Having decided to make my game three-dimensional I had to consider how I could manufacture the pieces and what limitations that would impose. 3D printers have almost no restrictions however they are incredibly slow and I had limited accesses to them. I settled on using a laser cutter, something I had great familiarity with and as a lab monitor had nearly unlimited access to. This imposes some design and material restrictions.

With material in mind, I began developing and testing various ways a complex landscape could be made from simple pieces. Once I had a promising sketch I would create a foam core model and begin trying to develop different games based around that landscape and how player pieces could move across it. Taking what I learned from “playing” the game I would refine the design and model going back and forth until I had narrowed it down to one design and settled upon a final set of rules. At that point I flushed out the aesthetics and laser cut version 1.0.

Setup

Assemble the playing field with the square foundation pieces, for beginners simply start with one. Pick an army and divide the building blocks between you and your opponent. Attach your base to the foundation opposite from each other, fill it with your knights and hang your banner ready for battle.

First Round

Every round players put down up to two building blocks then move up to two knights. These building blocks are the grounds upon which you battle. The number on each piece represents how far they can move and how strong they are. When knights are evenly matched the attacking knight wins, unless the defending player has high-ground. Two knights can stand and move together, when together their strength is combined, they can pass each other, but when confronting an enemy you must attack. Regular knights can only move up and down one level at a time, which counts as one space moved; however, there are specialty warriors.

Specialty Warriors

The climber can travel vertically up and down any amount of blocks, if you use your two player moves they can move another kight with them. When descending climbers can sneak attack adding +2 to their base 3 strength. Climbers can only move horizontally three spaces at a time. Runners, however can move as many horizontal spaces as they’d like but can only move up 2 levels in a turn; they’re strength is also 3. The Juggernaut on the other hand has a strength of 6 but only can move 3 spaces at at time.

The Blue army is king of the castle but with their reign last? They are weak and the Red’s commander (6) and general (5) are ready to attack; their juggernaut unable to join the battle, divided by gaps or walls to high to scale. In the end the Red army are victorious, claiming the castle as their own.

There is an incalculable number of configurations created by the building-blocks so every battle is truly unique. Assemble the foundation squares into any configuration and take on your friends. Double the fun by combining two game sets into a mega fortress. You can play on teams or purchase an army expansion pack. With enough pieces everyone you know could play, making the possibilities truly infinite. If that wasn’t enough try capture the flag: steal the flag from your opponents base and return safely. The bases are divided in halves and the defense is the combined strength of all the knights in that half; moving knights within a base counts as a turn.

This is only the first version. Someday I would like to revisit this project, further refine the concept, and eventually make it possible to mass produce.