 |
Impressions on my first 40-turn game.
This is the first full game of Alamaze I have played in something like twenty years - back when Phil was running it. The last several of those years I played only Titan games - 6v6 games where each side was played by two or three players. My partner was Kevin Dusi for all of those. Before that I played in numerous first and second cycle games. The game has changed dramatically since then. In many ways, this was a new experience for me. These are some of my thoughts. This is going to be a bit of a ramble so please forgive me.
24 Hour Game
A 24-hour turnaround can be a challenge! In the early going it was fine, later on, I wished for the option for a 48-hour turnaround. I know I made numerous mistakes due to rushing through turns. That being said, I signed up for it and it was a lot of fun. The rapid pace was challenging in its own way.
The Map
It took me a while to realize pop centers on my map were automatically updated, even if I had no direct information on my turn sheet. The major cities I can understand, I don’t understand how (lore-wise) everything else is known. A lonely village two regions away I passed on turn one - my kingdom still recieves up-to-date information on its status. (Oddly enough, defense information is lost; the map does not “remeber” the last-seen defense.) There is a disconnect there between my turn sheet and the map I didn’t expect. Later I discovered this applies to encounters as well, when an encounter I knew of vanished without me ever visiting it.
That aside, I like having the updated map each turn as a supplement to the turn sheet. It is a big improvement over the “the old days” of having only the turn sheet for information.
Input Tool
I am a fan of the input tool. It was a big help and caught several errors of mine. At times it can be very smart, such as when transferring an artifact, it helpfully fills in your possible destinations, be it a figure, PC, or group. I’d like to see this “smart help” more. I did encounter some bugs with it, where I had to close it and relog into it. Nothing critical, however.
Suggestion - Under Fake Resources, I’d like to be able to enter a negative number, to indicate expected losses from a military attack.
Suggestion - Mark free orders in the tool. The rule book isn’t as clear as it could be in this area and the input tool makes no distinction.
Builder Bob
I am not looking for the spreadsheet game and, in many ways, the middle game strikes me as too much building and not enough wargaming. In the “old” second cycle the primary way to gain more production was to take it from someone else. Hidden Ore was still a thing but it was difficult to protect such an investment. There needs to be a balance. Right now the balance seems to swing much more to the build and turtle strategy. Capitals strike me as overall too difficult to take. I had an 80k capital on turn 8 with little effort and it seemed a bit silly to be honest.
I liked the selection of buildings and most of them made sense. Great Temple and Great Mage Tower however, both seem to have no purpose other than for status points. My suggestion - a Great Temple allows a kingdom to hire/test a maiden in any controlled pop center in the same region as the Great Temple; similarly a Great Made Tower allows wizards to raise at any pop center in the same region as if a wizard tower was present.
Suggestion - Taking pop centers by force has a chance of destroying one or more buildings within the pop center. Sieging has the benefit of never damaging the PC, including the buildings within.
Suggestion - Watch Towers, I feel, should have some impact on defense; perhaps a small (~5%) bonus to archery damage. I also feel they should have a chance of being destroyed during an attack.
Standing Orders
I did my best to use my standing orders effectively. I like the change to have more by default. It allows more creativity on the part of players.
Suggestion - Display the available number of standing orders on the input tool.
Suggestion - Change the Cancel Standing Order command to be a free order. I was left with several stale standing orders I would have liked to change but couldn’t justify the order.
The High Seas
Someone clearly wanted to make a seafaring game - merchant ships, upgrading ships, spells dedicated to sea monsters, ports, and elite ships (I love elite ships BTW). These are all very cool, and, have little overall impact on the game. We just completed a 40-turn game. It would be interesting to see how many sea patrols were performed. Any Storm at Seas? Any Leviathans summoned? Any fleet use beyond mercantile? Balance this versus the inherent confusion about fleets, movement, and water PCs.
Speaking frankly, all fleets and water PCs could be removed from the game and it may very well be an improvement. A cleaner and more intuitive design overall and easier for new players to grasp.
Artifacts
There certainly seems to be an abundance of these. Not sure if they are too common but it may be getting close.
The Herd and Bats - What happened to these? They are pretty much pointless now. Allowing a division to fly eight squares was a useful and elegant design. I began the game with the location of both. Once I got the Herd and understood it effectively did nothing I didn’t bother to spend the orders to get the Bats.
