Overview: Chaos Command is a fast-paced, chaotic territory control game inspired by Risk and D&D elements. Players vie for dominance of a world map, employing diplomacy, military might, and absurd technologies. Be warned: alliances are fleeting, and even your closest allies might just nuke your space elevator.

Players: 2-4 players

Game Setup:

  1. The World Map: Use a Risk-style map, or any map of territories. The example board used a modified world map, including North America, Australia, and Africa as the start locations.
  2. Starting Units: Each player starts with a set number of “Regular Guys” (5-10 is a good starting number), place these in your starting territory.
  3. Secret Powers: Every player starts with an “Ultimate Power Up” that can be used after they have killed at least 5 of other players units.
    • Example Power-Ups
      • Meteor Fist: A devastating attack that eliminates multiple units in a targeted territory (as seen in the transcript)
      • Iron Dome: Negates first two attacks in a territory
      • Laser Tank Upgrade: Upgrades a regular tank into a Laser Tank, that deals more damage.
      • Space Elevator: Construct a space elevator (See “Unique Tech” for details)
      • Nuclear Strike: Elimates a small amount of units from every player, but also destroys units in your area.
  4. First Player: The player that has the most regular units on the board goes first

Turn Structure: Each player takes their turn in the order they placed their units on the board. Each turn consists of the following phases:

  1. Movement: You may move as many of your units as you like each turn. You can move any of your units any number of spaces. If you enter a territory controlled by another player, you must declare your intent:

    • Military Access: If you are passing through another player’s territory to reach your destination, you must pay them. (See “Military Access”)
    • Attack: If you are moving units into a territory controlled by another player with the intent to remove their units, an attack will be initiated. (See “Combat”)
    • Exploration: If you move units into an unoccupied space, the space is now considered owned by that player, the first player to occupy a region. (See “Exploration”)

  2. Action: After movement, a player may perform one of the following actions:

    • Build a Factory: A factory allows you to create more advanced units in the future. Requires one turn to complete a factory. One factory per territory.
    • Manufacture Units: You can choose to build any of the following, in any quantity, as long as the player has an existing factory on their territory.
      • Regular Guys: Basic infantry units
      • Horses: Fast-moving infantry
      • Tanks: Powerful, slow units
    • Diplomacy: Players can attempt to make alliances, offer trades, or make demands with other players. All alliances are considered breakable (if the other player has more than 10 units)
    • Activate Power Up If you have killed 5 opposing units in combat, you can activate your “Ultimate Power Up”.
    • Unique Tech: If you have created any kind of tech previously, you can begin using those abilities on this turn. (See “Unique Tech”)

  3. Clean Up: At the end of your turn make sure all dead units have been taken off the board.

    • You can choose to use “dead guys” as kindling for bonfire that dont impact the game, unless specified in a “Unique Tech.”

Game Mechanics:

  • Combat:
    • When attacking, you may move any number of units you have into an area occupied by another player.
    • The attacking player and the defending player both remove 1 unit for every unit you have on the other territory.
      • Tank Bonus: When attacking, every tank in your attacking forces counts as 2 units instead of 1, reducing the opposing forces by 2 instead of 1.
    • Continue to remove opposing units from the board until the losing player’s territory has been taken over or the opposing units are gone.
    • Power Up: After a player successfully eliminates 5 enemy units through combat, their Ultimate Power Up is available to be used as their Action on their turn.
  • Military Access:
    • When passing through a territory to reach another location, the passing player must pay the other player 10 Regular Units, which become owned by the other player.
    • Units can be traded for tanks, 10 regular units are equal to 2 tanks, or can be traded for other deals.
    • If a player does not want to accept military access, they can instead initiate a fight with the other player by declaring “You shall not pass!”
  • Diplomacy:
    • Alliances can be formed, broken, and used for devious schemes.
    • Trades can involve units, tech, or even promises of future support.
  • Exploration:
    • When moving units into an unoccupied territory, that territory is claimed by the player who moves into it first, and all units in that territory become owned by that player.

Unique Tech:

  • Factories - Each territory can have up to one factory. A factory is created on a turn, but is not able to be used until the following turn. This is useful for making a stronger military force.
  • Laser Tanks - An advanced upgrade to regular tanks. They are capable of inflicting a higher damage when in combat, each tank is considered to be worth 3 units instead of 2. Laser Tanks can be traded.
  • Space Elevator A unique building that can be built in an owned territory. It acts as a weapon as well as the first step to accessing space!
    • Weapons Platform A space elevator can be used as a weapons platform that can be activated as a players action, it can target one other territory and deal damage to all opposing units.
    • Shipyard A space elevator can be upgraded to include a shipyard, once that is complete, all units produced can now become spaceships that can attack all opposing units.

Victory Conditions:

  • Domination: Eliminate all other players from the map. This is done by eliminating all of the units of a player from the board, thus removing them from the game.
  • The Safe Zone: Retreat to Australia and live out your days in peace. (or you can get nuked). This is an alternate victory condition if a player manages to have all of their remaining units move to Australia and retreat there.
    • Note: Players can choose at the start of the game whether “The Safe Zone” is a victory condition or not.
  • Space Domination By building a space elevator, creating a shipyard and then a fleet of spaceships, one player is able to win the game by sending their fleet to another planet (Mars is a good option, as in the transcript) and claiming it for their own.

Notes:

  • House Rules: Encourage players to add their own weird rules and power-ups. If a player can come up with something clever or funny, give it a try.
  • Adaptability: Feel free to use different units (for example, submarines or jets), technology and/or actions.
  • Chaos is Key: The best part of this game is the unpredictable nature of player actions. Embrace the absurd and enjoy the chaos.

Have fun exploring the world, betraying your friends, and unleashing the chaos!