Goodwin Games

Today, testing the game (4.1), we had two human generals.

One Scout Master General from Malrock blessed by Horizon

Vs a Heartlander Battle Mage blessed by Harth.

A great start to test the new battle tactics and see if these new additions enable players to build armies that suit their class type.

Both being from neighbouring regions it wasn’t long until their armies clashed and we could test this straight away. It appears the battle tactics kept army builds in theme but more play throughs are needed to ensure these tactics are balanced between the classes.

Having moral bonuses based on the armies contents played a role on both players’ recruitment process. Both the players built their forces solely within their home region. It would be interesting to see how this played further as the players expanded into outer regions.

However, moral is going through some changes. Rather than every turn the players roll 2x6D to determine how many men they command per a battling round, a standard number will be implemented and moral attributes such as banners and instruments or perhaps a class attribute will affect this. Although, their first turn will still be determined from the dice, to keep a motivation turn. This allows armies, who could be greatly outnumbered, from being wiped out within the first turn.

All the rules since 4.1 have stated that the attacker always gets to go first. This time, will allowed players to roll off to decided who went first. Like a lot games, have an initiative turn. In reflection, we felt this would be a great opportunity to introduce some more class attributes, for example, where the scout master cannot be surprised, therefore he gets to make his opponent re-roll. Again, class attributes need reflecting and adjusting to balance these traits.

It became apparent early on that the battle magic mechanics are broken. Elves, as soldiers, have a magic stat that are way too high, especially when comparing magic to melee and missile fighting. Greater spells got limited to only the general’s bodyguard (not including aided magic) and having unlimited range for magic users was ridiculous.

Magic weapons need adjusting in terms of the amount of magic they boast. A overall reduction is to be implemented, yet range now needs to be considered for the different magical weapons. Similar to missile weapons with attack and range stats, but I believe in the next test, no magic weapon will exceed a range of 3.

Consolidation – turning one army into two or swooping and adding troops over from one army to another. All this is to take place between two armies that are next to each other, obvious and no problem. A debate occurred around whether this counts as recruitment or not. We decided that consolidation can be entirely separate thing from recruitment. Essentially, splitting forces up or moving your general out to start a new army and sending these armies their separate ways seems above board. And if they then go on to recruit units from different locations after they moved, then that sounds fair. However, should an army be able to recruit, then move to another army, consolidate all its forces into the other army and then move that army further? This very scenario happened in this test. Technically, some units have moved a distance of 10 hexagons, a distance they couldn’t move if they existed in one army.

Can I allow a general to daisy chain his army pieces to pass forces along ? Do I restrict them to only one consolidation action? Or can an argument be made that technically the general had created a vast network to mobilise their forces and actually this should be rewarded.

The last note we made during today’s test was; what happens when your general dies in battle and has a capital city? no capital city, then your general is dead-dead. If the general has a capital city does the commander miss a go? Or miss out on tax collection? And does his remaining forces go with him? Does it work if their capital city is another continent?

Next version, will be focused on battle rules and the magic mechanic.