Conquest of Mars

From IcehouseOrg

Conquest of Mars
Ryan Hackel
abstract wargame using pyramids, cards, and dice
Min. Players:	warning.png“” is no number.
Max. Players:	warning.png“” is no number.
Icehouse stashes:	3 nests per player
Treehouse sets:	warning.png“” is no number.
Other equipment:	handful of assorted dice, playing cards
Setup time:	2 minutes
Min. Playing time:	warning.png“” is no number.
Max. Playing time:	warning.png“” is no number.
Rules complexity:	Medium
Strategy depth:	Medium
Random chance:	Moderate
Primary Mechanic:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Additional Mechanic:	warning.png“” cannot be used as a page name in this wiki.
Theme:	War
BGG Link:	N/A

Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 2 SETUP 3 ACTION POINTS 3.1 DISCOVER 3.2 DEPLOY 3.3 DEFEND 4 CAPTURES 5 END OF GAME and WINNING 6 STRATEGY 7 GAME as METAPHOR for WARFARE 8 Credits and Copyright 9 Comment and Questions

INTRODUCTION

Friends, Martians, countrymen, lend me your antennae! We must do battle against our enemies, those who wish to destroy us. If green blood must be spilled upon red soil, let it be the green blood of our noble foes! The time for words is over, and the time for action is now! Amass your hordes of tripods, polish your rayguns, and power up your saucer fleets!

Conquest of Mars is an abstract wargame with logistical management representation, using pyramids, playing cards, and assorted dice. Any dice with numerical values on each face will do. (D10's meant for the tens digit should have their placeholder zero mentally omitted.) Beginners may want to use just D6's, but the game is better with a mixture of polyhedral dice.

Designed by Ryan Hackel, 2008.

SETUP

Reserve one d6 as a Points Die. Put all other dice in a pile off to the side, forming the "common dice pool". Shuffle the deck of cards and set them aside, too. Deal one card to each player. Each player also gets three nests of pyramids in front of them (newbies will find a stash pad helpful for organization). Each player chooses a die from the common dice pool, and with it creates their own "personal dice pool", kept on or near their stash pad. The player who chose the die with the fewest faces goes first (roll to break ties).

ACTION POINTS

On your turn, do the following three steps:

• Step 1) Take the smallest available die from the common dice pool and add it to your own pool. (That's smallest by number of faces, not actual size.)

• Step 2) Discover a new territory (see below)

• Step 3) Pick any one die from the common dice pool and place it on any territory in play.

• Step 4) Roll the Points Die (see 2.0), and get that many Action Points to spend on that turn. You can spend Action Points to:

• A) 1 point = DISCOVER a new territory (see below)
• B) DEPLOY a pyramid from your stash to a territory (see below)

• B1) 1 point = deploy a small pyramid
• B2) 2 points = deploy a medium pyramid
• B3) 3 points = deploy a large pyramid

• C) 1 point = DEFEND your pyramids at a territory that also has other players' pyramids there too (see below)

You can use your points in any order on any of the options. You do not have to use all your points each turn, but unused points at the end of your turn are forfeited.

DISCOVER

This is the method by which new territory is created. When you discover a territory, simply draw the top card of the deck and place it on the table face-up. Next, take the largest available die from the common dice pool and place it on the new card; the face showing on that die is irrelevant.

Territories exist independently of each other, and their spatial relationship to one another on the table is not important, so long as they are of suitable distance apart to avoid confusion while handling game bits. It is helpful but not necessary to arrange territories in a line arranged by the order in which they came into play.

DEPLOY

This is how pyramids are added to territories. You can deploy a small pyramid for 1 action point, a medium for 2 action points, and a large for 3 action points. When you deploy a pyramid, take that pyramid from your stash pad and place it on an existing territory. Each pyramid deployed in a turn may go to different territories. There is no limit to how many pyramids can occupy one territory.

DEFEND

This can be done at any territory that contains both your own pyramids (at least one) and somebody else's pyramids (at least one). Each player does the following:

• (step 1) Starting with the attacking player and going clockwise, each player involved in the Defend chooses one die from their personal dice pool for each pyramid at the territory.

