I realise it's likely been done with less, but I have been challenging myself to try small designs that have a great deal of strategic planning but a minimum of rules and pieces. This comes after some inspiring work by Rob Bartel in the area of tiny games. I hereby present to you the untested alpha rules for a brain fart I just had along these lines. These ideas are only an hour old, so bear with me.

Block Kriegsspiel

2+ players

Setup
Each player has 6 hexagon blocks (henceforth territory) and 5 rectangular wooden blocks (henceforth units). Players place their units in turn, laying down a territory and then placing a unit thereon. Player 1 places the first territory, lays a unit upon it, then player 2 places a territory, etc. This continues until both players have placed five territories. One territory is held in reserve. Upon the commencement of the game, the players must each have at least one territory that does not contact an enemy territory.

Note: territories must be placed contiguously. A player may not place a territory that is not in contact with another friendly territory (excluding, of course, the first territory placed).


This is an example of a legal set-up. One territory is held in reserve on each side, and each player has at least one territory that does not contact the enemy's territory.

Unit Disposition
Note that some units are represented as squares and others are rectangles. Squares are units stood on end so they stand up taller than they are wide or deep. These units are considered "mobile" and can move up to two hexes. The rectangular units are on their side so they are wider than they are tall or deep. These units are considered "attacking" and they may make successful attacks against the enemy.

ATTACKING UNITS: have a front and a rear. They may attack to their front only. Attacks against the rear of a unit in attacking formation do double damage. When a unit block is in this position, it can be "rolled over" to show one of its four long faces in order to display damage sustained in combat. Each face is marked with indicators to show the strength of the unit and its facing. They are marked similar to the images below:

The attacking unit may make attacks to any region in its zone of control. Its zone of control is the three hexes to the front of the unit, per the illustration below. The red regions represent the front.

No unit can go from an enemy zone of control to another enemy zone of control. A unit may move into or out of a zone of control, but not through.

MOBILE UNITS: have no front or rear, but are fragile given their mobile formation. Attacks to all sides of a mobile unit are equally effective. When a unit block is in this position, it can be flipped over to reveal the other short side in order to display damage sustained in combat. The ends of the unit block are marked like this:


Once a unit reaches its last step loss, it will be destroyed upon any subsequent attack.

(to be continued...)

What's an Abstract Wargame?

Moving and Attacking
Attacking units may move one territory in any direction so long as the unit does not violate the rules on zones of control or come to rest in the territory of another unit. An attacking unit may only advance into a zone of control, that is to say it must enter the zone of control moving forward, it may not retire into a zone of control. Mobile units may move two contiguous territories in any direction so long as they neither enter nor traverse enemy zones of control and do not come to rest in the territory of another unit. Mobile units may not traverse territories occupied by enemy units.

Optional: units may violate zones of control at the cost of one step loss per violation to the appropriate zone of control rule.
Optional: when a mobile unit traverses the teritory of a friendly attacking unit, it must enter and exit on that unit's same arc. This means that if it enters the territory from a "front" hexside, it must exit from a hexside that is also to the attacking unit's "front." This means that the mobile unit cannot interfere with the deployment of the attacking unit by "penetrating the line."

Movement begins from the person who placed territory last. Movement continues in an i-go-u-go manner until one player has fewer units on the board. The player with fewer units always moves last. Players may move all, none, or some of their units during their turn. A player may choose to pass, after which time they may not make any further moves. A player may place or replace a hex on the board as one of these moves, but this may be done only once per player per round. Once all moves are "signalled" on the board, players resolve movement and damage. See below for an example of "signals" for unit movement.

Starting from the upper left corner and working downward, the signals are as follows (assume that all blue attacking units are facing up and all red attacking units are facing down):
1) Attacking unit, resting (no action)
2) Mobile unit, resting
3) Attacking unit, retiring
(next column to the right)
1) Attacking unit, attacking
2) Mobile unit, moving two territories down and right(in the corner, the Mobile unit is being pointed at the next hex along the line extending from the corner, this is therefore a two-hex move; the target hex is not hown in the diagram)
(next column to the right)
1) Mobile unit, moving two territories down and left
2) Attacking unit, retiring down and to the right
(last column)
1) Mobile unit, moving one hex down and to the right. Note: when moving the mobile unit in a straight line, you may move into the intermediate territory and then place the mobile unit on the appropriate hex side to indicate its move.

Resolving Attacks and Movement
Attacking units: if area of control restrictions are not offended and the unit attacks or retires into an empty territory (regardless of whether it is friendly or not), the unit is moved to occupy that territory. If the unit attacks into a space occupied by an enemy, that enemy suffers a step loss appropriate to its state (either Mobile or Attacking). If the unit attacks an Attacking unit from the enemy's rear, the target takes two step losses.

Mobile units: can only move and not attack, so as long as their move - as indicated - is legal by the time all pieces have been given orders, they may make that move. If the move is illegal, they must retreat to a legal space. If this is impossible, they are removed from play.

