08-27-2007, 05:59 PM
Say, five of us got through 5 turns this past weekend.
Player characters were
* Francesco Foscari, Doge of Venice - Papal States
* Rodrigo Borgia - Aragón
* Donato Acclajuoli - Ottoman Empire
* Jakob Fugger - Holy Roman Empire
* Louis XI, The Dauphin - France
We did many rules lookups and had the following questions:
1. The starting characters need 4 stature-1 or -2 allies in order to be lifted to stature 3. What left us unsure was whether this stature 3 status is something that is achieved once and no further questions asked or whether these allies need to be maintained in order to keep the status.
We decided that it would work best if the rule was that the allies must be held in order to maintain the status, else it is lost. Otherwise, players could "loan" their allies to one another and it would be easy for everyone to quickly get to stature 3.
2. The assassin card. This card says that a player leader is assassinated on a die roll of 1 or an emperor is assassinated on a 1-3. But what if a player is an emperor? He meets both statuses.
We decided that this card is much too nasty to be used on any player character and disallowed it altogether.
3. If a player's forces are besieged inside a city and that city is a port, is the besieged player allowed to safely evacuate the trapped forces by sea?
We decided yes.
4. Can allied leaders be combined in attack? For example, one player has an emperor with 4 armies in a duchy and is attacked by another emperor plus 4 armies and another leader under the control of the same player and 2 armies. Do the 2 emperors fight first and then the second leader can attack? Or is it all in one?
We decided the former.
5. Again on siege. If a force is being besieged and another force under that player's control comes to relieve it, can the two forces attack together or are they two separate attacks?
We decided two separate attacks, but I would like to suggest that the inside force roll 1 die. This is the number of steps who are able to synchronize their attack with the outside relieving force.
6. Winter depletions and destruction. We are not clear whether armies outside in the weather or mountains are depleted or destroyed and also whether paying gold to prevent this leaves them at fully healthy or depleted status.
We played that the armies lose 1 step if not paid for and don't lose any if they are.
Suggestions:
a. The interleaving of the phases seems to make the game take longer than necessary. Much time is lost in the context switching. We suggest turning over 4 cards at the very beginning of the turn and auctioning them all off at that time.
b. The cards are what are really interesting in the game, so make that a bigger part of the game by not having so much movement in between auctions. Just have one movement/combat phase between auctions.
c. Too many late game cards come up early when they can't be used and so they're not worth bidding upon. We suggest dividing the deck into 2 or more sections so that one gets the more basic things early in the game and the ones that depend on them only later.
d. Try to get rid of some of the unnecessary special cases in the rules, e.g. the rule that 5 coins suddenly turn into an army when a city is attacked. Do the army construction right after receiving revenue and before movement/combat so that this doesn't become an issue.
e. Besides the assassin, some other cards are too draconian in their effects as well. A player who takes a hit should be knocked back and have trouble recovering, but not be knocked out of the game entirely.
There were other suggestions, but these are the main ones that come to mind. A bigger map would be very helpful, of course. Everyone thinks the game is very interesting, but just think more can be done in the areas of rules clarity and downtime/length.
Player characters were
* Francesco Foscari, Doge of Venice - Papal States
* Rodrigo Borgia - Aragón
* Donato Acclajuoli - Ottoman Empire
* Jakob Fugger - Holy Roman Empire
* Louis XI, The Dauphin - France
We did many rules lookups and had the following questions:
1. The starting characters need 4 stature-1 or -2 allies in order to be lifted to stature 3. What left us unsure was whether this stature 3 status is something that is achieved once and no further questions asked or whether these allies need to be maintained in order to keep the status.
We decided that it would work best if the rule was that the allies must be held in order to maintain the status, else it is lost. Otherwise, players could "loan" their allies to one another and it would be easy for everyone to quickly get to stature 3.
2. The assassin card. This card says that a player leader is assassinated on a die roll of 1 or an emperor is assassinated on a 1-3. But what if a player is an emperor? He meets both statuses.
We decided that this card is much too nasty to be used on any player character and disallowed it altogether.
3. If a player's forces are besieged inside a city and that city is a port, is the besieged player allowed to safely evacuate the trapped forces by sea?
We decided yes.
4. Can allied leaders be combined in attack? For example, one player has an emperor with 4 armies in a duchy and is attacked by another emperor plus 4 armies and another leader under the control of the same player and 2 armies. Do the 2 emperors fight first and then the second leader can attack? Or is it all in one?
We decided the former.
5. Again on siege. If a force is being besieged and another force under that player's control comes to relieve it, can the two forces attack together or are they two separate attacks?
We decided two separate attacks, but I would like to suggest that the inside force roll 1 die. This is the number of steps who are able to synchronize their attack with the outside relieving force.
6. Winter depletions and destruction. We are not clear whether armies outside in the weather or mountains are depleted or destroyed and also whether paying gold to prevent this leaves them at fully healthy or depleted status.
We played that the armies lose 1 step if not paid for and don't lose any if they are.
Suggestions:
a. The interleaving of the phases seems to make the game take longer than necessary. Much time is lost in the context switching. We suggest turning over 4 cards at the very beginning of the turn and auctioning them all off at that time.
b. The cards are what are really interesting in the game, so make that a bigger part of the game by not having so much movement in between auctions. Just have one movement/combat phase between auctions.
c. Too many late game cards come up early when they can't be used and so they're not worth bidding upon. We suggest dividing the deck into 2 or more sections so that one gets the more basic things early in the game and the ones that depend on them only later.
d. Try to get rid of some of the unnecessary special cases in the rules, e.g. the rule that 5 coins suddenly turn into an army when a city is attacked. Do the army construction right after receiving revenue and before movement/combat so that this doesn't become an issue.
e. Besides the assassin, some other cards are too draconian in their effects as well. A player who takes a hit should be knocked back and have trouble recovering, but not be knocked out of the game entirely.
There were other suggestions, but these are the main ones that come to mind. A bigger map would be very helpful, of course. Everyone thinks the game is very interesting, but just think more can be done in the areas of rules clarity and downtime/length.