Units in Faction Games

I’ve seen two main ways of handling units in high-concept strategy games - as squads and as unit types. I have originally addressed this in FFR: A Year Later, but I figured a closer look at both of those is in order.

Squads

This was used in Braunstein, the Bloom (its archive Discord server available here) and is commonly used in wargaming at various levels of complexity (Kriegsspiel, Warhammer, etc.)

In a squad-based system, each group of soldiers or specialists available to you is its own squad. Every squad can be described separately via equipment, tags, stats, or what have you. What differs it from a unit-type system, is that you can and will have multiple squads of the same unit type.

Let’s give an example.

I have 3 squads of Rats, they are all the same unit type - Basic Rat. All Rats are quick, small, crafty and cowardly.

Squad 1 is Rank II and armed with laser rifles.

Squad 2 is Rank I and armed with torches and pitchforks.

Squad 3 is Rank III, armed with blackpowder matchlocks and driving a landship.

The way the squads are described (stats, equipment, tags), I know roughly what they’re capable of. I can give each squad a different task. Heroes are also easily modelled here as their own Squads. I could also assign more complicated stats to them (speed, damage, etc.)

Squad-based systems usually allow you to create new squads, or to modify the squads you already have (give them different equipment, train new tags or increase stats).

Advantages of Squad system

- Easily comparable in skirmishes.

The referee can easily compare squads. For example, at a glance I can see that Squad 2 is going to lose to either of the other two squads in open engagement. The same is true for the player, so they can more reliably gauge their unit strength.

- Detail in orders, more happening

Because the player can give out more orders than in a Unit Type system, more could be happening in a given turn. An engaged player can interact with many elements of the setting and with multiple other players’ plans at once.

- Simple damage tracking

Unlike in a Unit Type system, here you can have destroyed/wounded squads. There’s no vagueness or additional means of tracking squad health needed. Furthermore, wargames can track individual models.

- Detail in squads

Squad-based systems are particularly good at modelling warfare. Here every squad can be detailed on its own, and you can have great variety within a seemingly same-y army, with different equipment, vehicles, special characters attached to a squad, and more.

Disadvantages of Squad System

- Large information load on player and referee

The player is forced to keep track of every single squad, its tags/equipment/stats, where it is and what it’s doing. The referee must keep track of all this also, on top of ensuring the player didn’t make any errors in changing any of the values. 

If you have 5 or so squads or your squads can’t change during gameplay, this isn’t as intensive, but if you can produce new squads, the information load grows exponentially. Something like an excel sheet is recommended.

- Required engagement

Because of the above, a game using a squad system is more difficult for beginners to engage with. It requires more time to write out orders for each player and far more time to resolve them for the referee. It requires a dedicated player base and an experienced referee with plenty of spare time, capable of handling all this.

- Balancing

While comparing squads in skirmishes with static squad count and equipment is simpler in this system, the same can’t be said if you can produce new squads or modify existing ones. How do you balance a faction that has very strong starting squads but can produce very little (or none), compared to one that has very weak starting squads but can produce a lot of squads and equipment over the course of the game?

- No modelled resources

You may have to plug in either a one-use-asset system, where assets are treated similarly to units, but are more difficult to produce (Death Dream of the Infinite) or a separate Token system (Bloom) if you want to model things like economy, being able to use facilities or artefacts and the like.

Unit Type (Token system/FFR)

Every FFR game besides Bloom used the Unit Type/Token system (list can be found on the FFR Discord server)

In this system you have only unit types, characterised by their equipment, abilities, tags, stats or whatnot. 

Soldiers - army, armed with machine guns, kevlar-lined armour, using a handful of IFVs with heavy machine guns

Technicians - group, no armour, basic handguns, can fix equipment and vehicles, can set up fortifications

You don’t track individual squads, but rather use Tokens (which you usually get 2-4 per turn) to declare which unit types are engaged where. Say, you declare “I’m using 2 Tokens to have my Soldiers attack the enemy base”. You can use multiple unit types for the same action.

Advantages of a Unit-Type/Token system

- Easier to Play and Parse

With less major actions per week (2-3 on average, up to 6) the information load on both referee and player is far smaller. This also enables busier or less experienced players to engage with the game, making it easier to pick up and run.

