Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I may not have been around the site recently, but that's because I've finally taken the plunge and decided to create my own minis game called "Bannet-Anwig". right now I'm working on a business plan to convince a company to back this, and I thought it would be good if I could show that there would be demand for this game. so here's the basic idea, I need to know what people think so that I can convince this backer to make this game a reality:
The world of Bannet-Anwig
Twenty years ago the great cataclysm brought a violent end to the thousand year war and killed almost half the population of the continent of Amaxias, and the mortal races are just now beginning to recover. however the old hatreds have not died, and once more the drums of war sound throughout the continent as the factions prepare to continue where they left off.
In the south the Amaixian Empire sits a shadow of its former self. The last anointed emperor was a victim of the cataclysm, and now the throne sits empty, a regent ruling in the seemingly indefinite interim. On its borders the orc auxiliaries refuse to leave their border fortresses until a new proper emperor is crowned, leaving the defense of the realm to city watchmen and militias.
In the central mountains the dwarves have banded together with local barbarian tribes and other mountain dwelling races to form the Mountain Brotherhood for their mutual protection. Inside the dwarf holds there is great unrest due to a nascent industrial revolution pitting the younger progressive generation against the more staunch traditionalists. Outside the holds tribes of human barbarians have banded together to create the United Tribes. The united tribes have become a nuisance for brotherhood diplomats of late due to their constant raiding of nearby Amaxian settlements.
In the north of the continent the Elven Kingdom has lowered the magical border that protected them from the cataclysm, but their culture has radically shifted in their twenty years of isolation. Where once the elves were a friendly welcoming people, now they are highly xenophobic and possess a strong sense of manifest destiny. The crown does not sit easily on the head of their king, Eldresh the Wise, who knows that the path his people are on will bring nothing but ruin, but he is not in charge of the kingdom any longer. Instead it is an open secret that his magistrates have him under house arrest in his palace as they run the kingdom to their liking.
Meanwhile in back alleys, coffeehouses and intellectual establishments a secret order is meeting. They are the Eldritch Order, their purposes are unknown, and their methods clandestine. While they are not officially recognized many conspiracy pamphlets insist they are the source of all the world’s troubles, pulling strings behind the scenes, guiding the world to an unknown destiny. The truth is that the Order was formed as a result of the arcane purge that followed the cataclysm. the surviving mages went underground and formed an organization that would protect and nurture others of their kind. Since then they have sought to accumulate as much arcane knowledge as possible in a single library, the Great Library. For now the library is a secret, but once enough knowledge is collected the order plans to open the doors to the public so that all may share in their knowledge. Joining them in this quest are many guardians of ancient knowledge, like the aquatic deep ones, and the secretive mummies of old Pharosis
In the wild places of the world hungry eyes gaze upon the works of the other races with jealous eyes. these are the savage hordes. A constant thorn in the side of the other races, the savage horde exist to raid and pillage. Most numerous of the horde are the goblins, who simply seek to cause the most destruction possible. A close second are the Sunian, savage boar men whose entire existence revolves around gorging their face with stolen food to feed their insatiable apatites.
The Rules
Bannet-anwig uses a simple D10 mechanic through a series of skill tests to resolve effects. For example to hit an enemy in melee combat you would roll a D10 and compare it to your Combat Skill (CS) ability. If you roll at or under your CS stat you’ve hit. The goal is to roll at or below your skill, and a 1 is an automatic pass, and a 10 is an automatic fail.
Another feature is an initiative system where games are played in rounds instead of turns. Each round is played in a series of steps where units activate based on their initiative stat, starting with initiative 10 and working down to initiative 1. When units are tied for Initiative they roll two D10s, lowest dice wins.
List construction
Bannet-Anwig is based around flexible units and equipment, as well as flexible army configurations. When you create a list you start by selecting your summoner from a variety of classes available to your faction. This represents you on the tabletop, and if you lose your summoner you lose the game. Then you can customize your summoner with different weapons and spells depending on your class.
Here’s where it gets interesting: not only are there factions in this game, within each faction are multiple sub factions that you can combine to build an army list. Generally units from the same sub faction work well together, but that doesn’t stop you from mixing and matching different sub factions to create a force all your own.
Each unit is selected and equipped individually, allowing the game to scale down to a skirmish level if need be. You can then group your units into squads. Squads may be less mobile than individual units, but they can pack more of a punch. For even larger games squads can be organized into formations of multiple squads working together. Once again the formations are less mobile than the squads, but pack a larger punch.

