1 juin 2008
7
01
/06
/juin
/2008
14:02
I know it's been quite some time since I posted anything on the blog, but I haven't been playing any Age of Steam, or any board games period. Work has kept me busy, and the Stanley Cup playoffs kept me even busier. Now that Summer is here though, I finally have had the opportunity to do some more expansion design work.
This new expansion is a different take on a city that has already received some attention, Pittsburgh. Though I like John Bohrer's map, I feel that the Steel city deserves a more true to geography map that shows how difficult the terrain is rather than just abstracting it out. In that spirit, I decided to theme my new 3 player map idea to Pittsburgh, and in this particular case, creating a sort of alternate reality Pittsburgh where a large light rail service serves the golden triangle area of Pittsburgh and the surrounding neighbourhoods. In real life, of course, Pittsburgh does have a small system, The T, but it serves almost exclusively the southern suburbs and still has not been fully developed. This map, instead, zooms in on the downtown area, and several of the stations are skyscrapers.
Here's the first draft: 
Metropolitan Pittsburgh is going to build on some of the ideas I had when I was designing Montreal, much like CCCP, but in a different direction. Some of the 3 player rules which first appeared in that map are going to reappear: the auction tweak, the contiguous track rule. Metro Pittsburgh's central mechanic, however, is the pre-determined urbanization idea that I used in a limited fashion in Montreal.
If you didn't follow the development of that map, let me bring you up to speed: at one point in time, Montreal had 3 timed urbanizations to reflect the history of the city. Round 3, the island of Jean Drapeau urbanized for Expo 67, in Round 6 Pie IX urbanized to reflect the Summer Olympics of 1976, and in round 9 Montmorency urbanzied to reflect the present. I liked how those timed urbanizations worked and the sorts of races they created, but I ended up removing them late in the development of Montreal because they just didn't quite fit that particular map.
Flash forward to the present: Metro Pittsburgh is going to centre on that timed urbanization concept. There are 18 towns. Prior to the game, the 8 new cites will be shuffled, and will have a town locale and round randomly assigned to them. This will all be noted on a sub-board. At the start of each round, 2-9, one will then be placed at its appointed spot.
I know the concept sounds basic, perhaps even a bit pedestrian, but the effect that it has on gamepay is very interesting. Players race to hook up to lucrative new cities, which provide cubes, and new delivery points. In this first draft, the blue city is of particular importance.
There are a number of other particulars that are still being fleshed out, but this is what I have so far. The terrain costs on this map are going to be beastly, particularly the rivers which are going to be nigh impossible to build over without the aid of the engineer. I will probably have to tweak the starting stations a bit, and I might need to add more of them, but I'm not sure at this point. The first prototype is ready to go though, and I'm sure I'll be posting more on this soon.
Published by Michael
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dans
Prototypes
13 janvier 2008
7
13
/01
/janvier
/2008
01:36
So, as I detailed in the last entry, there were some clear issues with the CCCP map after the first playtest, the most glaring ones being the weak east, the not as compelling as I would like auction, and the not-yet-satisfactory goods growth pattern. All of these were addressed for playtest #2, on what is the 1.5 revision of the map.
Major changes:
- Moscow increased to two hexes in size
- Two black cities added, one in the east, one in the NE
- Obligations changed to force players to use only their own track to ship to Moscow
- Auction changed to "Winner selects two roles" and a simple role called Corruption, which grants the player taking it money outright added.
- Locomotive action changed to "Buy Locos first, buy anything on the display" (stronger)
- Goods Growth changed yet again. The idea now is exerting personal influence. A die is lain next to each row on the growth chart, and at the end of the round each player, in order, must move one of the dice up a notch, and can pay for additional notches at $5 per if they so desire.
So on to the playtest...this is the map with nothing on it...
Here is the first round, 3 of us (Sean, Alex, and myself) started in the north this time, with Jesse left to himself in the south.
This makes it evident that the introduction of the black cities has made the north viable...perhaps too viable.
By round two the complex tiles are already coming out in force, partially driven by the need to get into Moscow, which is surrounded by the ever-inconvenient rivers, which require the engineer to get over.
