Today I playtested Clash of Empires with the deckbuilding element.

I played the game with two other people and the game was surprisingly close despite the fact that we followed different strategies. I focused mostly on building my deck and buying victory cards with a few attacks, while the other players mostly focused on controlling map regions.

Comments from the game

 

• “Good concept”.
• “Too many Dominion cards”.
• “Make your hands more meaningful”: The player did not like the fact that your hand was meaningless if you played an action on the board. He suggested allowing players to play cards from their hand, and then taking an action on the board.
• “The cards add more depth to the game”.
• “I like this better than Risk”.
• “Make game look more professional”.
• “Add backing to the cards and add sleeves.”
• ” Improve balance” .

 

 

Future plans

 

Overall the playtest went well because the players liked the mechanics, but they felt that the game needed more polish and balance.  Below is a list of what I will be focusing on over the next few weeks.

Gameplay

• Rulebook updates.
• Turn sequence modification: Each player will have two phases on their turn.  During the first phase, a player can play a card or take an action. During the second phase, a player may buy a card.
• Modify region bonuses so that they are easier to get.

New Cards

• Mines:  Can be played during the first phase of your turn instead of an action to give you money.
• Scorched earth:  Gives extra ruin cards to attacking players.
• Upgrade: Allows players to trash a card for a better ones.
• Extra action cards: These can be played to allow a player to gain multiple actions.
• Card draw cards: These can be played to give a player more cards.

Aesthetics

• Make cards look more professional.
• Modify board to make borders, terrain, and territory labels more clear.
• Change terminology to make sure it is not identical to Dominion.