This week, i had an idea for a game mechanic: What if there were a game where a given unit’s HP was abstracted into a ranking of it’s method of avoiding destruction?

Instead of having 10 HP, 3 speed, 5 damage resist, and 1hp/turn regeneration, It simply has 3 Speed, 5 Soak, and 1 Stamina, and dies if attacks exceeding any of those values are directed toward it. Attacks would be categorized with Area of Effect, Armor-piercing, and Alpha Striking, which are the respective counters to the previously defined defences.

It occurs to me that the general idea of combat is to force an opponent to play to your strengths, so an alternate system would be that the unit only dies if it’s highest defence is breached - however, this seems offhand like it’d be difficult to balance, leading to decks/armies entirely focused on one aspect.

Modifiers could be applied, - a unit could be: “Medicae: 1 Speed: 3 Soak: 6 Stamina - Heal, all troops in range (including Medicae) gain +1 Stamina”, or “Sharpened Swords - the unit this upgrade is attached to gains +2 AP”

This seems to me like it’d suit either a M:TG style card game or a warhams-y tabletop, and a variety of genres - swords ‘n sorcery, modern shootans, Spaceships, etc.

-Cornflake Blues

(Confluence indeed, as this is effectively precisely how combat in Mosaic works - LordXaras)