Bughouse Heroscape

[ollie]

Disclaimer: This is an untested idea for a Heroscape variant. It will need play-testing and fine-tuning before being more than a topic to idly ponder while not playing proper Heroscape.


Bughouse Heroscape

Bughouse Chess is a 2 v 2 variant of chess that makes for a great fast, fun and chaotic break from the real thing, while maintaining much of the style and strategy of the original. Bughouse Heroscape steals the basic mechanic pretty much as-is. In theory at least, it should be a blast.

Four players, in two teams of two, face off. The set-up is exactly as if there were two entirely independent games happening side-by-side. The twist is that if your team-mate destroys a unit then it becomes available for you to use. For a team to win, it just needs to win one of the games.

The Rules (adapted from the wikipedia page for Bughouse Chess)

Each of the four players drafts or brings a premade army of a set number of points (I think 400pts would be a good size). Each army must include at least one unique hero (see "Victory Conditions" below). Players from opposing teams pair-off on two maps (which may be the same or different, but small is probably best). Each game proceeds as usual, with the following exceptions:

Destroyed Units: A player destroying an opponent's full unit immediately removes all wounds and order markers from that unit and passes that unit and card to their partner (if your opponent destroys one of his/her own units then that is handled as if you destroying it). The partner keeps these units in reserve and when any order marker is revealed may place one of these reserve units on the board instead of using the unit on which the order marker was revealed. Figures may be placed on any unoccupied spaces. Figures being placed are subject to Engagement Strike and similar powers. The reserve of each player should be kept visible to all players.

In the case of common squads, use one card per squad and a squad must be passed once the number of figures in a single squad are destroyed, regardless of whether the sculpts are distinct. For common squads, even if you have two or more common squads in reserve you may only place one squad per order marker.

Order Markers: Order Markers may be placed on any card that a player controls, including those in reserve. So, for example, you may place markers 2 and 3 on a reserve unit with the intention of deploying it on marker 1. In this case it does not matter where order marker 1 is (and it may legally be on that same unit). When a unit with an order marker on it is destroyed, the player that controlled the destroyed unit loses the order marker; that is, that order marker may not be used to place reserve units.

Victory Conditions: Each player must nominate a unique hero from his/her army to be the "king". A game is won by destroying your opponent's king. The match ends when either of the games on the two boards ends. The team to which the victorious player belongs is the victorious team.

Communication: Partners are allowed to talk to each other during the game. They can for instance ask for a specific unit or ask that the teammate does not lose Raelin in the next five minutes at any cost.

Stalling: This is a fast dumb version of an already speedy game. Stalling for advantage is frowned upon. If a player delays their move beyond the time that it takes for a full round to occur in the other game, then that player is punched in the face by each of the other three players and anyone else that happens to be nearby.

Weird Game-Breaking Powers A few Heroscape units have special powers that could interfere with the new mechanic. Here are the ones I've thought of. I'm bound to have missed some; post more in the thread (preferably with suggested work-arounds) and I'll edit this post to include them.

Viking Spirits: When Finn, Thorgrim, or Eldgrim die, their spirit is placed on a card as usual and remains on that card for the rest of the game. The viking does not become available to other players. It is legal (and possibly desirable) to place the spirit on one of your teammate's units or even on one of your opponents' units. (For example, you may well want to put Finn on your opponent's one-life-remaining Charos because your teammate will get most of the advantage from it.)

Rejected By Death, Ruling A: If your Thanos is destroyed then you may attempt to return Thanos to your army using Rejected By Death at any point before Thanos is deployed on the other board.

Rejected By Death, Ruling B: No figures in Heroscape have a power called "Rejected By Death". You must be mixing in a substandard comic-book knock-off and hence destroying the purity of a perfect game. Stop at once. Any variation on the rules of Classic Heroscape is an abomination.


Final Comments

I do still have a few worries on its viability. My biggest concern is that the breaking up of common squads could get messy and hard to track. The alternative is to limit the number of common squads a player may draft (I was thinking to no more than 150pts of any common squad in a 400pt army, with the exception that you may draft two cards' worth of a common squad costing 80 or more points per squad). Otherwise, I think an army consisting mainly of a single common unit would give too much of an advantage as it would be near-impossible for the opponent of that player to provide reserve units for his/her teammate.

How about glyphs? Up to you; it should work either way.

Another possible variant is to have the reserve available to everyone on a team (so when you destroy a unit it is available to both you and your teammate). The original rule works well in chess because it is set-up so that on a team one player is white and one is black, and hence captured pieces are the right colour for your teammate. This variant of a variant lets you play 3 v 3, or 4 v 4, or even 10 v 10 naturally (though probably chaotically). It also works 1 v 1. If playing with lots of boards it might be more fun to let all games go to completion and count the overall score rather than making the first game to finish decisive.

