It's been a while since I've done one of these. Things are busier during taxes, and I've been working on my actual games as well. These are nice to keep those interesting ideas going, but at the same time it might make another idea that I want to see fleshed out and then there is another game to add to the juggling.
I don't think this one will be one of those but I'll work through it anyway. The theme of this already seems a little weird with Death Wish and the American Indian Wars.
Theme
With such an odd theme requirement the only theme that really works is to have conflicts between the American Settlers and the Indians in which they have a death wish during their conflicts. Weird? Extremely. Inappropriate? Most definitely. Players will get points by eliminating their enemies and then eliminating themselves.
Mechanics
The mechanics of the game are a little tricky. I want to have it so that a player gets points for killing their opponents pieces; however, the player only scores the points if that unit is eliminated. So you want to kill a bunch of opponents then be killed yourself. It's like your pieces have a Death Wish or something. Each player will have a different types of units that do different things. I'm thinking it will be played on a hex grid (hex grid> square grid) and players will play their pieces face down so their opponent doesn't know which unit is where. Players will activate their units, place other units and play action cards to attack and move around the board.
Victory
The game ends after a player reaches a certain victory point total or after a certain number of rounds. I think having both endings are better than one. It allows the game to end even if the players aren't able to score the points needed and the game is just getting slow.
Constraint
I'm not too sure what they mean by this constraint but this theme seems pretty crazy enough. I'm not sure what more I could do to add to the crazy.
The Game
The game will start with players taking their units and action cards. The players will make a hex board by placing random terrain tiles. Players will take turns placing units, revealing their units and the other player's units. They will also play action cards to attack other units or use special abilities. When a unit eliminates another one it gets a point. Only when that unit is eliminated are its points scored though. The object would be to kill as many enemy units you can and then be killed yourself.
Summary
This is probably one of the worst ones I've done. I don't like the theme at all and I didn't do much with it. The mechanic of killing units to get points but not be able to score until later is kind of neat though. It can create that balance and decision about killing the unit with a lot of points and allow the other player to score or to just let that unit keep killing and reducing your units. I might have to use that mechanic with a better theme. Anyway, that's it for now; hopefully, the next one will be better.
-Jonny
Play games. Always.