Hello –
I have been given the green light to put up our game: Space Pirates Tycoon in an effort to solicit help from you nice folk.
Here is the short history of this game.
For a long while I was trying to design a PC or platform game. My colleague Mark Galvez and I would discuss it over meals. Sometimes he would tell me that what we were designing should be a board game. Eventually he talked me into it.
We laid out the board and the general mechanics. Then we started mocking it up. The rules changed faster than I could keep an up to date doc file.
Recently we started play testing the game. We have only played with the buying, selling, moving, and combat mechanics.
I am requesting general critiquing and help with the current area of perplexing. This area is combat resolution. I like the combat squares. They seem to work well. The problem is what happens once you know who won the round. I wish I had a slick way to get to the next round and or out of combat. It is in part modeled after Risk where the aggressor can continue his attacks as long as he wants.
I have always liked train games and space themed games. In a lot of ways this is just a train game where the trains have guns, although combat doesn’t come into play much. It is more of a cold war. If your neighbor has built up then you should too.
Oh and it is our first serious attempt at designing a board game.
Thanks for your time.
- Dwight
[Edit - Bryk: Changed title to include designer's name]
Thanks for your kind words Rick.
Perhaps by "round" you mean a "round of combat", where each combatant chooses one of their combat squares and they total up their combat values and compare them. If I've understood your rules correctly, the player with the lower total must accept a penalty: loss of one ship, or surrending one cargo to his opponent, or surrendering three cargos to his opponent. Then (I think) the active player can choose to keep attacking (another round of combat occurs) or decide to stop (his turn is over for phase 3).
Your rules don't seem to say who gets to choose the penalty. But (if I've understood correctly) the active player can end combat just by deciding that his turn is over, while the defending player can end combat any time he loses a round, by paying the attacker three cargo instead of just one (if he has that many available to pay, anyway). Is that right?
If I have all that right, it seems as though combat will continue until one of the contending fleets is destroyed, or until the active player calls it off by choosing not to renew the attack, or until the defender buys off the attacker with three cargo. Completely destroying a fleet might take a while, since in each exchange the loser loses only 1 cargo or 1 ship. But in each round, somebody loses something; there are no combat rounds that are standoffs where nobody gets damaged.
So every battle will eventually end, even if it takes a while; and there's no confusion about exactly when and how it ends. So I guess I don't understand exactly what question you're asking. What's worrying you about your current combat rules?
You have everything correct. I did mean a "round" of combat. What I like is the player that is currently moving can choose whether or not to attack and can bounce around his attacks as he sees fit or end them. Then I also like the actual round of combat. It is fairly straight forward. You draw a random square and add in your fleets combat #s and the lowest total looses.
From here it is just ok. I wish it was cleaner. For example: the looser can give 3 cargo to end it but if the looser is the aggressor he only has to give one and then just end it. Also like you said if the fleets combat bonuses are close combat can go on and on with the players just trading the same one cargo back and forth.
I am leaning toward, right this second, making the rule that there is only one round of combat. And maybe the how much you lost by factor in to how much cargo you loose.
Thanks for your help Rick I look forward to more spring boarding and critiquing
- Dwight