Any unit that rests for one turn without being in contact with the enemy may recover a step loss. Removed units may be replaced at full strength on any unoccupied friendly territory. The game is over instantly once one player has only one unit left on the board. The player with more pieces is the winner.

I'm calling this an abstract wargame because it is abstract, but tastes a little like a wargame.

Not all issues have been dealt with here, but this is a basic outline. I'm going to playtest it using hive pieces and rectangular blocks from my Diplomacy box. I will detail entrenchment and artillery when I have a chance.

Chess =]

Go

Some people might say all boardgames are wargames and all wargames are abstactions!

dnjkirk, it looks interesting.

This does look like a neat game.

Could "Geosphere" kindly REMOVE his 'comment', and allow for the continuity of this without a 'break' for it all? You ought to place it if you will, AFTER the entirety of this on display, and it may have been unintentional to begin with, yet it just makes that appear with being an impatient retort, or so it seems to ME at least. I also realize that HE wasn't aware of how quickly the NEXT 'part' for it were to be available and in being published soon afterwards as well, so yeah, being "First" ain'ts ALL it's cut out to BE some times!

I just tested the game using hive pieces as territories and marked-up diplomacy army blocks as units. I have to say the game presents several very interesting tactical as well as design problems. Let me deal with a few fixes first:

1) when resolving movement, resolve the movement of attacking units first and then resolve mobile units. An interesting point about semi-simultaneous movement: one has to remember that attacking an empty space and then forcing the enemy to move there is a valid tactical option.
2) attacking with more than one unit, when successful, the defender chooses which unit advances into the cleared territory.
3) when moving mobile units two hexes, you can, as stated above, move the unit one hex during the declaration phase and then simply declare the next hex it intends to go into. This means there is a certain priority to the speedy move of a mobile unit, but also makes certain declaration is possible. Also, when a move is no longer valid for a mobile unit, it still effectively has one more movement to avoid the logjam.
4) I think replacement of units should be at half strength, and perhaps the arriving units should be forced to enter the board in "mobile" formation, to represent the fact that they have just made a hard march to the battlefield.

Some fun points: moving the most obvious moves first and then progressing to the more tricky ones is a rather fun kind of feeling, kind of like playing chicken... you don't know if your enemy is going to flinch or you'll have to. Declaring moves one by one and then resolving is a fun mechanic that was more tense than I thought it would be, and can be exploited by well-timed feints.

If you try this out, please do post a comment to this thread and tell me how it went. I will show my pictures of the action when I can get my camera hooked up. I'm still in the middle of moving. Again, for the record, I am using 6 black and 6 white bakelite Hive hexes with 5 red and 5 blue blocks from my diplomacy set, coloured as above. You could just as easily use toy soldiers from your Axis and Allies set on square bar coasters (set in a hexagonal array).

Oh and one more thing, a facing change of one hex is permissible without penalty, but an attacking piece can take no other action if it makes a facing change of more than one hex.

Placing hexes in order to roll around the enemy flank seems to be an obvious tactical use of this placement mechanic, but also it is rather fun to move a hex that COULD have been a possible enemy escape route... and hear the lamenting of his women.

Further solo testing...
Bounces: when a unit or units wish to enter a territory that is vacant or recently vacated, count up the number of pips on the units from each side. The person who has the most pips decides which of all the units enters the vacant territory (it may even be an enemy unit). When it is one unit of either side trying to enter the vacant territory, the unit with more pips enters the territory.
Changing formation: it takes one move to change formation.

note: since reinforcements are placed as a step-loss mobile unit, attacking open enemy hexes is a good strategy if the enemy has a unit that may be placed.

Further refinement of precedence when resolving movement:
1) attacks
2) mobile units
3) retiring attacking units

Units are placed as an action during a player's turn in the declaration phase, just like placing/moving a hex or declaring a unit move.

Attacks are only done to the direct front of a unit. It seemed a little awkward to move units at an angle to the edge of the hex and call it an attack. As per usual, attacking units may turn up to one hex side before or after any move.

I'm enjoying this.

Here is a mock-up of the board shown above in physical form:

After more playtesting, I think it would be a safe modification to say that if a unit changes formation, it can take the action of the unit it changed into in the same round. Too many times have I moved into "mobile" formation expecting the ability to move and it is quashed in the next turn. Additionally, units that change into attacking formation should be able to attack. This shall be playtested in turn... hopefully there is still some degree of interest out there.

Umm... all of them?

Interesting game.
But a few questions have popped up during my own attempt to playtest:

Placing/replacing hexes:
1. I believe that you can only replace a hex of your own color, but that might have to be specified in the rules.
2. Can you only replace unoccupied hexes, or also occupied. If the latter, what happens to the unit on the hex, and is it possible to remove a hex occupied by an enemy?
3. You write that you can place or replace a hex, but can you remove a hex without placing another hex? And if not, if you have all 6 of your hexes in play, can you move a hex (or "replace" it to another position)?
4. Must these replaced hexes follow the same guideline as during setup: must be placed adjacent to another friendly hex. What is a friendly hex during this placement? Any hex you control, or any of your own colored hexes?