Ring of Protection - useless? They don’t help versus kidnap and a 50/50 chance to avoid a sleep isn’t good enough when a ward is needed. Suggestion - remove the spell protection and have it provide significant protection versus physical events - assassinations, kidnapping, capture on military attack, etc.
Weapon Artifacts - Something that should be cool and fun is overall disappointing. Unfortunately, they seem to pale in comparison to wizards. It would be interesting to compare the effect in combat of a p-5 -presence vs. any weapon artifact.
Suggestion - Change the Transfer Artifact order to be a free order. Orders are precious and I found myself not using some emissary artifacts simply because it was never worth the order to move them out of the group that discovered them.
Recruiting and Troops
IMHO recruiting requires too many orders. I suggest allowing a player to use a single order to recruit from a PC with an option to do so one, two, or three times (with three resulting in the PC going neural); parity with the train recruits order.
Suggesting a similar structure for recruiting from the wild, where up to three of the same type can be recruited with a single order.
I don’t understand the absolute brigade limits. I understand the need for a recruitment limit, but why you can’t one combine freely? Why can I only have five Trolls in a single group? Do they start to fight if too many are in one place together? The bonus effects from troops can be capped if needed, which we already see with several troop types.
Also, the number of troops types is not only a bit overwhelming to a new player it also doesn’t seem to add a lot to the game. Troops either have no effect, an insignificant effect (Apes and Griffons, looking at you) or the effect feels mandatory to have (hello Minotaurs!) These “mandatory” bonuses can be so strong the game feels like it is boxing me into certain group builds. How many people had 3 Zamorans and 2 Minotaurs in groups at the end of the game in order to “check the box”?
Overall, in the end game, it didn’t seem like troop types matteed much beyond the mandatory ones. One iron golem, 3 ZA, 2 MI, and then a bunch of anything with three p-6+ wizards and you are good to go.
Flash Flood and Windstorm
I don’t understand the purpose for these spells. They appear to serve to further discourage group combat (which strikes me as already rare) and as they hurt kingdoms with cavalry and archers, which are the ones who would be seeking out group combat. Spells and effects, IMHO, should go more towards amplifying your forces, rather than negating the opponent.
I also don’t like the harsh infinite scaling here. The same windstorm that reduces the few arrows and slings from a 2k defense village also disrupts the rows and rows of archers and ballistas of a 200k defense legendary city? (You can apply the same to Fear versus pop centers. If I were a defender I’d be way more fearful of those dragons sitting in a village than in a castle, but the effect is much more amplified versus the castle.)
Agents
I did a lot of kidnapping in this game (sorry Mr Nomad!). I enjoyed the challenge of getting the target’s name (or guessing based on circumstances), sleeping, and kidnapping why trying to avoid wards and guards. I ran into those more often towards the end of the game showing I went to the well a few too many times. Next time kidnap the priestesses first!
Agent training cost is complicated - my turn sheet often isn’t accurate due to fanatic status or the presence of a guild. Eventually, I stopped trying to calculate and relied on the order input tool to tell me. All that being said, the cost simply didn’t matter much. Overall there is a fair amount of design space spent on agent cost for little gain.
Something strikes me as confusing about a Thieves Guild where it intersects with agent training. If I have this right: A kingdom has a maximum training level. If that level is above nine a Guild is required to reach it. However, the max training level is increased by one when a Guild is present. It seems we could get rid of the bonus level for the Guild and raise the max training level for all kingdoms by one, as a Guild is needed to reach that level in any case. (Something similar can be said of a Wizard's Tower).
Speaking of a Thieve’s Guild, the turn sheet should indicate a Guild is needed to train past nine. It would be easy for new players not to pick up on this.
Group Movement
Little did I know it, but I was spoiled by the movement rate of the Free Traders. A movement of four in the plains is great! It feels good and even with crappy troops, my groups always felt useful with multiple good options.
Playing other kingdoms I discovered a movement of five in the plains is much more common. And boy does it feel slow compared to a four! This may be appropriate for some kingdoms - AN, DW, GN - but it appears to be the default. Five in the plains often translates to a movement of three squares in practice. it turns into a true slog when having to mix in non-plains terrain movement.
Ranges
I was constantly unsure what the range was of things. In the second cycle ("back in my day"), the range of most things was either 10 or unlimited, the exception being regional effects. I
Ranges I see now:
Palantir - no limit
Summon Demon - no limit (spell isn’t clear)
Miners - 10
Gem of Planes - 10
Raven/Eagle Familiar - 10
Sleep/Ward - 10
Red Elk Mount - 10
Emissaries - 7
Riders - 8
Gate (DE) - no limit
Gate (with artifact) - 7
Falconry - 10, 15, 20 (bird couldn't fly just a bit more to get that unlimited?)
