Half the Battle

Half the Battle is a tactical two-player game of positioning pieces and making difficult choices, with characters inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. All moves and actions are open, and each player has broadly the same opportunities and options, so you win or lose on the strength of your choices not the roll of the dice. The gameplay involves very little luck at all, using dice to track hitpoints and available actions but not for rolling outcomes. With the addition of some randomly chosen items from the "Bag of Holding", there's just enough luck to keep things interesting without overpowering the satisfaction of a well-executed strategy.

Players control a party of adventurers, each of which is unique and useful in different situations. Their three to five abilities are given on a card, and their position on a simple linear track is marked with a token. A die placed on this token marks the character's hitpoints, which also control which of those abilities is available for use. In each round of play, each player selects a character in turn and then gets to use that chosen character, again in turn. This means the first player gets freedom of action, but the second gets more information to work with.

So players must constantly balance offensive and defensive tactics while thinking about positioning and counter-moves. Characters have devastating spells and weapons but can only use their most powerful when on full health, or in a spectacularly fatal and final move. But beware - each party is also allied with a monstrous beast with its own unique skills that ramp up as the battle escalates.

After all, knowing the game is only Half the Battle...

The rules and print-and-play of all characters in the "A" Team are available to download. An up-to-date changelog is also available for those who have printed the PnP version and want to make corrections themselves. Please send any questions or feedback to tom@jugglethis.net!