Kingdoms expansion

[gull2112]

I wonder if there's been talk of a Kingdom's expansion with extra scenarios. maps, and special situations.

I think they should do it and I think it should be called Kingdoms:Caress of Steel.

So lets whoop it up and let YMG know that there is mad interest in Kingdoms:Caress of Steel.

Lets make it easy on them and let them know what we would like to see.

[gull2112]

First request is the veterans vs. Greens mentioned here:
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,1122.0.html

[RushAss]

Would the Fountain of Lamneth be a terrain feature?

And yeah, I like that special situation.  I should think up a few more to add to the mix.  Why not?

[ajax98]

There was the set 7 Kingdoms maps published.

[gull2112]

There was the set 7 Kingdoms maps published.

Yes there was Ajax. It is an excellent addition. I believe we now have enough maps from the original terrain set. Perhaps Kingdoms:Caress of Steel could include different terrain types. Types that are more specialized. Maybe siege equipment and siege defenses (as cards?). I have some reservation with the siege aspect because it has to be carefully done to avoid a stalemate and boredom. It may sound cool, but if you actually play it out, it's pretty ho-hum. At least until the works are broken, at which point the defender stops having fun I'm not saying that is inevitably what happens, I'm just saying a designer has to come up with a way to make sure it doesn't turn into that.

Maybe to ejaculate that we need a new kingdoms expansion is a bit premature. Perhaps it would be better to playtest different ideas in our several sessions and when we have accumulated enough it can be put up on the web site as official and there would be no need for printing anything until we actually have a deck's worth of cards to add.

Once something becomes "ready for official status" Chad and YMG could sanctify it and it would be duly enshrined in the YMG gospel.

[gull2112]

I think it would be an interesting variation if you had some army abilities that could be plugged into your army for the duration of the campaign.
What if you had an Orc Hannibal that was able to buy foresight for the orcs?
What if you had a Ranger Rick (Aragorn?) that trained his troops to move through woods without paying any movement penalties? Or maybe it was just a characteristic of a people that lived in a forested homeland.
What if you had a Wizard general that scryed the battlefield and had X free command points to spend on direct controlling or changing orders?
What about an army that was very good at deception and two units could swap positions after both armies are setup.

What if you could choose one army ability from another army and add it to your abilities?

What if these abilities were placed on cards and you could draw one at random?

Some of these abilities could be tied to a HERO who granted an ability to his army. I could see a TEMPLE improvement that a player could buy that would allow him to gain said hero (the gods are favoring you with an avatar).

What about giving the damn liazrdmen the ability to move through swamps with out penalty or maybe just to gain fear while in swamps!

[gull2112]

Another special ability that a faction could be given for a campaign is "Tactical dilettante."

Tactical dilettantes start a battle with a number of command cards equal to their command actions per turn. For example, a 2000 point battle gives the tactical delettante a starting hand of four cards.

[gull2112]

Another ability could be "Tactical Finesse." This represents the faction or commander that has a favorite tactic or a definite style. It would give a unique feel to a certain faction/commander.

A faction with this ability would allow the player to select one command card and set it aside. Any time that he spends a command action to draw a card, he may draw that card into his hand. After its use he places it aside amd may "draw" it again the next time he draws a card.

Obviously, not all cards are created equal. On further reflection, this would need to be nerfed somewhat. The Orc fanaticism card that allows +3 attack dice would be a little too devastating if always available. Maybe this could be limited to cards 1-20.

[Chad_YMG]

One practical consideration is that sales of Kingdoms have not been very good.  Unlike the Terrain Pack, which sold a lot to people who don't even play Battleground, Kingdoms is only bought by Battleground players and (so far) not by as many of them as any of the factions.  My hope was that Kingdoms would be an "auto-purchase" product, e.g. "Well, you need to buy a faction and then you'll want a Terrain Pack and Kingdoms" but my hunch is that only serious players have bought it and that it's gotten some of the "only one per gaming group necessary" problem as well.

With that in mind, I'm much more enthusiastic about PDF expansions (whether sold or free) than about a full expansion sold as a deck.

[lazyj]

Oh man that sucks. Kingdoms is such an amazing thing, I wonder if there's a way to market it other platforms. You could theoretically use the system for almost any "build your own miniature army" game.

[Niko White]

Oh man that sucks. Kingdoms is such an amazing thing, I wonder if there's a way to market it other platforms. You could theoretically use the system for almost any "build your own miniature army" game.

Kingdoms + Terrain Pack is pretty good for AL, which also has to use flat terrain, though it has the issue that the battlefield is a different size and the terrain rules for AL are rudimentary, so it needs some porting.

[cybertuna]

Kingdoms + Terrain Pack is pretty good for AL, which also has to use flat terrain, though it has the issue that the battlefield is a different size and the terrain rules for AL are rudimentary, so it needs some porting.

Ooh! I hadn't even THOUGHT about using Kingdoms for AL! I have used the terrain pack terrain before, but I like the idea of adapting Kingdoms...

[Kevin]

my hunch is that only serious players have bought it and that it's gotten some of the "only one per gaming group necessary" problem as well.

Yeah, a couple months back I made Jaime purchase his own Kingdoms rather than constantly borrow it, but that was due to loyalty to YMG rather than a real gaming need.

But for what it's worth, I'll reiterate an earlier post that I probably would've lost interest in Battleground if every battle were were fought on an open map with the last side standing the winner.  And Kevin loses interest = Kevin buys 1-3 factions rather than the entire set (apart from yucky undead   ).  Enough other folks like me and Kingdoms is still paying for itself indirectly.

[lazyj]

I don't think you even need to limit Kingdoms to flat terrain. You could very easily use the Kingdoms model for ANY miniatures gaming.

Shows how much I know about the marketplace. I would have thought that Kingdoms would appeal to an even larger player base than Battleground itself.

[gull2112]

How do you know if one guying buying Kingdoms doesn't cause other guys to want to play BG and to buy factions? So maybe they don't all buy kingdoms, but they do buy factions to play in kingdoms. Sounds like a good theory, but who knows?