SESSION 3 OF A REVISED KAIJU CONQUEST

Since my last post, there have been changes to the game board as you will see from the image below. Also, you may have noticed that I changed the first word of my blog titles on this series from Playtest to Session, as each session could involve one or more games. 

I had put out a query on several Facebook sites for people to tell if they liked the brick grid or hex grid system, and whether they liked the blue screen style background or the real earth background. The results were very near the same for both. So in the end it is still up to me to decide what to use. Go back to Session 2 blog for a view of the brick grid system.

For now I chose the blue screen hex grid as I want to have a war room style setup as if you are standing over a hologram table and looking at the pieces as they are moved about the surface.

On Wednesday, April 18th, I went to King's Court Cafe where Kyle King, the owner was gracious and very open towards having a game developers night at his place of business. I was the only person that night with a game to playtest, but it still worked in my favour as four people showed up for the game. Three of them played the game with me as a fourth player. I was on the UNRF side.

The game objective was the same as the last session. The Sazzarran forces must destroy or damage as many cities as possible before the end of game round 6. The UNRF forces must destroy as many Kaiju as possible before the end of game round 6. The player with the most Victory Points was the overall winner. Victory Points for the Sazzarran player was based on half the Hit Point values of the cities (rounded up for the odd numbers). The UNRF received VPs based on the BV/VP value on the Kaiju cards.

BV/VP value is the number 3 on right side of card.

We managed to get to Round 3 before we broke into discussion about the game mechanics, and what to improve. By that time we were already 90 minutes into the game. Of course, we had been discussing and the others had been learning the game strategy while playing, so it took longer than normal.

There were quite a few things that came up during the first game played that night. They were as follows:

1. Some of us had a hard time rolling 6s in our attacks, so we could not always use our Special Abilities on the MECHA or Kaiju or use the Tactics Cards. The solution to that was any roll of 4+ could activate a Special Ability or Tactic Card. This later changed to point 2 below.

2. There are more powerful Tactics cards than others in our decks, but they could all be used the same way with a roll of a 6 on a six-sided die. The solution to that was placing a dice value on the cards. For example, Nuke Em All, a very powerful UNRF Tactic Card, would require using two 6s to activate it. Whereas, a card like Power Strike with +2 Attack Dice would only require using a 4. These die numbers would only work for the Battle Phase cards.

3. Also for the Tactic Cards was to add whether the card is used before or after rolling the dice, during the Battle Phase.

4. Changing the way we receive Resource Points. Normally, you would get 5 points per Base and Portal in play, and you could save some RPs for future rounds to build more and bigger Kaiju. The solution to that to try out was that the Game Round Tracker would also have a smaller number listed beside the Round Number. This smaller number would be the number of RPs each side would get each game round. For example, Round 1 is 5 RPs, Round 2 is 7 RPs, Round 3 is 9 RPs, and so on to Round 6 at 15 RPs for each player.

During the second game that night, myself and Kyle played a 2 player game with the same objectives, but mainly using points 1 and 4 above. For Point 2 the rule was that the Nuke Em All card needed the two 6s to be rolled to activate it. I have yet to write on the cards the die numbers needed to activate them. For Point 3 there were a few cards that we agreed would only be used before or after rolling the dice.

That game lasted just over an hour (we did have some discussions on game mechanics during the game), and Kyle won as the Sazzarran forces with 36 VPs, 8 destroyed cities and a couple of damaged cities. I as the UNRF only had 11 VPs, and that was only because I used the Nuke Em All card to try and catch up in VPs. It obviously did not work by the end of Round 6.

The points from the second game are as follows:

1. Using the increasing RP values for each game round worked. I will continue to use that for future games to ensure it is still effective.

2. Using the 4+ rule to activate special abilities or Tactics Cards helped. I will continue to use that but modified based on Point 2 above from the first game play.

3. We also found that if the objective for the UNRF player was to destroy only the Kaiju, the Sazzarran player would mostly build Military Units (MUs) so the UNRF player could not get the VPs. The solution to try next time was that the Bases can only create the MUs, based on their Attack Value. So you build a base for 6 RPs, and each game round in the Resource Phase you receive 3 or 4 MUs for each Base, depending on the Base. Sazzarran Bases have AV 4 and UNRF Bases have AV 3.