- Modelled Economy

Tokens immediately allow you to model a faction’s size and economy. Assets (such as units) in basic FFR systems each allow you to do different things that you spend Tokens on. This allows you for example to say “I will spend 2 Tokens on research and only 1 on troop movement”, which helps determine your priorities and resolve a vast array of actions, modelling not just warfare but also other aspects of statesmanship.

- Roleplay, Diplomacy and Decisions focus

FFR games are chiefly not wargames, and the Token system consciously takes complexity and fidelity of simulation away from warfare to give importance to other matters, like making policy decisions, management of information, diplomacy, economy and more. Those aspects can obviously be present in squad-based systems, but at a cost of more complexity.

Disadvantages of Unit-Type/Token system

- Less Actions

I write this with a grain of salt. Many standard FFR games have been so fast-paced and intense that many players, including me, had trouble keeping up. Nevertheless, on paper you can do way more in a squad-based system.

- Tracking Health

You generally won’t disable a whole unit type if a 1-Token group has been wiped out, hence why more involved health-tracking systems may have to be used. For example, enabling a unit type to be used in 3 Tokens’ worth of engagements, or 1-2 if wounded.

- Less Unit Fidelity

It’s rather inevitable that the technicalities of what you can do with your army - equipment, new tags, etc. will suffer a bit in this system. Making changes to your entire unit type, or producing new ones is generally more difficult.

- Oversimplifying Combat Resolution

Are two unit types inherently better than one, even if you spend just 1 Token on the engagement? Maybe the amount of unit types you can engage is determined by the amount of Tokens spent? Does keeping your troops in an area cost Tokens? These and more are the kinds of questions a referee should answer themselves before running the game.

In practice, this has rarely ever been an issue. Very often combat is rarely ever just “2 tokens of unit A beat up 2 tokens of unit B” and usually more narrative, with varied goals and unit movements. A very clear resolution often shows itself just by carefully reading the orders that each player gives.

Conclusions and Afterword

I will preface this by saying these are my views and advice based on my experiences, and others may have different take on this.

Every time you increase complexity and simulation fidelity, you sacrifice something else. High-fidelity squad systems suffer in terms of economy and statesmanship. If you add mechanics for economy, your game becomes more complex and difficult to run. Therefore, ask yourself what you want to run and why.

Personally, I haven’t really seen a game (in the FFR sphere) particularly enhanced by a squad-based system, and I’ve seen games bogged down by it. It offers a false sense of simulationism and balance that falls apart under pressure. This is largely because many scenarios have their own systems, and the first playthrough of it (often the only one) ends up its playtest. Many referees also open up with a “I can absolutely take increased workload” and then buckle under it 3-4 turns in.

I strongly suggest, both for up-and-coming referees and for more experienced ones, to use the Token/Unit Type system. It’s easy to run and easy to play. The theoretical apprehensions about its combat resolution are in practice rather easily resolved and rarely ever relevant due to the clarity of the picture painted by actual player orders. It really helps make your game about something more than moving miniatures across a map.

Conversely, once you’ve run a couple of games, have a group that chiefly knows what they’re doing, and are confident in your skill as a faction game referee, the Squad system can be neat to try.

Designing a Faction Game Scenario

There’s lately been a demand for a run-through on the process of designing faction games, and especially Freeform Faction Roleplay scenarios. Here’s my take, where I’ll cover various steps of the process with a couple pointers to what has worked before. Remember that these are my conclusions that I reached at my tables, with my players. Someone else might find a different approach better.

Core Premise

There’s a wide array of topics, worlds and scenarios that can be covered by FFR-style play-by-post games.

Here are the questions you should answer:

• What genre of fiction are you covering?

• Where in time and space is your game happening?

• What “sides” are involved?

• What’s going on/what is the inciting incident or the state of the world?

The following elements of core premise have improved the games, while the opposite usually diminished them:

Static location - whether a city, a country or a star system, you should keep location the same and limit outside influence. This allows players to plan more reliably, and to live with the consequences of their actions if they destroy something or make enemies.

