Chaos: Excel Wars

[matlu]

This was recently posted to yahoo Chaos group



I have recently started a new job and there are prolonged periods in
the office during which I have absolutely nothing to do. On top of
this, we arent even allowed any internet access outside of the
official company sites (I'm not sure but does this violate part of
the European bill of human rights?!). This means I have had to get
creative with how I pass the time.

And so, some time this morning, "Chaos: Excel Wars" was born. It's a
simple version of Chaos that you can play using a standard Excel
Spreadsheet.

Game setup:

Change the size of the cells to make them square (I've been using 40
pixels by 40 pixels) and fill any uneven edge rows/columns black to
clearly define the border.

Excel Wars is currently a wizard-less game so devise two fairly
evenly matched armies. Units are represented simply by their names.
You can equip creatures with magic weapons as you see fit (eg orcs
may use magic knives, elves may use magic bows etc) and remember:

Magic Sword (ms) = +4 combat and attack undead
Magic Knife = +2 (mk) combat and attack undead
Magic Bow = Ranged (mb) Combat 3, Range 6, Attack Undead
Magic Shield = +2 (ms) defense
Magic Armour = +4 (ma) defense

So an orc wielding a magic knife would appear "Orc(mk)" in Excel
Wars.

Position the two armies as you see fit and colour them so no
confusion arises over who is fighting who.

Gameplay:

Move the troops by clicking and dragging on the cell border. Assign
them the stats they have in original Gollop Chaos (although of
course there is nothing stopping you coming up with new creatures
with new stats for Excel Wars). If you are not fluent with the stats
you may wish to create a separate stat sheet for Chaos spell
statistics to refer to during the course of the game.

Keep 3 cells free in a bottom corner. In these cells type the
following formula:

=RAND()*8

This will generate a random number between (and including) 0 and 8.

Colour the first number the same colour as army no.1. This will be
army no.1's combat/defense generator.

Colour the second number the same colour as army no.2. This will be
army no.2's combat/defense generator.

Colour the third number a neutral colour. This will be the
engagement generator.


Now, every time you move a piece new numbers will be generated in
the corner so if you move to attack, to calculate the result simply
refer to these numbers. Add the attackers Combat rating to their
generator and the defenders Defense rating to their generator. If
the defender's score is higher they remain where they are. If the
attackers score is higher the attacker moves onto the defeated
creature's square (defeated creature dissapears, no raise dead in
Excel Wars). A draw is equivalent to the defender winning.

If you don't move before referring to the generators just type
anything into a spare cell. The generator cells will pop up new
numbers for you to use for that activity. To escape engagement to
enemy just generate a new number in the engagement generator and see
if it is lower than the creature's manouvre rating.

There are plenty of ways to extend this game. You could colour
certain cells blue to represent water and make up some rules about
that etc etc etc. Happy time-wasting at work!

[Dodger]

Heh, bet he had way to much spare time on his hands