2 March 2014
Finished up a second playtest session for a two-player game. A couple changes: - I acquired new chips of a brighter, thicker plastic and marked them by hand for clarity. I'm much more pleased with these materials (thanks, printplaygames.com!). See the photos below for more details. - I added "secret bonus points" awarded to the player who first claims a hex. Although I like the addition, I think I will change the way they are acquired. More about this below.
SETUP It was blue versus orange. The playfield was 9 hexes, plus one 6-point hex per player on either end. The Green "bonus" discs at the center of each hex were shuffled and placed face-down on a hex, revealed only to the player who claimed that hex. Since orange was the first player, they had a starting hand of 6 cards. Blue had a normal starting hand of 5 cards.
- GREEN BONUS CHIPS: I wanted to add a tangible bonus for those who expand aggressively across the map. The green discs are bonus points of 1, 2, or 3, awarded to the player who first claims the hex. I want to keep these, but I don't want to allow players to gain them automatically. Rather, I want to add usefulness to the NUMBER 2 cards. I'll make the NUMBER 2 +* cards allow a player to pick up a green disc for a hex they've claimed.
- WALLS: I did not build any walls in this game, as it didn't seem worth it. It may be useful for larger-area games. It may also add utility if players earn 1 VP or more for each wall they have on a hex they've claimed. At this point, I'm not concerned about the maneuver adding to game length, as it was fairly short.
- GAME LENGTH: the entirety of the match was less than a half hour. I'm pleased with that. I'll want to expand the size of the map and/or the number of players to see how these variables impact game length.
- FORE!/MOLE PANIC: this seems marginally useful at this point. It is likely I'll add a RESUPPLY bonus to these cards for future playtests. This will, however, reduce the possibility that a player will use this card as an opening move, since they won't have anything to resupply.
- ATTACK: I like the fact that a player who is on the attack can threaten an opponent by swooping in on their "home" hex. Those are a lot of points at stake, and can severely set back an aggressive player if they're not careful.
- ENDGAME: The score seemed rather balanced, and it was interesting to note that the player with more hexes hadn't won the game. It boiled down to the number of points earned on the hexes, as well as the secret bonus points. Closeness in scoring may indicate the game is a bit too short to exploit the options available, or that there simply aren't enough options to make much of a difference. Future testing will help determine this, I think.
CHANGES: For the next playtest session, I will institute the following changes:
- RESUPPLY bonuses of +1 or +2 for the FORE! cards.
- Green Bonus Chips awarded only when player uses the Special Power of the NUMBER 2 card.
- Play a 2-player game on a larger game area.
