A long time friend of mine, Todd, and I played a game of Kaiju Conquest yesterday. I was trying out the following new rules:
1. NEW RULE - Seven Phases per game round vice 6 phases. Adding Draw Card Phase as the first phase. This is used for the Tactic and Mission Cards. All seven phases as follows:
1. Draw Card Phase
2. Portal Phase
3. Resource Phase
4. Movement Phase
5. Battle Phase
6. Re-Deployment Phase
7. Victory Phase
RESULT - I needed to add the Draw Card phase because in previous games, the players would draw the cards during the Resource Phase. This caused a problem as there are cards that can be used in the Portal Phase. By drawing them in the Resource Phase they cannot be used until the Portal Phase in the next game round. This is not necessarily a problem, but it did not feel right to me. If the players are going to discard and draw their cards, they should be allowed to use any of those cards during the same game round.
Keep this new phase for now.
2. NEW RULE - Using Mission Cards (10 cards in a deck for each player). During the Draw Card Phase, the players will each draw 3 Mission Cards and pick one. Once they achieve the Mission, they can draw another 3 cards and pick another card on the following Draw Card Phase, or they can discard the Mission and draw another 3 cards to choose another Mission.
RESULT - These cards add extra flavour to the game and allows players to achieve extra VPs if they succeed in the Mission. With 10 Missions per deck, and 6 game rounds, there will only be a maximum of 6 Missions achieved per game. By the end of Game Round 6, Todd achieved 4 Missions totalling 15 VPs, and I achieved 3 Missions with 11 VPs.
Keep using Mission Cards for now. Some of the Mission objectives and will need to be modified.
3. NEW RULE - Using only the Tactic Cards for Portal, Resource and Movement Phases. Twelve cards per deck per player.
RESULT - Each player starts with 4 Tactic Cards and on the Draw Card Phase of each game round can discard any number of cards and draw back up to 4 cards. With only the 12 cards in a deck, this allowed all of the cards to get used as much as twice during the game for a 6 round game.
Keep this rule for now.
4. NEW RULE - Nukes, Bio-Bombs are 4 RPs each to purchase. Nukes and Bio-Bombs were originally 5 RPs.
RESULT - Making the Nukes and Bio-Bombs 1 RP less to purchase makes it easier to get them. During this game I only bought one Bio-bomb, and since they stay on the board after use, it forced Todd to avoid the zone it was placed in as it affects the MUs/EMUs only.
Nukes and Bio-Bombs currently stay at 4 RPs.
5. NEW RULE - GSWs are 4 RPs to purchase, vice the 3 they were originally. The GSW will also have 6 attack dice and 6 Hit Points. Each time it takes a hit, it also loses an attack die. Previous GSWs only had 4 Hit Points to destroy.
RESULT - The GSWs at 4 RPs makes them a little more expensive but also gives them an attack value to defend the zone and city they are in. As the maximum dice allowed to use is 6 each battle round and the GSWs use 6 attack dice, they can last for one or two rounds before being destroyed, but maybe take out as much of the enemy forces in the process.
Keep GSWs at 4 RPs with 6 attack and 6 HPs. It seems to be working.
6. NEW RULE - Elite Military Units (EMUs) can be purchased for 1 RP to replace the regular MUs. The MUs have Movement of 1, Attk Dice of 1, no Armour value, and 1 Hit Point. The EMUs have Movement of 1, 2 Attack Dice, and Armour Value of 1, and 1 Hit Point. You basically need 2 Hits to eliminate each EMU.
RESULT - The EMUs proved valuable and made quite a change to the game. When playing I realized that we were adding more than 12 units to the board. What would happen for example, is the UNRF player, Todd, would spend 1 RP to replace as many of his MUs into EMUs. However, on the next game round, if they still survived, Todd would gain a certain number of more MUs and then convert them to EMUs. So eventually he would have more then the usual 12 units on the game board. We went with that as I could do the same thing for the Sazzarran forces. The only problem was he already had the upper hand on me and better dice results, that I could not keep any of the zones I tried to take.
For the next game I may try it with the EMUs costing 2 RPs to replace an MU.
7. NEW RULE - Decoys and Blips are used for the Sazzarran Kaiju, and military units to hide their movement in the Movement Phase. They are only revealed when engaged in combat.
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| Thee blips and decoy are not final images. |
RESULT - The hidden movement system using the Blips seems to work. This is actually the third game trying it out, and so far so good. For every two Kaiju and MUs deploying through a Portal, the Sazzarran player also gets 1 Decoy token. So if 2 Kaiju and 8 MUs were deployed during the Movement Phase, there would also be 5 Decoy tokens added to them. All Blip tokens have Movement of 2, regardless of the actual unit/Kaiju underneath. When engaged in combat, the blips are turned over. Any Decoys are removed. The MU or EMU remains in play, and the Kaiju revealed is replaced with the actual stand up Kaiju.