Formation change and step losses:
5. What about the step losses when a unit changes formation? Is 1 step loss on a mobile unit equal to 1 or 2 step losses when it changes into attacking formation. Likewise, how to handle the number of step losses for a unit changing from attacking to mobile formation?
6. Do we have to remember each unit's step losses whenever they change formation, or will a unit gain or lose steps when changing from e.g. attacking to mobile and then back to attacking?

Resting and recovering:
7. "Without being in contact" is a bit unclear to me. Does that mean that the resting unit must not be adjacent to an enemy to recover, must not be in any enemy's Zone of Control, or simply that it has not been attacked during the turn?

Thanks! I will answer them one by one. I should post coherent rules at some point. They are currently all over the place.


Correct, and yes, it should be specified. Thanks!

The hex must be unoccupied, and at the present state of the game, you cannot remove a hex that would split your territory into two groups. Your territory must always remain contiguous.

You cannot remove a hex without replacing it, but as one action, you may pick up an eligible hex (an empty one the removal of which would not affect the contiguity of your territory) and place it elsewhere touching one of your other hexes.

Yes, you must follow the same restrictions during placement, and at the current state of the game, only hexes of your own colour count for contiguity, not occupied enemy hexes.


This is something I had given some thought to. First, a step loss in mobile formation is already twice as potent as a step loss in attacking formation, as there are only two sides to the mobile piece (undamaged and damaged). After one damage, one hit will remove a mobile piece. When changing from attacking to mobile, round down. That means three hits for an attacking unit is considered a mobile unit with one step loss. At the current state, an attacking unit with only one hit cannot take mobile formation, as it would lose unit cohesion and dissolve.

No need to remember anything, it is all recorded in the state of the unit as noted above. If you shift from one to another formation, you use the appropriate damage indicator. Full strength attacking unit = full strength mobile unit. Attacking unit with one or two hits = half-strength mobile unit. Conversion back from one to the other is the same: full-strength mobile unit = 4-hit attacking unit. Half-strength mobile unit = 2-hit attacking unit.


Very good question, as I had originally interpreted this as being that the unit has no enemy unit in ANY adjacent hex. Now that I read your comment, and given the way I felt about what step losses "meant" on the battlefield (loss of unit cohesion and morale rather than simply pure "casualties") it makes sense that a unit that isn't attacked and takes no other action may "rally" to regain strength. I should also stipulate that this may only be done in attacking formation, but given that changing formation is no longer as penalizing, this should not be a problem.

Thank you for your comments and questions, they really help me get a better handle on the rules!

Hey Dylan - where did you get those nice hex pieces from - they're perfect for something I'm working on!

Also, I love this game concept BTW - it would be great to see a tidied up ruleset!

Those look like the backs of bakelite Hive pieces.

He did mention in several comments that he was using Hive pieces...

Cool looking game. I look forward to trying it out.



If you always remove a hex and then place it elsewhere, what's the extra Hex for? Or is it that once and once only you can add your extra hex to the board, and once that's done, you can only move hexes. It makes sense that once you've placed your extra Hex, you can later remove a Hex without having to replace it, returning to the state of having 5 Hexes in the field and 1 Hex in hand.

Perhaps there should be 3 options for Hex Movement:
1) If the player has their 6th Hex in hand, they may place it onto the field per field placement rules.
2) A player may move one of their Hexes, if it is unoccupied and at no time during removal or replacement does it violate field placement rules.
3) If the player has all 6 of their Hexes in play (or in other words none in hand), they may remove one of their Hexes back to in-hand, if it is unnocupied and its removal does not violate the field placement rules.


I'm not sure I like the idea of giving a mobile unit half of it's move during declaration. Instead, what if a mobile unit signaled the same as an attacking unit, showing only its first movement. Its second movement would be unknown until taken. Mobile movement could still be blocked by blocking the first movement--if the mobile unit can not take its signaled movement, then its whole movement is blocked.

Also, within the order of Attack, Move, Retire, how do you decide order? Is this the pip-counting that you talked about? How do you resolve a tie?

Also, if you want a cheap way to get some proto hex pieces, check out this:

MindWare still has wooden Hive for $4.95

I have made a PDF file containing all the pieces needed to play the game (so far...) - just glue to cardstock and cut out, fold and glue the boxes, and then it is ready for play.

Only problem - how do i add a file to a forum thread?


An idea i have about the game - havent playtested it yet, so i dont know how well it will work:
Mark one of each players hex tiles - this territory will be the base/headquarter/whatever and to win the game you need to conquer the opponent's headquarter tile.
The tile must be set up as one of the 5 initial tiles - you cannot keep this tile in reserve, and may not remove it from the board (if the above rule about removing a tile for later use is implemented).

Could add some more to the game, instead of just eliminating enemy pieces and conquering territory, you now have to protect a specific tile too. But as i wrote - i havent playtested it yet, so i dont know whether it is a good idea or not.

Your movement example post shows a number of units signalling moves to areas outside the current play area where there are no tiles. Is or will that be allowed in the game, and how will it be handled?