I finally have given some thought to "Crystal Heroes" (CH) and the Tactical Layer above the deterministic Tile Laying mechanic. So while the first aspect with the tiles relies on pure determinism and there is no LUCK (which many gamers hate) and I'm feeling very confident with this mechanic/aspect of the game; the 2nd Layer which is the "Reward" layer is a Tactical Layer.
Let me explain.
So the Tile Laying and Combat are deterministic. Great so far. But the 2nd Layer on which the "Reward" layer is designed in "RNG" and relies on dice rolling. Sure there are decisions to be made and yes the are wildcards on the Dice to make it easier to "collect" rewards...
But ATM I'm thinking about the "Dice Rolling" and IDK if I LIKE it enough to keep it AS-IS!
So how it works, when a Tile is conquered the winning player draws cubes from a common bag and the places the cubes on the conquered Tile (which is flipped over to reveal the dice combos). As the winner of the conquest, that player may choose ANY one (1) cube. There are five (5) types of cubes:
| # | Color | Resource | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Purple | Chaos | Collect 3 of these to automatically win. |
| 2. | Orange | XP | Collect these to award them to your Tiles. |
| 3. | Green | Select | Choice of which Basic Resource it will be. |
| 4. | Red | Food | Basic Lord/Lady Resource. |
| 5. | Yellow | Gold | Basic Lord/Lady Resource. |
| 6. | Blue | Bloodlust | Basic Lord/Lady Resource. |
You are trying to satisfy your Lord (or Lady) requirement in Resources.
While all this is cool... I'm worried about the "Dice Rolling" Tactical Layer.
Is there any other way that SOME kind of more "strategic" or persistent form of REWARDS could be possible???
Currently there are DICE RULES on the opposite side of conquered units. So I can have for example "2 White Dice > 8". If you roll this, you may collect one (1) Resource of your choosing (that are present on the Tile).
You can choose strategically based on what resources are available and the ones that you need for your Lord (or Lady). Each Lord (or Lady) has nine (9) resources to collect.
My REAL ISSUE is that I wanted some kind of 4 PAWN/MEEPLE tokens one for each Player. And I wanted them to MOVE AROUND to collect REWARDS.
BUT IDK how I can just allow a PAWN to go to ONE (1) Tile and SIT THERE and just COLLECT 4 or 5 resource CUBES... See what I mean???
Must be some other way of moving and NOT being able to simply collect all of the resource because then it becomes first one there, first one to collect ALL of the cubes and if the opponent is at the edge of the play area and the other in the middle... If a conquest is done near the MIDDLE, that player will probably collect ALL the cubes first.
It's just NOT good in that sense.
Scrambling to FIND a solution to this dilemma...? Can anyone help???
Note #1: I think I need something more CLEVER than just dice rolling... TBH.
What if the nine (9) resources were a COMBINATION that you needed to COLLECT in-order. So something like this:
Blue, Blue, Yellow, Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, Blue, Blue.
You need to COLLECT this EXACT sequence to WIN the game. Sometimes you could LUCK out an collect 2 Gems (like 2 Blues for example) and on your turn you would get three (3) Action Points (APs) and to MOVE or COLLECT costs 1 AP per operation.
This would FORCE players to move around and be BEATEN at times by an opponent (for example if the Tile was further away and two players were competing for the SAME resource)!
NO DICE REQUIRED!!! It changes the game a little bit, but it's NO LONGER "RNG"!
It's how you plan out your travelling and ability to COLLECT resources.
This is a BIG STEP FORWARDS... But I still want to think further about what can be PRESENT on the "backside" of the cards themselves. Something to add a bit more "strategy" (for example). Still want to ponder first.
But the COMBINATION is excellent. This would for certain FORCE a player to move around from one Tile to another to collect from the RIGHT Tiles and at the right moment.
Very clever indeed...! Ok that's one definite advancement. Let us see what can be done with the "backsides" of the Tiles (characters)!
Note #1: Sure the draws from the bag are random and can have an impact on who wins... But it's a GAME... As long as it doesn't require CUSTOM D6S to roll "RNG" positions ... It's muchly improved upon. And more COST effective too... Since I don't need to produce CUSTOM D6S!
Note #2: This kinda reminds me of Ticket-To-Ride's railway track system. While you plan out to put your railway cars ... Sometimes you may get blocked by an opponent who is not maliciously trying to take your places but requires them for his own railway cars. Sorta like that... Oops I know we are both going for that BLUE "Resource" whomever gets there FIRST, gets it!
I am also working with the ART and Cardbacks to determine what course of action should I use for the "Cardbacks" for the Game Tiles. If it was the same for all the Game Tiles, would be harder to know what cards are next and in your hand too... Hmm... Very interesting indeed.
More thought to go into this "Cardback" dilemma. TBD!