SOLO PLAY

I just finished a solo version of Kaiju Conquest on TTS. The UERF side won 126 to 67 for the Sazzarran. The game was played in 76 minutes. I had some decent die rolls for the Sazzarran but not quite enough to make a difference.

The problem with solo play is no special abilities are used by the Mecha and Kaiju. No Command Cards are used and the Sazzarran draws two Portal cards and has to deploy to those two zones, vice drawing four cards and choosing two zones.

Except for the military units which are just the same, all the MECHA and Kaiju were just using their basic attack values, which for most of them is 3 dice. It is a war of attrition with some strategy in placing the units. The UERF won that attrition from Year 1.

I realized after Year 1 that the Sazzarran had to concentrate on attacking the cities to deliver as much damage as possible while mostly ignoring the UERF military units (MUs) and MECHA. If they had extra damage rolled, then it could be carried over to the UERF MUs and MECHA.

Normally, this is what happens in a regular game, except that with special abilities and the Command Cards, sometimes the Sazzarran player can get the better play over the UERF.

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

YEAR 4

YEAR 5

The Sazzarran did manage to use two bio-bombs and destroy only five zones. The UERF used one nuke during the game and had another in reserve.

If I add special abilities of the MECHA and Kaiju as part of solo play, it will increase game time by maybe 15 minutes (about 3 minutes per Year), which is still not bad if it can be maintained at 90 minutes. More playtesting will determine that.

TABLETOPIA TEST

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GAME PLAY VIDEOS - PART 1

 For the last 2 weeks I was on isolation because a co-worker had been tested positive for COVID. At this time I don't know his situation. Hopefully okay. I did come out of it okay, but those two weeks gave me the opportunity to create my game play videos.

There were a total of six videos. The first four were Game setup and components, Draw Cards Phase, Resource Phase and Movement Phase. Each were from 2 minutes to 4 minutes long.  It took me at least 10 hours of multiple takes to get the right footage. I would have love to do multiple angles while taping, but I only had one good camera I was borrowing from my daughter, a tripod and two light stands for extra lighting. 

It was to be a top down view of the table. This way you get to see everything, at least.

My setup with tripod and one of the lamps visible.

This was during the Battle Phase video.

The last two videos were Battle Phase and End Phase. Those took me another 12 hours and at least 30 takes to get it to the point I was satisfied. Once I had all the videos completed, it was time to start editing. I currently use Pinnacle Studios 17. I have been using and upgrading that program for at least 14 years now. I have tried a couple of others and this one works best for me.

It was easy to edit the first four videos, but it still took me another 10 hours to edit all of them. I am using a laptop that is four years old now. The problem I found during the editing process is that I would have to wait practically a full minute after making an edit before I could make another edit. But at least they were done to the point I could add simple changes to them, Part of the problem may be my laptop cannot handle processing all that audio video data since it is four years old. But I will keep using it until it totally crashes on me.

The Battle Phase edits have taken me at least 37 hours now. The video is almost 15 minutes long. The original was 18 minutes, so I had room to make the required cuts. Once again it was painstakingly slow because of waiting for it to update after each edit. 

My plan is to get the videos completed within the next week now that I have to gone back to work. However, luckily next week I will be visiting family in Calgary and may have some time to do final touches.

Once the videos are done, I will be posting them on my Youtube channel and then advertising their link on my FB pages. More to follow when they are done.

THE RAVAGER (aka Giant Ape, aka Shimen Kolata)

This is one of the smallest Kaiju. It was originally called a giant ape by the humans but later given the moniker of Ravager due to it ravaging its way through towns, villages and cities.

Height: 40m

Primary Role: Front line assault

Abilities: Very agile in forests such as the Redwoods in California, USA, and adept at using tall structures in cities as cover.

Description: Normally a friendly species. They have a simian appearance. Their hair is a mix of browns and blacks, with blue feet, hands and chest.

Background: The Shimen Kolata are native to the world of Byndazii. Byndazii is a temperate world, with a mix of desert, mountains, jungles, and arctic tundra located on a few large continents. There are also many islands spread throughout the ocean. The Shimen Kolata prefer to inhabit the rain forests and mountainous terrain. The rain forests on Byndazii can reach over 100m in height. 

The Shimen Kolata enjoy leaping and climbing about these trees. There is another intelligent species on Byndazii called the Ferook. Where the Shimen Kolata are 40m tall, the Ferook are about 2m tall and also simian in appearance. The Ferook have a light coating of striped and spotted fur that is unique to their species, much like the Shimen Kolata. 

When Sazzarran "diplomats" appeared on Byndazii, they were amazed at the variety of species, especially the Shimen Kolata, when they were able to see them. It seemed the Shimen Kolata were a timid sort, considering their size. Bit it was soon found that they are protective and very ferocious when they, and especially their family, is threatened.

The Sazzarran engaged in conversation with the Ferook, which was mainly sign language and took many months for their linguists to understand. The Sazzarran wanted the Ferook to help them capture some of the Shimen Kolata, but the Ferook would have nothing to do with it. The two species lived well together and preferred to leave one antoher alone. When the Sazzarran started to threaten and torture some of the Ferook, the Shimen Kolata took notice and attacked the Sazzarran.

Many of the Sazzarran were slaughtered, but so were some of the Shimen Kolata and many Ferook. The remainder of the Sazzarran departed Byndazii, only to return with a much larger force and manage to capture many of the Shimen Kolata as well as the Ferook. 

