Campaign Playtests
We were at Council Fires in Brantford Ontario on October 21st and we ran a complete set of teaching games. We were also at Fall In in Lancaster Pennsylvania on November 3rd and 4th and we ran a demonstration game with 14 players on the Saturday night. Thanks to all who played!
We threw the players into a series of one on one games in order to help them learn the rules and although Howard Whitehouse and myself had to run around the games teaching rules, it was a great experience. We were very busy but we feel this helps the players learn the rules and keeps the games moving. It was also the first time we played with the Shining Wood in our playtesting games. The Shining Wood had quite an effect on the Warbands when they were fired.
As we move into campaign game playtesting there has been a lot of questions about dropped weapons or thrown weapons. The rules let you throw axes, spears, tomahawks and even knives. So the question is whether these items can be picked up again and how? After some discussion with Howard it was decided that if you throw a weapon then you lose it for the rest of the tabletop game. If you win the game then you can pick up all weapons at the end of game for use in the next game. The reason for this is twofold. It keeps the game simple, no keeping track of thrown or dropped weapons. If you want to do this please feel free to add it to your at home games. Also, this makes the extra equipment slots for the warriors more significant. It now allows those that have extra spots, and get more in the campaign game as their figures get better, to carry an extra axe or tomahawk to throw at their opponents and thus give them the advantage of those extra equipment slots.
Campaign testing is starting with a rewrite of the Victory Points table. This table was appended to the beta playtest rules and seems to be out of wack. We have cut down the number of columns on this table and changed the points value to better reflect the nature of the game.
Our second concern is running through the campaign system and playtesting all the different scenarios that are available. We are editing these as we go thru the campaign rules.
Our campaign system has a unique challenge system to determine who fights who each turn of the campaign. You can give your Warband a Forage Order or a Rest Order. A Forage order is designed to allow you to challenge an opponent to a tabletop battle. A Rest Order allows you to take a Campaign turn to rest and rebuild your forces while gaining minimal points towards improving your Warband. By result the rewards for a tabletop battle resulting from a Forage order should be more than that received from a Rest Order. We are also toying around with the idea of a Rest order resulting in having less troops available for a tabletop game if you are "attacked" by a player with a Forage Order.
We have also come up with a random card pull for improving your Warband and a Medicine Card Deck that we are using for the Campaign. We are working on seeing how these progress as we move thru the Campaign playtest.We will keep you updated as we play.
We threw the players into a series of one on one games in order to help them learn the rules and although Howard Whitehouse and myself had to run around the games teaching rules, it was a great experience. We were very busy but we feel this helps the players learn the rules and keeps the games moving. It was also the first time we played with the Shining Wood in our playtesting games. The Shining Wood had quite an effect on the Warbands when they were fired.As we move into campaign game playtesting there has been a lot of questions about dropped weapons or thrown weapons. The rules let you throw axes, spears, tomahawks and even knives. So the question is whether these items can be picked up again and how? After some discussion with Howard it was decided that if you throw a weapon then you lose it for the rest of the tabletop game. If you win the game then you can pick up all weapons at the end of game for use in the next game. The reason for this is twofold. It keeps the game simple, no keeping track of thrown or dropped weapons. If you want to do this please feel free to add it to your at home games. Also, this makes the extra equipment slots for the warriors more significant. It now allows those that have extra spots, and get more in the campaign game as their figures get better, to carry an extra axe or tomahawk to throw at their opponents and thus give them the advantage of those extra equipment slots.
Campaign testing is starting with a rewrite of the Victory Points table. This table was appended to the beta playtest rules and seems to be out of wack. We have cut down the number of columns on this table and changed the points value to better reflect the nature of the game.
Our second concern is running through the campaign system and playtesting all the different scenarios that are available. We are editing these as we go thru the campaign rules.Our campaign system has a unique challenge system to determine who fights who each turn of the campaign. You can give your Warband a Forage Order or a Rest Order. A Forage order is designed to allow you to challenge an opponent to a tabletop battle. A Rest Order allows you to take a Campaign turn to rest and rebuild your forces while gaining minimal points towards improving your Warband. By result the rewards for a tabletop battle resulting from a Forage order should be more than that received from a Rest Order. We are also toying around with the idea of a Rest order resulting in having less troops available for a tabletop game if you are "attacked" by a player with a Forage Order.
We have also come up with a random card pull for improving your Warband and a Medicine Card Deck that we are using for the Campaign. We are working on seeing how these progress as we move thru the Campaign playtest.We will keep you updated as we play.
Thanks for the update. Always fun to read about your game. I will have to try at again sometime at a convention. :)
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