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Thank you for your interest in the faction! I apologize for the confusion about clan dishonor, it is alluded to in the faciton abilities, and functionally serves the sole purpose of giving you the opportunity to sacrifice clan troops to mitigate it. While the honor mechanic as a whole is likely to either change dramatically or be removed altogether in future versions, I agree that it could be explained more clearly and concisely on the board. Best of luck in the contest!!

Thank you for your feedback and your interest in the faction! I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to further iterate on the design. I've come to a similar conclusion as you, that the honor system, while flavorful, is not worth the added complexity and rules overhead, and I intend to phase it out in future versions of the faction. In exchange, I intend to make sacrificing clan warriors the consequence for dishonor, and retool recruiting accordingly. 

While I'm not 100% sure if I'm interpreting your statement about farming sympathy correctly (existing system you would only be rewarded the 1 Honor for removing the sympathy, 1 Honor if WA has no warriors end of turn, but not 1 Honor beyond that unless warriors were removed), it was not by design to encourage a strategic impetus to bully factions off the board and keep them there. That clause is included because I did not like the idea of a faction simply not having warriors on the board hamstring the main scoring mechanism on the faction board, but I agree that there are many ways that can be improved in future iterations.

Regarding the action deck, I have been pleased with the  outcomes of testing, samples I ran with the deck, and also with the spreadsheet version of the probabilities of any particular action or combination of actions. Naturally an intricately designed web of actions like that would always be subject to improvement over time, but I don't think that's too much of a priority at this time.

Regarding the clans, the puzzle of using flexible actions to prepare for the possibility of inflexible ones (the faction learning curve does expect, over time, the player to become familiar with all 12 cards and to track the odds of each appearing) by managing clearing suits via buildings, and also by strategically positioning warriors, is actually something I was pretty proud of in designing, so it is somewhat surprising to hear your distaste for that mechanic. I do intend to more clearly rules-out the functionality of the clan members taking actions, but I'd be interested to hear more of your thoughts on the matter.

Thanks again for your effort, and best of luck to you in the contest!

Fun faction! Your builder-spender flow for the warriors is quite possibly the best directly-impactful execution on the sacrifice them that I've seen yet. Great work

Major props, you've done a great job keeping your faction board clean, clear, and concise. Everything was perfectly clear on the first read through! I also like that you've designed a faction that really leans into the crafting as the primary mechanic instead of a side hustle or a finisher, the two passives are a really special lean into this identity.

I do worry, however, that the faction seems very dangerously easy to stop or even delete from the game altogether. Have I missed a comeback mechanic in the event that your Manufactory is destroyed and you become unale to recruit or rule anywhere?

I really like the idea of a faction warring against itself! I also think you've done a great job translating individual chess pieces into corresponding root warriors. I do have a couple concerns with the scoring pace, as depending on circumstances I could see it being softlocked (locked into your homeland with a cat/bird/lizard/etc recruiting warriors in all adjacent clearings such that you're forever stuck at 0 vehemence) and I could also see it make massive jumps (via having no other enemy captures and looping white side and dark side captures).

EDIT: I missed a clarification by the author in the project notes, which has addressed my concern about getting homeland-locked above. Again, wanted to say great work, and good luck!!

Big points for creativity and concept. Bag/programming concept got me excited just reading through it! The scoring mechanism, especially combined with the body parts that give profound advantages in combat, seems like it might not be the most fun to play against, but the base ideas here are superb, great work!

Thank you for your feedback! Ever since I submitted, I've had a nagging feeling I snuck too many mechanics in here, and thinking about it, I think that I really like the koikoi style order system and clan system, but the honor system is the weakest link (even though, ironically, it was the fundamental idea of the original faction)! I'm glad to hear your thoughts on it, I think that corroborates my suspicions.

The game looks great, the game sounds great, and the game feels great! Visually speaking, the design of characters, ally and enemy alike, are very compelling and really push this pixel art style to the max. Each card has good, and visually distinct, artwork, making it smooth to recognize each card at a quick glance. The visual and audio effects of playing cards are done well too; cards sound weighty, both in your hand and when played; the cards are free of visual clutter and have all the pertinent information cleanly arranged; they are able to be tilted around to provide a sense of depth to them. All in all, deckbuilder mechanics all seem sound and clean and well-desinged.

As for the boards/tactical elements, from my experience thus far they are also very enjoyable. Boards immediately invoke that classic FF Tactics feel, although the deckbuilder stylings present a whole fresh outlook on the tactical choices players must make. There are small details done right, such as the sound of water rippling when it is present. Enemies have highly variable movesets which means that navigating the terrain effectively to defeat them is critical.

Overall, design decisions are very creative and compelling. Even in the first few encounters, multiple concepts and keywords were introduced that I've never seen before, a testament to the creativity at work here. Highly, highly recommend!