2AP: Backyard Assault

About the game

2AP is a compact turn-based tactics game. Each side has a small squad, and every soldier gets two action points a turn, which is where the name comes from. You can spend them on moving or firing, and what matters is where you end up. The map is a walled backyard with black blocks that count as high cover and dashed squares that count as low cover. A soldier standing next to cover is protected on that side, and can lean out of it to shoot, which also exposes him to being shot.

There are three kinds of unit. The sniper hits hard from far away and is nearly untouchable in cover, but is helpless up close. The assault trooper is fast and armoured and deadly with a shotgun at short range. The gunner is effective at any range, has extra hit points and is slow. Green crosses on the map heal whoever reaches them.

Hovering the mouse over a square shows what that square can see, which enemies you would flank from there and which ones could flank you. That information is the real game: the AI opponent seeks cover and tries to get around your side when it can, so you have to do the same. baturinsky made it in the last days of js13kGames 2019, and it comes with a map editor, a two-player mode and an AI-versus-AI mode.

Playing it here

Click Play, and the game opens straight on the map in "vs AI" mode. Left click a blue unit to select it, then click a square to move, or an enemy to fire. When your action points are spent, press End Turn, and the AI plays its side. Help explains the rules in detail, and Edit lets you paste your own map as text. Nothing is saved between visits.

Controls

Input	Action
left click on a blue unit	select it
left click on an empty square	move there
left click on an enemy	fire at it
right click	deselect
hover over a square	show what it can see and who it flanks
End Turn	finish your turn; the AI plays its side
vs AI / 2P / 2AI	AI opponent, two players, or AI against AI
Help / Edit	read the rules, or edit and apply your own map

A few things worth knowing

Cover decides fights. High cover gives 40% defence and blocks sight, low cover 20%. A shot from the side where there is no cover is the one that hurts.

Do not forget the medkits. The green crosses are worth a detour, and the AI knows it too.

Use the hover. Before you commit two action points, hover over the square you are heading to and check who can see it.

Credits and licence

2AP: Backyard Assault was created by baturinsky and is released under the MIT licence. It uses no third-party code, images or sounds. The licence text is linked from this page.