What makes Bannet-Anwig unique?:
1. “the FLGS strikes back”: let’s face it, it’s not easy for a mom and pop FLGS these days, what with chains and web sellers not having to deal with overhead and other such problems. Well Bannet-Anwig has a unique system made to favor the mom and pop FLGS over the large chains and web sellers: the FLGS favor system. The system rewards stores for selling and promoting the game by giving out “Favor Points” to FLGSs that register on the website. Each box sold and each game played in that store add favor points to that store’s favor level. So far there are three levels: at level one a store is listed as an official venue of Bannet-Anwig and is promoted on the website. Level one is as high as an online seller can get, and any verified mom and pop FLGSs start at level 1 automatically. At level 2 a store achieves “preferred status” with regards to new releases. That means they are at the front of the line for new releases. Level 2 is as high as a chain store can get. Then there’s the ultra-coveted level 3, where a store unlocks “the week of power” where a store not only gets the new releases a week early, but they are also authorized to sell them a week early.
2. Dynamic World: the world of Bannet-Anwig is constantly changing, borders shift as empires clash over territory, cities are built and destroyed. Each calendar season there will be a worldwide campaign where player actions will affect the future of the world. As factions win and lose they will unlock new units, weapons, and spells, some are spoils of war for the victors, others are gained from hard learned lessons in defeat.
3. All plastic miniature line: due to the nature of our game production, it is actually easier for us to make all the minis in plastic because it is a material we have experience with.

Copyright Taylor Miller, 2013, all rights reserved.

So please tell me what you think, is there anything that should be improved? would you be interested in this as a product?

Rules wise, there is way too little there. This is something that I see a lot of aspiring game designers do; they focus way more on the fluff and maybe one mechanic at the expense of focusing on others.

While your fluff is okay (nothing hugely outstanding positive or negative), your rules section is so small as to almost look like an afterthought. What are all the stats? What does a turn look like? How do I win? What special rules are for each race? All of this just seems breezed over in favor of getting the idea out there, and that is a perilous and self-destructive path you are walking on. The way this whole thing is laid out, it seems like you want the fluff to be the headliner, and while all of us like to think that is the case, it isn't. If the game has a poor or unbalanced ruleset, it doesn't matter how good your fluff is or what bonuses you offer FLGSes.

You really need to spend more time working on your rules. Right now, they are just this blurb, and they will be the meat and core of your game, treat it like that.

 curran12 wrote:
Rules wise, there is way too little there. This is something that I see a lot of aspiring game designers do; they focus way more on the fluff and maybe one mechanic at the expense of focusing on others.

While your fluff is okay (nothing hugely outstanding positive or negative), your rules section is so small as to almost look like an afterthought. What are all the stats? What does a turn look like? How do I win? What special rules are for each race? All of this just seems breezed over in favor of getting the idea out there, and that is a perilous and self-destructive path you are walking on. The way this whole thing is laid out, it seems like you want the fluff to be the headliner, and while all of us like to think that is the case, it isn't. If the game has a poor or unbalanced ruleset, it doesn't matter how good your fluff is or what bonuses you offer FLGSes.

You really need to spend more time working on your rules. Right now, they are just this blurb, and they will be the meat and core of your game, treat it like that.

yea you're probably right, I've been working more on world building at this point. my process is that I get an idea for the fluff first, then make the rules work within the fluff. also I've got some rules, the problem has been figuring out a way to organize them in a way that makes sense. right now I've got a bunch of note cards that I'm trying to collate into a rule set, I just need to get them all in one document before they're ready. also my biggest hurdle to posting the rules here is that I was afraid it would turn into a wall of text.

 yeri wrote:

yea you're probably right, I've been working more on world building at this point. my process is that I get an idea for the fluff first, then make the rules work within the fluff. also I've got some rules, the problem has been figuring out a way to organize them in a way that makes sense. right now I've got a bunch of note cards that I'm trying to collate into a rule set, I just need to get them all in one document before they're ready. also my biggest hurdle to posting the rules here is that I was afraid it would turn into a wall of text.

