Peter Cox
Bosnia & Herzegovina
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This variant is heavily influenced by Mr Skeletor's Commanders BETA, and borrows some elements of that. Much credit to him.
Have playtested this, and am pleased to report it works very well, and feels reasonably balanced.
The main aims of the variant are to:
1. Allow Commander attributes str/wis/agi/hitpoints to play a role, so that different Commanders feels more individualised, less generic.
2. Lessen the effect of imbalance of the different Commander Cards.
3. Slightly improve Commander power. I feel they're a little weak at the moment, especially if you draw bad commander cards.
4. Commanders can physically fight in the battle, using weapon and armor items.
5. Keep it streamlined with mechanics already in place for the base game, so using the variant feels simple, straightforward and reasonably intuitive.
The major differences is that now Commanders do not have any permanent Commander Cards, but draw fresh Commander Cards for EACH battle, depending on wisdom attribute. They also fight directly in battles with strength and agility. Hitpoints determine the number of battles a commander can be involved with, before being forced to rest and heal (which can be dangerous).
SET UP
At start of play each player gets one random character of their alignment as beginning hero, and one random character of their own alignment or neutral as Commander.
Commander does NOT get a Commander Card.
GENERAL RULES
Commanders cannot duel, cannot quest, cannot explore areas. Commanders may pick up 'armor' and 'weapon' reward items from corpses or be given them by friendly Heroes.
Commanders do not count towards unit strength for the purpose of winter season food supply.
Commanders may not desert or switch sides for any reason.
Hero special abilities cannot be used - a hero card (aside from attributes) is considered blank.
Commanders may carry 'armor' and 'weapon' reward items (only).
If a Commander dies, a replacement Commander can be hired if a hero is recruited. This must be a new hero as opposed to an already present hero. You may not otherwise swap Commanders.
For balance reasons (Commanders being more powerful now), the Lieutenant General tactics card is removed (ie you can have one Commander at most)
MOVEMENT
Commanders move like units, through mobilise, conquer, etc. Movement speed is 2.
QUEST FAZE
In the quest faze, Commanders do not move but may choose to train (raising 1 attribute by 1 (to max of +2)) and/or heal (remove all damage).
If a Commander heals, they are placed on their side, and considered to be a routed unit until spring (ie cannot take place in battle, and will be killed if forced to retreat).
BATTLE
If a battle occurs in an area the Commander is in, the the player may choose to allow the Commander to take part in the battle in the following 2 ways (both must be done).
1. The Commander inspires his troops. The Commander draws a number of Commander Cards equal to WISDOM/2 (round up), and chooses 1 to play during the battle.
2. The Commander will directly fight with troops. When this happens, the Commander attacks like a unit with initiative of 6 minus AGILITY (eg a Commander with agility 4 will have initiative 2). When it comes to their round of combat:
(a)Commander takes an automatic single point of damage. If the Commander is carrying any 'armor' rewards cards, they draw fate cards equal to strength and take no damage if there is at least one special ability fate card (triangle base)
(b) If still alive, draw fate cards equal to their STRENGTH attribute and chooses one to use (look under the triangle base type) to play. A 'special ability' result means that the Commander inflicts 1 damage. If the the commander is carrying any 'weapon' reward cards, a 'special ability' inflicts 3 damage.
Commanders do NOT add any strength to the final battle tally to determine victor.
Damage inflicted in battle on Commander is not removed at the end of the battle.
If the commander is part of a losing battle, they retreat with troops, and are routed like any other unit.
Commanders cannot be attacked or forced to rout by enemy troop fate cards. They take 1 point of damage per battle (less armor) and can otherwise not be hurt by any other means.
Essentially this means Commanders only really be killed if they are attacked and forced to retreat while healing/routed, or if someone is silly enough to use a 1 hitpoint commander in a battle.
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That's it basically. Comments welcome. Cheers.
(many, many edits for clarity and formatting)
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Posted Mon Feb 6, 2012 10:43 am