BattleCon: Battle Connection Fighting System

[SoWL]

Since we already have the Yomi thread up and running, it would make sense for the other fighting card game to get its own thread, isn't it?

"Battle Connection: War of Indines", or BattleCon, is a card game inspired by fighting games. It's designed and published by Brad Talton Jr./Level 99 Games and has been released in January 2012. The second set, called Devastation of Indines, is currently in the works.

The rules are simple: you and your opponent both pick a character and take all the cards associated with them (which is usually just 7) along with a set of six generic Bases. The characters fight on a linear field until one of them gets from 20 life to 0 or until 15 turns pass. Each turn, or Beat, both players pick a single Style card and a single Base card from among all the cards they have, forming a so-called Attack Pair. These Attack Pairs are then revealed simultaneously, and the players act according to the cards' effects. The three primary stats that most cards have are Priority (which determines the player who acts first this Beat), Power (the amount of damage the attack deals), and Range (how far or close the opponent must be for the attack to hit). When everything written on the Attack Pair cards is done, they are put into one of the two Discard Piles, and another pair of cards from another Discard Pile returns to your hand. And that's it! If this description is not clear enough for you, you can check out the comic that does a much better job at explaining the rules than me.

So, why is this game so awesome?

• It's 100% skill-based. The game has zero luck-based factors, unlike Yomi and some other fighting card games with their decks that you have to shuffle. Every card used in the match is either in one of the player's hands or in the discard piles, which means that you can always make an educated guess about your opponent's actions, much like in a real fighting game.
  
• It's easy to learn, but hard to master. You can get the rules after a single Beat, but learning even a single character is going to take you from 10 to 30 games. Learning all the different match-ups is not an easy task, either, but since every character only has 13 cards to work with, with 4 of them in the discard piles and 6 of them being used by everyone, it doesn't feel all that difficult.
  
• It's cheap, yet packed with content to the brim. For a low price of $30, you get a huge cast of 18 characters to choose from, not to mention many different game modes if simple 1vs1 fights are too boring for you. You can play a Smash Brothers-style four-players free-for-all, fight on a stage with special effects, fight as a team against one super-powerful player, and so on!
  
  To finish things off, I'll give three examples of various difficulties from the character roster. Keep in mind that every single character in the game plays differently, so if these three don't sound interesting to you, that doesn't mean a thing.
  
  
  • Cadenza, the Clockwork Knight, is famous for being newbie-friendly, yet still strong at high levels of play. Like a real juggernaut, he's simply unstoppable, and only a fool will fight him face-to-face, where he can chop down anyone in three swings. He has to pay for his damage by being the slowest character in the game, but with his amounts of super-armor, or Stun Guard, that won't matter most of the time.
    
  • Demitras Denigrande, the Vampire Knight, is a complete opposite of Cadenza. As long as he's not being hit, he accelerates at a dangerous pace, dealing lots of weak, but lightning-fast hits, and when the time comes, he sacrifices this speed to deal the final blow. However, he should be played after getting some games under your belt, since his nature is that of a gambler: knowing when to ante speed and safety for power is crucial if you want to play him well.
    
  • Cherri Seneca, a young Dreamstalker, may seem too weak to win against other characters. Indeed, she is not fit for straightforward fighting, but her mindgames potential is second to none. She abuses the game's Clash system to control her opponent's every move, preventing them from making the moves that will hurt her the most. They have no options other than dance to her tune, and as the battle goes on and the Clashes keep happening, their life draws closer and closer to nil. Keep in mind, though, that knowing her opponent is essential for Cherri, and a single wrong guess may spell doom for her.

[Silmerion]

Dang. Thirty bucks for 18 fighters and no unlucky draws? I might have to pick this up.

[Potemtager]

There's also gonna be the BattleCon Strikers expansions. Strikers act like assist characters that cycle with the move you play them with. You can either use their assist as an attack of itself, you can ante for a speacial effect, or you can anounce a boost before both sides choose their moves.

If you like the facebook page, Brad will release spoilers for Devastation.

http://www.facebook.com/BattleCON

[shtkn]

looks pretty interesting. there's also a free app for iphone/pad. maybe there's one for android too?

haven't tried it myself, so i can't say if the app is buggy or not.

