Space Chess
Had this idea a long time ago, would be great for ST-Games (need a better name). Players get an armada of ships, each with different abilities. Players coordinate movement. Ships move in real time.
- Beacon 8x
- Shielded at rest
- Hull: 3
- 1 DPS
- Pawn like, have many of them, Cannot fire while moving, shields up 1 second after it stops moving.
- Command 1x
- Shielded at rest
- Hull: 6
- 1 DPS
- Kill it and win, otherwise, acts like a Beacon, but with more hull points
- Gunner 1x
- No shields
- Hull: 3
- 1 DPS, shield piercing
- Can pierce shields, the timing should works so that if it attacks a beacon, they will destroy each other.
- Engineer 1x
- No Shields
- Hull: 3
- No weapons
- Will auto repair hull damage to ships in range. Ship must stay in range for 3 seconds, even while moving
- Can upgrade a beacon to anything except command but both must stay at rest for 15 seconds.
- Artillery 1x
- No Shields, anti-artillery
- Hull: 3
- Fires an explosive round, takes 10 seconds, does friendly fire damage. Targets a location, not an enemy. Area of attack is fairly small.
- Escort 1x
- Anti-artillery
- Provides a shield bubble, even while moving. The algorithm on the bubble, is any shot within range is removed, so it even provides line-of-sight protection.
- Warp 2x
- No Shields
- Can warp to within range of any friendly beacon. If both warp ships are near beacons, can warp ships between them
If the game goes 3 minutes without dealing hull damage or 6 minutes without an upgrade or a kill, a stalemate is declared. All ships move at the same speed.
Strategy and Balance
The balance of the game is that beacons stake out an area. But a beacon can be destroyed by artillery, so you need to keep them moving. A gunner and an escort can destroy beacons without taking damage. A gunner and an engineer can also kill a beacon. Two beacons can kill one beacon.
So long as there are two warp ships on the board, ships can be moved very quickly. And one beacon can move in another and setup it's shield before being destroyed.
Killing Command
I think it would take 3 beacons to kill command.