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RabbitWarlord182 days ago

I think this is one of my favorite jam factions! Starlings are an inspired choice and they fit the theme so well, especially when combined with the "recruit 10" action! The musters are evocative of acolytes and look elegant, but work completely differently and need to be filled to function. Taking lower die on attacks is the sort of feature that at first glance makes you think "what?" and then you realize how well it works with the rest of the faction's design by filling musters, and that they have a workaround for dealing hits when they really need to (spending cards).

I do have a few questions - 

First - can musters be used in any order?

Second - it seems as though there's an optimal order in the daylight actions that's reachable after the first turn, so it makes the mechanic of changing the order of actions seem unnecessary, especially with the freedom of muster actions happening in any order (assuming my question 1 answer is "yes"). Is there any reason not to switch "Act with Musters" and "Fly" on turn 1, and then keep it that way for the rest of the game? You have fly directly after recruit, and directly before retreat so you can ensure consistency filling the musters you need, and then you have battle directly afterwards either to fill less high priority musters or as a way to fill your essential musters if you've been policed to much to have a favor on the board.

Third - Favors seems like to almost work? I'm not clear what a favor is when it's on the board, and as the esteemed MrMirz has mentioned, the bird one seems very valuable. I guess I'm wondering what they represent when they're on the board. The fact that they are basically the only way the starlings score, and yet they are one of the main ways they can deal hits consistently is a tension that is good, but I worry about the speed of their scoring. I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to say here, only that it seems difficult for the starlings to score, given that both need to have their muster filled, and their favors on the board in order to make it happen, and that makes them less able to fight should they need to.

Again, fabulous work!

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TenCzwarty182 days ago

thank you, I am glad that the ideas I put into the faction are indeed received as intended
1. yes, any order
2. you can swap 2 daylight actions once per turn, and you're torn between optimizing for different priorities (that was kinda the idea), you may go for different swaps, but I admit, that fly <> act is probably the best one, I was experimenting with giving a small "secondary" action under basic actions (for example "craft, then recruit 1 at each favor), but it was becoming too complex, maybe worth revisiting. Definitely needs some testing if swapping orders isn't too one dimensional
3. Yeah, that was the last change slapped before the deadline, I am not fully convinced about the favors. Initially Starlings had "nest" buildings used only for scoring (and recruits but that was scrapped), but during testing it turned out that without some help at the beginning of the game they are very feast-or-famine. I came with an idea of a "fallback" in case you're unlucky and didn't draw any bird cards for several turns, but it didn't make sense from the thematic standpoint (why nests are flipped and why they give favors). I changed nests to favors last minute to make sense of the mechanic, but as you said, it almost works. Tried to solve it by making the Starlings work with the Woodland by using Favors or, when placed on the board - "Safe Houses", "Scatter" when removing them, "Promoting" to our cause when scoring. There may be a neater way of implementing the catch-up mechanism, maybe with extra musters.

When it comes to scoring, as I explained somewhere below - you may score 4VP with the most basic muster setup, but with more warriors in musters (and a bit of luck) you may score even 12VP in one turn (+ crafting), the scoring is a bit explosive which I am fine with. During testing (but that may be a skill issue) scores were quite close.

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