Today we had most of the systems in place for our game and started play testing it immediately. In the spirit of iterative design, we were changing certain number amounts and player allowances during play. This way, it was much easier to fine tune each aspect of the game and face problems head on. Our game is now best played with four people (which is also the maximum number of players). The players start in the middle of each side of the square board, forming a cross shape, instead of being positioned in the corners and following an "X" design (our original plan). This drastically shortened the play field and players are forced to play build pieces next to an opponents space, which is always a tough decision.
At the start of the game, each player gets one player token, one settlement, one food token and one wood token -- the basis for all of their future movement. Before the game actually starts, though, the players must rotate clockwise in order to place resource tiles on a grid that will dynamically represent the playing arena. Rock cards cannot be passed through and can be stacked next to any other resource -- including itself -- while the other resources cannot be placed immediately adjacent to each other (diagonal placement aligning the corners is considered legal). When a player lands on a resource tile they get a new token denoting the addition of that resource to their bank. The resource can only be gained when landing on the square, and may not be gained again at the next turn if the player decides to sit on that one piece (although the resource can be gained again if the player moves off in one turn and back again in another). When so many tokens are gained, a station can be created that automatically collects revenue for the player at the beginning of each turn. These can be overtaken by other players based on a battle system: although a structure cannot attack back, they can deter the attacker back to the initial attack point.
There are two types of player token: worker and soldier. Workers do less damaged (determined by a 6-sided die) and can build new structures on a resource area, or, build a new settlement on any free area of the board. A soldier has better odds in battle (determined by an eight-sided die) but can only be generated by first building a barrack. Soldiers are not allowed to build or collect resources on the board.
A player has a limit on how many player tokens they can have on the board -- based on the level of settlement they have in possession; there are 3 settlement levels -- each taking 5 food and 5 wood tokens to upgrade. A player starts with a limit of 4 players on the board at a time, then moves to 7 at settlement level 2, and 10 max at settlement level 3.
Players can fit as many player tokens onto one move space as they are physically capable of. We debated about limiting this, but it is very intimidating when a large crowd of enemy soldiers is about to attack one of your player tokens. Confrontation is extremely encouraged in our game, in the fact that there is a limited number of resources and everyone is trying to make their population bigger.
The final win condition of our game is to attack another person's settlement and build a settlement on top. To do this, each level of a settlement must be defeated at a time until back at level 1. Then, the overtaking player must pay the 5 of each resource to finalize the action and win the game. Settlements can attack other players by defending with eight-sided dice.
So far from what we've played the game is looking surprisingly coherent. There is a strong sense of caring what the other player is doing -- many times pure silence on someone's turn would prove that every other player was paying attention and planning their next move. Moves are also very strategic and are usually best planned in advance. We will keep play testing and refining our game to try and find more flaws; until then, we still have a sensible amount of work ahead of us.