So there it is. Do you think it could be fun? I hope to try it out in a week or two when school starts and there are more 'scapers back in my area, but I thought I'd post it here to see what you all think.

EDIT: I just noticed that this was my 666th post. I should rename it devilscape or something.

[LongHeroscaper]

Do you have to synchronize the rounds as well, like game 1, finishing round 1, has to wait for game 2 to finish round 1 before both start round 2?

[ollie]

Originally Posted by LongHeroscaper

Do you have to synchronize the rounds as well, like game 1, finishing round 1, has to wait for game 2 to finish round 1 before both start round 2?

No---that's part of the chaotic fun. Each game goes at its own pace. In bughouse chess, clocks are usually used to keep everything moving speedily. I've played without though, and as long as all four players are there for some speedy fun it's fine. I'm hoping that such an attitude would be sufficient to keep the heroscape version moving.

If you're looking for some deep strategic thinking, then this probably is not a game you want to play. It's should be fast and frenzied, and if the four players come to the table with that mindset I reckon it should be fun.

[arp12]

Bumping this thead because you linked to it... this would be fun to try out. Would you be allowed to kill your own units to transfer them to your teammate?

[ollie]

Originally Posted by arp12

Bumping this thead because you linked to it... this would be fun to try out. Would you be allowed to kill your own units to transfer them to your teammate?

Thanks!

No; if you kill your own unit then it goes to the opposing team. The exception is the vikings with spirits: you get to place them where you want the spirits and the units cannot re-appear on the battlefield.

[arp12]

So it's not: Any units you kill are transferred to your teammate.
But it is: Any units that get destroyed are transferred to the opponent's teammate.

So basically, you can only swap dead units with the person who is neither your opponent nor your teammate.

[ollie]

Originally Posted by arp12

So it's not: Any units you kill are transferred to your teammate.
But it is: Any units that get destroyed are transferred to the opponent's teammate.

So basically, you can only swap dead units with the person who is neither your opponent nor your teammate.

Yes, that's it. I'll edit, thanks.

[lxnrhinners]

Originally Posted by ollie

Disclaimer: This is an untested idea for a Heroscape variant. It will need play-testing and fine-tuning before being more than a topic to idly ponder while not playing proper Heroscape.

This sounds very similar to Tai-Pan's Underworld idea. Check it out!

Originally Posted by ollie

Victory Conditions: Each player must nominate a unique hero from his/her army to be the "king". A game is won by destroying your opponent's king. The match ends when either of the games on the two boards ends. The team to which the victorious player belongs is the victorious team.

Would the king get pumped up stats? (or would he just half to be Jotulk? )

Originally Posted by ollie

Stalling: This is a fast dumb version of an already speedy game. Stalling for advantage is frowned upon. If a player delays their move beyond the time that it takes for a full round to occur in the other game, then that player is punched in the face by each of the other three players and anyone else that happens to be nearby.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!

Originally Posted by ollie

Rejected By Death, Ruling B: No figures in Heroscape have a power called "Rejected By Death". You must be mixing in a substandard comic-book knock-off and hence destroying the purity of a perfect game. Stop at once. Any variation on the rules of Classic Heroscape is an abomination.

Hahahahahahahahahahah!!!

Originally Posted by ollie

How about glyphs? Up to you; it should work either way.

I would only have glyphs affect both members of the same team if you could also do other things associated with figures being on the same board. (bonding, inspired gladiators, frenzy bonuses, etc.)

Originally Posted by ollie

It also works 1 v 1.

Now that would be interesting---however, I think it would be a different idea from what you've got going here.

Originally Posted by ollie

EDIT: I just noticed that this was my 666th post. I should rename it devilscape or something.

...

[Lamaclown]

I love bughouse chess. I will definitely have to try to talk my gaming group into trying this!

[Sup3rS0n1c]

Originally Posted by lxnrhinners

Would the king get pumped up stats? (or would he just half to be Jotulk? )

Actually, his move becomes 1, his range becomes 1, and he loses all speciall abilities. Just to stay accurate to the original Chess kings ^_~

Wow, this was awesome. I'm glad this was bumped, I'm gonna have to try this sometime (if I actually managed to get four players together; maybe at the next tourney )

[lxnrhinners]

Originally Posted by Sup3rS0n1c

Actually, his move becomes 1, his range becomes 1, and he loses all speciall abilities. Just to stay accurate to the original Chess kings ^_~

...um...

...can anybody say:

o o o o o
.o o o o
o o o o o
....X

where o's are Roman Legionarres, and X is Hulk? XP