Objective Based Free for All Suggestions (1914)


  • Hello, everyone.

    I’m after help with game rules to convert the 1914 game into a free for all game where each player has secret objectives that may or may not conflict with other plays, so the alliances each game are not set in stone.

    The idea would be that you would have the 1914 dudes on a map and combat style but also, a set of maybe 2 or three objectives, drawn at random that may be specific (Take this region) or broad (take x number of islands) or something like that. This way, there might be players like France and Germany who would team up, but maybe Austria, Russia, and the Ottomans might get together since they have objectives they can help each other with. Also, it would mean players might get through the game without too many full scale wars.

    I’m thinking some sort of resource trading might be necessary so you can put the screws on warring parties when you’re neutral or something like that. just a 1914 that doesn’t always play the same way.

    I like the HBG 1914 map, so that’s something like what I’m envisioning, but any map suggestions for how this might work are welcomed.

    Thanks guys


  • There have certainly been various proposals posted on the forum over the years – see the links I’ve posted below for some samples – for a) free-for-all versions of A&A, and b) Risk-type variants of A&A, and c) house rules for the A&A 1914 game as a whole or for specific aspects of it, but I don’t know if the combination of all three exists.  My suggestion would be that you go through the title screens of these two forum sections…

    Other Axis & Allies Variants
    House Rules

    …and look for thread titles that mention such terms as free-for-all or Risk or 1914 or WWI.  This might provide you with usable material for your project.

    It sounds as if you already have a fairly clear idea of the kind of game you want to develop.  Since there haven’t been tons of responses to your two forum threads on this subject (today’s and the similar one from April 7), my guess is that nobody has already developed the precise set of house rules you’re seeking…so the next logical step would be for you to develop it, using as inspiration various ideas from the kinds of threads shown below.

    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36280.0

    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41715.0

    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=33016.0

    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41771.0

    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41174.0

    https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41334.0


  • Mate,

    Thanks a whole bunch for that. I’ve been running a dragnet through all the forums the last couple of days to see if I can find what I’m after, but haven’t found anything perfect so I think the first step might be to give it a crack myself as you’ve suggested. the hope was that I wouldn’t have to do any work myself, but such is life.

    Thanks for the help.


  • Keep us updated if this moves forward, it sounds very interesting


  • I’ve been looking around online and in my local game store, and it looks like the Attack! Deluxe rules are something like what I’m going for, with a few resources and variable starting positions, as well as empty neutral territories, but it kind of lacks the interlocking and conflicting objectives and I think those are the real lynchpin of this idea, everything else one wants to change would really come after that integral base idea.


  • @RVWDeerhound:

    I’ve been looking around online and in my local game store, and it looks like the Attack! Deluxe rules are something like what I’m going for, with a few resources and variable starting positions, as well as empty neutral territories, but it kind of lacks the interlocking and conflicting objectives and I think those are the real lynchpin of this idea, everything else one wants to change would really come after that integral base idea.

    Perhaps I’m misunderstanding, but it sounds as if you’re trying to find an existing game whose primary characteristic is that it offers, in a fully-developed form, an operating mechanism for which you’ve identified a few general concepts but for which you don’t yet have a functional prototype.  So in a sense, the specific setting of the game (WWI, WWII, etc.) and the finer details aren’t actually relevant at this point because there are much more fundamental issues to be resolved first.  To use an analogy: one could start with the general concept that one wants to design a game in which two players face off on an 8 x 8 checkerboard, but it would be premature at that stage to get into the details of what the game pieces will look like because first one needs to work out fundamental points about the game’s operating mechanism (since the same 8 x 8 board could be used to play any number of vastly different games, chess and checkers being two examples).

    I suspect that what you’re looking for may not actually exist…so rather than trying to find an existing game that fits your concept, it might be better for you to work out your concept first, in detail, and then identify which existing game would be most suitable to being adapted to fit your requirements.  And since, as I’ve mentioned, the specific setting isn’t relevant at this point, you may want to work out your system in a very abstract way, on a very simple and highly simplified outline map of the world (say, a blank version of the Risk map), with just three unnamed powers as the theoretical players.  Eliminate everything else, so you can focus on working out how your system of “secret interlocking and conflicting objectives” would work in actual practice in a functional game.  To shift analogies: first develop a functional internal combustion engine, then decide what kind of vehicle you want to power with it.  That would be my recommendation, for whatever it’s worth.


  • That is what it’s looking to be like, I’ve been hunting around to get inspiration and it looks as though, as you stated, what i want doesn’t exist. So now comes the hard work and thinking of how to design such a game. Perhaps a basic, unrefined skeleton is where I start and from there I can see if it is possible.

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