By round 5 the north was getting very crowded, but Jesse was still being left to his own devices in the south, generally a bad idea in AoS. Despite this, his delivery options weren't good, and his engine was screwing him repeatedly.
Moscow was blighted by this point, perhaps double blighted.
Round 6, the track ball that occurred in the first playtest is here occurring up in the north by this point. I (red player) found the 2nd edition rules where one can lay a complex tile as an initial build quite useful at several points in this play.
End of the game, final reductions taken into account.
Playtest comments: most of the changes are for the better. The auction had several pathological rounds because of the double role selection, and one particularly poor auction early in the game hurt Jesse for several rounds. The Corruption role, where you simply get cash back functions much like the Engineer does in Lawrence's Sun to that end, creating inflated bids and pulling money out of the game.
In terms of weaknesses, in this particular playtest the most notable one was the lack of impact of the split level engines. This is partially because of the extra cities, partially because of the track building rules, and partially because of our increased familiarity with the map. I think they might be an issue, but I have to brainstorm how to use them differently, or how to handle them. The engines on cards and buying Loco phase are the most original idea in this map, and I want to find some way to make them work. They do function, they just aren't quite what I'm looking for yet.
The changes all seemed positive: the auction is more interesting, the goods growth works better, the larger Moscow is nice. The obligations could still use some tweaking, but they are getting closer to what I want. Progress, in essence.
Published by Michael
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dans
Prototypes
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.
Published by Michael
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dans
Prototypes
8 décembre 2007
6
08
/12
/décembre
/2007
16:07
Well, sorry for the lack of updates everyone, but I haven't had an opportunity to play Age of Steam since my last post, and I haven't had much time to do design work either, as life at university is keeping me extremely busy.
I just wanted to throw out some design rumblings now though, because after this week I'm going to have a few weeks worth of break time, and in that time I am probably going to be putting together a new prototype and should have an opportunity or two to playtest it.
No, not Michigan. Though I still have ideas on the board for Michigan the new map will be a re-realization of the split level engines used in Montreal combined with a number of other thematic rules.
The setting?
The Soviet Union.
Initial map drawings and early session reports hopefully will follow later this month.
Edit: Well, here's the initial draw of the map at least. I know what you're thinking...so many towns, it will be easy, perhaps too easy to make money? Think again...towns are not necessarily your friends in this expansion :-)
Published by Michael
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dans
Prototypes
2 novembre 2007
5
02
/11
/novembre
/2007
10:37
My team of testers are more than only testers for my ideas to expand Age of Steam. They help me to developp what coule be a simply good idea into a tremendous idea (specially in New york in the building phase, in the moon to improve the black side system and edges to edges connection, in Egypt to developp the felluca action and the Nile Floodings and in many future ideas that are not actually on the blog.. be patient)
This time ,Brice, (a future mathematics teacher as I am) has the first a big big idea about schedule and trains.And i bet that we can developp this map till printing and selling in ESSEN as our future hit. The map is actuality in the computer, too big (a square of 70cm) but could remind some of moon ideas (not edges connections).... Have a look an try to imagine..
Published by Alban
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dans
Prototypes
10 août 2007
5
10
/08
/août
/2007
12:00
Yesterday, we travelled Egypt for the second time. My favorit players , Brice, Guillaume , Mathieu were at home for a good cause : adjust the first rules of this expansion...
My first idea is to flood the left side of the Nile in the first turn, the right side of the Nile in the second turn, the left side of the Niel in the third turn and so on...
My second idea is to pill cubes as pyramid with 14 cubes and my last idea is about the Suez canal.
The first problem is to design the Nile and to size the first map. When there is a Nile flood, we just place a blue disc on the left of the hex.
But if i draw a river like in the other expansion, in the middle of a given hex, there will be potentially three hexes impassable....one for the river, one on the left side, and one on the right side....Too much.
For the first time in all expansions that i know , i drew a river on the edge of the hexes. In my first map, i designed the Nile quite in the right of the map and when i tested it alone, it was too desequilibrate.
The second and the third map in color !!
I designed again a new map for our real tests of Thursday.
