Critique My Boards!

Infinity Garden

Already in the submission forum but you can comment here. This was my first go round.

WRECKERS!!

You are fighting off rival wreckers in an attempt to secure the shipwrecks treasure for yourselves!

I am including the terrain overlay because its easier then a description

This is the map I am most excited about! So let me know what you think.

 

Cool looking map! The problem in my mind from a game play stand point is that there's no way for a player to know the terrain types without either memorizing them or clicking on each square. There needs to be a visual indicator so that mid-play a person doesn't have to ask themselves what kind of terrain is what. Oh, and according to your overlay, your victory terrain isn't actually victory terrain.

 

The shipwreck one seems like it could be cool. One big problem, though, is that there is no easy way to visually distinguish between different terrain layers in-game. I would recommend using different terrain tiles.

edit: Scarp beat me to it.

 

@Scarponi @Flaxative
Good point, maybe the waves should only be in the open terrain, to represent shallows. I tried using 2 types of water but there was not, imo, another good option as far as color. A dark blue would be nice.
And, I totally whiffed the victory terrain.


The waves don't look as pretty but now there is consistency.

 

Cute. Definitely a wizard's map.

 

Better, but water is usually Impassable and lots-of-rocks is usually Difficult so having them reversed will cause some confusion. Maybe see how it looks if you use the blue lines from the Melvin decals?

 

What about using the water edge pieces to make sand bars for the players to walk on?

Or maybe use the shadow tiles to make the shallow terrain / deeper terrain visually marked? You can layer the shadows to make extra dark terrain.

 

Thanks for all the feedback and keep it coming! @Bluemage 2 great ideas! I did not even know about the shadowing. I made a sandbar variation that fits all the typical terrain type requirements. But here are all the variations so far. I definitely like the idea of breaking from the norm but I understand that it makes it difficult for players that don't know what to expect.
Shadowing and Melvin water

Melvin Water

Sandbar


I feel like this would pair well with the Stranded board by Gnizla.

 

So I have a few more boards. Please give me some feedback. It has all been much appreciated. Even @Flaxative 's "Cute."

Life Rafts


What are the chances that 2 groups of adventures are rescued at the same time?! Or even unlikelier that the Captain has only 3 spare bunks on board!?! Race to the Captains Cabin to be the first to convince him your group should stay!

 

Boarding Party


Think you got what it takes to sail the #(cardhuntria specific number of) seas! Well your about to find out because you have just bean boarded!!! Fight for the player specific victory point and take command of the enemy ship!

 

So to dispense with the nautical theme.

Arena Crescent (hoping to come up with better name soon)

 

Finally 2 versions of the same. Both pretty unconventional so just seeing what ya'll think and which is better.

Mine Shaft Mayhem


Mine Shaft Mayhem 2

 

I'll just give feedback relevant to eventual submissions.

• The board is way too big. Ideally, we want a 13x13 or smaller playable area so that players with smaller screens can see most of the action at once.
• I'm a little worried about lack of counterplay if one team gets lucky and Sprint, Teams all the way to the cabin first. The single difficult terrain chokepoint to the victory terrain and the blocking terrain cabin walls ring some alarms for me.

• Much better with the rocks and sandbar IMO.
• Less of an instant Wizards Win board.
I'm still worried that they might just win. I'd be interested to hear people's experience testing this board.

• This is definitely stretching reasonable board size.
• Player-specific terrain isn't allowed on submissions.

• Good!
• Would be nice if the outer crescent were playable, right now it's probably just nice-looking. Maybe if you made the middle victory terrain square accessible from the outside that would increase play options on this board. I would suggest taking out one or three of these tiles:

• The far-flung victory points will lead to a lot of stalemates.
• Fails submission requirement guidelines.

 

Thanks @Flaxative

I did not realize that the ideal board was 13x13 or smaller. I will keep that in mind when designing.

I also was unaware of "No player specific terrain". Do you think Boarding Party is viable with those as normal Victory Squares?

I will definitely experiment with making the outer crescent playable! My goal was to force close quarters but I understand it makes the outer crescent wasted space.

The mind shaft one I was not going to submit but thought I might as well throw it up here.

Thanks for the feedback! Is there a deadline for board submissions?

 

No!

I'll add it to the requirements I guess. It's in the discussion thread, someone else asked.

No, because it then fails the victory terrain square placement guidelines.

 

LOOK! It's a spaceship!

For those Space Elves Melvin was talking about.

 

This board might define "wizard unfriendly" and, to whatever extent people will insist on playing wizards, it'll almost certainly be the burst variety. :\

 

But seriously, The playable space of the board is 7x14, the rest is just for looks. Here it is with blue water.

 

I hate wizards. Haha no, but seriously, I think its starting to show.

 

Also, wicked fast reply.