Thanks for the detailed response! Much appreciated. I'll do my best to respond to each point :)
- 2.2 PDF still says 2.1 at the very top
Yah, need to fix that.
- the font of the unit stats is quite hard to read
I agree. That's one to do better next time.
- Maybe the uni markers could also have the city symbols on the back for easier identification
Fair point, especially on the low ink version without the colours.
-
I'm not sure, I understood the attacking cities part. "cities automatically lose one die value per unit". So my units can attack a city and then the city always uses one value from the attack (except the unit has a special ability)? Does every fight in a city location count? Or only undefended cities? What if an attacker kills the last defending unit? Does that also remove one city HP or is a new attack necessary?
This is the least clear part of the rules, sorry. Every time an enemy unit enters a city, that city immediately loses one value, even if there are live defenders there. There is no need to roll for the attack. For each turn the enemy remains in the city, on its turn the city loses another health value. I had considered changing this such that the unit must be alive in the city at the end of the round to do damage, but didn't - this comes down to the relative utility of attacking in person vs using nukes. I wanted them to be roughly equal. Killing defenders can happen *in addition to* the damage done by the unit being there.
Honestly I'm not sure this was the right way to go, but it's how it ended up. I calculated about a 600 word rules limit and was really struggling to fit it all in, so, no extra complexity allowed.
- printer friendly PDF is super nice service!
:D
- extra game case to print is an even better idea. I printed mine and the game fits nicely. Will definitely steal that idea.
:D - yeah, saw so many people putting it in a plastic bag, seemed like a good idea.
-
first round, command cards can only skip, right? (Nobody could move already two location onto the relic and no city could be damaged already for repairs)
They can repair - city max health is 6
- is 4 the max city value?
See above
- What happens if there are multiple defenders in a location? Attacker choses one unit to engage, right?
Correct
- solo rules "match what is attacking with" is a bit unclear to me. I always attacked the weakest defender
AI will generally attack plane with plane, tank with tank, is what I meant. But one thing about the bot is it's so stupid due to the word count limit. If you want to make it harder, go right ahead.
- a losing attacker loses no units, right?
Correct
- solo bot improvements idea: prioritize going after the relic somehow
- solo bot improvements idea: prioritize attacking of empty cities if in reach
- solo bot improvements idea: city value handicap seems to so hard, since the first two rounds no nukes are possible, so two repairs will happen anyway
I've tried to balance going for either attacking option, but I do agree that it needs to choose one or the other. Word count again :(
As discussed, you can repair the first two times to get your city to 6.
- Really awesome that there are explicit solo rules!
:D
- I think attacking should have more risk, I played it so that the attacker never lost anything. Only the defender could lose units. That lead to less "hard decision" making
Generally the idea is that if you fail your roll, you'll get attacked back. I could add a rule that attacking kills the attacker on a 1. Interesting idea.
- Losing a fight also wasn't so bad for defensive play. In one instance, I even wanted to lose a battle to respawn the unit in my city for defense in the next round! Maybe there should be a bigger penalty. On the other hand, losing a battle means that the unit can never reach the opponent's city again because it's so far away.
Yeah, I agonised over this one. I'd perhaps make certain units a one-and-done thing in future.
- I'm missing a bit a more elaborate setting (on the postcard). Who are the two cities? Why are they fighting? Why has the relic site nukes? Giving the player something to immerse helps with engagement, gives purpose and is a big part of the fun in my opinion.
Well you know, lore is hard to fit on a postcard :)
There's plenty though. It's part of a bigger universe. I'll explain soon! Thanks again for the epic feedback.
Vijil