Playtest proxies available

[Kevin]

New Command Card proxies are up:  The last sentence of Opportunities Multiply has been removed.

[Kevin]

Updated Cards & Proxies with a new Rocket Arrow Battery & Friendly Fire rules.

[Kevin]

New cards & units up late June 4.

Units:  The RAB has its latest iteration.  Curious to see how it plays.  Everything else is the same.

Cards:  command cards didn't change, but some of the rules wording involving the RAB was clarified.

[gull2112]

I noticed the command card proxies show friendly fire being 1D6-2 (minimum 1) rather than just 3. I think this is good. We are boing to be throwing down friday night and I will play them again. I will take at least one RAB, for purely play-test purposes, you understand.

[Kevin]

Yeah, you were right that the initial version of the revised RAB (which lasted about 6 hours) was overpriced.  The current rules put the friendly fire dice at roughly half of the attack dice, which is what it was before.  Could've made it a flat 2 dice, but rather enjoy the "Do you feel lucky, punk?" aspect of shooting your own side. 

[gull2112]

Could've made it a flat 2 dice, but rather enjoy the "Do you feel lucky, punk?" aspect of shooting your own side. 

Plus, I also think it is kind of odd if you fire at a unit getting double pinched, especially a Collossal target and having almost twice as many attacks as original attack dice hitting your friendly troops (5 attack dice on enemy + 3 on each of three friendly attackers), could still happen even now, but not as likely.

[gull2112]

Tweak suggestion - eliminate the restriction of erasing only one Qi box per turn. Is there a compelling reason for this limitation? I don't think it would get used that often, is it really going to be that big a deal? Besides, it it would likely be as much a boon to the player as to the opponent. I could say "great, I can do both!" and the opponent could say "Hah, made him burn through both his check boxes!"

The result is one less thing to remember. always a plus, especially with Wuxing where you already have a lot goihng on.

[Kevin]

First things first.  I just uploaded new cards.  Nothing different rulewise since this morning, but by eliminating a sentence of flavor text things are much better organized:  all construct-related rules will fit onto two sides of one cards.  The second card will have Monks on one side and everything to do with the Rocket Arrow Battery on the other.

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Tweak suggestion - eliminate the restriction of erasing only one Qi box per turn. Is there a compelling reason for this limitation?

The limit was a deliberate choice, for four reasons (no one of them huge, but combined make a pretty good case IMHO).

- Flavor.  You can only play with a construct so much.  If the construct is broken down, then the energy your'e putting in is fixing that--you can't go from broken down to super-nimble in a blink.

- Balance.  It makes Breakdown mean something, even in the context of the late game where you have CAs coming out of your ears.  Similarly,  it keeps the Constructs from being too hoss either in the late game or earlier.

- Clarity.  Since the marks are both marked & erased during M&C, would one be able to mark twice, erase twice, then mark two more times?  I'd probably have to add text to clarify.

- Avoiding High Elf Syndrome.  High Elf Syndrome reflect that the High Elves have lots of awesome units, but nearly all of their armies are dominated by the same Battlesquads, because their other stuff is just too damn expensive.  Terracotta Swordsmen are 217 at the moment.  If Manipulate Qi gets better, than their price has to inch up by a few points, and we're already uncomfortably close to having people being forced to load up on Salvaged if they want to take good units.

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I appreciate your eyes in the faction, but that rule is going to stay as is for the moment.

[gull2112]

I appreciate your eyes in the faction, but that rule is going to stay as is for the moment.

That's cool. I was just wondering what the compelling reason might be and you cleared that up. I don't expect you to bend to my every whim as committees kill a creative process. My role is to say, "Ahem..." every once in awhile, and pick the nits.

[Kevin]

Took another look at the formula and realized that I'd effed the prices for the large units.  

New Unit proxies are up, with somewhat cheaper Guardians (318, down from 326) and Jade Dragon (516, down from 532).

[Kevin]

Updated with a new Jade Dragon.  It got cheaper (now 499), but flying is no longer free.

[gull2112]

I suspect James will scream loud enough for Kevin to hear half way across the country when he learns that the Jade Dragons are even cheaper. He already feels the faction is broken unless it is made much more expensive. However below are some guidelines for simulating my and James' experiences when playtesting factions:

The best way to simulate me in BG is to give the player imitating me half as many command actions (round down) to recreate my poor tactics, lack of foresite, and complete non-use of check boxes (cuz I can never remember), but then have all 4s and 5s count as 1s on the dice, cuz hot dice save me every time.

To simulate James' playing style, just deploy the units randomly during setup and try to organize your troops with Direct controls when the game begins, and if you ever have a courage check against a courage of 15 or more, it automatically fails (the Marcus effect).

                                                                                

[Kevin]

May I suggest that James take Wuxing in your next game.  He'll especially love the part where his units all start breaking down and you play oodles of unanswered command cards.  

[gull2112]

I will heartily suggest we try that also! The only hang up right now is that I am a wedding celebrant and this is, of course, the high season, so I don't have any free time until July.

http://budgetweddings.info/About_RevStrand.html

[Kevin]

New proxies avaliable.  Fu Dogs get an extra red box (& up 6 points).  Monks slightly cheaper; Guardians & Dragon slightly pricier.