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Battletech: Domination (fan-created deck-building card game based on Dominion)


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#1 SerEdvard

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Posted 03 November 2012 - 11:54 PM

TL;DR version: I've created a deck-building card game called Battletech: Domination that is based on the popular board/card game Dominion. Just like in Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. The cards represent resources, support actions, and units (mechs, vehicles, and infantry) that form an army, attack their opponent, and defend against their opponent's attacks, with the player's deck itself used as the target of the attack! Although Battletech: Domination includes over 60 unique cards, only 10 of these cards are used in each game (5 copies of each, chosen randomly). This ensures that each game is completely unique and will require different strategies to win, depending on which cards are available in the game.


Hi guys,

I have been working on a Battletech-themed card game for over 2 years now, and I thought this would be a fun place to share the game. I am an avid board gamer and love playing german/euro-style board games such as Dominion, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, and many more. Dominion is one of my favorite board/card games, and a couple years ago I got the idea to make a Battletech-themed total conversion to Dominion with new rules, objectives, turn phases, and mechs (duh). For those who haven't heard of Dominion, it is an award-winning deck-building card game (note: not a CCG) that came out in 2008 and has spawned numerous expansions. It is noted for it's relative ease to learn and play with it's simple and intuitive game mechanics. http://www.boardgame...boardgame/36218)

I've also spent countless hours extensively playtesting the game myself and with a couple other fans of the game, but it is still a work in progress. I still find small balance issues now and then and am constantly making minor balance tweaks, but I think the game plays very well in it's current state and I have many ideas for more cards and gameplay expansions. I am very interested in community feedback, so your comments are appreciated! Please let me know what you think.

NOTE: I take no credit for any of the artwork used in this game, nor is my intent to use this game for personal profit. Much of the artwork comes from the Battletech CCG and other official Battletech artwork. I have tried my best to credit the original artist on each card, but there is some artwork where i have not been able to identify the artist.


GAME DESCRIPTION
Battletech: Domination is a game for 2 players that will be easy for Dominion players to play, but non-Dominion players will also find the game quick to learn. Just like in Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. However, in addition to treasure and action cards, players can also buy unit cards that represent mechs, vehicles, and infantry units to build an army, attack their opponent, and defend against their opponent's attacks, with the player's deck itself used as the target of the attack! Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck (and their army) on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to total domination while defending against an opponent with the same goal.

Battletech: Domination uses a very similar deck building and ABC turn mechanic to Dominion, but introduces several new game mechanics:
- New turn phase (Combat phase)
- New card type (Unit cards)
- No Victory or Curse cards
- New victory condition (the player with the most cards in his deck at the end of the game wins)

CARD SETS
NOTE: Although Battletech: Domination includes over 60 unique cards, only 10 of these cards are used in each game (5 copies of each, chosen randomly). This ensures that each game is completely unique and will require different strategies to win, depending on which cards are available in the game

STARTER SET v2.0:
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EXPANSIONS 1+2 v2.0:
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RULES SUMMARY:

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COMPLETE RULES:

Game Contents:

There are five basic types of cards in Battletech: Domination:

-- Resource cards (yellow) - provide resources to buy new cards (analogous to Treasure cards in Dominion)
-- Unit-Mech cards (red), Unit-Vehicle cards (orange), Unit-Infantry cards (green) - form the army that will attack your opponent during your Combat phase and defend against your opponent’s attacks during their Combat phase
-- Support cards (gray), Support-Attack cards (gray) - can be played during the player’s Action phase to provide some benefit to the player and/or hinder the opposing player (analogous to Action and Action-Attack cards in Dominion)
-- Reaction cards (blue) - can be played in response to a triggering event, even during the opponent’s turn (analogous to Reaction cards in Dominion)

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Game Set‐Up:

Battletech: Domination comes with many different sets of Supply cards, but each game uses only sixteen (16) of these sets:
-- Four (4) piles of Base Cards: Basic Factory (25x), Munitions Factory (15x), Advanced Factory (10x), and Infantry Platoon (20x). (These sets are used in every game.)
-- Six (6) piles of Unit cards chosen by the players or at random, with five (5) copies of the card in each pile.
-- Six (6) piles of Support cards chosen by the players or at random, with five (5) copies of the card in each pile.

- The sixteen (16) sets of cards used in the game are called the "Supply".
- Designate a "Scrapheap" for cards that are scrapped (removed from play) during the game.
- Each player is dealt seven (7) basic factories and three (3) infantry platoons from the supply and shuffles these cards together to form his starting draw deck.

Start of Game:

- Choose a player to go first.
- Both players create their starting hands by drawing five (5) cards from his draw deck.
- The player who goes second then takes an Infantry Platoon from the supply and immediately places it in his Deployment Zone. (Note: This is a handicap for the 2nd player since the 1st player has a small advantage by going first.)
- The first player plays then his turn in the following sequence.