It was later that the Sazzarran scientists discovered that the Shimen Kolata and the Ferook were of the same species. Apparently, after many years of adulthood, the Ferook depart their community and disappear into the rain forests and mountains. Over a period of several years, they eventually grow into the Shimen Kolata. 

When nature calls, the Ferook respond and have to leave their community or risk causing damage and suffering to their people when they start growing and become less intelligent.  The Sazzarran can now tap into that resource as much as possible when they need a pool of war beasts for their invasion of new worlds.

SO CLOSE YET SO FAR

Since my last post, I have finally inserted Kaiju Conquest into Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator. I had bought the platforms about 3 years ago and at the time I was having difficulty using them. Since then I watched more tutorial videos and it was easier than I thought. It seems TTs is more popular than Tabletopia, but I wanted to have both platforms for those people who are more comfortable with using one or the other.

I sent my game for quotes to several Chinese manufacturers. They were WINGO, NINUX, Magicraft, Longpack and Whatz Ganes. The results are about the same between them. It is just a matter of which one I want to choose. More to follow on that.

I received actual 3d models of each of the mecha and kaiju. I will not start posting them until after I get the landing page setup. 

I have been trying to post regularly on Facebook,  Instagram, and Twitter, but it is not easy considering I still work full time and have other domestic considerations that take priority. Currently  posting once per week. The problem is I don't like "spamming" myself a lot and I am not getting a lot of Likes or responses anyway. I wonder if it is worth it sometimes. But I keep trying.

Currently, I have paid someone to help me with setting up a landing page to begin proper email subscriptions in order to gain a following for Kaiju Conquest. I can only hope it works. I will post it on here soon.

I feel I am getting closer to the Kickstarter launch for Kaiju Conquest, but I know I have a long way to go yet. This is a list of what needs to be done:

1. Publicize the landing page.

2. Send weekly newsletters to those who have subscribed on the landing page.

3. Promote the game as much as possible on FB, Instagram, Twitter.

4. Promote the game online with Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator.

5. Confirm which Chinese manufacturer I will choose.

6. Contact shipping and fulfillment companies. I need to choose about four to distribute around the world.

7. Contact boardgame reviewers to review Kaiju Conquest. This will be done either through physical copies or online with Tabletopia and TTS.

7. Pay someone to help create my Kickstarter page. I am very weak in graphic designing.

8. Create a Kickstarter pre-launch promo page. 

9. Launch Kickstarter once I can confirm I will have anywhere from 300 to 500 followers.

I was planning for May 2021, but it really depends on the number of followers I get who will be backing the game. I cannot launch the kickstarter unless I get that minimum number in order to reach the funding goal, either within 3 days or at least by the end of the Kickstarter.

I have created a new email account just for ATC Games, advtocontact@gmail.com. You can contact me by email or currently on Facebook at ATC Games, https://www.facebook.com/advtocontactgames/

NEW GAME LAYOUT

I have to clarify something, My last blog was title Latest Game Layout. However, it is no longer the latest game layout. The one below is. Eventually, this image will replace the current one on the  top of the page. Of course, it will need a little cleaning up with the components. 

The game can still have 2 to 4 players and play within 90 minutes once you are familiar with the game.

THE LATEST GAME LAYOUT

I cannot believe it has been almost two years since I last posted on my blog. My apologies for those who may have been following my blog since the beginning.

Since then I have once again improved the rulebook, gameboard and components as follows:

The rulebook is 24 pages now. Here are a couple of page examples.

Last year, in September of 2019, the group from GNork Games offered to playtest my game. They provided a pre-game video, gameplay video and their thoughts after, Although it may have been hard to hear some of the points they made, it allowed me to make significant improvements to the rulebook and game mechanics. However, it took me almost a year to do it with some playtesting.

So, now I hope I have something more stable, logical and easy to read.

This was the gameboard as of September 2019.

This is the latest version.

The differences are as follows:
The Resource Trackers. I converted from four to two, one on each side, but having more points to score on the tracker, being 25 now instead of 20, and each player using one Tracker token instead of two each. Having one Tracker on each side with two players on a side to share became easier to manage.
The second thing changed was I added the stats for the Military Units (MUs) on the brushed metal half hexes on left side of the board.
The third thing was modifying the VP and RP charts.

The MECHA and Kaiju character cards were changed significantly. Last year, the cards had a Healthy side and a Damaged side, with a different special ability on each side. Apparently, it became a little difficult for the players to understand the abilities and manage the damage on the cards.
So, I improved them by only having the same stats on both sides of the card but the abilities are different. This means the players must choose which ability they want to play. Think of it like picking between 16 MECHA or Kaiju than only 8 of each.

The Target City cards are now called Target Zone cards and I have added cards for deploying in sea and land zones. This allows the Sazzarran player  more options to deploy their forces, especailly if they do not want to deploy into an enemy occupied zone.

The Tactic Cards were changed from this:

To only changing the back of the cards to this. The left is the Sazzarran Tactic Card and right is the UERF Tactic card.

 Lastly, the MUs were double sided with the same image on both sides. I changed that so that they other side now has a Damaged icon. During the Battle Phase, as the UERF forces are hit first, they needed to be turned over to a destroyed side before being removed because they still get to attack as combat is considered simultaneous, with exception of certain rules, such as using Nukes or Bio-Bombs.
So, now each MU looks like this with Sazzarran Mu example below.

That is pretty well it for the changes. This had vastly improved game play.
You may notice that the image I have of the gameboard and component layout on the page header is the previous version as of September 2019. I will eventually be replacing that with the new one.

My next blog will be about the 3d models.