Rules should always come first for a game, as they will dictate how it is played. World building is, by and large, the easy part of design because it requires only worrying about things that can easily change to fit or cover errors. Rules, on the other hand, are a large and extremely complex interconnected system of balances. It is way harder to come out with really great rules, but in order for a game to succeed, that is exactly what you have to do. I do not like the process of using the fluff to inform rules, as it will invariably show signs of unbalance as you go on. Right now, you are on the same path I've seen dozens of other potential games fall on. You are avoiding the hard work of rules generation and banking on the fluff to carry the game. Let me tell you straight up that it will never last like that, and a design philosophy that follows 'fluff first then rules' is not one that is going to work in the long term. Designing a game is hard, there's a ton of math involved, and you are not going to get away from it if you want to succeed.

As far as organizing and displaying the rules, here's a free idea: Write the rules in the turn sequence.

What constitutes a turn? How can it break up? Once you have that, focus on the sections.

 curran12 wrote:

 yeri wrote:

yea you're probably right, I've been working more on world building at this point. my process is that I get an idea for the fluff first, then make the rules work within the fluff. also I've got some rules, the problem has been figuring out a way to organize them in a way that makes sense. right now I've got a bunch of note cards that I'm trying to collate into a rule set, I just need to get them all in one document before they're ready. also my biggest hurdle to posting the rules here is that I was afraid it would turn into a wall of text.

Rules should always come first for a game, as they will dictate how it is played. World building is, by and large, the easy part of design because it requires only worrying about things that can easily change to fit or cover errors. Rules, on the other hand, are a large and extremely complex interconnected system of balances. It is way harder to come out with really great rules, but in order for a game to succeed, that is exactly what you have to do. I do not like the process of using the fluff to inform rules, as it will invariably show signs of unbalance as you go on. Right now, you are on the same path I've seen dozens of other potential games fall on. You are avoiding the hard work of rules generation and banking on the fluff to carry the game. Let me tell you straight up that it will never last like that, and a design philosophy that follows 'fluff first then rules' is not one that is going to work in the long term. Designing a game is hard, there's a ton of math involved, and you are not going to get away from it if you want to succeed.

As far as organizing and displaying the rules, here's a free idea: Write the rules in the turn sequence.

What constitutes a turn? How can it break up? Once you have that, focus on the sections.

You deserve that soapbox

Yeri, I like the fluff, it shows you did your homework and tried to create a diverse number of factions and a cool back-story for all of them. (Tho I'm still puzzled why the Elves turned Xenophobe with only 20 years in isolation. It's not like they were being troubled by outsides. Plot twist somewhere, perhaps? A bit of Mystery?)
Your "unique" ideas look cool as well but I don't know if an "All plastic miniature line" categorizes as unique. And you never know what may happen in the future. It's better to keep certain things omitted then later on having to contradict yourself (but that's just my opinion, take it with lots of salt).
But the Dynamic world, oh yes, as long as players are kept up to date it would lead to some interesting scenarios.

But I agree with curran12, I would love to see some detail into the rules. It almost seems there's nothing more into it then 2 miniatures trying to beat each other with a stick and it doesn't matter if they have armor or not, they will be hit and hurt.

But it's one promising start

I agree with the above. We need more rules. An actual draft of the rules would be really good.

Too generic, too much time spent discussing random die rolling methods instead of why I want to play it, and you can't start making promises about your sales method when you don't even have your startup funding yet. It will probably be a functional game, but the miniature wargaming market is pretty much saturated, if you want to get anyone to buy your game you need to convince them that you have something to offer that they can't get from one of the established games that all their friends are playing. And so far you don't have that, it looks like yet another generic fantasy game that doesn't really have any reason to exist besides "I can make a game".

Now, I'm not saying you're doomed, but you need to put a lot more work into your game before anyone is going to be interested.