This way you do not need to use RPs to build MUs, but the MUs are still produced through the Bases. So it makes the Bases more of a vital target to destroy if you do not want MUs appearing all the time, and the RPs can be used to build more MECHA, Kaiju, Bases or Walls (see point 4 below on the Walls).

4. With the assistance of the Portals, the Kaiju were able to stomp cities all over the place (of course Kyle was getting some good rolls and good combinations of Tactics cards to use against me). To help slow them down and add a little challenge, the solution for next session will be to build 1 giant wall section for 1 RP. A giant wall section would be a a thin token no longer than a hex side. Every wall section you build goes up along a hex side to protect cities and force the Kaiju to have to destroy the walls to move through.
Of course the Kaiju could still use Portals to appear in a city that is behind a section or more of wall, but if the Kaiju wants to move out of that zone it has to defeat the wall section. You simply need a d6 roll of 6 to destroy one wall section. So this could force a Kaiju to waste its attack rolls on just trying to break in or out of a zone.

5. There are a few Kaiju cards (maybe even MECHA cards) that need some adjusting in their special abilities. Some of them have similarities to others. I want to try and make them different as much as possible.

I am still getting great feedback from the people playing the game. Each time we keep improving something to make it better, engaging, more challenging, and hopefully fun. Thanks to Mike, Roger, Alex, Scott for playing and providing feedback. Thanks to Kyle for allowing me to present the game at Kings Court Cafe. I will be seeing you there again next Wednesday. After that I will be trying to rotate to other boardgame cafes in the city so others who want to play the game do not have to drive far.

Stay tuned for more posts on this series of new playtest sessions. Comments are welcome below as well as subscribing to the email list, especially as things get closer to the Kickstarter.

SESSION 2 OF A REVISED KAIJU CONQUEST

This last weekend, my family and I tried out a four-player version of Kaiju Conquest. The idea was to have the core game be made for four players with scenarios created for 2 to 4 players.


I was observing, taking points from the players, and answering any questions while three of my family members and a friend played the game.

New game board version as of 09 April 2018

The objective of the core game is the Sazzarran players must each damage or destroy as many cities as possible before the end of Game Turn 6. The objective of the UNRF players is to destroy as many Kaiju as possible also before the end of Game Turn 6. The players with the most VPs at the end of the game wins. Also, the individual player with the most VPs wins. For example, the UNRF could have the most VPs as a team, but one of the UNRF players has collected more VPs than the other and is the overall winner.



For each city destroyed by a Sazzaran player, they would get the Target City card of that city for their Victory Points (VPs) at the end of the game. If a city was damaged, the Sazzarran player whose forces were last to occupy the zone of the damaged city, would get the VPs for it. If both players had their forces in the same city zone, then they both get the same VPs.

The VPs for the cities is half of their Hit Point value listed by the city image (rounded up). For example, Tokyo is 16 HP. If the city were destroyed the player whose forces destroyed it would get 8 VPs (half of 16 is 8). If the city was only damaged at 11 points, the player would get 6 VPs (half of 11 rounded up is 6)


Cities of 4 to 6 HPs are worth 1 VP each.  (There are 8 cities for total of 8 VPs)
Cities of 7 to 9 HPs are worth 2 VPs each. (There are 3 cities for total of 6 VPs)
Cities of 10-12 HPs are worth 3 VPs each. (There are 2 cities for total of 6 VPs)
Cities of 13-16 HPs are worth 4 VPs each. (There are 2 cities for total of 8 VPs)

Total VPs earned would be 28 if a person could occupy them all with their own forces.



When a Kaiju is destroyed by a UNRF player, that Kaiju card will be placed by the player whose MECHA destroyed it. The VPs for each Kaiju is also their full Build Value (BV).



When a MECHA or Kaiju is destroyed, that same type cannot come back into the game. The players on both sides only get one of each type. There are 8 MECHA and 8 Kaiju, split into 4 for MECHA for each UNRF player and 4 Kaiju for each Sazzarran player.



