Today, I ran a playtest with the new region cards and a small set of action cards. The new region cards worked out well, but I am planning to make a major change to combat based on feedback.

The playtest consisted of a 1 v 1 game with a seasoned board gamer that did not have much experience with deckbuilding.

Gameplay comments

• Combining deckbuilding with area control was a cool mechanic.
• The number of choices for purchasable cards was confusing.
• Game is like 2 player Risk and does not work.
• There is a problem due to a lack of troops

Other observations

• It was too easy to get money.
• The region cards give too much of a boost to players who took territory because of the extra money they gave

I am now planning to implement a new combat system. Players will not gain extra troops from regions, and troops will get displaced instead of destroyed during combat.  Here are the advantages I see from this new system

• The balance of the region cards is no longer as important. The region cards were originally designed in order to prevent people with too many regions from running away with the game.  When I made the region cards too weak, board play was discouraged. When I made the region cards too strong, they didn’t do a great job of preventing runaway leaders.
• There was often an incentive to avoid attacking because a player would lose troops.
• Players will not need to spend time constantly adding and removing troops.
• As players expand, they will have the same number of troops, but the troops will be spread out, which makes it harder for them to be a runaway leader.
• More opportunities to make meaningful decisions.

Here are some of the main mechanics of this system

• Players will start off with a fixed # of units on the board.
• When combat occurs, players will add the number of units in the contested region, and they will be able to play cards to boost strength. The loser has to retreat troops to a region of the winner’s choice.
• Players can purchase cards that boost combat strength.
• All regions  must trace a supply line to a capital region. Players lose control of any regions without a supply line to the capital, and any units in those regions are sent back to the capital.