Glyph - Fantasy 4X TBS

I've been thinking about resurrecting this project from the slush pile...

My thinking about the scale of this game is more like MoM, and less like AoW. Units will be groups of similar soldier figures, there will be different maximum numbers of troops based on factors such as unit race or weapon type, but the top end I'm thinking is somewhere around 100 figures in a big unit.

Part of my inspiration, aside from the obvious Master of Magic and Age of Wonders, are some old PBEM games, like Atlantis, Olympia, and Eldritch.

You start out small, with a group of about three champions (one warrior-type, one mage-type, and one with admin and/or trade skills - maybe you'll have some input on what you start with, maybe not) a small group of twenty or so commoners (zero-skill figures of your starting race).

You'll split off some of your commoners and put them to work scouting the area, put some to work gathering resources, and train some in combat skills.

There will be 'titles' in certain regions of the map that a hero with the right combination of skills can claim (such as Sheriff, Priest, Harbormaster, etc) that will allow them to use troops they command to collect tax revenue from the region, which will also sometimes trigger events that will have to be dealt with to keep the title. If you let bandits roam the area for too long without dealing with them, you'll lose your authority as the Sheriff, for example.

Maintaining titles in an area, as well as building infrastructure buildings will slowly increase the civilization level of an area, and increase population growth. Eventually, the player will have built up their starting area to the point where they can found, conquer, or politically take over an actual city, at which point more options become available for increasing your faction's goals.

I plan on a whole lot of different skills, and creating certain types of troops will require certain combinations of troops, as well as equipment and sometimes other goods (cavalry need horses, for example). So, you'll be able to whip up some basic infantry with spears in a turn or two, but cavalry will need (minimally) to be trained in Riding, some weapon skill, possibly some armor skill, as well as needing that weapon, armor, and horse to be produced separately.

There will be at least eight magical schools of spells; The Elemental College (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) and the Celestial College (Sun, Moon, Stars, Void) also thinking of having some hybrid spell lists that a hero can only unlock after having certain combinations of other schools.