"Winning Streak"

Strategy + Psychology DM: "Winning Streak"

In "Winning Streak", players must micromanage an entire squadron of troops in an attempt to build the largest winning streak.

Each player is given 25 troops. Each troop has an attack statistic and a starting health statistic. For every combination of attack and health amounts from 1 to 5, there is a single troop.

There are also 13 locations, arranged in a line, lettered from A to M. Players place their troops in these locations in an attempt to earn points. Each player may only place one troop in each location at a time.

Placing

At the beginning of the game, there is a placing phase. Both players select a troop (that has yet to be placed) and a location (that has yet to contain a troop from their side), and that troop is put in that location. This placing turn occurs thirteen times, and occurs simultaneously.

Troops that are placed are called on the battlefield. Troops that are not placed are called reserve.

Fighting

After the placing phase, there is a fight. In this fight, each troop on the battlefield takes damage (loses health) equal to the attack stat of the troop across from it. If a troop has 0 or negative health at the end of this, it is permanently removed from the game.

If a troop attacks an empty square, a point is earned for that location, for the player that owns the troop. (The troop takes no damage). If a troop defeats the opponent's troop while staying alive, the troop also earns a point.

Examples of possible attacks:

If a troop with 5 attack and 5 health fights a troop with 1 attack and 1 health, then the 5/5 troop will take one damage (becoming a troop with 5 attack and 4 health), while the 1/1 troop will die. The player controlling the 5/5 troop will earn a point for that location.

If a troop with 3 attack and 1 health fights a troop with 5 attack and 3 health, then both troops will die. Neither player will earn a point.

If a troop with 2 attack and 4 health fights a different troop with 2 attack and 4 health, both troops will take 2 damage, becoming troops with 2 attack and 2 health. No points will be earned.

Relocation

After a round of fighting occurs, a player may relocate some of their troops. They may switch around the location of troops, bring some out of reserve, or move others into reserve. However, only three locations may be modified.

For instance, if you add troops into A, B, and C from your reserve, then you may not do any other modifications.

If you move a troop from B to A, then you cannot also move a troop from C to D. Doing so would require four modifications total.

Troops that are damaged and relocated maintain their damaged health state; for instance, if a troop with 4 health takes 3 damage, it has 1 health remaining. If the player puts it in reserve or moves it around, the troop still has 1 health.

After a Relocation Phase, another Fighting Phase occurs, and so on, until the game ends.

Endgame

A player that earns 10 points in a single location has won the location as a whole. No more troops may be placed in that location (and as such, no more points may be gained); any troops currently there are moved into reserve for free.

The game ends when one of the following two things happen:

• A player runs out of troops (or both players do at the same time)
• All locations have been won by a player

If a player runs out of troops, the game immediately ends. All locations in which the other player has a troop are automatically won by them, while locations in which neither player has a troop are not won by either player. (It is as if no more Relocations were allowed, then after reaching 10 points everywhere, all troops died.)

If both players run out of troops at the same time, all locations that were not won previously are also discarded for the purpose of winning.

After the game ends, the locations will be lined up, and the longest winning streak on both sides (adjacent locations won by the same player) will be calculated. If a location was won by neither player, then it acts as a streak breaker for both players. The winner of the DM is the player with a longer winning streak; if they are the same, the winner of the DM is the player that has more location wins. If this is still tied, the player with the Advantage is the winner.

Timing

Players have 1 minute for each Placement Phase and 2 minutes for each Relocation Phase. Fighting Phases will be processed as quickly as possible, and the timer begins as soon as the new board is posted.

If a player misses this deadline for the Placing Phase, they lose the opportunity to place for that turn (and will have to start the game with blank locations). If a player misses this deadline for relocation, they will be assumed to have not relocated anything.

Advantage

The player with the Advantage is able to (permanently) increase the attack or health stat of a troop by 1. They may only do this once in the game, and during the relocation phase. This buff is not counted as a modification of a location.

In addition, in the case of a tie in both streak and location count, the player with the Advantage wins.

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This will be the board used during the Death Match:

(Well, something like it. Hopefully I can find a background that's not just the checkered tiles before then.)

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Clarification: The streaks do not loop around. If you win A and M and nothing else, that is a streak of 1.