itch.io

My current thinking is that I don't like the bunny theme. Might drop it for future versions and make something a little more directly historical.
But then the whole idea is kinda comedy in the way the game is designed, so, I dunno.

:D

Oooooh the Nils version is up!

Higher :)

But if you think it would be better another way, please let me know!

Ok, thanks!

Question similar to Alerted's below, but more of a wording thing - If I resolve column A, and win, I get 1 point. "You get one point for each column you win". I then consult the CRT and see that I move 1 space. However the only way I can see to get a score of +2 or +3 is after resolving all three columns first. But we're meant to do them one at a time, no?

I must be missing something. Is it 1 extra point for a winning column, over and above the amount by which I beat the union card with my card/s? That's the way it seems to make sense to me.

Man, fitting the rules on these postcards is a wargame in itself.

Kind of a shameless plug since I'm on the next one, but if you haven't already, please check out the postcards from the front podcast. You might even want to come on! 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlmyMN8NPH-dqumDvO9QhFeiBteU4LZr9

I enjoyed this one, and it has surprising depth and replay value.

Ah, you may be correct about rounds vs turns. I am by no means a seasoned wargamer - I may be getting the convention wrong! I've jumped in the deep end despite minimal recent experience.

I was thinking of boxing - you take turns hitting each other (effectively) for a while, then the "round" ends, and then you start over.

Yes, I agree about symmetry. I did it this way to save myself having to playtest as much :p - the next/bigger version is very asymmetrical, a kind of clifftop scifi Dday landing scenario.

"It is, however, interesting/ puzzling (in a positive sense) that the attacker can only achieve 'no effect' or 'enemy eliminated' result... there is no way to hurt yourself with a bad die roll :)"

[edit - I missed your point about the blocking strategy to stop them respawning. I think it can work sometimes, but as you say the unit values aren't really set up for this. Maybe in future designs. At the same time, I tend to shy away from mechanics that can be gamed in a way that wouldn't make sense in a real conflict, where possible]

Mm, this was because with one card played at a time, I thought it would be ok to leave the choice to return fire up to the commander. If it were more like a standard wargame where you play many units attacking at once, I would build in a return fire mechanic I think. In the larger version of this game I was working on before the jam, dead units get to return fire at half strength, and there is an overwatch system.

Good spotting on the KIA thing! I think I'll leave it - upside down = dead, no? haha

Hi Ryszard,

Yes, alternating cards as you say. I had thought to limit the size of the hand, or allow players to forgo a turn in order to play more on the next turn, but these would not fit in my word count budget! At first it can slow the game down as players place their first units, but once things are moving, it's almost too quick.

No stacking limits, correct.

Blocking is not clear in the rules - I have thought of it as though the units cannot move forward past the enemy, but can move back.

See you Thursday/Friday!

Really cool theme, loads of nailbiting tension. I'm not good at it, but still enjoyed my couple of attempts.

To me, the name alone is a winner.

I really like this one. The player decisions are whether to draw red or black, when to call it quits for the day, and which way to go - everything else is randomized. But that's what works so well. The red cards could be considered food and time, the black cards can be thought of as ammunition, time, and morale. Balancing these resources is the key. Then there's the aspect of the suit, which represents choosing the battlefield that best suits your force from limited options.

Loads of fun. My one gripe is perhaps a silly one - the terrain values for travel are almost too random. I think I'd prefer that many hexes were just a plain number, especially in flat easy areas. Add dice for uncertain footing or hilly stuff. The combat works well though.

The best thing is the sense of atmosphere. I really felt the drawn out, difficult trek with enemies who were in some cases easier to deal with than the terrain! The first time I tried going through the fog and ignoring everyone... welp, but what got me was all the enemies coming from behind when attacking the fortress. I think I needed to make 68 to beat it, and couldn't do it. The second time I went the battling way through the tower which was much easier! This time I managed to win, just. Nicely weighted.

Really clever and well thought out design. I love the way you've tuned the player decision space to just the initiative area, with everything else randomised. Mathematically it comes down to a blackjack like (but with way more depth) risk calculation setup.

My only thought is around length. Because the lines can move forward or back, and the player can repair planes, the game has the potential to go on for a while. Like a real war I suppose. When playing the later, harder missions, I generally ended up going backwards, and got stuck in the middle for a while.

