I was able to play 2 rounds with my friend today, and the rules I added yesterday definitely work! Notes from today's games:
- The minimum knight HP needs to change to 13 (greater than 12) instead of 10.
- That way you only way you can be killed on the first turn is if you are very unlucky and have no armor in one suit and your opponent plays a King or if your opponent is very lucky and gets all the face cards in their first hand.
- Side note: The reason for this is that I played a knight with 10 HP for the first game and was killed on the first turn with a high attack. XD
- Attacking with a Joker was a really cool optional mechanic. If you're at a disadvantage, it can really help turn the tables.
- It's hard to remember your attack bonus when you have Aces in your armor, but I think it's still a good rule. That way if you remember, you really benefit, but it doesn't harm much if you forget.
- We tried a new way to calculate HP that involved drawing more cards and that total was your HP, but that came out ridiculously unbalanced—I had 46 while he had 15!
- He won anyway because he had a Joker the first turn and blocked my instakill move! XD That was amazing
All I'm changing about the rules today is this:
- Draw 10 cards as your hand during setup and pick your 4 cards to build your knight from those. The remaining 6 cards is your first hand
- This is better because you have more cards to choose from while building your knight, plus you don't have to draw more cards.
- Your knight must have more than 12 HP.
We didn't play with the speed rules, but I'm pretty sure they're good as they are.
Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow after our next playtest! :D