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rognavaldr

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A member registered Jan 08, 2017 · View creator page →

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Thank you! Excited to hear what you think.

We took about 30 minutes learning and got distracted in conversation, so I'm guessing we were really closer to around 60-90 minutes playtime. Next play we'll pay particular attention to any rules that misplaying could cause the game to go on longer. We discussed it some more and think maybe we played too conservatively and used rest several turns in a row to essentially reset the game. 

For draw piles, we shuffled the last deck and went through a decent portion of the deck, but the game ended before we drew the final final card. We were close, so I could imagine a rare match where the game would need to account for exhausting all cards. 

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Oh man, we must have been misplaying something if 120 mins is such an anomaly! Either that or there was a series of turns where we were both playing "passively", i.e. taking several back to back turns to rest, slowing progress to a wound. We'll give it another careful go and see if we get a different outcome. 

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Played this with my fellow Pista's designer and really enjoyed it. We took some notes as we played that you might find helpful:

Rules comments 

  1. Shield bash: it was unclear that shield bash uses the same move card and doesn't fully complete the procedure for Step 2. An edit like this could help clarify: "use this card to resolve an additional Attack like during Step B." We also assumed that this was an "additional" attack on top of Step 2 attack.
  2. Attack: "If defender cannot" led to questions as it can be interpreted as "cannot play cards." Realize in context that it means "cannot flip", but figured it was worth pointing out. 
  3. Wound: From the very useful video, we're assuming the multiple cards = multiple wounds. . If this is the case maybe something like "receives 1 wound for every card used to successful Attack." There's also a minor typo: "is receives 1 wound." 
  4. Continuation: It's unclear who's trump suit counts. ""in the trump suit" needs a little more precision.  

General feedback

The game shows smart restraint and cleverly embraces the postcard design restrictions. Our only real issue was game length, which with learning time took us almost two hours to complete. I'm assuming this shortens significantly with each play, but it seems too long. The presentation and lightweight rules give off the impression that a match will last about 30 minutes—perfect for playing a best 2 out of 3. Barring misplays, the prolonged length likely has to do with how the game incentivizes retreating (assuming you can move backwards) and continuation (this could maybe use more risk as it became central to our strategies and only done when we were 99% we'd win and not waste a card). While we appreciate the depth these tactics provide and are not suggesting removing them, it did result in us stalling the game to a near halt. And while the daze mechanic is a very clever merger of theme and mechanics, it did create a daze spiral at the end of the game that felt more like dead turns than the fatigue from a grueling battle. 

Length aside, Hoplomachus's equipment, fatigue system, trump selection, and balanced card play all come together to elegantly abstract the topic. The card tactics, feints, the opportunity for bluffs, and the longer term planning the continuation mechanic (my personal favorite) encourages really emulate the feeling of a tough and tense duel.

Oh, wow, I'd love to check out the module! I'm sure you saw the TTS mod for Pistas, but sadly I got 0 scripting skills on TTS, so never considered that as an option for solo. And my sense is that your intuition is correct that FAST would be easier in terms of level of effort and complexity. 

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback and questions! We've updated the rules based upon your questions, but here are some direct answers to hopefully address the lack of clarity. 

1. Yes, only pista card can be placed at a time or "Limit 1 pista in play." We want the Narco player to commit to a single landing strip so that it increases the chance FAST can accurately plan and intercept. 

2. Good catch! It should be muni icon or "on a muni with no die." Fixed. 

3. You deduced correctly. Discarded cards do not return (unless it's one from a tie). Step 2 in the Op procedure has been rewritten to clarify that it's cards in hand only that are used to create a stack. 

4. Really great question here. Standardized the phrasing. It's always "draw intel" as you're never supposed to draw from the Narco's hand and only from their deck in order to progress the FAST victory condition. 

5. Yes, interdict basically "teleports" Policia from any hex (it's supposed to abstract Policia getting into FAST Hueys and flying to that destination). Rules have been edited to reinforce this point. 

Quick note on "soloing": I'm not really sure it's possible considering how much hidden information is involved on the Narco side, especially during the Operation. But let me know if you figure out a way to two hand that doesn't require forgetting your own moves hah. Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. You've seriously helped improved the game and we look forward to trying out some of your submissions. Hoplomachos looks particularly enticing.

Thanks for playing and the good feedback! We've drafted some tweaks that make it harder for the Narco to build a winning route, e.g. counters would get assigned suits and only routes with suits that match the pista hex's suits can lead to victory. If that doesn't work, it may come down to resource costs changes or cutting an extract. 

As for Op step 4, does look like the aim to be concise muddied the instructions. I'll take another stab for clarity. A version without word limits would read something like this: 

Narco reveals and discards the stack’s top card, then resolve Attack or Evade based on what was declared in step 2. 

  • If Attack, Narco adds the revealed card's number and the occupied hex's number (face cards = number on occupied hex) . FAST adds their FAST die to the Policía die on the occupied hex. 
  • If Evade, Narco subtracts card and the occupied hex numbers instead. FAST subtracts dice. 

A quick edit, but hopefully that's a step in the right direction.