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Yet another Brick wargame

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:49 pm
by banban
Hi everybody,

It's the first time I post something here, even if I read your discussions some times to times. Today, I want to introduce the brick wargame system I made.

The rules and some other goodies can be found here : http://bow.lswproject.com/

The name of my wargame is Image and it stands for "Bricks Only Wargame".

Some key points of BOW are:
- You only need Bricks to play, even the dices are replaced with bricks.
- I try to keep the rules simple with as less as possible of exceptions.
- No statistics tables are needed during the play (only a description sheet per type of unit).
- A quick play (I made some statistics that show an average of 45 seconds of play per unit).

The website I made to present my wargame is full of PHP and javascript (best view with Mozilla BTW).

The key feature of the website are:
- A SQL database to store the statistics of the troopers/characters/heroes, weapons, vehicules, etc... So the content can be quickly expanded.
- 4 Style sheets to view the site in your favorite theme (Default, Medieval, WWII, Starwars), you can choose in the bottom left corner.
- A dynamic page to create your own custom character sheet.

If you want to try BOW, I will appreciate a lot your comments, they will help me to improve the game system.

Enjoy!

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:02 pm
by Lamanda2
First off welcome to the community Banban!

Now that that's taken care of I'll get on about your game. :wink:
I am still reading up on the rules, but it seems pretty solid to me. Maybe I'll try it out if I can get somebody to play with me. :D

I'll let you know how I like it if I try it out, great job putting it all together!

~Amanda

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 2:04 am
by banban
Thanks for your warm welcome.

This game took me a long time to design, I tried it a bit by myself but I don't have a buddy ready for this kind of experience :?
I hope you will like it!

Now I can go back to my other big project ( http://www.lswproject.com ) :D (but off topic in this forum)

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:44 am
by Lamanda2
I know first hand how hard it is to come up with a game like this, actually me and my brothers tried to come up with something a couple years back, but now it's just one of those unfinished projects of mine. *sigh* :wink:

Finding a buddy is also a hard task for me as well, for sadly I only have two that have an interest in Lego, and one is out of state.

(I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan out there, but your other project looks to be coming allong nicely, great work!)

~Amanda

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:36 pm
by kelderic
This looks like it would be fun.

Kelderic

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:57 am
by TheOrk
It looks like you've put a lot of thought into this banban. It looks like it's a lot of fun and easy to learn.

But unfortunetly, I was born a Brikwars man and I'll die a Brikwars man. :|

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:08 pm
by banban
It looks like you've put a lot of thought into this banban. It looks like it's a lot of fun and easy to learn.
Thanks for your first impression.
Yes, I worked a lot on this, trying different stuff before chosing the rules that seems better. :)
But unfortunetly, I was born a Brikwars man and I'll die a Brikwars man.
Poor of me :roll: :)

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:17 am
by kelderic
banban wrote:Yes, I worked a lot on this, trying different stuff before chosing the rules that seems better. :)
I know what you mean. I tried forever to create a new version of the game Risk, with everything improved. I had to try it all out first, and it took forever.

Kelderic

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:22 am
by g2
Has anyone actually had a go? And if so what did you think? I would be very curious on people have played this game.

By the way, thanks for creating it. There is nothing wrong with Lots of Lego wargames. It just gives us more reason to continue collecting and playing with castle Lego, especially for us army builders.

Thanks.

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:01 pm
by banban
Hi,

A friend of mine just tried this game with her daugther of 8 years old during the christmass holiday. He then gave me some feedback and seems to have enjoyed the game (in fact they played 2 times). Her daugther was ok with the rules and was able to handle them easily. I'm very pleased of that since I tried to make this game accessible for children. :) But of course adult wargamers can add some more rules to be more realistic and to increase the duration of the game.

The game took place in a medieval universe on a square of 4 baseplates 32x32 with around 20 minifig (so that was quite a small battle).
The game duration was between 1 hour and 1h30 (which sounds good for a child of 8 years old).

He made some adaptations of the rules in the spirit of the original rules. With the feedback he gave me, I will probably update the rule book to precise some points:
- The "marker of round type" is not a gadget according to him, so I will probably propose it in standard and not in option.
- I will precise how to handle multiple weapons (how to carry several weapon; the fact that you need to spend one action to switch weapon; how reflect it on the description sheet...)
- I will precise how to move and use a catapult using the rules for the vehicules (since the rules seems to be more focused on motorized vehicules, but in fact they can also be used for medieval vehicules)

Some other suggestions he made me will probably go in the Expert Rule book (not written yet) to keep the core rules as simple as possible. For example:
- give a bonus if a minifig attack another one on its back
- give a malus if a minifig move in a difficult terrain.

As I told you he seems to have enjoy the game and looks now for another adult wargamer for a more serious play (unfortunatly I can't play with him now, since I move to China).

Of course I'm still interested in any comment if someone else tried the game!

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:21 pm
by banban
Hi,

I updated my rules book as explained above in my previous post, so not a big change (current version is now 1.1). Still at the same place.
I also almost finished my first scenario, I have now to test it to tune the different special rules of the scenario, or the armies composition.

Enjoy! :D

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:03 pm
by Blue Head
the rules of the game seem good, and I think I've seen BOW before while looking around brikwars. The game, in my eyes, seems to hold promise for people to play it. All in all, I think I might play the game myself, no all I need are a few people who like lego at my school to join me.. that will be hard...

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:28 pm
by banban
Hi,

It's quite a long time I didn't come here. :)
I just want to tell you that I updated my Bow web site by adding a scenario (at least and as promised).

You can find it via the Resource>Scenario menu on my website.

IMO, this scenario is quite complete with:
- 2 building instructions for the battle field and the vehicule
- The full description of the armies (around 1000 CP and 30 minifigs each)
- Some specific additionnal rules

Unfortunatly it is not a medieval scenario, but I promise that my next scenario will be in the medieval universe. I hope you will have a look anyway, and don't forget that I am still interested about feedback if you play a BOW game!

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:35 am
by banban
Hi,

Just a quick note to inform you that I added a new page in my website menu "Related Stuff" > "Game System".

It's an analysis of the game system of BOW. You definitely don't need it if you want to try BOW, but if you are interested in math, probabilities and so on, you can have a look! :)

Thanks for your attention.

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:39 pm
by ottoatm
Hello~

I've heard of this set on several other website outside of CC, quite awhile ago... you've been working on this game for some time, no?

Well, after all your work (and after you've joined CC!), the least I could do is go and check it out~ :wink: