7 janvier 2008
1
07
/01
/janvier
/2008
17:57
Playtesting time again...Michigan has fallen by the wayside, but over my vacation I came up with a new way to use the split level engines from Montreal and fashioned a map of the Soviet Union to go with them.
The core concept here was to make the second number in the engine restrict players from going through towns. A 2&0 engine would, for example, allow players to ship over 2 links, but they could not go through any towns along the way. Thematically I tied this to the Soviet Union because the government restrictions seemed like they would go along well with it.
Once I came up with the idea of putting the map in the Soviet Union, a number of other thematically based rules instantly evolved though, including Obligations (i.e.: the government demands that you ship a set number of goods to Moscow) and the need for the Engineer to build over the monstrous rivers. There was also another attempt to change the goods growth scheme (something I try to do...I don't particularly care for the dice and there are a number of potential solutions) and in this case it featured a display where goods were randomly seeded out, and which could then move onto the board either from the top or the bottom of the display, with players bribing for their choice.
In the initial draw, I erred on the side of too few cities, and I actually added a black one in the west (Kiev) that makes it different from the initial draw here on the blog. I also decided to try something completely experimental with the engines, taking them from an abstracted chart to 18XX style cards which are purchased outright from the bank but which have no further expenses associated with them. The purchase of the engines and the overall structure is still in flux, but in this initial playtest the Loco buying phase is immediately after the auction, is done in player order, and the player only has the option of buying worst engine on the display, where the next X engines are laid out at the start of the round, where X is equal to the number of players. The Loco ability in the auction allows players to buy engines last at this point, which means it is useful but still weak if the other players opt to hold off. The total cost of buying the engines is calibrated to cost players about the same amount that they woud normally be paying out in expenses.
So onto the first playtest...
My regular game group is currently 4, so I designed the map with that number in mind. One thing that was apparent in the first playtest was how important the SW valley was...the highest concentration of cities was down there, and it was almost a no-brainer to build heavily in that area. The only incentive to go north was the need to ship goods to Moscow, and the presence of the only blue city.
In our first playtest, people tried to stay away from each other, and shipping rounds often featured painful delivery skips because of a lack of potential options (good!).
Here's how the board looked at the start of round 4:

You might notice that there is a lot of track, the track building rules are eased to allow 4 pieces each round so that players can more easily cover the board over the course of the game. I hate loose track building, and the extra piece seemed to be the right solution, and it was.

This is the end of the game. Note the awesome track spaghetti ball in the SW and the relatively sparse east. Part of that has to do with Urbanization...with so few starting cities, the placement of the new cities makes a big difference in determining where the action goes.
After the first playtest some problems were apparent though...
1) Not enough differentiation in value between 1st and 2nd in the auction.
2) A board with one clear power area.
3) Rules for Moscow obligations needed clarifying...
4) Goods growth scheme was not interesting, needed changing.
The map is clearly in development.
Check back soon for session #2.
The core concept here was to make the second number in the engine restrict players from going through towns. A 2&0 engine would, for example, allow players to ship over 2 links, but they could not go through any towns along the way. Thematically I tied this to the Soviet Union because the government restrictions seemed like they would go along well with it.
Once I came up with the idea of putting the map in the Soviet Union, a number of other thematically based rules instantly evolved though, including Obligations (i.e.: the government demands that you ship a set number of goods to Moscow) and the need for the Engineer to build over the monstrous rivers. There was also another attempt to change the goods growth scheme (something I try to do...I don't particularly care for the dice and there are a number of potential solutions) and in this case it featured a display where goods were randomly seeded out, and which could then move onto the board either from the top or the bottom of the display, with players bribing for their choice.
In the initial draw, I erred on the side of too few cities, and I actually added a black one in the west (Kiev) that makes it different from the initial draw here on the blog. I also decided to try something completely experimental with the engines, taking them from an abstracted chart to 18XX style cards which are purchased outright from the bank but which have no further expenses associated with them. The purchase of the engines and the overall structure is still in flux, but in this initial playtest the Loco buying phase is immediately after the auction, is done in player order, and the player only has the option of buying worst engine on the display, where the next X engines are laid out at the start of the round, where X is equal to the number of players. The Loco ability in the auction allows players to buy engines last at this point, which means it is useful but still weak if the other players opt to hold off. The total cost of buying the engines is calibrated to cost players about the same amount that they woud normally be paying out in expenses.
So onto the first playtest...
My regular game group is currently 4, so I designed the map with that number in mind. One thing that was apparent in the first playtest was how important the SW valley was...the highest concentration of cities was down there, and it was almost a no-brainer to build heavily in that area. The only incentive to go north was the need to ship goods to Moscow, and the presence of the only blue city.
In our first playtest, people tried to stay away from each other, and shipping rounds often featured painful delivery skips because of a lack of potential options (good!).
Here's how the board looked at the start of round 4:

You might notice that there is a lot of track, the track building rules are eased to allow 4 pieces each round so that players can more easily cover the board over the course of the game. I hate loose track building, and the extra piece seemed to be the right solution, and it was.

This is the end of the game. Note the awesome track spaghetti ball in the SW and the relatively sparse east. Part of that has to do with Urbanization...with so few starting cities, the placement of the new cities makes a big difference in determining where the action goes.
After the first playtest some problems were apparent though...
1) Not enough differentiation in value between 1st and 2nd in the auction.
2) A board with one clear power area.
3) Rules for Moscow obligations needed clarifying...
4) Goods growth scheme was not interesting, needed changing.
The map is clearly in development.
Check back soon for session #2.