Character-focused interaction - players should have a specific character, a leader-type for their faction that enables them to have a point of view through which they view and interact with the setting.

Furthermore - minor (NPC) factions should also have named leaders or representatives, and there should be recurrent characters both within the player factions and out in the world. Don’t have too many of them - make sure you can meaningfully handle the ones you have and try to have characters fulfill multiple roles. This helps make diplomatic relationships and interactions more personal.

Pressure - PvP, events and disasters, hostile actions from NPC factions - all of those are a good way to maintain player engagement and stop the game from petering out. 

Exercise moderation, however. Excessive PvP setup in your core premise (like a king of the hill/battle royale style game) can lead to the game being too frustrating and hostile to enjoy.

Limited Timeframe - FFR games have been at their most effective when limited in turns - usually to 6 - and a steady, weekly turn update. Breaking turns, delaying updates or setting longer time limits has usually been detrimental to player engagement. Try to involve a time-limiting factor in your starting premise.

System

I will not talk much about systems here, and will instead cover them in depth in another post. The core system I’m using could be found in the FFR blogpost. Suffice to say, it’s fairly malleable and you can add your own spin on it to emphasize certain aspects thereof.

Variations on this design have been done, more on that in FFR One Year Later. You can also try using a system from various Kriegsspiel or Engels’ Matrix communities, but this guide focuses chiefly on FFR.

Designing a Faction

When designing a faction, the core elements you’ll need to cover are its Concept, Assets, Connections and Events related to it. Minor factions are also often parts of larger, player-controlled ones.

Here are some principles to keep in mind while designing factions.

Ensure that a faction is an independent unit. 

That means it should have:

• A fighting force

• Counterintelligence (preferably general intelligence)

• Research/upgrade capacity

A faction can focus on one of those - or on some other aspect - but should have access to all of those in a standard game.

Ensure that each faction is unique and has something special going for it that others don’t.

This could mean dealing with an entirely different aspect of the world (magic, tech, world of spirits, divinity), a specialty (warfare, research, intelligence), unique political circumstances (like being the head of a large empire) and more.

Uniqueness is ultimately a balance. If you make every faction a different species, or make “weird aliens” or “world-eating swarm” types of factions, understand that interaction with them is limited. They cannot be infiltrated, their food supply cannot be readily poisoned, etc. so it may be best to try to make the majority of factions nevertheless similar enough that they can relate to each other.

“Balancing” factions is by default very difficult.
A faction is only as strong as its player. Extremely strong factions may never see their kit fully utilized, while very weak ones may see very good plays that bring them to work very well. Try to put yourself in their shoes, consider how you would play them, see if they’re missing anything they should have.

You naturally shouldn’t make a faction strong at everything - they should have some kind of weakness that can be exploited by their opponents.

Unless you put numbers to units (which I personally rarely do) then a faction that has one element of its kit “very strong” won’t be as effective as a faction with a kit with wider options.

Core Concept

Cook up a blurb that informs what a faction is, what it can do, and what its goals are. Make sure to never reveal all the details of a faction’s kit in a blurb. 

The blurbs also function as an introduction to the world. They give players an idea of what to expect from every faction, what is possible in the world, etc.

Here is an example faction blurb:

ENDOR the City of Secrets

Built and maintained by demons bound by the Witch, the City of Secrets is a refuge of morally dubious scholarly pursuits.

Principles

- Antediluvian society failed because it stopped asking questions and became dogmatic about its conclusions.

- Humanity should strive to learn the secrets of the world, no matter the cost.

- Loyalty to any powers of heaven is foolishness.

Features

Average Chaos - while mostly loyal, both the guards and sorcerers aren't particularly well-disciplined.   

Six Grand Demons - the demons bound by the Witch who maintain the city and offer terrible retribution for anyone who tries to take it.  

Library - the library receives echoes of events and stories from far-away, they're ripe for the picking for the sorcerers who brave its depths.

Alchemies & Sorceries - Endor has minor magics aplenty, and while it's unlikely to achieve swathing results in warfare, it has wide application for utility.

Assets

Assets determine what a faction is able to do. Assets cover characters, unit types, facilities, special resources and abilities.