[Potemtager]

I just realized something. Zamaamassal's Urgent style is yellow not blue. His blue style is Warped.

[Celerity]

Does anyone actually play this on iOS, is it easy to find games?

[SoWL]

Try asking around the Board Game Geek boards or the Facebook group. The fanbase is pretty small, but really dedicated, you shouldn't have any problems with finding opponents.

[SoWL]

Meanwhile, the expansion (or rather, the second game) is almost ready, and you can read its press-release here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/10733695

[OchiChernye]

The art in the expansion looks real nice, might have to pick this up.

[Agni]

Another FG card game? Oof, I already asked for Yomi for Christmas, but maybe I'll pick this up as well.

[Hecatom]

Damn paypal, it doesnt allow me to buy the game to send it to my pobox for some damn reason :/

[SoWL]

Brad (the developer) is a pretty cool guy, write him a letter and I'm sure it'll all work out.

[Hecatom]

Brad (the developer) is a pretty cool guy, write him a letter and I'm sure it'll all work out.

Any place where i can contact him?

[OchiChernye]

Any place where i can contact him?

This is his profile on Board Game Geek.

You could probably get a hold of him on there.

[haketh]

Might try to cop this soon.

[OchiChernye]

Kickstarter for the expansion is live.

[SoWL]

A preview by Dice Tower is up, in case you need another argument for kickstarting the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgNKNRQgHhs

[shtkn]

it's a pretty cool game, i bought the original card game and i just put in towards the kickstarter enough to buy the expansion haha.

imo, it does parts of fighting games that yomi doesn't cover as well: space control and having nearly all of your moves available at the same time. not to say that this game is better or worse than yomi (it's weaker in some aspects), but it's definitely interesting and worth checking out.

[Potemtager]

Now that we hit the stretch, disc duelers will also be launching I guess. It's a game that uses the same characters from the Indines universe. Each player drafts a number of fighters which are represented by a wooden disc and card indicating how many moves and attacks they get along with a special ability. After that you set up a table with random terrain (Terrain being whatever you want. Blocks, Lamps, etc) and you take turns flicking your disc at the other discs to do damage. We're also not far from Seven Card Slugfest. It's another game in the Indines Universe, but more on that later.

[Potemtager]

The kick start is approaching the dead line in about 36 hours. If you haven't checked out now, here's a link for you

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/level99games/battlecon-devastation-of-indines-a-dueling-card-ga

There's talk in the last update about developing online play more professionally than before. go ahead and share this on other networks and help the team reach some of their stretch goals.

[SoWL]

Pardon the necropost, but this one's a little bit personal. One of the future expansions, Wanderers of Indines, is made entirely out of fan-made characters, and my character, Anya Southwind, has made the cut. For anyone who wants to know more (as in, more than you would ever want to), I've wrote down everything I could about her here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1344399/introducing-anya-southwind

[shinkuhadoken]

i downloaded the free printable demo of ths game and love it but cant find any in stock anywhere in town (san diego) -

guess i have to order online?  its currently back ordered ugh.  

 

great game tho especially for fighting game fans!  

 

[shtkn]

i ordered it online, though i don't get to use it much. i'm surprised you thought you could buy it from a brick and mortar store; this is a very niche game, and i wasn't exptecting it to have any retail presence.

 

if you're in san diego, and interested, i can bring it to our anime fg weekly meetup friday nights at the salt mines.

[shinkuhadoken]

i ordered it online, though i don't get to use it much. i'm surprised you thought you could buy it from a brick and mortar store; this is a very niche game, and i wasn't exptecting it to have any retail presence.

 

if you're in san diego, and interested, i can bring it to our anime fg weekly meetup friday nights at the salt mines.

 

didnt realize it was so niche since my buddy told me about it originally lol but he doesnt even live close.  

do you have devastation or which one did you get?  

it would be cool to stop in the mines sometime and play would have to block off time

[shtkn]

i have devastation and war, though the last few times i brought it i only brought devastation.

 

let me know when you plan on going so i can remember to bring the game, otherwise it will sit on my bookshelf at home.