Each player also gets 12 Military Units (MUs), each a different colour for ease of identifying who owns which unit, The colours of the MUs tokens also matches to the Resource Point (RP) Trackers on the gameboard, which at the time of this game were green and yellow for the UNRF, and orange and purple for the Sazzarran.



The UNRF players each start with one Base on the game board in a zone of their choice. They get 5 RPs for each Base that is already in play on the game board. Any number of those RPs can be saved for future turns, or used to build MECHA and the MUs. MUs are each 1 BV. MECHA are their BV listed on the right side of their card.



The Sazzarran players each have one  Portal to start. Each Portal is 5 RPs, also for building their Kaiju and MUs, and saving some for future turns. The Sazzarran player can also build Bases on the 2nd Game Turn, during the Resource Phase. However, those Bases are 6 RPs to build, so the Sazzarran player must either save RPs or gain more by occupying non-destroyed zones.



During the game we used the Tactics cards, which at the time were only used for the Battle Phase. Each team has a deck of 24 cards, which they shared. The cards did add some flavour and theme to the game. The players would roll all their dice. If any 6s were rolled and the players wanted to use any of them for a Tactics card, then they would indicate how many and place their chosen Tactic cards in front of them. Once all players involved in the battle zone had their chosen Tactics cards, they would reveal them and apply the results. This worked best as some cards can be used to counter another card a player used. This way, nobody knows what is played. if it still counters another players card, then it is a bonus for the player who used it.






Turn 4 of the game

The points difference was very close. The Sazzarran players had damaged a few cities and destroyed 5 of them. They scored about 23 and 27 VPs. The UNRF destroyed a total of 5 Kaiju, with highest score being 29 VPs. We all thought it was pretty balanced with the rules. One thing we did try in this game was not having the Portals appear every turn.


In this version, I just had them draw Target City Cards for the first turn, and the Portals would just stay in the game board. So the Sazzarran forces would always come through the Portals and would have to build a Base if they wanted to expand away from the Portals. In fact, the players thought that if the Portals were not going to move anyway, and they still provided 5 RPs each per turn, then they might as well have had a Base in the zone instead.



IMPROVEMENTS TO BE MADE


After the game ended we decided on the following:


Setup and layout
I may be adding Target City Chart for the VP value of each city. It will be easier for the players to have them right in front of them when checking VPs and there is still space to add them on the board.


MECHA and Kaiju Cards
Just a couple of typographical errors to fix. Otherwise, no change at this time.

MU Cards
I had a Military Unit card for each player made. It had the same template as the MECHA and Kaiju cards, but had the stats of the MU. On the other side of the card was the list of Game Phases as a reference for the players. I may consider moving the Game Phases to the game board and adding something else to the back of the MU cards. I will discuss that with the players at the nexct session.


Tactics Cards
There would be Tactics cards that can also be used during the Portal, Resource and Movement Phases of the game. Those new cards will be introduced in the next gaming session.


Target City Cards
If there is a change, it may be to add the VP value of the city on the card. I will discuss that with the players at the next session.

Portal Phase
There will only be two Portals drawn for each game turn with the Target City Cards. There may be a scenario where only two Portals are drawn and they remain in play for the rest of the game, as we had played this last game.


Resource Phase
The players will gain RPs first from Bases and Portals in play, as well as zones occupied. Then they will build their forces to be placed at a Base or also through a Portal for the Sazzarran.


Players still gain 5 RPs for each Portal or Base in play. They will also gain 1 RP for each land zone they occupy. There are 33 zones that contain a land mass. Even if four players each had two Bases in play, no Portals, and split the zones equally to at least 8 each, they would have 18 RPs each with 1 RP remaining.


In a two player game, the maximum one player could possibly gain with all his forces is 40 RPs (20 for the 4 Bases and 20 for the zones, using the four Bases, four MECHA or Kaiju, and 12 MUs to occupy them).


In a four player game, the maximum one player could possibly gain with their forces is 28 RPs (10 for the two Bases and 18 for the zones, using the two Bases, four of the MECHA or Kaiju, and 12 MUs).