A pretty good way of making your game stand out would be to not make it a generic fantasy skirmish.

Give Malifaux a try. The figure starter boxes come with 5 figures and includes a metal scenic base insert. For the same cost as the Warmachine box set you can get two factions, that are playable and a full size colour rulebook. It maybe worth holding back on the rulebook though as a new version is coming soon.

- Removed by insaniak. Please see Dakka's Rule #1 -

I'm currently working on getting the basic rules drafted. but it's going to take some time. for now I can explain a little bit about the fluff:
the elves turned xenophobe because while they were in isolation they could see via magical means what was happening in the world. they saw all around them the great empires falling, and now believe themselves to be the inheritors of all the good things of the old world, and that it is their duty to return their idea of civilization to the rest of the continent. also there is a pervasive myth among the common elf of "the stab in the back" that states that the other races started the cataclysm to bring down the elves, assisted by so called "lower elves" who were mutated by the cataclysm into the Naga and the Catfolk. this myth is used to justify the second class status of these races in the kingdom.

 yeri wrote:
I'm currently working on getting the basic rules drafted. but it's going to take some time. for now I can explain a little bit about the fluff:
the elves turned xenophobe because while they were in isolation they could see via magical means what was happening in the world. they saw all around them the great empires falling, and now believe themselves to be the inheritors of all the good things of the old world, and that it is their duty to return their idea of civilization to the rest of the continent. also there is a pervasive myth among the common elf of "the stab in the back" that states that the other races started the cataclysm to bring down the elves, assisted by so called "lower elves" who were mutated by the cataclysm into the Naga and the Catfolk. this myth is used to justify the second class status of these races in the kingdom.

My biggest piece of advice, based on this piece of text here: If you really want customers and potential backers to get behind this game, treat every single piece of text that you write about it as a professional promotional release. Regardless of how rough your drafts are right now, presenting yourself professionally is going to make a big difference to how people perceive your work... and that includes using correct grammar and punctuation. If you want people to believe that you can write at a level that is publishable, you need to show them that you can.

Let's not even pretend this is anything but a magpie gamer's project of the week.

 yeri wrote:
I'm currently working on getting the basic rules drafted. but it's going to take some time. for now I can explain a little bit about the fluff:
the elves turned xenophobe because while they were in isolation they could see via magical means what was happening in the world. they saw all around them the great empires falling, and now believe themselves to be the inheritors of all the good things of the old world, and that it is their duty to return their idea of civilization to the rest of the continent. also there is a pervasive myth among the common elf of "the stab in the back" that states that the other races started the cataclysm to bring down the elves, assisted by so called "lower elves" who were mutated by the cataclysm into the Naga and the Catfolk. this myth is used to justify the second class status of these races in the kingdom.

Still generic, still not interested. What you need to do is come up with the TL,DR version of your fluff. In a single sentence (and no cheating with comma splices) describe your fluff and how it is different from the typical generic fantasy world. Then, write a single short paragraph explaining it in a bit more detail. Think of these as movie posters: you need to give your audience a simple and compelling preview of what you're doing to grab their attention and get them to keep reading. Right now you just have a wall of text that gets people to skim it and dismiss it as yet another boring generic fantasy story.

Oh, and you know that cliche about a picture being worth a thousand words? It's true. A professional-quality picture of a distinctive character/town/etc from your setting does far more to get people to take a second look than an entire page of text about it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Let's not even pretend this is anything but a magpie gamer's project of the week.

Of course. But sometimes the best thing a person can do is to let their failure be an example for others to learn from. The OP will probably drop this project in a week when they learn that game design is much harder than just throwing a few ideas on paper, but maybe other people reading this thread will get a better idea of what it takes to launch a successful project and what problems they need to avoid.

There are so many of these "What do you think of my Game concept" Threads on Dakka, and many show up with more than the above, so you'll excuse me (and others) if we approach this with skepticism.

I'd echo the folks who are asking for more about the rules. You haven't really answered some of the most important questions. Despite the inclusion of a "unique" section, I really don't know.

1) What niche your game fills that isn't already filled?

