The Magitech Wars (was: Crystal Archons)

I like the idea, but so far, I have not found a way to make summoning creature on the map interesting to play. I hate summoner's war, and I tried exploring a game with hexes and DM cards like on the picture below and it failed.

http://bgd.lariennalibrary.com/uploads/Mainsite/Main/ProtypePicture/Pict...

So their is probably a key rule I was missing to make the game interesting. In LOTR confrontation, I think what makes it work is that all units stars on the board and you have hidden information. I do not necessarily prefer it this way.

I even had an idea to have a chess like game with various creature configuration, but again, all units started on the board. Even in archon, all units start on the board.

There is mage wars that looks interesting:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/101721/mage-wars

But I think why it works is because there is not that many playing space on the battlefield.

I see a problem with the occupation of the center hex row. Perhaps if you score points at the end of every turn this may work; the player to occupy a hex at the end of turn gains its victory points.

The other problem is that each player is only concerned with occupation of that center row, which is AKA king of the hill. There is no incentive to move into "enemy territory" to do battle. Perhaps you could scrap the board and just have duels against monsters for control over a row (the floor so to speak).

In the link with *template* it says that "Health" is under *Power* (On the top left-hand side). But in the sample cards, there is no "Health"!? But yet on two (2) of the cards (White Mage and Manticore) in the *Abilities* section, they talk about "being able to sustain additional hits".

Can you explain all of this... because it seems very inconsistent. I think the concepts are interesting - but there seems to be some things which are confusing.

(P.S.: I am old and get confused easily...)

BTW is the character artwork your own (White Mage, Manticore, Black Knight)???

Well one thing that I do know is that The Game Crafter has *Mini cards* which are 1.75"x2.5" and even smaller are *Micro cards* which are 1.25"x1.75".

You can have two options: have 2 decks, one with the smaller cards which simply refer to the card and then the normal poker sized cards. One COOL thing about this idea is that it keeps HIDDEN the abilities of the creature from the opponent. Obviously experienced players may know the special abilities of creatures because they play often, but still I think this is a *sort of Hidden Information*.

And since each player can customize the creatures they play with, they may not always have the card on hand to check what the opponents creature abilities are.

From their site you can even see the card being *supported* by a small stand:

https://community.thegamecrafter.com/publish/templates/cards/micro-cards

You might want to use those type of stands in your game.

It depends if you want to make your game more like a CCG or a board game. If it's a board game with a bunch on creature cards, well then you could use the smaller cards (as placeholders) and have players with a hand with their respective creatures...

Where does the name "Crystal Archon" come from?

I think the logo on the cards looks nice - but I wonder about the name.

I don't get why *Crystal* is used in conjunction with *Archon*. I see there are crystals in the artwork (cards) and concepts like "Crystal Mining" (?).

Maybe you could explain this...

What I like is the idea of customizing your game from a pool of creatures. This is nice - adds a lot of replayability. It also opens up the possibility of expansions to the game (which is always good).

I would not make it *Light vs. Dark*. This is what the OLD game was about. I would find something other twist. You could use a RPS-5 I have developed: Green (Terra) - Blue (Aqua) - Red (Ignis) - White (Solis) - Black (Lunae). Green are Earth creatures, Blue are Water creatures, Red are Fire creatures, White are Life (Sun) creatures and Black are Death (Moon) creatures. I have the RPS - but no reason to apply it to any game in particular.

Life creatures can be Unicorns, Pegasis, Humans. Death creatures can be Basilisk (Petrification), Werewolf, Vampire, Undead. Fire creatures can be hellish like Demons, hellhounds, Dwarves (Fire/mountains). Earth can be Druids, Driads, Elves. Water can be Sirens, Sprites, Merfolk (Mermaid, Merman).

Could be something like Archon: Circlet of the Heavens.

A circlet is a circular band made up of precious materials and it is worn on the head. It could be the PRIZE the winner is trying to WIN.

Each *color/element* could be used to control a HEX. BASICALLY you need 1 creature of each color to be on a "win HEX". The circlet (of the Heavens) can be made with 5 jewels encrusted: one for each color/element. The goal is to control all 5 colors (winks) and you would win (a little bit of a variant on what you were suggesting). You could make the "O" of "archOn" the circlet...

Jewels can be: Emerald (Green), Sapphire (Blue), Ruby (Red), Diamond (White), Onyx (Black).

Again just ideas that I am coming up with thinking what I think would be cool in the game. They are just ideas (to think about).

Not sure about the *Mana* part: how do you EARN it?

Maybe you should EITHER Move or Attack. Why? It allows for defensive play. You can retreat if a more powerful creature is trying to *kill* a weaker one. Worth thinking about. Makes it a little more like chess (or the original Archon).

I don't know - because I did not read about this - but you should consider the concept of RANGE. Each creature has a range of attack - like 1 hex, 2 hex or 3 hexes. Maybe for spells or abilities. More to think about. The RANGE of a creature should be indicated on the *Micro* card (Placeholder) so that the opponent can figure out how he is being threatened. Lower range = higher defense or health.

I think you said that units would need to be "Summoned" which is DIFFERENT from the OLD Archon which had static units...

Your concept has "*during your turn, you summon creatures onto your side of the board (your starting row or portal row)"

You could consider having a SPECIAL Pawn which is YOUR Archon.

You could summon a creature NEXT to your Archon Pawn. Archons could have different capabilities which make it that they can move MORE hexes than creatures... Archon Pawns cannot be attacked or defeated.

This makes it easier to manage 5 win hexes (you have 7 special hexes). 18 / 5 = 3.6 (so between 3 to 4 creatures per hex). Enough to make it that you don't have ALL 5 colors at a location (win hex).

5 hexes is also easy to implement: a cross. 3 horizontally and 3 vertically (1 share = 5). So the win hexes could be spread apart. With the Archon, it could take maybe 2 or 3 turns to reach a hex. I could picture a hex battle as a skirmish of creatures (maybe like 4-6)...

"But what I don't understand is "We are going to use the same artwork for our game". Who is WE? And what game are you talking about that has a "CCG feel"?"

Yes, I am co-designing with Fhizban. We are not ready yet to make any announcement. The only clue I could say is that all the clues to find the answer are in this thread. But please do not PM me to know if you have the answer, I won't tell.

I like phantasy star. That could be a cool theme.

Quick idea: Instead of accumulating victory points why not use a system like 1812.

Each crystal controlled gives you 1 VP non cumulative. The players need to trigger a certain event for the game to end. When the game ends, the player who currently control the most VP area wins.

The concept of 1812 is that city captures goes back and forth between Canada and US. It's very hard to defend everything, so you are always vulnerable somewhere. But if you have a strong difference with your opponent score, you could try to pass the truce and once it passes, the player with the most points/cities win. The worst case scenario I have seen is canada having a 5 point advantage (which is a lot), so canada passed the truce but they lost at the end of the turn because US captured 6 points in 1 turn.

in 1812, one of the movement card is a truce. So eventually, the truce is going to happen because the card will have to get played. Because in that game, you place a mobilize card each turn ( which has various effects).

Another idea could be to have some sort of clock like and event deck where players can manipulate the depletion speed or the content of the card.

For example, in Starcraft, there is 3 end game cards, and when 2 of them are drawn the game is over. You could allow players to cycle the deck faster, or allow them to stall the deck, or even return an end game cards.

Again in starcraft, "Stalling Tactics" reshuffle the card in the deck. While another accelerate the process by making you draw and extra card.