The maximum allowed per player in the game is 30 RPs as shown on the RP Trackers on the game board.


Movement Phase
No change. Sazzarran deploy their forces first, followed by the UNRF moving their forces into battle with the Sazzarran.


Battle Phase
Currently, the only change is in Tactics cards and revealing which ones you will use after rolling the dice, but before applying the damage results.


End Phase
No change. this is just for determining if Victory Conditions have been met at the end of each game turn.


The next confirmed gaming session is at a local game store next Wednesday, April 18th. It is called King's Court Café. I have two sessions booked for that evening. If another game occurs before that time, I will post a new blog on it.

SESSION 1 OF A REVISED KAIJU CONQUEST

Playtesting a modified version of Kaiju Conquest last night was an overall success. I am so pumped about how well it worked out and the feedback I got.


When I received a lot of feedback on what to improve for the original game version during EPOC, it was almost a bitter pill to swallow after spending four years playing the same rules with the same components, and then I finally get some info that could totally change a little on how the game is played. But swallow that pill I did, and I pressed on to create a better, more enjoyable game.


My youngest daughter, KeleighAn (pronounced like KellyAnn) and I played the game, while her boyfriend, Justin, observed and provided input. The objective was the same that I used for my original game. Originally, the Sazzarran forces had 6 turns to control and/or destroy 12 cities and zones with two bases on the game board or they would lose and the human UERF (United Earth Reaction Force) would win. In the new version it was still 6 turns, but the Sazzarran forces just had to destroy 8 cities and get two bases on the game board.


The game lasted 90 minutes with discussion in between about the game mechanics. Normally, playing this scenario takes from 90 minutes to 3 hours, depending if you are playing it for the first time or not. So it was a good thing it lasted 90 minutes. I figured if you take out the discussions, etc, it would actually take 60 minutes of straight play through. So even better.


Because this will be a big change to the game, I want to start with what the game was like before this time, and what they will be like for the future, so you can see what significance this will have. So bear with me on this. I will keep it as short as possible.
For the components here is a comparison between the original and the new game:

ORIGINAL LIST                                       NEW LIST
1 x 36 page rulebook                                    1 x 12 page rulebook including 4 scenarios
1 x gameboard                                              1 x gameboard same size, but using a brick grid system
2 x 8.5 x 11 inch Reference Sheets              2 x poker sized cards with reference data
48 x Mecha and Kaiju Character Cards       24 x Mecha and Kaiju Character cards
        (some multiples of each)                              (one of each type, but with 4 Base cards each)
48 x Mecha and Kaiju standees                   24 x Mecha and Kaiju standees (including 8 Bases)
        (including 8 Bases)
48 x clear plastic bases                                 36 x Plastic bases (12 blue, 12 red, with 6 green and 6
                                                                              purple for 3rd and 4th person)
120 x Military unit tokens for both              48 x Military unit tokens (double sided but 12 each for up
         factions of 5 types (double sided                to four players, each set of 12 a different colour)
         for four players)
16 x Target City Cards                                 15 x Target City Cards (one city image not used on board)
48 x Resource Cards (24 for each side)       48 x Tactics Cards (24 for each side)
3 x Portal tokens                                           2 x Portal tokens
6 x Bio-Bomb tokens                                    3 x Bio-bomb tokens
6 x Nuke tokens                                            3 x Nuke tokens
27 x Control Tokens
40 x Damaged City tokens (1, 3, 5               40 x Damaged City tokens (1, 3 5, and 10 pt increments)
        and 10 pt increments)                                   There is possibility of reducing these even more
16 x Destroyed City tokens                          15 x Destroyed City tokens (the new board can only fit
                                                                           15 city images, vice the 16 in the original board)
2 x Victory Point Tracker tokens                 1 x Turn Tracker token
4 x Command Point Tracker tokens             4 x Resource Point Tracker Tokens                                  20 x 1d10 dice (10 red, 10 blue)                  20 x 1d6 dice (10 red, 10 blue)

You can see that some things have been reduced by half, or removed altogether, and others have been replaced with something else. The end result is to have a game box and game that is smaller with less components, but still re-playable and affordable for funding goal on Kickstarter.
The comparison between game phases is as follows so far:

ORIGINAL GAME       Play Time                    NEW GAME               Play Time
1. World Event Phase        1 minute                      1. Portal Phase                1 minute
2. Resource Phase            10-20 mins                    2. Resource Phase           2-3 mins
3. Movement Phase           5-10 mins                    3. Movement Phase         2-5 mins
4. Battle Phase                 10-20 mins                    4. Battle Phase                 2-5 mins
5. Re-Deployment Phase    2-5 mins                     5. End Phase                    1 minute
6. Control Phase                 2-5 mins
    (scenario based when using Victory
     Points)
Total time per Game Turn  30 -61 mins                                                    8 - 15 mins

The game time for Movement and Battle Phases are dependent on number of forces being moved and number of battles being conducted.   
In the original game it took me about 12 pages to explain those 6 phases without graphic images added. In the new game it is 4 pages for the 5 phases without graphic images. Already an improvement by keeping it as simple as possible.

Now on to the game play. I will explain what we do for each of the phases in the new game version.
In the Portal Phase, the Sazzarran player draws two Target City Cards. The Sazzarran player only looks at and keeps those cards. Each Target City card matches to a city location on the game board.
There will be a Portal appearing at each City during the Movement Phase. The human UNRF player does not get to see the Target City Cards until the Movement Phase.

Turn 2 of the game.

In the Resource Phase, both players draw 5 cards from their Special Attack Deck (will be changed to Tactics Deck for next game). Each time they use a Special Attack card in the Battle Phase, another one replaces it.

The Sazzarran player gets 5 Resource Points (RPs) for each Portal, and 5 RPs for each Sazzararn Base that is already in play on the game board. In the first turn, the Sazzarran player will not have any Bases in play so only starts with 10 RPs to build Kaiju and Military Units (MUs).

Also during the Resource Phase, the UERF player gets to place two UERF Bases on any land zone on the game board. A land zone is any zone that shows a land mass. A sea zone is any zone with no land mass showing. The UNRF player also gets 5 RPs for each UERF Base in play. On the first game turn, the UERF player also starts with 10 RPs to build MECHA (Mobile Enhanced Combat Heavy Armour), Bases and MUs.

The MUs only cost 1 RP each, have a Movement (MV) of 2, Attack Value (AV) of 1 (# of d6 rolled), Defense Value (DV) of 3 (Number or higher needed to destroy the unit), and Hit Point (HP) value of 1 (number of hits before being destroyed)
The Bases, MECHA and Kaiju each have their own stats for MV (2-5), AV (2-6), DV 4 to 6 to  hit), HP (2 to 4), and Build Value (BV) from 3 to 8. All cards are are double sided, with a healthy green neon glow side and a Damaged red neon glow side. They also have a special ability on both sides of the their cards.

                                        MECHA on left and Sazzarran/Kaiju on right. These are the leaders of each side.                                   Both show healthy green side and Damaged red side.

Once the UERF player has built his forces, he places them anywhere on the game board of his choosing. This is for the first game turn only. On subsequent turns, he has to deploy them from a Base already in play on the game board.

In the original game it could take as much as 20 minutes for the players to get their forces as it was based on drawing Resource Cards, and you get what you see on the card. However, it took a while for first time players to sort it all out and deploy them, considering sometimes you would get from 8 to 16 Resource cards of units, MECHA and Kaiju.

In the Movement Phase, the Sazzarran player reveals the Target City cards, places each Portal on a Target City and then places the built Kaiju and MUs on to those Target City zones with the Portals. There must be a minimum of 1 Kaiju and/or MU going through a Portal.
The Sazzarran player can then move the MUs and Kaiju up to their MV allowance to attack not only the city they are in but neighboring cities. The objective, after all, is to destroy at least 8 cities before the end of game turn 6. The sooner they do it, they sooner they can celebrate and have a big kaiju party.

After the Sazzarran player has deployed any or all of her forces, the UERF player will move any or all of his MECHA and MUs to battle the Sazzarran forces, and hopefully save their cities from harm. Oh boy, are they in for a world of hurt.