In the delta of the Nile, i place the only yellow city which is bordered by the Nile on the left and right side.. so very difficult to deliver goods. One City will be rainbow on the left side near the mediteranean sea, and the two hexes below can only be build in the third turn for $5 each with black lines... (The Suez Canal)
In my first ideas, the Engineer allows building on flood hexes and allows to deliver cubes throught water hexes... But it was too powerfull. I split the power of the Engineer actions into two actions...
- Engineer would be the only one who can build on the Nile Flood a
- and another action that would replaced Production and allowed a player to deliver cubes throught the Nile Flood = throught blue discs.....
But one hour before the first tests, i thought it would be too difficult to cross the Nile : You had to choose the Enginneer to build and the other action that called Felluca to deliver goods throught blue disc... too difficult...
So Enginneer would reduce the costs of flood hexes to $2 only. So every player can build everywhere. Desert will cost $3, plains without blue disc will cost $2, and plains with blue disc $4, but only $2 with the engineer..
Brice noticed that Felluca would be a very powerfull action before the setting of the game... He is right and we increase the power of the engineer : 4 tracks at half cost !!!, Felluca always allows a player to pass throught blue disc.
There was many comments about the Felluca action.
Can we deliver a cube in a flood city (with a blue disc on it)? Can we pick up a cube in a city with a blue disc, in a pyramid?
We do a compromise of all these ideas : Felluca allows a player to pass throught a blue disc and to deliver a cube in a flood city, but ...never allows to pick up a cube in a pyramid and city with a blue disc on it.
Pyramid is not considered as a city and we do not build pyramids in this expansion, we just pick up cubes from the pyramid to deliver in cities. We can not pass throught a pyramid with cubes...
There are two pyramids with 14 cubes each + 13 cities (two cities with three cubes).. 28 + 28 cubes...= 56 cubes on the setting phase of the game, probably too much, but some of them can not be delivered because there is a blue disc on them.. I place the 40 remaining cubes in the production chart with only 2 cubes on each row (instead of three), no more cubes in the bag...great i have never lost one cube during our tests... ;-) incredible!!
The urbanization action is not changed...
So we begin to play after one hour of comments.... and adjusting my first rules with very experimented players (more than 50 games each...)
We had a very good time playing this map, but few things have to be changed...
Firstable, the Suez Canal is too powerfull for the player who build it with the rainbow city...
Second, the yellox city in the delta of the Nile is very difficult to link and to deliver goods
Stacking 28 cubes in two pyramids worked very very well because it is not allowed to pick up cubes from the pyramids with there is a Nile Flood.
The Enginneer action is very powerfull and contre balance very well the Locomotive action, the urbanization and the Felluca action.
In our next tests, i will colored the city in the delta in rainbow and the city in the Suez Canal in Yellow, I will probably allow the construction of the Suez Canal for many players.
Probably the green city (rainbow) will only be red, purple yellow and blue but not black!
A new idea comes at the end of the game... We have to pay to the Felluca player or to the bank to cross throught blue disc (probably $2 for each blue disc crossed)
We will test two times this new ideas on Thursday afternoon...
Except the red player (Mathieu) we have all borrow 15 shares...
And the final turn... 
We have had the proof that this map would be perfect for 3 to 5 players, 5 will be a killing game....
Published by Alban
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dans
Prototypes
7 août 2007
2
07
/08
/août
/2007
18:56
The design bug bit me again in the shower yesterday, so I did some more preliminary design ideas for Michigan, and I'm at the point now where I might do a rough draw of the map up and start toying with the mathematical design of the map and expenses. I thought I had a rough map around here, but it seems to have completely disappeared, which means I am going to have to dig deeper into the paper piles, or completely redraw it...otherwise I would have attached a VERY rough draw to this post.
In any case, in the initial draw, Cities on the map will have coloured squares to denote what they can Produce. Their primary (normal) colour will be what they accept during delivery.
Goods Growth phase will be like Australian Railways, each player will draw a cube (a couple, a few) from the bag, and place 1 on any legal spot on the map, the legal spots being denoted by the production colour squares.
Before the Growth phase, but only in the late rounds (say, 7+, game being 10 rounds) there will be a check for Blight. An area becomes Blighted if it only has 1 (or 0) good(s) remaining. In that case, that remaining good is removed, and a neutral player stone is placed on top of the city. It no longer can produce goods, it can no longer accept goods, and any good that passes through it during delivery is worth 1 less income.
