How We Fight in Board Games – with Tom Vasel
The Dice Tower
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Tom Vasel takes a look at the many combat systems found in board games!
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30.03.2022
Unmatched is so good.
Great vid 👍
Imperial Assault has my favorite combat system
I would LOVE to do one of these for trick-taking!!
What's this? Tom didn't mention Gloomhaven's combat system? Shame!
I think my favorite combat system is cards. While I love dice games, I like the sneaky out-guessing feel of playing cards for modifiers and such.
The best I feel is Battle of Five Armies is so interesting. I would recommend looking it up if you don't know about it would look to see it more.
This was an excellent video!
I don't have a lot of combat games but I love Undaunted's system… You add up the defender's unit defense, the defender's tile defense, and the number of tiles you (the attacker) are from the defender. You roll one or more D10s and must equal or exceed the number just calculated with at least one of the dice. If successful, the defending unit may or may not be removed from the board depending on if the defender still has a card matching that unit in their hand, discard pile, or in their deck; if they no longer have a card representing that unit in any of those places then the unit is removed from the board. Brilliant system.
Galaxy Hunters has deterministic combat, but since it's primarily a worker placement game, I think it works out perfectly.
Great video! But what about thematic ties of combat, some systems really dont make sense to the type of combat they are simulating
Loving this series.
My friend's favorite way combat happens is when it uses dice that are useless outside of the game they're in, like Root's 0-3 D12s.
Love this series! Hoping to see more soon. Maybe one about different kinds of spatial puzzles? Or different ways we use tiles
Very interesting topic. Thanks for the clear presentation. I like dice as in my favorite combat games, X-wing, Root, & King of Tokyo.
"Combat" is just theming and resolutions can have non-violent themes.
This is a great video, thanks Tom. Working on a game with my son that will include combat. Love to see more like this.
Cool!
Vast improvement in video editing compared to 'world of dice' video from a few days ago!
Keep up these videos, they are genuinly important.
I love card driven, hidden information, slight randomness and bluffing. So I love the system used in Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan.
Came into this video expecting Tom and Zee to just reminisce about all the arguments they've had over the years. Fortunately I Came away from this video a more enlightened gamer. Pretty 😎
I like it when Tom is in Professor Vasel mode.
I hate fighting with dice, cards or the rest of the ideas
This was such a great video, a tour through how different games implement a mechanism. Please do more like this. Things like auctioning, trick taking, and story interaction come to mind as just a few examples.
My favorite war game combat system is from the original supremacy. Essentially attacker gets 1d6 defender gets 2d6, whoever has a stronger force gets an extra d6, whoever has more satellites gets an extra, higher tech gets an extra, etc. Roll them all and remove 1 enemy army for every 3 points you rolled. I like the system because you can gain combat advantages many ways and the more dice you roll the more you are likely to kill but if your opponent rolls well it will still be very costly.
Great video 😉 Just what I was looking for. I would love to see another video with the other combat systems you get in mind. That helps a lot to invent new games.
Awesome video as always thanks !
I do prefer cards to dice in general. Dice feel too random to me. However I also do enjoy the combination of both. If I can play cards to affect the probality of the outcome on the dice. Then at least I get a sense of control, even if it is superficial.
Really enjoying the series. The border feel too large, gives the video a claustrophobic, cluttered feeling.
Excellent video Tom. Please release more like this. It was interesting to see how different, game mechanics for the same purpose (combat) are implemented in various games.
wow 🔥 like
Risk’s system was designed by Satan.
I hate Axis and Allies.
BattleTech’s system is fantastic. It makes it seem as if almost no luck is involved.
Don’t forget ‘name calling’ and ‘throwing board pieces.’
My favorite kind of attacking mechanism is in Forbidden Stars. I love using combat cards with special powers (that are also upgradable), and rolling dice based on the number of units. Very satisfying system to use.
You left out your favorite, Dice Masters! Also, Magic.
Really enjoyed this video. But I'd love to see more credit given to designers on the Dice Tower. Especially when you're talking about game design, it would be great to see the designer names credited instead of (or at least alongside) the publisher names
Rock Paper Scissors is the simplest combat system.
Trudvang Legends will use a combat system where you pull discs out of a bag.
But my favorite is throwing burritos at each other. 😄
Great video Tom! I really like the cube tower, it resolves quickly, is exciting & mitigates luck over the course of the game.
I also like the wars in Imperial Struggle, controlling certain territories gives you an edge, which you can augment by playing war tiles. You can become very invested in a war while preparing in the game's peace turns, feeling both plotting & epic!
One of my favorite dice systems is the one for Mythic Battles: Pantheon. The way dice can be used to mitigate the value of other dice, and 5s bursting to hit defenses of 6+ make for a really good system.
Gloomhaven card powers
I really enjoy the exploding dicecard combat. It is fun when you keep rolling. It doesn't happen much, but I love it when it does.
Really enjoyed this and the "Dice" video. A welcome dive into specific mechanisms!
AWESOME
Dice hate me and love my wife. So card for me are the way to go. 🙂
Battle flipper in teenage mutant ninja turtles pizza power
This was really good. I learned a lot about the different combat systems. I didn't realize there are so many different ways combat is done. More videos like this would be great!
-Inis: dicard your action card or kill your troops
-Civiliztion/Western Empire: kill the units in turn until the certian limit
-Through the Ages: Each player involved got one turn until they resolve the war
Missed out on speaking about cry havoc!
Who did Tom beat in the intro?
Been a while since you have played Risk I see. Couple of correction/additions: The attacker can attack with up to 3 die if he brings that many units (correct) but if he only brings 1 he can only roll 1 (it is implied in the video you would roll 2). The defender wins any tie results.