Guns and Swords and Uniforms (Futurewolfie’s Top 6 Combat Mechanisms)

1. Rex/Dune

Forget dice. Forget determinate combat. Forget everything you’ve ever known; when it comes to resolving the actual moment of battle, nothing comes close to the tension and yet almost complete non-randomness of Rex’s combat dial.

Here’s how it works: you have troops. I have troops. We both know exactly how many troops each of us have in a battle. What we don’t know is how many troops the other is willing to sacrifice in order to win the battle. Both players must secretly choose a number between 0 and the total number of troops involved. Sure, the higher number wins, but whatever number you choose, you lose that many troops. Got any attack or defense cards? You’ve gotta commit those before you know anything about the results. So sure, you may have the advantage in number and a fancy bio-weapon, but if you don’t sacrifice enough, you’ll lose everything, and your enemy might just have the necessary defenses against your attack card. Then there’s the matter of Leaders, who can add their attack value and could just make the difference in a skewed victory; unless of course they get killed or even worse turn out to be a traitor.

At the same time, troops cost resources. Resources win the war. There’s no point in fighting over a cache of Influence if you’re going to spend more in troop losses than you recover. But you don’t want to just let the other guy walk away with that stash for free, do you? There’s a huge push-pull element here. You don’t want to sacrifice too much, but you don’t want to lose the battle.

So you sit there, staring at your combat dial. What number to choose? What number? Should I commit my most powerful leader? What if I need him in that other battle? What if he’s a traitor? Which attack card should I play? Do I need a defense card?

The tension racks up. But it only takes a few moments to select that number, to choose your cards. The other player chooses at the same time. You reveal. Who wins?

I have experienced no better combat resolution mechanism in any game, ever. Period.

Agree? Disagree? What are your top Combat mechanisms?