2) What is the scope/scale/complexity of your game?

Also, besides the half page of text above.I have no idea what kind of homework you've done.

1) Are the rules in a playtestable state?

2) What kind of backing or experience do you have in the industry.

3) What other games have you looked at and how have they fallen short in ways that your game will exceed?

Basically, I'm saying "Do your homework." go home, read ALOT of wargames, write an actual game that you think is better than them and playtest it until you're sure it's at least proven playable. THEN come and start having community input.

 Eilif wrote:
There are so many of these "What do you think of my Game concept" Threads on Dakka, and many show up with more than the above, so you'll excuse me (and others) if we approach this with skepticism.

I'd echo the folks who are asking for more about the rules. You haven't really answered some of the most important questions. Despite the inclusion of a "unique" section, I really don't know.

1) What niche your game fills that isn't already filled?

2) What is the scope/scale/complexity of your game?

Also, besides the half page of text above.I have no idea what kind of homework you've done.

1) Are the rules in a playtestable state?

2) What kind of backing or experience do you have in the industry.

3) What other games have you looked at and how have they fallen short in ways that your game will exceed?

Basically, I'm saying "Do your homework." go home, read ALOT of wargames, write an actual game that you think is better than them and playtest it until you're sure it's at least proven playable. THEN come and start having community input.

In answer to your questions:
1) I've noticed that most recent tabletop wargames have not exactly been very customizable. Generally you have your unit and generally you don't have much of a choice as to how they are equipped. This game aims to give a massive amount of customization and choice to players, all while staying simple and easy to play.

2) The scale of the game can range from skirmish all the way up to massive amounts of combat. Originally I intended for the game to be a mass combat game but when I sat down to write the rules I realize that the massive amounts of customization also lent itself to a skirmish style game.

As far as the homework done here are some answers:
1) Currently the rules are a very rough state however I have play tested them with several members of my family none of which are gamers. They found the rules to be simple and easy to follow.

2) As far as backing in the industry there is not any backing in the gaming industry itself. However I do have the support of a well-established company is mostly involved in the manufacture of construction supplies that is looking to enter the miniatures game market. As far as personal experience in game design I will admit I have never created a professional miniatures game. However this game has its roots in a game I created for school project that I have been refining over the years.

3) The current games available on the market are great at what they do however this game seeks to create a highly customizable experience that I believe the current generation of games is sorely lacking. All the while still maintaining a good balance between the factions via mathematical formula.

 yeri wrote:
1) I've noticed that most recent tabletop wargames have not exactly been very customizable. Generally you have your unit and generally you don't have much of a choice as to how they are equipped. This game aims to give a massive amount of customization and choice to players, all while staying simple and easy to play.

It's very easy to promise lots of customization with simple rules. It's very difficult to create a system that actually does it. Customization and simplicity are competing design concepts, especially if you want the system to be balanced and avoid min/maxed choices. For example, you don't want people creating ranged units that stack up tons of penalties on melee combat to pay for even better ranged firepower. There's a point at which you have such poor melee ability that you will automatically lose a melee fight, and any further "penalties" are irrelevant. So to prevent this you need limits in your rules, and that adds complexity. And of course that's one example, a balanced system with lots of customization will have tons of rules to keep it balanced.

2) The scale of the game can range from skirmish all the way up to massive amounts of combat. Originally I intended for the game to be a mass combat game but when I sat down to write the rules I realize that the massive amounts of customization also lent itself to a skirmish style game.

Like problem #1 you have competing design goals here. A mass combat game needs very simple rules so you don't get bogged down in dealing with little details (which are often irrelevant at that scale). A skirmish game wants detailed rules to use all of that customization to its full potential. Trying to make a single set of rules that can handle both ends of the scale just means you're going to have a system that is always flawed no matter what size you're playing at. What you need to do is pick one or the other to be your "core" game, make it into a finished product, and then consider doing the other size as an expansion.

1) Currently the rules are a very rough state however I have play tested them with several members of my family none of which are gamers. They found the rules to be simple and easy to follow.

