W.I.P.

Upd. Aug 28. 05
Fixed error in attack damage example, changed Battlecards a tad, added anchors, removed mail which didn't work cuz hotmail deleted my acount when I forgot to login.

Upd. Mars 8. 04
Not playable yet. I'm currently adding to (or tweaking) the rules. Also doing the ape units. I'd be interested in finding playtesters once/if I finish the unit and building art for the ape race.
TODO: Unit & building art, General art & illustrations, Elf stats, Bios stats, battle cards, playtesting.

All material (C) Niklas Jansson

Art WIP: Tanks done (33% of 300ppi, somewhat 1:1 print size maybe)
Art WIP: Infantry scene
Art WIP: Elfs (50%)

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Game design comments: Although many of the unit and building profile stats can be incorrect, I think balancing will mainly be about getting the cost of the units right. If I lower the DEF of a tank, it will have the same value as a quad, which would set off a chain reaction of changes to compensate.
I tried to make the gun barrel size and unit size to represent their values. All buildings get extra DEF because it's simpler to build something static (just lots of concrete and steel). I'm really a base builder fan, so I made the walls extra easy to build :D

Although the units are pretty standard (Dune II being the biggest source of inspiration), the rules are a bit radical.
First off we have the 'binary dices' which makes it possible for any weapon to damage anything if lucky enough. I needed to make the damage system binary (die/live) because of the number of units you need to keep track of. Units can get damaged however, if the weapon is weaker than the armour. I need to do a marker/flag for that.

Secondly there is the 'tech tree', which I don't really have one. Normally tech trees are pseudo logical, like 'build the workshop and you can build the citadel and upgrade to golems in the hanging garden'. I'm using a plugin system instead. The factories have a 'plugin' slot, where you can place any of the modules (or plugins). Certain units require certain modules to be installed, but the number of slots on a factory are limited. You can only build a certain set of units depending on the combination of modules, so if you want to build everything, you'll need enough cash to build many factories with all the different configurations. A side note: Maybe I'll add a 'Heavy weapons' module, right now I'm using the 'Armoury' module for that (*points at bazooka infantry). The heavy weapons deal with armoured units though, so in that sense it's logical. The construction bots have no restriction what they can build, so it is a little inconsistant that the factories needs plugins. I don't want to create too much confusion with special rules for what you can build and not. I prefer natural restrictions. For example, if someone starts building a 'big Berta' at the start of a game, it will take too long and cost too much with the number of constr. bots and resources availabe at that point. The other player could simply just 'rush'.

Last, there is the issue with just one action per turn. Many games have 'move then shoot'-type of gameplay, but I decided to go for the most simple thing with just one action. With two actions, I get into the whole dilemma with, can a unit charge instead of shoot, or snipe instead of move, or why not shoot and then move?
I'm not sure if on action per turn works though. Some might say that it makes it hard to get into fireing range, since the enemy will always get the first shot. That's not really true though, as different units have different fireing ranges and you might survive anyways. In many real battles moving/storming has proved to be more dangerous. Units that has not moved will benefit from being alert, and could thus probably shoot first.

I almost forgot about scenarios, ie. set units, maps and victory conditions. It's a problem for later though.

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Contents (anchors)
Foreword
Actions
Damage
Setting up a game
Neutral units and buildings
Apes
Ape units
Ape buildings
Ape modules
Battlecards

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BATTLE COMMANDER - RULES

Foreword
So what is Battle Commander? It's a turnbased strategy game, but you build you units just like in Dune II, Command & Conquer or StarCraft. You can print all the components onto paper, cut out and play.

ACTIONS

Performing actions
All units or buildings can perform a single action per turn. See the profile of the building or unit to see what actions that are available to it. Some buildings or units have unique actions. Below is just a list of the common actions.

» Move
All units can move. Movement distance is measured in inches. If you like you can translate an inch to 2.5 centimeters. You can not move units through other units, walls, buildings or obstacles.

» Shoot
Units or buildings that can shoot has a DAM and RNG weapon stat in their profiles. DAM is the Damage and RNG is the Range in inches (Inches might be also referd to as "). Most weapon trajectories do not allow shooting over other units or buildings, they need a clear line of sight. Read more about shooting in the damage section.

