It appears that the game boards themselves matter, what with the movement cards we've discussed somewhat, and messages like this: http://twitter.com/BlueManchuGames/status/100435819021615104 "Making rivers and bridges with new forest tile set. Might be even more fun than actually playing the game." It's easy to imagine a game where your attack and defense cards are the only things exciting and important. That would be . . . most every game. Dare I ask what is so exciting about the terrain we trample underfoot? Is there something we don't know?? And what would us gaming folks like to see in level design? Myself, I'd just like it to matter instead of being mere backdrop for the "exciting and important attack and defense cards."
It's a good question Sir Knight. I should start by saying that position matters in this game. So, terrain is vitally important because it determines how you can get into an advantageous position (or not). I should do a dev diary about terrain. It would be a pretty natural follow on from this week's which is about movement. But I want to talk about defense and armor soon as well... Hopefully this week's diary will at least start to give you some sense of why movement is so important and the game doesn't just boil down to who has the biggest attacks or defenses.
I liked the blog, Jon. It gave me a good idea of how the tactics play out, especially the ZoC rule, though I wonder if you can break the example by using your move to get into this position: * * * * X * --> O * * Where X is the Kobold and O is brave Sir Tristan --> shows facing of Kobold. Sir Tristan can attack to his front and is in the Kobold's 'back', and if Sir Tristan has a backstab card, does it count from here? Once more I'm just jumping to conclusions, but fun as a mental exercise.
Will there be traps/obstacles/hazards? I know you'll say wait for the diary entry, but that would be pretty sweet.... and compulsory.
You'd assume so. In an earlier blog, squares diagonally behind the player's character were labelled "behind." However, if the kobald had ended his turn facing diagonally toward the corner closest to Sir Tristan, he'd be fine. But can characters face diagonally?
With any board strategy game position is always important. My question would be although is will enemies be allowed to move through you? Its always fun to back up an enemy to a wall and have mages crush them repeatidly while the healer is keeping the tank and (usually melee) dps from dying while they hug them against the wall.
It seems that you can't move through physical objects, so that Dwarf with the big axe and shield standing in the middle of the corridor will stop you getting at the squishy mages behind.
Indeed. But other than the movement, we've been told you can shoot through all units, which is very good to know. Snipe those darn mages! And I'm grabbing this quote to cover the whole area of thought, because I realized "facing" needs unique attention. If moves granted by a card are defined as "one square, two squares, three, you're done," there's no point where a card said "you may turn around to face the enemies behind you, whom you are explicitly trying to attack at range, and who were your entire impetus to run away three squares." Is "facing" free? Can you "re-face" at will on a turn (say, during an early phase of it, so you don't abuse facing later), or must you play another move card first?
Seems to me thinking about your post you could spin 180 degrees and then 'back away' three spaces, flinging fireball / axes as you go.
See, it's awesome stuff like that which means we need to know how the rules work. How else are we going to abuse them?
You can't move through enemies so, yes, it is very possible (and useful) to pin people against walls.
I didn't talk about facing in the blog article but obviously it is important since you can't attack behind you. Basically, you can set your facing to whatever direction you like at the end of your move. There are other ways to change facing too - through cards of course!
Hehe that would be awesome for a thief. Having a turn face card for the monster + playing another card for massive damage in the back ^^ Nice to know.
There's a bunch of interaction between movement, facing and combat that will be ripe for exploit testing, I feel.