Just note that testing with non-gamers is not enough. Non-gamers will probably play the game the way it was intended to be played, and any deviation from that will probably be because of genuine mistakes, not because they found a rule to exploit. Serious gamers will learn the rules easily and then move on to finding things to exploit to their advantage. So it's very easy to have a system that works well enough in very casual games but falls apart completely the moment competitive players get their hands on it.

Also, did you playtest by explaining the rules to them and helping them, or did you just hand them the rulebook and pieces and see if they could play a game?

I have to agree with Peregrine. A few things.

1) Pick a scope and stick with it. Many companies have tried to make a game that works for skirmish and Mass battle and they have all -IMO- Failed. The mechanics need to be tailored to the scope of the game or you will end up with a Mass Battle game that takes too long to play, or a skirmish system without enough detail.

2) There actually are (and have been) alot of games that offer customizable units. SBH, Tomorrow's War, Vor, Warengine, Battletech just to name a few. What you are describing is a "generic" gaming engine. It's a nice concept, but it doesn't have a very good track record except:
-When consistently added to and adapted to new settings via expansions (Song of Blades and Heroes series of games)
or
-when presented alongside a full set of premade stats and figures to go with them. Vor, No Limits, No Quarter, Tomorrow's War, Battletech, and WarEngine all are/were highly customizable. You can make your own units from scratch, but they also give you pre-made army lists and figures were available to represent those units.

Good to see that you have some financial backing. Though, I'll stick to my original advice of....

Basically, I'm saying "Do your homework." go home, read ALOT of wargames, write an actual game that you think is better than them and playtest it until you're sure it's at least proven playable. THEN come and start having community input.

..Your response does make it seem like you are at least a step ahead of most folks who want to make a game. Now go finish the rules and get gamers to play it.

 yeri wrote:

1) Currently the rules are a very rough state however I have play tested them with several members of my family none of which are gamers. They found the rules to be simple and easy to follow.

Then you're not testing the waters, you're sharing your pipe-dreams.

When you want to test the water, come back with the first draft of the completed rules with some actual play-testing under your belt.

Hey, I've decided to re-tool the game after I got a bit of work done on the rules. they were favoring ranged combat over melee, so I got the idea to re-tool the game into a pulp inspired dieselpunk game. here's the synopsis:
The year is 2014, but this is not the world you know. In this world the Nazis never rose to power in Germany. The British never gave up their colonies. The United States and Canada merged before conquering all of south and central America, forming Colombia. The Empire of Japan has gobbled up most of Asia, creating the Sino-Japanese Empire. Meanwhile the Peoples Soviet Socialist Republic has backed coups in the Caribbean and parts of Africa. All the while Germania has slowly annexed its neighbors until almost all of continental Europe and parts of North Africa are under its control. All the factions possess atomic weapons, and each realizes that the status quo is not changing on earth without inviting mutual destruction. So the great powers have turned to space as the next battleground. Powered by gyroscopic mercury drives great space battleships set out to find new planets to colonize, but with new land comes new conflict.

the idea of the game is to combine a skirmish game with a mass combat game, so essentially you are playing two games in one. on one hand you have your larger than life pulp heroes, who represent the skirmish aspect of the game, at the same time you have an army of mooks that engage in mass combat. heroes have a special stat called "moxie" that lets them spend moxie points to do stuff like automatically hit a target or shrug off an attack. heroes gain moxie points as they accomplish heroic deeds like taking out another hero or destroying an entire squad, so if your heroes just sit in the backfield and sip tea they're not going to be able to do much heroic stuff.

or for the TL/DR version: it's a dieselpunk pulp WW2 game IN SPACE!

Wow, almost exactly a week on the nose, impressive ;P

The setting sounds pretty stereotypical and contrived, the rules sound interesting, the one thing you'll have to address is how the "mooks" interact with your pulp heroes (otherwise it really is two seperate games and then Im forced to ask, whats the point? And I bring this up because I've been working on something similar for a long time now).