Keep the blips as they are working for now.
8. NEW RULE - When a Sazzarran Giant Shield Wall (GSW) is built on a city zone the Sazzarran get full VPs for it at the end of the game. Usually, the Sazzarran get full VPs for destroyed cities they control and only 1 VP for non-destroyed cities they control.
RESULT - In previous games if the Sazzarran player wanted to control a city without destroying it they would place a GSW on it, but would only get 1 VP for controlling it. If they wanted to destroy a city they would have to destroy the GSW first, or have the UNRF do it for them. This became stupid, so we decided that since the intent of the Sazzarran forces is to subjugate and enslave the humans, that putting up a GSW around the city would emphasize their control of that zone.
Keep the ruling of Sazzarran GSWs in non-destroyed city zone get full VPs, vice only 1 VP.
9. NEW RULE - Each Mecha and Kaiju must be bought and played once before being able to buy any of them again. There is only one of each type. This allows the players to think more carefully about which Mecha and Kaiju they deploy each game round, because they will not be able to get the same one again until all of them have been put into play and the same one has been destroyed that it can be purchased again.
RESULT - In the numerous games played previously, the players could choose which Mecha and Kaiju they wanted to buy. Sometimes we would buy the same ones over and over because we liked their combat stats and special abilities. The problem with this is that certain other Mecha and Kaiju would not be chosen would be considered useless to the game. So, I adjusted all the special abilities and made the rule during this game that we had to use each of our Mecha and Kaiju before being able to purchase them again.
This ruling worked out quite well. The result in this game was that I only had the Warlord Azzarro left to purchase, and Todd had purchased all of his Mecha with 3 remaining on the board. We were able to use nearly all of them and their abilities during combat. So it worked out.
Keep this rule for now.
10. NEW RULE - Using 6 six-sided dice per player. Each die has 4 hit sides, 1 double hit side, 1 Special Ability side and one Miss side. Every hit symbol rolled is a hit against an opposing MU, Mecha, Kaiju, GSW or city, by choice of the player that rolled the dice. If a Special symbol is rolled, the player can choose to use that to activate the Special Ability on their Mecha or Kaiju.
RESULT - My first version of this game each player was using several 10-sided dice with the players having to roll a certain number or higher to hit opposing targets in battle. Eventually, I went with as many as 10 ten-sided dice, then 10-six-sided dice. That still became too much for dice rolling and applying the results as we were still using the number system.
Now using the symbols for the last three games improved ease of game play and applying the results against opposing targets, as the damages are simultaneous and do not take effect until the next battle round. The idea was for the players to also limit how many of their forces were placed in each zone, as the maximum dice to use were 6, regardless of how many actual attack dice from combined units you could have.
However, it did not bring game time down, as it still takes 2 to 3 hours to play 6 game rounds.
The reason for length of game play is due to the players taking the time to strategize what Tactic and Mission Cards to use, which Mecha or Kaiju to purchase, where to place their MUs and GSWs, where to move and countermove their forces on the game board, and finally, what targets to apply the dice results against. The only random element is when rolling the dice. Everything else is by choice of the players.
Keep the 6 dice with symbols. This is working for now.
11. NEW RULE - Playing the game only as 2 player vice 3 or 4 player.
RESULT - This will still be practiced to see what kind of feedback I get from the players. Although having 3 or 4 players involved in the game can be a little more challenging as they have to share the resources, it can also take longer in game play to strategize between the players.
A 2 player game is easier to handle, as the players control all of their own pieces. Its possible in the future that a better 3 or 4 player variant can be created, especially if new alien species are involved.
OVERALL RESULTS
The game lasted 2.5 hours of fun and complete slaughter of the Sazzarran forces. The only thing left belonging to them on the game board was a GSW in Vladivostok.
The UNRF player had 59 VPs on the game board and another 15 VPs from four Mission Cards, for a total of 74 VPs. The Sazzarran had 3 VPs on the game board and another 11 VPs from three Mission Cards, for a total of 14 VPs. A total first time overwhelming victory for the UNRF player.
The Elite MUs made a big difference in the battles as you needed to use up 2 HPs in order to eliminate each EMU, instead of just one for each regular MU. Also, not being able to buy the same powerful Mecha and Kaiju each game round if it was destroyed on the previous game round, made a difference, especially for me as the Sazzarran player, as I had to figure out what I wanted to risk sending into battle. I did not expect Todd to just focus on destroying each Kaiju that came through and ignoring any hits I was throwing on to the cities.
The one advantage to the Sazzarran forces was having the blips and decoys. By placing the decoys in sea and other zones, they could block movement of UNRF forces trying to counterattack as they would have to engaged the blockading units, not knowing if they were real units or not. This occurred a few times during the game, and helped the Sazzarran forces, but it was not enough to win the game this time.
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