First Post

For the last couple of days, we have been fleshing out an aesthetic for our game while keeping the mechanics in mind. We originally wanted to try and incorporate the genre of Real Time Strategy into a board game. There were a few problems with that, though -- in that there would be too many systems to keep track of. Our original Idea was to start the players off as convicts emigrating to Australia(apparently it is part of history). We were going to add the random element of a native culture that was already there once the settlers reached the continent/island.

Our board came about during a discussion about an archeology game and having a symmetrical square playing field. We tried implementing the natives in the center of the board and were going to have them start off stronger but be weaker in the long run -- but this presented too many problems and we ended up eliminating them for now. Each player starts at a corner of the board and is dealt 5 resource cards at the beginning of the game. A player starts with a settlement/town and is allowed to move one space per turn in a clockwise manner.

The resource cards have a certain function that, when landed on, can be used to gain that particular resource. Right now we have Crops, Wood, and Rocks. Crops are gained to build farms, wood is gathered and used to build lumber mills, and rocks are sort of like mountains that impede player movement. We have decided that 2 crops and 2 wood pieces are used to build one farm and one lumber mill, respectively. If a player decides to save their crops and wood -- 4 each -- they can upgrade their current settlement to a larger town. Originally, a player can earn people/player pieces by using one crop card each, but the default settlement only allows a maximum of four pieces on the board at a time. By upgrading to a larger settlement, they are allowed to add three more players to the board for each upgrade.

When one player lands on another, they battle. The attacker must roll a die first and the defender rolls subsequently. If there should happen to be a draw, they must role again. Whoever loses has their player piece removed from play (until regenerated). Players can also choose to attack structures. Mills and farms can both be attacked without the current possessor to have the space occupied. The attacker must role first, followed by the defender. If the attacker wins they defeat the structure but do not receive the resource that is beneath it until the next turn. If the defender wins, they push the attacker back to the spot where they originally moved from at the beginning of their turn. Multiple attackers can attack another player or structure, and take turns rolling dice until each have been accounted for.

In the event that a player defeats another player altogether (they would have to have no more crops to create more player pieces), they have conquered that player and gain all of their structures. The conquered player is still in play, but must move based on what the conqueror directs them to do (sort of like an unequal team); we have yet to test this.

We tested the game today from 2pm until 7:30pm. The alpha version of our board is complete and we will continue to play test until we can reach a concrete prototype.