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