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Goal:

- When the game ends, the player with the most cards combined in his deck (draw deck + discard pile + hand) is the winner.
- In the event of a tie, the player with the most deployed units shall be considered the winner.
- Deployed units are not counted as part of the player's deck for end-of-game scoring purposes.

Player Turn Sequence:

NOTE: The current player must always complete each phase before moving on to the next phase.

1) ATTACK PHASE
The current player automatically ATTACKS his opponent in the following sequence:

A) Each player chooses and resolves any of his unit’s special abilities (attacker uses his abilities first, then defender). Each special ability must be completely resolved before moving on to the next ability or turn phase. If a player has more than one special ability to choose from, he may choose which order to use them.

B) Calculate the attacker’s Total Attack Value and defender’s Total Defense Value by summing the attack/defense values of each unit in his deployment zone, including any unit bonuses and abilities.

C) If the total attack value is greater than the total defense value, then the defender is OVERRUN.
--1) The difference between the Total Attack Value and Total Defense Value is the OVERRUN VALUE. (TOTAL ATTACK - TOTAL DEFENSE = OVERRUN VALUE) Note: he Overrun Value can never be less than zero.
--2) The defender must immediately scrap a number of cards equal to the Overrun Value, to a maximum of 3 cards. The cards are scrapped one at a time and may be scrapped from the defender's hand, top of his draw deck, deployment zone, or a combination of the above (defender’s choice). Note: The defender can never be forced to scrap more than three cards per turn, even if the Overrun Value is greater than three.

D) Additionally, if the attacker’s total attack value is greater than 1, the defender must damage a unit in his deployment zone (even if he was not Overrun).
- "Damage a unit" means to take a unit card from the player's deployment zone and place it into his discard pile. Only deployed units can be damaged; discarding a unit card from the player's hand is not considered to be "damaging" that unit.
- Whenever a card or ability states to "damage an opposing unit...", the owner of the unit to be damaged chooses which of his units to damage, unless stated otherwise on the card.
- A player may not voluntarily choose to damage one of his units unless a card specifically allows him to do so (this may be important for end of game scoring purposes).

2) ACTION PHASE
- The current player may perform two (2) actions per turn, which can be used to do either or both of the following:
---a) Play a Support card from his hand (costs 1 action per card); and/or
---b) Deploy a Unit card from his hand into his deployment zone (costs 1 action per unit).

- Some Support cards played during the Action phase may grant the player with addtional Actions that he may use to at any point during the Action phase to play more Support cards or deploy more Units.
- Unused actions are not carried over from turn-to-turn and disappear at the end of the current Action phase.
- Any cards that are "gained" are placed into the player’s discard pile.

3) BUY PHASE
A) The current player may play any/all Resources cards from his hand. The value of each Resource card play in this way is added to his "resource pool" available to buy cards during the current Buy phase. Any extra resources provided by Support cards played during the Action phase are also added to the resource pool.
B)The current player may then buy one (1) card from the Supply costing up to the total value of the player's resource pool, and gain a copy of it from the Supply.

- All card(s) that are bought in this way are placed into the player’s discard pile.
- Some Support cards played during the Action phase may grant the player with addtional Buys that he may use to buy addtional cards during the Buy phase. You must have enough resources in play to buy each card.
- Unused resources and buys do not carry over from turn-to-turn and disappear at the end of the current Buy phase.
- The player is not required to use all of is available Buys or resources if he does not want to.

4) CLEAN‐UP PHASE
A) The current player places all support and resource cards that were layed this turn plus the remainder of his hand into his discard pile. NOTE: Deployed units remain in the player’s deployment zone and are not discarded from the deployment zone unless they are "damaged" by an opponent's attack.
B) The current player then draws a new hand of five (5) cards from his deck.
C) The opposing player begins his turn, starting with the Attack phase.

NOTE: The player shuffles his discard pile to form a new draw deck anytime there are not enough cards in the draw deck to draw the required amount of cards.

End of Game:
The game ends at the end of the current player’s turn when either one of the following conditions are met:
a) A player has no cards in his deck (draw deck + discard pile + hand).
B) Any four (4) Supply piles are empty.


PLAYER TURN EXAMPLE:

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Edited by SerEdvard, 15 February 2013 - 01:06 PM.


#2 SerEdvard

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 12:09 AM

I know the cards are impossible to read in the images above, so here are close-ups of some of the cards to give a taste of what the game is all about.

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Note that although the game includes over 60 unique cards, only 10 of these cards are used in each game (5 copies of each, chosen randomly). This ensures that each game is completely unique and will require different strategies to win, depending on which cards are available in the game.

