I wish it was Advance Wars.

This week, we were tasked with creating a board game based on acquiring territory. The hard part about this was making it not play the same as Risk. After creating ideas that were all pretty much exact copies of Risk, we knew we would need some in-game attribute that would make it play differently. But first, we needed fuel.

Mmmm, chocolate.

While making the chow, I suggested a game about hacking computers. Then it stuck; giving birth to H.A.C.K.E.R.S.: The Movie - The Game.

Awesome board created by James Creavalle.

RULEBOOK EXERPT:
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H.A.C.K.E.R.S.: Having All Computer Kernels Every Realtime Second

Players: 2-4 players

H.A.C.K.E.R.S. is all about the war for the Cloud. Control the Cloud, control the internet. Join a Faction and out hack the enemies to control the Cloud and get one step closer to world domination! 

Set-up: Each player chooses a Faction to represent in the war by choosing a colour of bead. Factions then roll to see who goes first or play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Players chose a starting node based on turn order. Each node is assigned 10 bits of power. Players then decide how many turns the game will run for. At the end of the last turn, the player with the most nodes wins.

Play: Each node runs on bits. Players accumulate bits at the beginning of each turn. Players amass bits based at a flat rate of 5 with a boost based on how many nodes they own, according to the following chart:

• ·         3 nodes = +2
• ·         6 nodes = +4
• ·         9 nodes = +5
• ·         12 nodes = +7

After capturing 12 nodes, you gain +1 for every 2 more captured nodes. The collected bits are then distributed to each node based on the players choosing. Nodes are indicated by placing the small blue beads on the node you control.

There are 3 phases per turn: Transfer, Boost and Hack. During the Transfer phase, players can transfer power to any nodes that they are connected to. When a bit is sent, it is subtracted from the current total as well, (e.g. if node A has 12 bits and sends 4, node A will have 8 bits after). Players may only transfer bits once per turn. Nodes can only hold 30 bits max. 

In the Boost phase, players may sacrifice bits to set up Firewalls. Firewalls make you harder to hack during the Hacking phase and disappear on your next turn. To indicate a Firewall has been placed, select a bead colour for “Firewalls” and place it on your node. Firewalls are powered up based on the following:

• ·         Firewall Lvl 1 (costs 5 bits): reflects 2 bits of damage
• ·         Firewall Lvl 2 (costs 7 bits): reflects 3 bits of damage
• ·         Firewall Lvl 3 (costs 9 bits): reflects 4 bits of damage
• ·         Firewall Lvl 4 (costs 12 bits): reflects 5 bits of damage

During the Hacking phase, players may sacrifice bits to attack other players. When sacrificing, players must leave at least 10 bits in the node to sustain their capture of it. Players may only attack once. To attack, players select any node they are connected to. Players may then attack that node with any other nodes they own that are connected to it. The defender then decides how many bits to use to defend. If the defender uses more bits than the attacker, the difference is dealt in damage to the attacker; e.g. if the attacker sends out 10 and the defender defends with 15, the attacker loses 5 bits on their node(s).

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I really enjoy how this game came out; as close as it is to Risk, I feel as though we've created a definite gap in our game versus Risk. The fact that it's also very futuristic helps towards this case as well. In terms of change, however, I would've liked to add some form of physical counter to the board, instead of having beads. Another concept I would've like to try and work in was attack boosts. Based on the sacrificing of health to attack, we didn't see any way to add it into the game without it feeling over powered.

One possible change I would've also liked to have add is the ability to charge attacks - you would sacrifice the health like you were going to attack that turn, but store it for later use (possibly even increasing the strength of the attack). I didn't suggest this as we didn't have time to test it and the possibility of attack boosts was iffy, but it would be interesting to see how it would alter gameplay.

Another thing would be completely removing the Firewall. The conecpt sounded nice and looked benefical when actually playing the game, but after analyzing the numbers, we noticed that there seems to be a net loss instead of a gain for the player.

So join a Faction today and take your part in the war to the Cloud!