• (step 2) Starting with the attacking player and going clockwise, each player rolls his dice. If you have mediums or larges involved in the Defend, you may be able to reroll individual dice. Each medium grants you one reroll, and each large grants you two rerolls. Starting with the attacking player and going clockwise, each player makes any rerolls they are willing and able to make.

• (step 3) Each player arranges their rolled dice from highest value to lowest value, and reveal their results to all players.

• (step 4) Now comes death. All players compare their highest die roll result. The player with the lowest value loses one pyramid at the territory (returned to their stash pad). If there is a tie for lowest roll, all tied players lose one pyramid. (A player with no dice is treated as having rolled a zero.) All dice compared in this step are then returned to the common dice pool.

• (step 5) If at least one player has no dice remaining in their personal dice pool, stop now. This is the end of combat. If not, repeat step 4 with the remaining dice.

After the battle, you might be the sole occupier of the territory, the territory could still be disputed by two or more players, or there may be no pyramids left there at all. Any of these outcomes are okay.

CAPTURES

At the end of your turn, any territories that were not discovered that turn, and are solely occupied by any one player, are captured by that player. That occupying player returns any pyramids on that territory to their stash pad, adds all dice at that location to their personal dice pool, and then places the territory's card into their hand. Note that you can capture territories during somebody else's turn.

END OF GAME and WINNING

During the course of the game, each player will acquire a hand of cards. When each player has at least five cards in hand, the game ends at the beginning of the next turn. The player who can form the highest poker hand from their acquired cards wins the game! [In a two-player game, play should continue until each player has more cards, maybe 6 or 7.]

Poker hands, from worst to best:

1. highest valued single card
2. pair of cards (higher valued pair breaks ties)
3. two pairs
4. three of a kind
5. flush (all five cards of same suit)
6. full house (three of a kind AND a pair)

(Aces are always low, never outranking Kings.)

STRATEGY

Don't let your dice pool get too low. Without dice to roll, you will be unable to defend your territories. A small force with one low die will defeat a large force with no dice at all.

Large dice, those with many sides, can be powerful, but also unpredictable. If you use them, be sure you have the option of rerolling.

Keep in mind that you're building a poker hand. If you're low on cards, devote yourself to making the best poker hand you can. You might still be able to win with a more ambitious full house or straight flush. Just remember that the game ends when that final fifth card is captured... don't let that sneak up on you.

GAME as METAPHOR for WARFARE

The pyramids represent the soldiers, vehicles, and weapons that make up the military. Larger pyramids mean larger massings of those elements. Smaller forces move more quickly, and are cheaper and faster at deploying to territories, a great tool to react with. Larger forces are slower but more powerful. Since they cannot attack the same turn they deploy, they require more foresight in their use.

The dice represent the food, fuel, ammunition, money and manpower said military consumes. Without these basic supplies, the military itself would cease to operate. Every army has a general flow of supplies from the home region, but resources found on site are more useful.

The values on the cards represent the strategic value of that territory. It may represent something small like a mountain pass, airstrip, bridge or base, or it may represent something large like an island, peninsula, farmland, or city. To different armies it will have different strategic value. To a player assembling a flush of Hearts, the King of Spades will have little value, but it may be critical to a player working on a royal straight.

The dice on territories represent the spoils that territory has to offer, be it recruits, food, munitions, factories, mines, oil, or wealth. This isn't always coupled with strategic value. Sometimes a strategic point may be barren and remote, like Iwo Jima or El Alamein, and sometimes a bountiful area can have little strategic value, like South Dakota or New Zealand.

When committing troops to an area, the commander must weigh both the strategic value of said area and its resources against the cost of capturing it. Dice are continuously expended during combat, and the best way to replenish them is by capturing more territories.

The outcome of combat is not a given. Orders are lost, ignored, or misinterpreted. Commanders in the field can change their minds. Morale can break. A good grand strategist is able to analyze the possible modes of failure and weigh the risks of each outcome. While there are few certainties, there is the ability to control, mitigate, and exploit the effects of surprise.

Credits and Copyright

designed by Ryan Hackel, distributed exclusively via IcehouseGames.org wiki.

20 March 2008

Comment and Questions

• Comments and suggestions on improvements are welcomed at Talk:Conquest of Mars.
  • Thanks for the feedback!