A Fair Battleground (2013)

For centuries, the two kingdoms of F and B have fought each other in a peculiar way. Whenever war is declared, The Flag of The Old Empire is placed in the middle of The Ground, the contested borderland between the two kingdoms, and the two armies engage in battle to take control of The Flag and carry it into the opponent's lands: the first army to do so is declared victorious.

A Fair Battleground is a non-historical wargame set in a pseudo-Napoleonic era. To win, you must push the opposing army back or outmaneuver it, so that your own army can advance and eventually carry The Flag into the other player’s territory. Meanwhile, the opponent can engage you in battles to stop your advancement and try to take control of The Flag.

In A Fair Battleground, skillful deployment and maneuvering is more important than raw impact, but typical winning tactical moves of the era like attacking the opposing armies from behind are forbidden. Asymmetry between players is given not by a different mix of forces or objectives, but rather by the interplay of two pairs of opposing roles (Advancing vs Contending and Attacker vs Defender) that the two players take and exchange during the game. These roles determine both what the players can do and when they can do it, as well as which of the different armies are more useful to each of them.

Battle resolution is basically luck-less, but a simple optional rule that adds a random factor is provided for players who prefer luck-based systems.

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A Fair Battleground is a print-and-play game that uses a board and 20 counters; the players must supply 9 euro-cubes or similar objects to be used as markers, and, optionally, two six-sided dice.

A Fair Battleground was an entry in the 2013 Two-Player Print-and-Play Design Contest.