» Infiltrate, Sabotage, Demolish and Repair
An infantry unit can perform one of these actions only on damaged enemy buildings or units. If the building or unit is of the same race you can choose to infiltrate the building or unit, which means that the building or unit is now under your control and you may use it as your own, once repaired of course. Regardless of what race the enemy building or unit belongs to you can always choose to sabotage it. A sabotaged building or unit will suffer a DAM 4 hit.
A unit with the Demolish skill may choose to completely destroy the enemy building or unit.
A unit with the repair skill, such as the engineer or construction bot, can repair damaged buildings or units. It can not repair itself.


» Load and Unload
The load action can be used by a building or vehicle to accept any infantry units that might be boarding it. Unload is used in a similar way to unload the infantry units inside.
All buildings with the exception of turrets can load their DEF value x 2 number of infantry units, but can construct or mine simultainiously, so loading doesn't use up their action. Units inside a building can shoot out (any angle). Units inside a vehicle can not shoot. All units inside a damaged building have to evactuate immediately. Place them just outside the building.


» Mine
A mine placed on a resource spot will automatically extract resources every turn. Units with the mine ability will have to be next to the resource spot to mine. Once the mining action has been performed, add the appropriate number of resource markers to your stash. Regardless of the numbers of mines you have, you will always gain 2 resources per turn.

» Construct
Some buildings can construct units, and some units can construct buildings. A unit can't build another unit and a building can't build another building. Construction requires resources. You will need to look up the cost of what you want to build, then subtract that amount from your resource stash.
When a unit constructs a building, nearby construction units can assist, but only if the construction project is one turn old already. This is because once the building project is initiated, the assisting construction units will have to move into contact with the building, and can thus not perform their construct action. To keep track of how much you've spent on a building, you can place the resource markers on top of the building until it adds up to the building cost.
The factories can build several units each turn. How many depends on how much resources the factory build for each turn. Arrange a queue for each factory by placing the units you want to build next to each other. Newly deployed units can not perform any action. However, units just produced by a factory can however move 2" away from the factory front. If the hangar doors are blocked, the unit may attempt to ram whatever is blocking its way, or stay inside the hangar.

If a factory massproduces 4 identical units in a row, it gets the 5th one for free! Deploy the free unit when you finish the 4th.

Buildings under construction can be fired upon. The first turn of construction, the building will have a DEF of 1. The turns after that the building will have half of the DEF it has when finished (rounded down). Damaging a building under construction will destoy it.

DAMAGE

Dices
BC uses two-sided (binary) dices. You will need some small coins or a couple of modified dices to play. You can paint the sides red and green if you like. I will refer to coins as dices.
Random events are solved by using these dices. In this manual I will refer to a positive outcome as O and a negative as X, any side is ?. Damage values will be refered to as DAM, and Defence (armour) values will be refered to as DEF.

Armour penetration
In order to resolve if a shot has penetrated the armour, subtract DAM from DEF. This is the number of dices you need O on in order to penetrate the armour. Always add one dice to the number of dices you're tossing. This means that if DAM is equal to DEF you'll have a 50% chance.
What if you get a negative value because DAM is greater than DEF? Then it's enough to get a single O on any of the dices to penetrate the armour. See the table below for a clarification:


This system makes it very hard for weak weapons to penetrate thick armour, the shots will just bounce off. However, it is possible, but very unlikely, that an infantry unit can destroy a tank with one shot, maybe by hitting something critical.

Infantry units inside a building, APC or another vehicle that has been destroyed will each be inflicted by that damage.

Damaged or destroyed?
If you have succesfully penetrated the armour but DAM is less than DEF (ie. you got lucky with a relatively weak weapon), roll another dice to see the effect.


Ramming
If two units should collide due to a movement action, roll damage on both units as above, but use their DEF value instead of DAM. If the ramming unit completely destroys the rammed unit, it may continue moving.
Ramming is also the equivalent of close combat. Of course, when ramming other units, you risk losing your own unit.

Selecting a target
You can select any target in line of sight and within the RNG (range) of the weapon you wish to fire. Turrets can fire at targets all around. The benefit of this is that you don't need to move (turning counts as moving) to fire. If the weapon is not turret mounted the target must be 45 degrees to the left or right to the front of the unit, unless stated otherwise. Players will have to agree what is the front of the units, the body, barrel or front edge.