The only movement penalties in this game is the MV allowance of the MU, Base, MECHA or Kaiju. For ease and fluidity of game play, there is no penalty for moving through land or sea zones. The map of the game board is currently just there as thematic flavour to the geographic locations of the Pacific Ocean region.We tried using terrain modifiers but it just took a little longer for people to figure out who could do what, so best removed altogether for now.

In the Battle Phase, the Sazzarran player chooses which battles will take place in an order of their choosing. At each contested zone, there will only be one round of battle, whether any or all forces on one or both sides are destroyed or not.

The players total the AVs of any or all of their respective forces, and roll their dice at the same time. They can only roll a maximum of 10 dice, with some exceptions in certain special abilities or the Tactics cards.

Once all the allotted dice are rolled for the contested zone, the players can line them up in order from 1 to 6. Any 1s and 2s rolled are automatic hits to a city if they are in a city zone. If there is not city in the contested zone, then they are considered misses. Each city has an HP from 4 to 16. The players use Damage City tokens to reflect the current damage. Once a city takes that number of hits, it is destroyed, and a Destroyed City token is placed on it.

Each roll of 3 is a miss, unless a specific MECHA or Kaiju  (usually the Scout class) are Damaged, and it brings their DV down to 3.  Each roll of 4 to 5+ will hit an MU, Base, MECHA or Kaiju, depending on their current DV to hit. However, in this game, the HP value is how many hits you need to Damage or Destroy the target. There are no Damage chits used for the Bases, MECHA or Kaiju.
Each roll of 6 will not only hit a Base, MECHA or Kaiju but will also allow the players one of three choices: Apply each 6 rolled as 2 hit points on a target; use the character's Special Ability, or use one of the Tactics cards that have special attacks.

It is possible, but not easy, for a player to roll enough hits to not only Damage a Base, MECHA or Kaiju, but also Destroy it in the one round. However, the opposing players choose where the hits go on their respective MU, Bases, MECHA or Kaiju, but must maximize the hits as much as possible to be fair for both players.

If  an opposing player cannot apply hits to a Base, MECHA or Kaiju, because of their current DV, then the hits could be thrown on to the weaker MUs, if they have not already been destroyed.

Example: The UERF player has an MU with AV 1, DV 4 and HP 1, and a Jungle Warrior with AV 3, DV 5, and HP 3. The Sazzarran player has a Thunder Dragon with AV 4, DV 5 and HP 4. The UERF player rolls 4 six-sided dice (d6), getting a 1, 1, 4 and 5. The Sazzarran player rolls 4d6 and gets a 2, 3, 5 and 6. The 1s and 2 from both players rolls are applied as collateral damage hits against a city, if there is one there. So that would be a total of 3 hits. 3 pts in Damage tokens are placed on the city. If no city in that zone, then they are misses.
The roll of 3 by the Sazzarran player is a miss. It is removed. The roll of 4 by the UERF player is no effect as the Thunder Dragon can only be hit on 5+ in its healthy state. However, the roll of 5 by the UERF player is a hit, but he needs at least 4 hits at 5+ to Damage the Thunder Dragon. He is outmatched. So the 5 is wasted. The roll of 5 and 6 by the Sazzarran player hits the Jungle Warrior as its DV is 5+. With the roll of 6, the Sazzarran player can now choose to use it as 2 more hit points against the Jungle Warrior for a total of 3 needed to Damage it, or use the Thunder Dragon's Special Ability, which is Sonic Blast in which the DV is ignored altogether, meaning the Jungle Warrior could be hit on 3+ as a minimum. Lastly, the Sazzarran player could choose to use one of the five Special Attack cards in her hand.

The Sazzarran player chooses to exchange the die for 2 hit points. The Jungle Warrior has now taken 3 hit points at 5+, and is now Damaged and the UNRF player will turn it over to its Damaged side. The battle for that zone is now over, and the players continue to the next contested zone.

We also included a rule in the game, that if a Kaiju or MU is in a city zone with no UERF forces during the Battle Phase, each MU and Kaiju in that zone get to make one attack each using their full AV against the city. This is usually bad for the smaller 4 pt cities as they have the least amount of infrastructure and can be more easily destroyed with the right die rolls.