I can explain that: the heroes come in three varieties or combinations there of: Combat, Science, and Adventure. so a combat hero will be a straight up beatstick. Science heroes are like the wizards of this setting, capable of all sorts of stuff, but they are physically squishy. adventure heroes are buff specialists, they inspire the mooks to do better. the mooks and the heroes are on the same battlefield, and the only way to really stop a hero is to A) throw another hero at it, or B) drown them in mooks until they run out of moxie (a hero without moxie is like a dead battery, useless) so there becomes a kind of diagram of effectiveness in this game that goes: Heroes -> Elite mooks -> basic mooks -> horde mooks -> heroes. then once vehicles are introduced they form their own diagram: halftracks -> hovercraft -> tanks -> halftracks. so it almost becomes like pokemon or fire emblem with a kind of tactical rock paper scissors arrangement. also the reasons that this works are very simple:
Heroes only have so much moxie so if you drown them in cheap disposable units eventually they will run out and be vulnerable.
Elite mooks just aren't good enough to keep up with a hero's moxie power, and they simply don't have the numbers to wear them down. they are however very capable of handling basic mooks.
basic mooks have the numbers to go toe to toe with a horde, but they're more powerful stat wise so they will eventually win out. on the other hand they just can't take the firepower the elite mooks bring to bear.
horde mooks swarm, that's what they're good at. this drowns heroes in a flood of bodies that just can't earn them enough moxie points to keep up. however when they're not significantly outnumbering the enemy, they will have some trouble.
generally unit sizes determine where a trooper falls on this scale: 1 to a unit is a hero, 5 to a unit is elite, 10 to a unit is basic, 15 or more is a horde.

and here's why the vehicle stats work:
halftracks are armed with HMGs meaning that the thin skin of the hovercraft will do no good against the hail of lead. however their comparatively light armor and lack of dedicated anti tank means that tanks will find them easy hunting.
hovercraft fly above the battlefield at low altitude making strafing runs against armor. their heavy rockets or other anti armor weapons combined with their maneuverability means that tanks are sitting ducks against them (in rules terms a tank's cannon can't shoot at air targets) however all that maneuverability is no match for a good HMG, and so halftracks should be avoided.
tanks excel at fighting other armor, with high strength low AOE guns tanks punch holes into halftacks. however they have no defense against attacks from above, so beware the sound of helicopters.

and here's why the vehicle stats work:

You say that, but without an actual mechanic we don't know just how easily hovercraft can dodge HMGs, or how easily tanks can damage halftracks, etc.

Remember that GW probably have similar ideas while they are designing their games, but they don't always bear out as intended when people who aren't looking at it through the eyes of a creator get their hands on it.

Peregrine has been seemingly harsh, but I think justifiably so. He's provided some very constructive feedback that is, I think, very much on point.

There are fan-made, free-to-play systems/games that are more polished and professional than what you have here.

Rather than tarnish the image of your product, you may want to consider developing it as much as you can on your own before presenting it to the community at large.

You can get a draft of the rules finished, set up an extended campaign/playtest with your local gaming group, work up some basic concept art, and see how it goes. If you can't do it as a personal/pet project, there is little reason to expect that it will be a successful product.

Chin up though. You have some interesting ideas. I think you should work behind the scenes a bit more before you bring this to your target customer. If you don't have the name of a professional game designer on this, you are going to have to show people a great deal more substance in order to build both interest and goodwill.

 yeri wrote:
Hey, I've decided to re-tool the game after I got a bit of work done on the rules. they were favoring ranged combat over melee, so I got the idea to re-tool the game into...

Spoiler:

a pulp inspired dieselpunk game. here's the synopsis:
The year is 2014, but this is not the world you know. In this world the Nazis never rose to power in Germany. The British never gave up their colonies. The United States and Canada merged before conquering all of south and central America, forming Colombia. The Empire of Japan has gobbled up most of Asia, creating the Sino-Japanese Empire. Meanwhile the Peoples Soviet Socialist Republic has backed coups in the Caribbean and parts of Africa. All the while Germania has slowly annexed its neighbors until almost all of continental Europe and parts of North Africa are under its control. All the factions possess atomic weapons, and each realizes that the status quo is not changing on earth without inviting mutual destruction. So the great powers have turned to space as the next battleground. Powered by gyroscopic mercury drives great space battleships set out to find new planets to colonize, but with new land comes new conflict.

