Written 05.03.2008 - Uploaded 15.09.2008
This document is not a design document as such, but rather an essay about tactical doctrines of the game. It is meant as a supplement for the rule document as well as an opener for further discussion on the topic.
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Aside from the rules document, which describes the mechanisms behind tactics, this article is more concerned with the actual intended tactical doctrines of the game.
As is typical for games in this category, units can be divided into loose classes or roles. In Project Copernicus, the division might be done into four categories:
1) Assault characters. These characters form the primary offensive resources. They have high hit points and can typically deal out massive amounts of damage against multiple targets, but they are not necessarily the most skilled in combat and typically lose in duels pretty quickly.
2) Skirmishers are the dueling class. These characters are typically much weaker than assault characters but they are more skilled, which makes them good for taking down powerful individuals. They are typically vulnerable against masses who can overwhelm their defense capacity.
3) Defenders specialise in blocking enemy attacks in order to protect support characters. Typically they have high defense values and either shields or armor for protection. Assault characters typically make for decent defenders as well, but they rely more on large pool of hit points than high defense skill which makes them easier for skirmishers to pass by.
4) Support characters play one of the most important roles. They give the whole group advantages by healing, protecting, boosting and casting massive offensive spells. They are typically weak and inept at combat which makes them easy targets for assault characters, and especially fast moving skirmishers. Having no support characters at all is a huge disadvantage, because they are also the only ones who can effectively counter opposing support characters.
Attacks on the other hand are divided strictly into ranged and melee, and more loosely to subcategories based on different attributes such as number of targets. Typically single-target attacks are more accurate and powerful where as multi-target attacks aim at weakening a group of enemies (or destroying weaker enemies). There's not much detail to go into here, as these will be covered in advanced rules later.
Everyone knows magic, except the Malachi characters. Characters will have various special attacks that are magic-based but not actually magic. These are called natural abilities and reflect spells that the character has mastered so well that there is no need to spend any energy points to fuel them. Actual magic on the other hand needs energy to fuel it and is more time-consuming to cast, but in return it is much more dynamic. Typically most powerful attacks in terms of damage are often spells thrown by powerful support characters. While other characters do know magic, their knowledge is often more limited and their spell-casting abilities much weaker. Malachi characters on the other hand are able to reload energy reserves of other characters which makes them important especially during long battles. They can also drain the energy reserves from the enemy, which is also an effective tactic since characters lose all of their special abilities if their energy points drop to zero.
So let's move on to how the rock-paper-scissors in this game works. As can be seen, the game favors large formations that can effectively block movement. Block zones come to aid in this, meaning there's no need to have characters side-by-side in order to make an impassable line. Assault characters are needed in order to break through these formations but typically cannot do so very effectively if there's active supporters behind the formation. Skirmishers on the other hand can go around the formation, which means there's a need to protect the flanks with other skirmishers, who can keep up in speed and flexibility.
As the player's forces are typically much smaller in numbers, it is typical that large formation tactics cannot be applied very effectively. This is increases the need for specialised defenders who can protect important support characters while rest of the group is freed to make attacks against the enemy. Pressure is typically important, because allowing enemy characters to run around freely makes support characters easy prey, even if defended. While writing this, I'm still holding on to the idea that character deaths should be permanent, which means protecting weak support characters is really important, especially since a battlegroup is at a huge disadvantage without at least one.
A balanced choice of characters is essential. On the other hand, certain powerful characters can play multiple roles and some can counter enemy support effectively to some degree. A group is always built of key characters (ones that are required for the scenario) while the rest are chosen freely using either a power point system where every character is given a power point cost, or by dividing the characters into power levels and allowing a certain number of picks from each power level. The system should be designed so that the needs vary: sometimes it's better to have a lot of weaker characters while sometimes a few stronger ones is better. Most of the time, this should be up to the player's preference. Using the power level system this could be enforced a bit better, and game balance might be easier to establish.
This much can be said at the moment. These ideas are definitely open for comments!