I am planning to have the theme of Clash of Empires revolve around the colonization of North America in the 16th and 17th century.

Here is a draft of a new map.

This month, I made the changes to Clash of Empires in order to problems with the deckbuilding and board portions of the game working well together.

• Players get most of their points by buying scoring cards: Before, players scored points every 5 rounds. This mechanic did a poor job of tying the deckbuilding and board elements together and interrupted the flow of the game.
• Players mostly get troops by playing cards from their hand: Before, players would get troops every 5 rounds, which also interrupted the flow of the game.
• Various balance tweaks to the cards: In previous games, there were some cards that nobody purchased, and that was an issue I wanted to address.

The idea of combining a deckbuilding game with a board was well-received,but there were several issues that came up during the playtest.

Difficulty attracting players.

This points to an issue with generating a positive first impression of the game. In order to fix this, I  plan to spend time improving the theme and visual appeal of the game components.

Ruin cards detracted from gameplay because they discouraged board activity.

A major part of the game was the fact that players gained ruin cards every time they took a territory that just clogged up their deck. As a result, players avoided playing on the the board and taking territory.

In order to solve this,  ruin cards should have some sort of positive effect or they should be removed from the game.

Players did not like the idea of having to buy point cards.

The mechanic of buying point cards seemed like it was a tacked on idea that did not integrate well with the rest of the game. To fix this, I need to find another way of giving points.

Too much complexity.

The game had several rules which added complexity without adding much to the game, which confused players and made it difficult for them to understand the issue. This also means that I need to be careful about adding complexity when fixing the gameplay issues I mentioned.

Players were not having fun, and were distracted easily.

This is a result of the other gameplay issues I mentioned above, and it is something I need to fix.

Possible changes.

Gain a card representing a region into your deck when you take it that gives you some sort of bonus action and/or points.

This mechanic would go a good job of giving players an incentive to take regions on the board, and it would do a good job of tying the board and deckbuilding elements together.  Also, giving victory points for regions will eliminate the need to have purchasable point cards.

However, this mechanic will add additional complexity to the game.

Add a simple supply system and the ability to claim territories anywhere in a manner similar to the board game Go.  To compensate for the added rules, players will no longer be able to build troops and ruins will be removed from the game.

Go manages to have a signficant amount of strategy with rules that can be explained in one minute. If properly implemented, this would do a good job of fixing the gameplay flaws I mentioned.

However, properly implementing this idea would require signficant gameplay changes. Also,  I’m not sure if players would like this idea.

Special thanks to the Break My Game group for helping to organize the playtesting event.

Today I ran another playtest of Clash of Empires.

Notes

• There was a $2 cost card that allowed a player to discard and draw up to five cards, which was broken.
• Players often ended up with $2.  For the second playtest, I took away the $2 card,  which annoyed players when they couldn’t buy anything.
• One player had a strategy of trashing cards, and then having cards that gave extra actions and cards. This player was clearly winning from the middle of the game.
• Players spent a lot of time trashing ruins.
• There were long periods within the game where players were not doing anything on the board.

Comments

• I love the idea, but it needs balance
• There is an issue with the “rich getting richer”.
• Allow players to upgrade low-value money cards more easily.
• Make it easier to buy gold.
• Encourage players to do stuff on the board.
• It feels like the board element is tacked on.
• I feel like I’m playing Dominion and not doing anything on the board.
• I like the way ruins are used in the game.

Balance suggestions

• Give players victory points for winning battle
• Don’t give players points for controlling territories until the end of the game.
• Make it more desirable for players to buy “Upgrade” cards to improve their deck.
• The board needs to be more integrated with the deckbuilding part of the game.
• Allow players to gain territory without attacking people.
• Encourage players to attack.
• Consider giving bonus actions to a player that controls a region.
• Have quick setup rules with set starting positions for each player instead of random territories.

Other

• Rules need to be more clear for new players.
• Make it clear that there are unlimited buys.

