Grasshoppers and Elephants

During the lockdown i have been messing about with some solo rules to go with the growing collection.
just so i can get some games in.
I have played quite a few rule sets like fng and force on force which work well solo but i was after something a bit different more like a board game crossed with a tabletop game. I always find with solo tabletop games that it is easy to give yourself the advantage through how you place enemy units and how you control them.
I was also trying to create the game to fit onto a smallish table, i made a gaming mat that is 2′ x 2′ with 3″ squares on it
i would have done hexes but found squares easier to draw.
The mat is a green grass mat from aldi that i sponged browns and greens and red acrylic paint and some weathering powders on and then stuck a load of types of grass tufts on to it.
The grid was drawn on with a good old sharpie marker.

The player takes control of squad of infantry and starts wit a fire team on the table that can be added to as the game goes on.

The players character is not on the table but is just of the edge in control of the units on the table.

the game uses decks of playing cards instead of dice as rolling dice can be annoying in a small space and end up all over the place.

I like the idea of cards as they can do multiple things depending if you go by the number on the card or the suit or even just the colour.

Jokers are cool as they allow you to take into account things like low ammo and misfires or even returning fire when drawing cards to save.

Player units on the table will be able to preform actions that can be boosted by the use of cards.

The game will use two decks of cards

One deck of cards will also be used to control the amount of turns in the game as well as the command actions the player has.

Each turn the player will get a hand of five cards to use each turn any unused cards will be discarded and five new cards dealt once all the cards are gone the game is over.

Shooting and enemy actions will be controlled by a separate deck.

Once again cards can do some cool things when shooting.

Deal out a number of cards equal to your units fire rate

Red cards of a certain number are hits

Black cards are misses

Red Jack/Queen/King can only be saved by the equivalent black card.

Red aces can’t be saved

The target then deals its defence cards.

Black cards are needed to defend and must be of an equal or higher value than the red card its defending against.

A single card can also be used a grid defence using the squares on the table so if in incoming mortar strike is triggered you just have to flip a card and the suit can be used as the column and the number can be used to find the row.