the idea of the game is to combine a skirmish game with a mass combat game, so essentially you are playing two games in one. on one hand you have your larger than life pulp heroes, who represent the skirmish aspect of the game, at the same time you have an army of mooks that engage in mass combat. heroes have a special stat called "moxie" that lets them spend moxie points to do stuff like automatically hit a target or shrug off an attack. heroes gain moxie points as they accomplish heroic deeds like taking out another hero or destroying an entire squad, so if your heroes just sit in the backfield and sip tea they're not going to be able to do much heroic stuff.

or for the TL/DR version: it's a dieselpunk pulp WW2 game IN SPACE!

Come on Man, you haven't done your homework, you've just changed your setting and written some new ideas down. You're whole "Mook" concept seems like a scaled up version of the "Goalsysetem" series of games which have individual "Heroes" and Armies of "Mooks/henchmen".

I'm not sure why I keep commenting, as it seems like you're more interested in putting your kernels of ideas out there rather than actually doing what it takes to research and write a good game. It's not too late for you,but seriously, you have to
1) Do more RESESRCH. If you had you would know that you pretty much described "Goalsystem".
2)Write the COMPLETE basic Rules. So far we haven't actually seen anything playable.
3)Play a BUNCH of games, and then bring it back. Respect the folks on the forum enough to do the work on your end before asking for feedback.

Otherwise you're just wizzing in the wind.

So 6 days after claiming that you've put more effort into world building than rules so far, you give us... a completely different world. So I guess the first one was also no more than 6 days' work? Come on now. You're basically throwing paper napkin ideas out and seeing what sticks.

Actually this setting has had about 7 or so years put into it. the seeds of this setting was a school project on WW2. coincidentally a very old friend of mine was also working on a similar project, and after sharing notes one of us wondered what would have happened if the Nazis never rose to power. I changed the setting around for two reasons: 1) the rules I was writing were favoring ranged combat, 2) that friend is currently in a persistent vegetative state, and back when this idea was first created we promised each other that one day one of us would publish this setting. because he's no longer able to do that it falls to me to fulfill that promise.
in other news I'm making some progress on the basic rules, but I don't know how soon they'll be ready to be shown, hopefully in less than a week, so please be patient.

I don't think we are showing any signs of impatience, yeri. In fact, I think most of us are telling you to take your time and use all that you need to develop a ruleset and balance it well.

This is going to be something that will take a LOT of time and a LOT of work. This is not something you should rush.

 yeri wrote:
Hey, I've decided to re-tool the game after I got a bit of work done on the rules. they were favoring ranged combat over melee, so I got the idea to re-tool the game into a pulp inspired dieselpunk game.

If you're making this kind of dramatic change because you accidentally made the wrong rules it's a sign that you have some serious problems with your high-level design work. Before you start writing any rules you need to come up with a clear plan for your setting and general gameplay concepts, and then you need to write and adjust your rules to follow those concepts. Letting the rules (especially coincidental balance factors like "ranged combat is favored") drive your setting means that you don't have any control over what you're doing, and you're going to wander aimlessly until you finally give up on the project.

here's the synopsis:

Still generic. Anyone can write a generic alternate history world, you need to find something that gets the reader's attention. So far all you have is "there's some countries and units, they do some stuff", and that's just not very interesting.

the idea of the game is to combine a skirmish game with a mass combat game, so essentially you are playing two games in one. on one hand you have your larger than life pulp heroes, who represent the skirmish aspect of the game, at the same time you have an army of mooks that engage in mass combat.

Have you considered that having large mobs of low-quality models that mostly exist to be killed by the heroes is a lot of tedious dice rolling for very little gain? I can't really see your "mooks" being very much fun to play with, and I really don't see much appeal in building or painting them.

 yeri wrote:
in other news I'm making some progress on the basic rules, but I don't know how soon they'll be ready to be shown, hopefully in less than a week, so please be patient.

Alright, cool Looking forward to that.

But don't imply we're impatient, please. We're not the ones trying to push a wargame without even having made a draft of it