Multiple targets
Many weapons can fire multiple shots. You don't have to fire all weapons at once if you don't want to, but you can only fire at targets 45 degrees to the right or left of the first target. You can cut off the corner of a paper and fold it to get a 45+45 degree template.

Area damage
Weapons with area damage can damage several units at once. A template is used to determine which units that are hit. Simply place the center of the template over the unit you fire upon. Any other units covered by the template are also hit, but with a -1 DAM modifier.

Artillery
Artillery weapons can fire at targets without line of sight, but doing so will cause the projectile to scatter. To determine how far the projectile scatters, roll 2 dices in sequence. OO=0", OX=1", XO=2" and XX=3". Then toss an arrow (a pen or something straight) to determine the direction. Place the damage template at that point. Work out the damage as normal.

SETTING UP A GAME

Table
First place the resource spots (maybe 8), terrain and base spots on a table or flat surface. This can be done by having one player setting it up, and the other one choosing side. It is recommended to place the base spots about an armlength apart. All initial buildings or units must be placed within 8 inches of the base spot.
The player who didn't get to choose a base spot will get turn initiative first.

Initial base setup
Theres a number if different setups to chose from.

Apes standard: 1 basecamp, 1 mine, 1 turret, 8 walls, 4 construction bots, 50 resources in the stash.

Other: You have 50, 100, 200 or 400 R in the stash and can use any of the setups below:
- Freeform: You can purchase buildings and units.
- Army clash: You can only purchase units and may not construct additional units or buildings during play.
- Base: You can purchase buildings and construction units.
- Scratch: You can spend 6, 12, 24 or 48 R on construction units. The base has to be built from scratch.

[I need to add scenarios here too!]

Stats clarification
REQ: A list of what modules that are required to build the unit.
RES: How many resources it costs to build the unit or building.
MOV: Maximum movement of the unit in inches.
DEF: Defence value.
DAM: Damage values.
  Value+Value means the the weapon can fire 2 shots with the strength of that value.
  'A1', 'A2' or 'A3' means the weapon has an explosive radius.
  'T' means the the weapon is mounted on a turret and can shoot at any angle.
  'I' means the weapon can shoot indirectly at targets with no line of sight.
RNG: Maximum range of the weapon in inches.
SPC: Any special actions the unit or building can perform are listed here.

NOTE: Unit profiles are in progress, there has been no playtesting. All stats are guesstimated.

Neutral buildings and units

APES

Humans are commonly refered to as apes by many species. [Just imagine skipping reading the usual pointless story blurb here. Other races are Elfs and Bios. I will try to finish the Apes first though.]

UNITS

BUILDINGS

MODULES

What about 'em?
Modules are attached to factories and enables new units to be built.

BATTLECARDS

Battle with a twist
All players may draw a random battlecard from the battlecard deck at the beginning of the game. The cards can't be played until turn 20 however. Battlecards are kept secret and can be played at your turn (unless stated otherwise). Below is a list of battlecards.

Meteor strike
A large meteor falls from the sky. Pick a spot and roll scatter as normal.
DAM 5 A3 I

Meteor shower
Several meteors fall from the sky. Pick three spots and roll scatter as normal.
DAM: 3+3+3 A2 I

Thief
A secret infiltrator steals 6 resources from your opponent and gives it to you.

Sabotage!
A secret saboteur manages to damage an undamaged enemy building.

Robot invasion
A UFO lands and squats a free resource spot if any. Each turn the UFO onboard factory will produce one robot which is now under your control.
Retro robot: MOV: 3    DEF: 2    DAM:2    RNG: 8
UFO: DEF: 5    SPC: Load 8, Constructs 1 killer robot per turn when on resource.

Reptile mercenaries
Draw a new card.
A group of reptile mercinaries sell their services for the highest bidding. All players can bid (in turn order). Deploy within 8" of a friendly building.
5 x Mercinary: MOV: 5    DEF: 1    DAM: 1    RNG: 8    SPC: Infiltrate, sabotage
1 x Captain: MOV: 5    DEF: 1    DAM: 2    RNG: 10    SPC: Infiltrate, sabotage, repair
2 x Trike: MOV: 8    DEF: 3    DAM: 2    RNG: 10    SPC: Load 3

Resource discovery
Your opponent must place a new resource spot no longer than 10" away from any of your mines.

