FPTS PTPG - Fast Paced Tactical Shooter Print to Play Game

[Cyrus]

In another thread it was mentioned that for a game to be really exciting, a whole lot of decision making would have to occur within the first couple turns. So I'm basically starting this thread as a rules dump of some ideas I have that could lead to an exciting, fast paced game and maybe if enough people are interested we can throw together a small plugin to test out some ideas.

Okay, here goes...

The game is played over 3 rounds. As a house rule of course you could play just 1 round, but tournament level play would be 3 rounds. During the first round, a random factor such as a die roll or coin flip would decide who chooses the first Level to be played on.

Level cards would mention how many zones the level has. I don't know how in depth it would really go, but an example I'm thinking of would just be "Abandoned Town - Has Center Path, 2 Empty Houses (+2 Cover), Far Left Path, Open Field (-2 Cover, +2 Damage)"
Players would each have a Level Deck with 3 cards in it.
Players would also have a Squad Deck containing their guys. If most Levels had about 4-5 paths, then I'd say a Squad Deck would probably be about 8 guys, and you always have access to this deck.
Also, the paths aren't actually represented by anything except piling up your units in a number of piles from right to left coinciding with the number of paths stated on the Level card. So in this case you'd have five different places to put your units, all you would need is a clear way to show which places are represented at which piles. So maybe the game could have some place holder cards that coincide with all possible paths represented on Level cards to make this easier.

So, turn one starts, and turns are shared. Players would draw their hands from a small, probably 25-40 card "Tactics" deck, and your hand would probably be 8 cards or so. Player 1 (player who did not choose the Level) now moves their squad in, upside down so the opponent doesn't know what units are going to what Locations, they can only infer based on the inherit properties of the Locations they are going to. So Player 1 sends 2 units to the far left path, 1 to each empty house, 3 down the center path, and 1 to the open field.

Oh yeah, side note, I've been thinking this whole time that it is sort of a "plant the bomb/rescue the hostage" type scenario going on, so if you let your opponent get through on any path way, some sorts of actions occur that lead to them winning. Haven't completely figured this out yet though.

So now Player 2 chooses how to defend this situation. They send 3 units to the far left path, 3 down the center path, and 1 to the open field.

Now is excitement time, which is basically at the very beginning of the game because this has all really been set up. I'm thinking it would take not much longer than 3-5 minutes for all of the above to occur too. Probably more like 1 minute with experienced players that know their squad well.

All the Units get flipped right side up one at a time starting with Player 1. Player 1 reveals a Sniper in one of the Houses and chooses to take a shot at one of the Units the opponent sent down the center path. The targeted Unit is also flipped up as the shot occurs. I'm thinking some die rolling would be involved, but that's because I think luck is exciting, and lots of tactics cards could basically just be die modifications with small other effects, or could be used for either/or kind of things.
If the Sniper misses the targeted Unit will then be able to either try and shoot back (with the extra cover not helping), make a run towards the Sniper (forfeiting a shot but moving them from the path they are on to the path of the Sniper, in this case one of the houses), take cover, or... do nothing? I dunno, like I said this is all coming from the top of my head right now.
I have lots of other ideas for things that could happen from here, Player 2 could possibly reveal a "Sneak Attack" Tactic from there hand that says something to the effect of "Move one concealed (face down) Unit with Stealth to any other Path. They may make one Melee Attack this turn." So they can move their ultra sneaky Knife specialist up to the house to take out the Sniper, or at least try.

I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but I think this could possibly be a really, really exciting game. I'm thinking more for Print to Play than anything else, because I really want to make a game solely based on being able to PtP it.

[Ripplez]

this sounds more like a board game cos of how the position will mater alot, especialy since it seems like you could just represent the card witha  token on the board. i mightnt be seeing the same mental image you are though, so sorry if i got that wrong

will you have alot of design space for more mechanics? i mean, i know youll have some obviously. but do you ahve some ideas what/if youl have any expansions?

what is print to play?

[sneaselx]

Possibly for levels, you could each have a Level deck that includes different paths. For example, if you want to use mostly snipers,you could stock your level deck with buildings and trees, whereas tanks (If you have tanks.) would want open fields. Players could alternate randomly picking a path, and placing it in the level layout.

Tactic cards might be expanded to not just boost rolls, but possibly allow you to make additional actions?
Exmp. Shots Fired: This card may be played if your opponent fires the first shot at your troops. You may reveal any number of troops, and fire at the unit.

[Cyrus]

yeah tactics cards are pretty much Instants from magic, they can do anything really.
and I like the Level deck idea of yours a lot more than mine, haha
and I'm thinking of going sci-fi but post-apocalypse with this idea so i have more freedom of design and don't actually have to learn anything about the real military, lol
it might be sort of board game like, but with a board that is different each time, and customizable by the players. and as far as expansion goes... i dunno, sets could probably be less than 100 cards since the way you play the cards matters a lot more than the cards in the deck, so as long as i can think of different troop arrangements and tactics cards, there can be a bunch