Once all battles have been resolved, the players go to the End Phase to determine if the victory conditions have been met. If they have, the game is over, and the victor gets to parade the heads of their opponents MECHA or Kaiju around the block. If the conditions have not been met, the game continues until the victory conditions have been met, or it is the end of the game based on number of game turns required to play.

Turn 5 of the game. Second last turn.

In this game play, the Sazzarran player won on Turn 6 with 2 Bases and 11 cities destroyed. The UNRF will have to work harder if they want to protect their world.


THE TAKEAWAY FROM THIS

We found that we do need the Resource Trackers and a Turn Tracker printed on the game board. We do not need any reference material printed on the board as it can be applied to just one double-sided poker sized playing card.

I had to adjust the wording for the Bases, MECHA and Kaiju to fit the new rules. Easy peasy.
I also have to adjust the Tactics cards to conform to the new rules. Also easy peasy.
Having only one generic Military Unit token rather than 5 different ones for each side (originally it was Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Transport for the UNRF, and Army, Sea, Air, Reapers and Drones for the Sazzarran) definitely made it easier and quicker to play. I can also use the other different coloured tokens for the third and fourth players as MUs, keeping the same images. I have to modify the borders so will show those later.

I am also going to add a card for the MU. It will be double-sided, with the MU pic and stats on one side and the Game Phases on the other side.

The one thing we found with the MUs was that they were filler for extra RPs to be used that could not be used to build a Base, MECHA or Kaiju. Of course, the players can save any extra RPs for the next game turn. However, by adding the MUs, it not only gave the players an extra attack die per MU, but they could easily eliminate the MUs first when taking hits that could not be used against the Bases, MECHA or Kaiju.

More to follow as our next game will be for 3 and 4 players. The end result now is to have the core game be for 4 players initially, but can be played solo or up to 4 players, ages 14+, and take from 30 to 60 minutes to play a game.

I like to thank Scott M., who also attended EPOC, for giving me this insight to hopefully create something new and better.

PROMOTING KAIJU CONQUEST AND A NEW LOOK

It has been three months since I last posted. Time flies when you are busy trying to get a game to Kickstarter. Since then I had two demo days, one at a boardgame cafe, and the other at a comic book store (actual names of both withheld). The funny thing is, although the staff at the boardgame cafe were very helpful, there was no interest from the people coming in that day. They already had arrangements to play published games with their friends. So that was a bust. I have demoed my game at three different boardgame cafes now and all no success.

The comic book store on the other hand was a success every time. I started two years ago demoing the game at the store and this latest one was the third time and the most successful of the three, I think. The staff were always glad to help, and one of them was able to play the game. There was good feedback at the time, also.

So my bet is always going to be on the comic book store, unless someone can convince me otherwise and I get better reception at a boardgame cafe.

On March 23rd, 2018, I attended the first game designer's convention, called EPOC, at a local Legion. I had two games there, Kaiju Conquest, and another one currently called Galactic Conquest: The Card Game, which takes place in the same universe. I will speak more about that game at a later time.

I had four session with Kaiju Conquest at the convention, and all four were successful with two players per session, and lots of good feedback from everyone. I will definitely being doing that convention again next year.

I spent that last 10 days since EPOC working on re-designing part of the gameboard as well as removing some tokens and cards and adding some new ones. The overall idea is to keep the number of game components down so cost is down for funding the game.

This is the original board.

 And this is the new board so far.

I used coloured pencil crayons and drew in the continents and grids for the Pacific Ocean. In the original gameboard, I had a choatic set of borders, some larger than others. In this new version, the lines are laid out brick-like but it allows for movement in six directions, and the brick zones are all the same size, except for the sides where there are half brick zones.

In the original gameboard, I also had 8.5 x 11 inch Reference Sheets for each player as a guide, covering the game phases, unit stats, victory conditions, Resource cards and using Command Points. In the new version I have modified the phases, kept the unit stats and build costs, and removed everything else. Hopefully, it will make for better and quicker and fun game play.

I will let you know after tonight's first playtest.