Begin with the leader - the POV character of the player. What can they do, who are they, etc. Make sure to give the player ample space to express themselves.

Here is how Mike from Sheep And Sorcery introduced me to my leader character in his World Bloom War game:

“You are the Wayfinder, the elected head of the Navigators Guild, ruled over by the four great Navigator Houses: Kraken, Siren, Capricorn and your own. You command the trade and exploration fleets that sail on the Black Seas of Infinity. 

Come up with a house you hail from. Pick one for your house: Shipbuilders/Explorers/Fishers/Engineers/Void Specialists

Pick one: Expert Pilot/Tradesman/Combat Specialist/Void Mage

Pick one: Void Manipulator (Short range, single target teleport)/Void Saber (Sunders any armor)/Potentia Pistol (Horrific ranged weapon)“

This is an exemplary design. This gives the player an ample description and provides them with some choices to make right off the bat. However, skipping these choices to focus on other parts of design and have a bit more balanced game is also a valid option.

Unit Types

The simplest way to design unit types is to get at least 2-3 of them to fit the faction’s theme and support each other.

For example, a faction of Machine Cult could have:
Engineer-Priests who research and repair Warmachines
Warmachines, the bread and butter of their army.

Guards who support the Warmachines and protect the individual Priests.

Each of those units would be described with tags and any of their special abilities and qualities would also have to be communicated. Here is an example of a special unit:

Engineer-Cultists - patrol, civilian, hack enemy mechanical units, repair and control Warmachines mid-battle

Engineer-Priests are the ruling caste of the Machine Cult. Carefully selected and well-educated, they’re genius inventors and have a connection with all things mechanical that many would envy.

As you can see, Engineer-Priests have two special abilities that set them apart. These abilities are noted in shorthand - the exact way they work is determined by the referee via rulings.

Here is a different way of designing unit types that would tie them to minor factions:

Arcadia has three clans: Blood, Fire and Shadow.

Blood Clan - army, military, melee

The warriors of the Blood Clan have no match in their melee combat skills amongst the Arcadian horde.

Leader: Solinus Sharp-Tooth - a cunning and ruthless leader, very judgmental of your efficiency and meaningless loss of his troops. Will kill you to take Lycaeon’s throne if he finds you wanting.

Gear: swords, axes, spears

Special Unit: Berserkers - the most vicious and powerful of their kind, berserkers serve the Blood Moon and try to draw as much blood as possible on the battlefield, no matter if it’s friend or foe

Facilities and Resources

These assets denote the special, usually immobile things a faction has access to. When designing these, you should consider how a faction without them functions, and what exactly they change both mechanically and in the world.

Here’s an example:

Great Library of Endor - the rich repository of the world’s knowledge, both secret and common. It greatly enhances research allowing one Token to cover three topics in research.

For a faction that doesn’t have access to this Great Library, one Token would only allow research of one topic at a time.

A handy Resource would be:

Comet of Bleeding Stardust - mining this energy-dense material allows you to waive any energy costs, granting you +1 Token, OR allowing prolonged use of high-demand energetic devices, like solid-light shields or high-yield laser cannons.

The comet can be used for 3 Turns; they don’t need to be consecutive.

You don’t need to note every single object, such as a watchtower or city walls, as an asset. Try to note down things that are exceptional and set the faction apart from others. Make sure that particular disadvantages, such as high chaos, lack of city walls and such are noted in the faction description.

Characters

These cover hero units and special NPCs. A good way to make the world more immersive is to have these characters have their own personalities, principles and goals. This means two things:

• The player can earn or lose their loyalty.

• They can offer advice to the player from their own, biased point of view.

Here is an example:

Nahreem - master of alchemy and golem-crafting; can research new types of golems and alchemical decoctions
Nahreem believes that spirits should be bound by force instead of bargained with, and antediluvian tech should be left buried.

Abilities, Technology and Artifacts

These are the things you can actively use to give yourself an edge on the battlefield or away from it. Abilities should always be tied to something physical - this can be a character (like a hero unit casting spells), a facility, or a piece of tech/an artifact.