#3 Forkme

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Posted 04 November 2012 - 08:53 PM

Look quite impressive. I've played Dominion many times and i like how you've adapted a Battletech game using those principles. It's obvious you've spent a lot of time thinking this over.

#4 SerEdvard

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Posted 05 November 2012 - 07:21 PM

Thanks for your kind words! It's been a lot of fun creating this game, and I must admit that I think it's a lot of fun to play (even against myself).

#5 Madcat 0503

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Posted 08 November 2012 - 11:04 AM

Brilliant job. I love Dominion and I love Battletech (of course ;) ) Your game looks great and I'd like to see those cards more detailled or try playing it. Keep on the good work. I'm looking forward for your first release here !!!

#6 SerEdvard

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Posted 08 November 2012 - 10:36 PM

View PostMadcat 0503, on 08 November 2012 - 11:04 AM, said:

Brilliant job. I love Dominion and I love Battletech (of course :lol: ) Your game looks great and I'd like to see those cards more detailled or try playing it. Keep on the good work. I'm looking forward for your first release here !!!


Thanks! I appreciate your feedback. I'd like to post detailed images of all the cards here, but I havent figured out a good way to do it yet without making a huuuuuuuge post. I'm open to any ideas. :)

#7 Madcat 0503

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Posted 12 November 2012 - 09:34 PM

Hi. I have right now no good idea how to get the pics in here. Maybe you could just put them into a zip/rar file and share them with a 1-click hoster?
But I'm unsure about the terms of use of this board....
:D

#8 SerEdvard

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Posted 15 November 2012 - 09:59 PM

I already have individual jpegs of each individual card and a pdf of the entire set. If there is interest in the game, I will find a way to make them available to view/download (provided that I'm not doing anything against the terms of use, of course). I can also send them directly via email, just PM me.

#9 Treehugger

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Posted 16 November 2012 - 06:01 AM

Woah. Looks like you've really put alot of effort into this. :) Looks absolutely great!

#10 SerEdvard

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Posted 16 November 2012 - 08:50 PM

View PostTreehugger, on 16 November 2012 - 06:01 AM, said:

Woah. Looks like you've really put alot of effort into this. :o Looks absolutely great!


Thanks! I have been working on this game for over 2 years, so I have put in a lot of effort into it but I've had a lot of fun with it at the same time. I've played hundreds of games against myself (sounds a little pathetic, haha), and a couple dozen games with family and friends. I printed early iterations of the game at home with cardstock and a lot of printer ink, but I eventually ordered professional-quality cards from printerstudio.com which are far superior to my early DIY cards.

#11 SerEdvard

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Posted 13 February 2013 - 10:02 AM

Hi guys, I've put this on the back burner for a while to take care of my newborn daughter, but things are finally settling down so I'm ready to continue working on this game again. If there is interest, I can post more card images or go into more detail about the game (game replays, strategies/tips, FAQ, etc.).

#12 Z0MBIE Y0SHI

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Posted 13 February 2013 - 11:37 AM

Currently at school and can't read all that in one sitting, but bookmarking this.

I love dominion, and I love BT. This can't fail.

#13 Forkme

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Posted 13 February 2013 - 11:58 AM

@yoshi
i've played it several times. it doesn't fail =)

#14 SerEdvard

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Posted 15 February 2013 - 11:07 AM

View PostZ0MBIE Y0SHI, on 13 February 2013 - 11:37 AM, said:

Currently at school and can't read all that in one sitting, but bookmarking this.

I love dominion, and I love BT. This can't fail.


Thanks for your interest, ZomYo. (it's ok if i call you that, right? ;) ) I originally posted this game on the BoardGameGeek.com forums when I first started working on the game and have had many interesting discussions about it with the BGG community as the game evolved. There are also many more pictures of the cards and you can download the cards as a pdf. If you're interested, check it out here: http://boardgamegeek.../thread/823650/ and http://www.boardgame...filepage/79592/

And of course, feel free to post any questions or comments here that you have. :)

#15 Mr Mantis

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Posted 18 February 2013 - 12:01 AM

Infantry platoon from starship troopers, gonna go fight some arachnoids with mechs.

#16 Nicholas Carlyle

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Posted 18 November 2013 - 12:16 PM

I'm at work...is this a Windows game?

I played a game called Ascension quite a bit on my phone, would love a game like this.

#17 Sean Lang

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Posted 18 November 2013 - 01:07 PM


Edited by Sean Lang, 18 November 2013 - 01:08 PM.


#18 Hawk819

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Posted 19 November 2013 - 05:39 PM

Where can I get this? I still my cards,a nd have not used them in a long time. I've got cards from all the BattleTech TCG. And would love to play this!





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