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.
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| 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.
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