{"id":5171,"date":"2018-06-25T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/?p=5171"},"modified":"2018-06-24T23:18:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T05:18:15","slug":"imperial-assault-hunger-games-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/?p=5171","title":{"rendered":"Imperial Assault Hunger Games Variant"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve talked a little about the prep of my Imperial Assault Hunger Games variant in both concept<\/a> and execution<\/a> but I wanted to take a minute to go over the full variant as we played it and how you can duplicate it if you want.<\/p>\n

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There have been several Hunger Games variants floating around for games like Imperial Assault and they all center around a central basic idea: multiple players deathmatch on a fixed board with each player controlling a single model until the game whittles down to the last figure standing.\u00a0 To simulate more of the Hunger Game’s theme, a cache of goodies lie at the center of map for players to pick up and use throughout the game.\u00a0 A lot of these matches like to break the game’s fundamental rules in some way by offering the ability to pick new items\/powers\/weapons regardless of whether the figure can legally use it.\u00a0 They also work best with a lot of players in the game to maximize the board and ramp up the chaos factor.<\/p>\n

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I’ve always liked the idea of this free-for-all deathmatch and the Hunger Games element of being able to upgrade your figure has always been appealing as it means you can have a normally inferior character and still win out by grabbing a great item or two.\u00a0 One thing that limits the experience to conventions or large game gatherings is the requirement for lots of players.\u00a0 Free-for-alls really work best if they are at least 4+ players and really come into their own (depending on the complexity of the rules) when dealing with 8-20 players. More than that and you get a game that goes on too long or doesn’t have enough initial table space to be comfortable.<\/p>\n

In planning out my Hunger Games variant, I was looking to eliminate the need for large groups.\u00a0 Large groups can still work in my variant but it won’t be totally dependent on it. What that means is I still wanted a large field of figures on the board but that number would need to be fixed regardless of play count.\u00a0 The solution to this came when I discovered an old horse-racing game by Reiner Knizia, called Winner’s Circle<\/a> (originally known as “Turf Horse Racing” and “Royal Turf”).<\/p>\n

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In Winner’s Circle, players play 3 races with seven horses on the track.\u00a0 Each player bets on the horse they think will win then starts the race. The main trick to making this game work is that no one player controls a specific horse so when a player’s turn comes up, they get assigned a random horse (or choice of horses) and must move it.\u00a0 A horse can’t be chosen twice until all the other horse have had a chance to go and round and round the play continues until one horse crosses the finish line.\u00a0 Players have made their bets in secret and so might find themselves co-operating with some players trying to jockey their shared favorite to the lead or thwart a rival’s horse from taking the victory. This concept became the key to my Imperial Assault Hunger Games variant.<\/p>\n

I must admit that I’ve never played (and don’t own) Winner’s Circle.\u00a0 I would like to but the game is out of print and even though a new printing came up just last year, I haven’t really seen an easy way to get a hold of a copy.\u00a0 This didn’t really matter to me because the concept was all I needed and I would need to tailor the specifics to Imperial Assault itself.<\/p>\n

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For this variant, much like Winner’s Circle, you play as a wealthy observer betting on the outcomes of the Imperial Assault Hunger Games.\u00a0 Players start with a per-determined amount of money and will bet on the outcome of each round of play.\u00a0 Starting with seven figures of varying strength, each round will run until at least two figures are eliminated. Then the round will end, bets will be paid out or lost depending on the results, and the next round will commence until two more figures are eliminated and the final round can begin with, ideally, three figures remaining.<\/p>\n

The exact figure count can be adjusted but realize that more than seven models on the board will mean longer rounds and a longer game. The goal is for each round to remove enough figures to make sure there is some risk in the player’s bets and also leave enough figures in play for the final round for there to be some choice in the final betting.<\/p>\n

During the course of each round, the players will secretly place their bet for the round on what figure they think will survive the round.\u00a0 In the first round, their bets are usually low risk since five of the first seven should survive. The players will need to use their starting money to place all bets and this money is always the maximum they can ever bet in a round, regardless of their future winnings.\u00a0 If, at the end of the round, their bet failed, they will lose that amount from their starting pool and will affect their maximum betting amount for the future.<\/p>\n

After the players pace their bets, the starting player will draw an activation card and activate the model according to the standard Imperial Assault Skirmish rules. The figure can move and shoot anyone they want (except the figure itself) but if they can attack someone, they must do so.\u00a0 Figures may never double move so if they have not attacked before they end their movement, they must do so after if they can.\u00a0 This will help keep the game from dragging on.\u00a0 To set up this activation deck, we took slips of paper and put two slips in for each character and added four wilds for flexibility. As characters are eliminated, their slips are removed from the deck or discarded as drawn.<\/p>\n

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Since not all characters are equal, they are rated in groups to showcase obvious bets versus the “longshots.” I did this simply by grouping the characters in based on their point values.\u00a0 Since I was going with a bounty hunter theme, I had the following spread:<\/p>\n