We’ve had a blast playtesting Alynthia at various conventions over the last year, and we got some amazing feedback from it! Sometimes (often) the best feedback is that something isn’t working – You can’t fix a problem you don’t know about. Battle in Alynthia is a great example of that.
It’s too complicated! I can’t keep track of all of this! Math is dumb! You’ve made me hate board games!
-All things we heard from play testers about battle in Alynthia.* We went back to the drawing board and reexamined what we liked about the mechanic – and what we wanted to do better. It was a round-about journey, but we finally landed on a version of our battle mechanic that we’re really excited about.
Subtract the Math
Battle in Alynthia used to be a long list of things to add together. Start with your workers, then add your character bonus, outpost bonuses, upgrade bonuses, then throw your stronghold bonus on top of that, any special attack bonus, a building’s defense bonus, guild abilities. Don’t forget to add the value of your die roll and any action cards you want to play…
We really liked how battling was balanced with the rest of the game, but it felt pretty tedious. We went so far as to make a guide to walk you through a battle – which was so complicated that the GUIDE needed explanation.
When your guide needs a guide, you need to simplify.
You Get Battle Stats
We found a way to streamline the process. Each player now has a base attack and defense stat of one, and any attack or defense bonuses just increase that stat. So battle strength is now just your army of workers, plus your current battle stat, the value of your die roll, and any action cards you want to play.
Ok, so there’s still a little math. It’s easy though.
United Battle Modes
Battle is one of the main ways that cooperative and competitive modes diverge. In one you are working together against the dragons, and in the other, you have the option of trying to ruthlessly wipe each other off the board! After we developed the cooperative mode, we had to circle back and make it easy to transition between cooperative and competitive mode without having to re-learn a bunch of rules.
Now in both modes, dragons can wipe buildings off the board, but you also earn rewards whenever you defeat a dragon. Roll that sweet sweet reward die! We’re excited about the ways the two modes have come together while still keeping the differences that make them unique.
Fighting Towards Kickstarter
A refined battle mechanic means we’re one step closer to fighting towards Kickstarter. Your support means so much to us!
If you could do us one more favor, tell a friend about Alynthia! The sooner we can get the word out, the sooner you can get your copy!
*More or less.