Things to Change

• Add neutral territories with a unit in each of them: This will encourage players to attack to get extra points and troops. Netural territories are a better option than attacking other players because the neutrals will be weaker, and will not counterattack.
• Come up with a balanced $2 card: The current $2 card I had was imbalanced, but the game needs a $2 card.
• Various modifications to the costs of cards: Some of the cards were broken because they were too cheap, and there were some expensive cards such as gold that nobody bought.
• Make it more difficult for players to avoid the negative effects of gaining ruin cards.
• Balance ruin cards to encourage attacking: Players were too passive. However, I need to be careful to make sure the changes don’t make it easier for someone to snowball.
• Consider switching to a theme about colonization: A colonization theme fits in well with the balance changes I plan to make, and is a theme that more people are familiar with.
• Modify end condition: A fixed game length of 20 turns has been a problem because it was forced, and did not accurately represent when a game was supposed to be over. I need to have end conditions that trigger when a player is pulling too far ahead, or based on some organic condition such as several piles of cards running out.
• Make sure board is more integrated with the deckbuilding: A couple of players felt that they were playing a deckbuilding game with a tacked on board.
• Make the rules more clear: The players were confused about several of the rules at the beginning, and there were instances where a player was surprised by an important rule in the middle of the game.
• Minor changes
  • Make it clear that players cannot buy ruins.
  • Make it clear that players have unlimited buys.

On Friday, I ran several playtests of Clash of Empires at Awesome Con. The playests were quick demos of the game that were designed to test the core mechanics of the game, and make sure the game was easy to learn.

Comments

Rule clarity

• “Make it clear that certain cards are actions and that certain cards are treasures”.
• “Make it clear that prestige refers to victory points”.
• “It takes time to get the game”.
• “Make the General action card more clear”.
• “Make the rules for troop placement more clear”.
• “Add a written reference sheet”.
• “Make rules on Forced March card more clear”.

Other comments

• “Game is like Trains”.
• “I don’t like the timed mechanics. A more organic end condition is needed”.
• “The mechanics need polishing”.
• “I’ll playtest the game again, but it is not ready for publishing”.
• “I like it. I’m a huge fun of Dominion, and I liked the map, and the fact that it was different from a typical deckbuilding game”

Changes

I plan to spend time creating player aids and implementing other changes to make the rules more intuitive. Many playtesters were confused by the cards, and did not fully understand what they were doing.

I also plan to make it very clear that attacking early game, and deckbuilding are both viable strategies to avoid perceptions that the game is imbalanced due to the way people play the game. For the playtests, I focused on a strategy of attacking early and not spending too much effort on building up my deck. This allowed me to gain an early lead, and we never played enough rounds to allow the players with better decks to catch up because we were playing an abbreviated game. I am concerned about this because in a multiplayer game, players often tend to focus on opponents with an early point lead, which gives the player going for long-term points a major advantage. In Clash of Empires, this will lead to the players who are focusing on deckbuilding early game to win, and cause players to think that deckbuilding is much more powerful than it should be.

Today I playtested Clash of Empires with the deckbuilding element.

I played the game with two other people and the game was surprisingly close despite the fact that we followed different strategies. I focused mostly on building my deck and buying victory cards with a few attacks, while the other players mostly focused on controlling map regions.

Comments from the game

• “Good concept”.
• “Too many Dominion cards”.
• “Make your hands more meaningful”: The player did not like the fact that your hand was meaningless if you played an action on the board. He suggested allowing players to play cards from their hand, and then taking an action on the board.
• “The cards add more depth to the game”.
• “I like this better than Risk”.
• “Make game look more professional”.
• “Add backing to the cards and add sleeves.”
• ” Improve balance” .

Future plans

Overall the playtest went well because the players liked the mechanics, but they felt that the game needed more polish and balance.  Below is a list of what I will be focusing on over the next few weeks.

Gameplay

• Rulebook updates.
• Turn sequence modification: Each player will have two phases on their turn.  During the first phase, a player can play a card or take an action. During the second phase, a player may buy a card.
• Modify region bonuses so that they are easier to get.

New Cards

• Mines:  Can be played during the first phase of your turn instead of an action to give you money.
• Scorched earth:  Gives extra ruin cards to attacking players.
• Upgrade: Allows players to trash a card for a better ones.
• Extra action cards: These can be played to allow a player to gain multiple actions.
• Card draw cards: These can be played to give a player more cards.

Aesthetics

• Make cards look more professional.
• Modify board to make borders, terrain, and territory labels more clear.
• Change terminology to make sure it is not identical to Dominion.