I am strongly considering unique New City tiles, otherwise, I will make the New City tiles only accept goods.
I anticipate that Blight will make the end game rather nasty indeed, as making income would suddenly become insanely difficult, particularly if paired with the accelerated expenses idea. I might just work with Blight alone before trying to add more expenses on top of it. My guess is that Blight will create tendencies for players to load up distant Cities with their production, hence trying to protect themselves for the late game. The southern portion of the board will thus, start out lucrative (more goods at the start of the game) but will likely die by the late game because the goods will be missing and it will become Blighted, and hence, very difficult to ship through at a profit.
If Blight ends up becoming too nasty, it could always be mildly toned down a bit...for instance, cities that are Blighted could still accept goods, and the -1 income hit could only be something that hits a cube once, when it is delivered to a Blighted city, rather than leeching income each time a good passes through.
As an addendum: Chicago and Green Bay will never be subject to Blight. Green Bay will be served only via a Ferry Line from Ludington. Chicago will have a ship line connected to it from the UP, but will also be reachable with track.
Published by Michael Webb
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dans
Prototypes
7 août 2007
2
07
/08
/août
/2007
14:45
As you know, i have too much ideas for expansions to develope them even with my job...
But, i imagined last night new ideas that didn't work in my India expansion, about water and flooding...
Probably these ideas could work very well in another country but which one???
Just two pics ...
More comments after the first tests Thursday afternoon
Published by Alban
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dans
Prototypes
4 août 2007
6
04
/08
/août
/2007
18:49
Even though I, at one point, intended Montreal to be my only Age of Steam expansion, I realized after it was complete that I had a lot of discarded ideas that were good enough to re-use, or re-implement in a future map.
AoS - Michigan started as a stock version of Age of Steam. I am a huge fan of the Prairie Railroads series from Winsome / Wallace, and I have been mentally toying with ways of using stocks and company control in Age of Steam forever.
While I still haven't had much success with the stock thing, one thing that did start to develop was a physical map of Michigan.
Now that Montreal is complete, I have started to think a bit about working on Michigan some more, but with different mechanics than the original concept.
The other night I was jotting down preliminary ideas, and these are all random things that I will likely try in the expansion:
* Strong Unions.
Expenses increase as the game goes on because of high health care costs.
* Trucking
(Rethemed Stroll...i.e.: ability to move a good up to 4 hexes without delivering it)
* Track based Urb...modified for simplicity.
Idea: second player into a town can opt to Urbanize it, if they want. No Urb role in auction.
* Ferry lines to Green Bay from Ludington, to Chicago from Upper Peninsula
* Some sort of dying city theme? I.e.: destruction of cities as the game progresses to reflect real world economic downturn? After a certain round the cities with only 1 good on them lose that good? Perhaps a glut causes problems instead? If too many goods are present, then the city is destroyed?
* Related, some sort of production mechanic, maybe similar to Australian Railways but with tighter control. i.e.: factories in the city are producing goods each round...a dictated growth scheme of some sort.
I think the key mechanical concept and theme is Decay. Michigan will start out rich, but I want the board to decay as the game goes, and perhaps even force players to try and lose the least amount of money rather than make the most by the end of the game. This will be facilitated by having expenses increase as the game goes (which is thematically reflective of the high health care costs that exist in the present because of the retired workers) and heavy goods paucity, likely mechanically forced.
I'm still not sure whether the map will be designed for the 3 or 4 player scale yet.
Published by Michael Webb
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dans
Prototypes
1 août 2007
3
01
/08
/août
/2007
23:46
(coming soon)
Far before John Bohrer published his Netherlands expansion, i designed my Netherlands expansion...
Why the Netherlands... Germany, France, Itali, South of England, some US maps were already designed at the end of 2004, so the last country in Europe with many Age of Steam fans could be the Netherlands. I think, John Bohrer made the same deduction... ;-)
The theme of the map is Polder and hight density. The Netherlands is frequently associated with polders.
Published by Alban
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dans
Prototypes
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