Reinforcement
You recive 10 credits which you can instantly translate into units you can build. Place within 6" any of your buildings.

Motherlode
Increase the output of a mine (resource spot) by 2.

Treasure
A secret stash of 15 resources has been discovered.

Traitors
You may purchase enemy units for a total cost of 10 of your own credits and deploy within 8" of an enemy building, but no closer than 4". Can be played over several turns if you wish.

The return
A couple of years ago a group of construction bots revolted against their commander and disappeared. Having changed agenda from construction to destruction, they spread terror wherever they set foot. However, now they appear to share the same goal as you. Place no further than 4" from any friendly unit or building.
2 'Pounders'.

Mad mob
You now have control over 8 civilian cars loaded with 2 civilians each (these civilians are not neutral). However, one car is a loaded with explosive causing DAM: 5 A2 (it has to be detonated by a driver). Secretly note which car it is. Deploy them no closer than 16" from any enemy building or unit and no further than 4" from the first unit placed.

Tentacle beast
A monster from another dimension decides to join forces with you, for unknown resons. Utilize its deadly tentacle attack to bring fear and humiliation to your foes. Place it anywhere.
Monster: MOV: 4    DEF: 3    DAM: 1T, 1T, 1T, 1T    RNG: 1    SPC: If damaged, ignore the damage and add another '1T' attack.

Avenger monster
You have mysteriously gained telepathic control over a monster! Place the monster no closer than 8" from any unit or building. If the monster is destroyed there is a 50% chance that another monster appears. Place the new monster no closer than 8" from any unit or building. The monster spits acid through special glands in its mouth.
Monster: MOV: 5    DEF: 3    DAM: 2+2    RNG: 2    SPC: (see above)

Timeportal
King Arthur's knights of the round table suddenly comes charging out of a dimension rift. Place on the middle of the battlefield.
12 x Knights: MOV: 6    DEF: 2

Dragon
An ancient dragon has awaken to incinerate the ones that interrupted its long sleep. Deploy on the edge of the battlefield.
Dragon: MOV: 6    DEF: 4    DAM: 3+3 A1    RNG: 5

MoonTrap junkbots
A wierd pod found at a junkyard has built itself into a killer robot. To reproduce, first it has to stand next to a factory. By using the convert action it will cause a DAM: 4 hit on the factory, and spawn another junkbot. New junkbots can not perform any actions this turn.
1 x Junkbot: MOV: 4    DEF: 2   DAM: 2    RNG:6    SPC: Reproduces (see above), repair

Daleks
They are back once again to bring more destruction and mayhem! Deploy in within 8" of any of your buildings.
4 x Imperial Dalek: MOV: 3    DEF: 2    DAM: 3    RNG: 8    SPC: Repair
1 x Special weapon Dalek: MOV: 3    DEF: 3    DAM: 3 A1    RNG: 6    SPC: Repair
or
3 x Renegade Dalek: MOV: 3    DEF: 2    DAM: 3    RNG: 8    SPC: Repair
1 x Legged Dalek: MOV: 3    DEF: 4    DAM: 4    RNG: 10    SPC: Repair


Predators
A group of predators decloaks in the fray of battle. Deploy anywhere.
2 x Predator: MOV: 5    DEF: 2    DAM: 3    RNG: 4    SPC: Sabotage, repair, Dies with a 'DAM: 5 A3' bang

Aliens
If an alien kills or damages an organic unit that unit becomes a new alien. New aliens can not perform any actions this turn.
5 x Alien: MOV: 5    DEF: 2    SPC: Reproduces (see above)

Terminators
Is a relative of John Connor hiding in the enemy base? Who knows, but a group of terminators has traveled through dimensions with the clear agenda to... blow things up. Deploy no closer than 8" of any unit or building. A terminator can repair itself.
3 x Terminator: MOV: 5    DEF: 2    DAM: 2    RNG: 10    SPC: Infiltrate, sabotage, repair

Hydralisks
A group of hydralisks emerges from their burrows near a resource spot. Place no further than 4" away from any free resource spot.
8 x Hydralisk: MOV: 4    DEF: 2    DAM: 1+1    RNG: 6