Game Deconstruction: Battle Platform Antilles

In Battle Platform Antilles, you take command of a group of 7 of Earth's most advanced battleships, called Paladins, in an effort to dismantle a dangerous alien AI that has been terrorizing the galaxy. Previously thought to be dormant and harmless, the battle platform came to life, moving and devastating several Earth colonies, and spurring the Earth to take action. Heavily outgunned by the extremely complex alien technology, you have 9 turns to use your wits to outsmart the alien AI and make the galaxy safe again (with careful application of heavy ordinance).




The game is single player, with the player directly controlling the Paladins and rolling a die to create random actions for the Battle Platform they are attempting to destroy. The Paladin turn plays as one might expect, moving your ships and taking shots at the Battle Platform. The Battle Platform turn, on the other hand, is a series of several dice rolls, with each roll of the 20-sided die determining the actions the platform takes such as firing shots (each of which destroy your ships in a single hit) and recharging its shields. Shots from the Antilles take random trajectories also determined by dice rolls, meaning that it is impossible to predict where to place your Paladins without being hit.

The playing field

The gameboard is a large field of hexagons around the stationary Antilles. The Paladins have a range of 3, while the Antilles' projectiles travel until they leave the edge of the board. The random trajectories of the Antilles, while different types have different effects, always travel within this "danger zone" upon their first turn of movement.

There are only 2 types of objects in the main game: Paladins and Missiles. The Paladins are allowed to go anywhere on the gameboard in their turn, being equipped with advanced propulsion and warp technology. The missiles move on random trajectories, zigzagging all over the place and being very difficult to avoid as a result, even with the ability to freely move Paladins wherever you like.

The "scoreboard"

There is a second board used to keep track of the Antilles, which simply consists of some hit counters and tables to help you with understanding what your rolls are doing. There are 3 layers to the Antilles consisting of Shields, which can be recharged, Armor, which can only be hit by a high roll or after the shields are downed, and Bolt Casters, which you can attack after the Armor and Shields are down to reduce the number of moves the platform gets and ultimately destroy it.

The Paladins must destroy the Battle Platform in 9 turns. At the end of the game, you must evaluate damages and determine the end result based on how many Paladins were destroyed and how much the Antilles was damaged. This means that it is possible to lose even without getting hit by the Antilles, as the mission was to destroy the Antilles, not to get out with no casualties.

The game relies almost entirely on chance rather than any kind of learned skills, with every single action of your enemy being randomly determined by dice rolling, along with each shot your ships take being random dice results as well. While there is some merit to learning the most common rolls and being able to avoid those, it's really not something you can reliably predict or strategize. While a somewhat frustrating element, it also works well with the narrative, one of a bunch of random people in spaceships taking potshots at a mysterious alien behemoth in a desperate attempt to stop it.

The game, while it is a bit odd to learn, is an interesting experience that I would think is well worth the 45-60 minutes it takes to print out, cut out, set up, and play through.

You can download Battle Platform Antilles from BattlePlay Games here. All you need to provide is a 20-sided die.