Capital relocate - no limit
“Mini radius” for agents vs groups - 5
Black Owl Totel - 5
Ward PC/Dome - Regional
Curse/Scandal - no limit
Teleport Figure/Group - no limit
Project Image - 3
Imp Familiar - 8
Conceal Emissary - 3
End Game
The end game presently feels pretty…meh. It felt so meh, I considered dropping the game around turn 20ish. I wasn’t doing poorly, it was just not that fun. I was puzzled by this at first until it occurred to me - much of the end game lacks counter-play.
Consider - the end-state for the political game is high influence and numerous princes. There are many counter-play options available - sleeping/warding/blessing emissaries, using the gating artifact to bypass groups, the conceal emissary spell, performing multiple denigrates or enamors in a single turn, and knocking down a king’s influence via numerous options. Mix in the interplay with agents and groups you have a dynamic, challenging, and fun experience. Some of the best Alamaze has to offer.
Let’s look at the magic and military end game (as they are intertwined). Big groups with high-level wizards teleporting about taking out legendary castles. This isn’t bad, heck this is pretty fun!
But what is the counter-play here?
In the old second cycle days, it might have been one or more invisible or ambushing groups placed strategically. Catch the opponent off-guard and hit them with a few summon death or slay spells. Do they know you are there? Do you know that they know you are there? Maybe they came in with an invisible patrol? You see where I am going.
But with True Seeing being intrinsic there are no surprises. Invisibility and ambushing might as well be removed from the game for as little impact it has. This is before considering Warlords and p-5s sensing invisible and ambush groups.
How about agents? Those wizards might be vulnerable to high-level enemy agents, especially as teleporting groups tend to outrange the protection of any friendly agents. But alas, this option is also neutered. A level 14 agent, the limit for many kingdoms, has a 15% chance to kill a p-6 wizard. This is due to the intrinsic counter-espionage provided by Dire Wolf Familar. With such odds, one could send FIVE level 14 agents after the single p-6 wizard and have an overall 55% chance of success (nine attempts would be required to hit 75%). This is before you consider the group may simply move out of range, change group IDs, or even have additional protection from an agent.
Realistically the only counter-play is having bigger and/or more wizards. The result is very little group-to-group combat at the end of the game. Besides one battle between myself and the Nomad I had none. The Nomad won that as he had two groups to my one. What if my group could have been invisible? What if one of his could have been? With intrinsic True Seeing it was not even an option. He had me beat and I insta-teleported out. My options and his were known as soon as I saw the turn. If there was more fog of war that encounter could have been much more dynamic and interesting. We have plenty of tools to discern invisible groups, but they have little use as True Seeing is so powerful.
Overall having True Seeing and Dire Wolf as intrinsic strikes me as a substantial design mistake. They are great designs if a player has to actually cast the spells.
Summary
The game was fun, I enjoyed it and I am signed up for more. I enjoyed teaming up with Dupont and wish we would have had more time between turns to discuss things.
I liked the change to remove the gold cost from many actions. This did change the balance of how valuable gold is. It is possible the wizard raise cost, the game’s primary gold sink, is too low across the board.
I did not like the amount of turtle-and-build I saw. I touched on this above.
I did not like the census tricks I saw, with my example being the Nomad had so much census in his two legendary PCs I could have taken everything else in the region (I got close) and not forced him from control (unless I started doing census tricks myself). I am sure there were more examples of this in the game. I am not knocking anyone for it; it is in the game and it is effective. It simply doesn’t strike me as all that fun and interesting to manipulate the census numbers of PCs.
I did not like how invulnerable high-level wizards were. Did anyone lose a single wizard above p-6?
I did not like how rare military action was until teleporting army groups was a thing. Teleporting army groups is fine, but the whole middle layer of military action was missing.
Overall I had fun. Would I pay to play? Maybe. I have donated a few times so it is worth something to me. If I was a new player would I have finished? Almost certainly not. There are a lot of barriers to entry and the learning curve is immense. I made numerous mistakes and simply did not understand some things at first and I am very familiar with Alamaze. A new player would have been underwater from the start.
|
Buddy/Ignore List
