscellaneous Clarifications

• A CT of 11 means no critical hits can be scored.
• All weapons are assumed to be blocked by other bots or small green pieces unless otherwise noted.
• A bot will do its best to hide behind obstructions when defending (if a blocked hex is even partially in the way, you cannot target anything behind it).
• Only base Defend and Ability count toward maximum number of mines.
• A bot using Strike keeps the Ability bonus from the yellow pieces in his starting hex and does not gain additional Ability from jumping to new yellow pieces.
• Strike may not be used without a target.
• Strike and Throw ignore small blue pieces and other bots.
• No bot may EVER be in the same hex as a small blue piece.
• If a bot is in the same hex as a small green piece, it may still be targetted.
• A bot in the same hex as a small red piece will not be targetted by that piece.
• Pushing a small piece will move it one hex directly away from you.
• Pieces of the same color, in a line, may be pushed all at once.
• Multiple red pieces on the same hex are allowed, but must all point in the same direction.
• Placing a red piece on a hex which already contains red pieces automatically orients the new red piece.
• Attack dice are used one at a time, so if a bot is being attacked by a Laser, he may discard a small green piece in front of him to avoid further damage.
• Red pieces played during the attack phase do not fire until the next round.
• For placing blue pieces, a hex is reachable if the bot could stop there at the end of this turn based on its current Move.