Some unit-tied abilities were mentioned earlier. Here’s one tied to an artifact:

• Palantir - you can spend Tokens to look into a place you name. The more Tokens you spend the more in-depth questions you can answer beyond the preliminary view.

Tying abilities to something physical is a natural balancing factor. A unit can be killed, a facility sabotaged, an artifact stolen or destroyed. This enables natural counter-play.

Connections

Factions, both major and minor ones, should be connected both in the background lore and in the actionable opportunities given to the players.

Every faction should have at least one of the following:

• A sworn enemy

• 1-3 factions who have something they need.

• Something they owe to another faction

• A common story with another faction

Here are some examples:

Arcadia is a nation sold to the wild gods by its king Lycaeon in exchange for preserving their independence when Babylon invaded them. Because of this, they’ve sworn eternal vengeance upon Babylon.

The druid Aken and Lunar Knights gathered around him once served the Moon goddess before she was slain by Death. They swear their loyalty to Nahid bot Shyra who took up Moon’s mantle in the recent days.

Ralishta opposed Halar in days of old. They have been forced under the boot of Khandar for hundreds of years. Perhaps it is time that changed. (an example from Mike’s World Bloom War game)

Events

Every faction played by someone should have a couple events prepared for it. In addition, you should have events that affect the entire game world.

 

There are a couple of types of events:

Opportunity allows a player to gain some advantage for the future provided it’s properly exploited. It sometimes comes at a cost.

For example:
A Blood-Stardust comet made out of energetically dense material courses through the system. Whoever can stop it in its course and mine it won’t lack energy anytime soon.

Your spies tell of an antediluvian ruin found in the depths of the Arcadian woodland. This presents an opportunity to steal some valuable tech, but if you’re discovered this could spell near-certain doom.

A problem is a situation that hampers a faction. Problems should escalate when left unfixed and should more often be the result of player actions rather than random events. Try to limit the amount of problems you have pre-planned in your random events and replace them with opportunities.

For example:

Because Endor turned against the Babylonian Empire, its Nurval family with close ties to the Empire now threaten to withdraw their support - both military and financial. If nothing is done about this, you’ll find yourself with massive losses to your army and combat potential.

An electromagnetic storm rages over the city. Electronic tools and appliances without high-tech protection won’t work and cars won’t start.

A skilled player will be able to turn some problems into opportunities.

Finally, a choice is about the player taking a side in a conflict. This enables them to express the morality and philosophy of their POV character, and to shape their faction more closely.

For example:

An elvish man is brought before you. The crowd alleges him a thief, but careful examination of the evidence shows he was likely but an unlucky bystander. If you let the crowd lynch him, they’ll be placated for a while. If you don’t, the grumblings against you that have been building up may burst soon.

Naturally deciding how to go about things is baked into any action the player takes, and a lot of events will test their morality and problem-solving skills.

Minor Factions

These can exist independently in the world or be part of major factions. They’re usually controlled by an NPC leader and have a single unit type to their name.

Within a major faction, minor factions represent various groups, worldviews and interests. Here are two example minor factions that are parts of the Ring City:

Miners’ Union - represented by the Foreman, The Miners Union is a kind of interesting subculture all its own made up of Ringworlders, Consortium lifers, and some enterprising adventurers come to make their fortune. They have a lot of money and sway in this town and they have some tension with the Consortium due to previous mismanagement. The Union owns the Asteroid Mines.

Magistrate - represented by the Archmagister, Synod's judicial-administrative body has an embassy here, mostly used for processing pilgrimage requests. They've been respecting your authority here thus far, and maybe you could ask them for help if need be.

Most of the time due to the game’s pace there wasn’t much space for interaction with minor factions within a player’s major one. It might be fine to delegate minor factions to other players, or to instead have them be allied to the main player, but interactable to anyone.

Notes

If you use Discord, you may find it useful to look into Tupperbox, a tool for simulating different characters speaking in a chat (i.e. proxying).

This is part of a series on Freeform Faction Roleplay Games.

Blogposts

• Core system

• Insights after a year of games

• Designing scenarios for it

• Postmortem of a game ran this way

Discord server - here’s where you’ll almost certainly find a game within a week or two.