Mind you I'm getting very bad dice... 4 ground and 2 planes be like welp :p

Hi all,

Have recently made an entry for the Postcards from the Front jam - for postcard sized physical games. I went way overboard with the art given you can barely see it on the actual printout!

No AI used, just Infinite Painter on phone.

The game is available here

Separate reply for Lore:

The Shell is a world roughly 10x earth diameter, roughly 3x earth mass, and completely hollow. The shell itself is about 250km thick on average. Most of the external surface is glassy, endless plains with a wispy atmosphere.

Air settles into the valleys and craters, some of which are the size of earth continents. At about 180km below the plains, whether in valleys or Brobdingnagian  cave networks, gravity is about 1G. Continue down and gravity reduces to zero once you reach the level of the interior surface. Go up to the plains and you have to deal with about 3G. Reaching orbit is possible, but with no atmosphere worth mentioning in which to aerobrake, few have returned alive.

The Shell is considered artificial by most scientifically advanced cultures, of which there are at least 20, with a war raging somewhere most of the time. Inside the shell, there is air. Breathable. Lights flicker and glow in the weightless, humid depths. Who knows what goes there.

How did humans get there? Who knows. An ancient colony ship, perhaps lost. Or were they created by the planet itself, which appears to be alive and occasionally non-eucludian? That depends on your religion.

Thanks for the detailed response! Much appreciated. I'll do my best to respond to each point :)

• 2.2 PDF still says 2.1 at the very top

Yah, need to fix that.

• the font of the unit stats is quite hard to read

I agree. That's one to do better next time.

• Maybe the uni markers could also have the city symbols on the back for easier identification

Fair point, especially on the low ink version without the colours.

• I'm not sure, I understood the attacking cities part. "cities automatically lose one die value per unit". So my units can attack a city and then the city always uses one value from the attack (except the unit has a special ability)? Does every fight in a city location count? Or only undefended cities? What if an attacker kills the last defending unit? Does that also remove one city HP or is a new attack necessary?

This is the least clear part of the rules, sorry. Every time an enemy unit enters a city, that city immediately loses one value, even if there are live defenders there. There is no need to roll for the attack. For each turn the enemy remains in the city, on its turn the city loses another health value. I had considered changing this such that the unit must be alive in the city at the end of the round to do damage, but didn't - this comes down to the relative utility of attacking in person vs using nukes. I wanted them to be roughly equal. Killing defenders can happen *in addition to* the damage done by the unit being there.

Honestly I'm not sure this was the right way to go, but it's how it ended up. I calculated about a 600 word rules limit and was really struggling to fit it all in, so, no extra complexity allowed.

• printer friendly PDF is super nice service!

:D

• extra game case to print is an even better idea. I printed mine and the game fits nicely. Will definitely steal that idea.

:D - yeah, saw so many people putting it in a plastic bag, seemed like a good idea.

• first round, command cards can only skip, right? (Nobody could move already two location onto the relic and no city could be damaged already for repairs)

They can repair - city max health is 6

• is 4 the max city value?

See above

• What happens if there are multiple defenders in a location? Attacker choses one unit to engage, right?

Correct

• solo rules "match what is attacking with" is a bit unclear to me. I always attacked the weakest defender

AI will generally attack plane with plane, tank with tank, is what I meant. But one thing about the bot is it's so stupid due to the word count limit. If you want to make it harder, go right ahead.

• a losing attacker loses no units, right?

Correct

• solo bot improvements idea: prioritize going after the relic somehow
• solo bot improvements idea: prioritize attacking of empty cities if in reach
• solo bot improvements idea: city value handicap seems to so hard, since the first two rounds no nukes are possible, so two repairs will happen anyway 

I've tried to balance going for either attacking option, but I do agree that it needs to choose one or the other. Word count again :(

As discussed, you can repair the first two times to get your city to 6.

• Really awesome that there are explicit solo rules!

:D

• I think attacking should have more risk, I played it so that the attacker never lost anything. Only the defender could lose units. That lead to less "hard decision" making

Generally the idea is that if you fail your roll, you'll get attacked back. I could add a rule that attacking kills the attacker on a 1. Interesting idea.

• Losing a fight also wasn't so bad for defensive play. In one instance, I even wanted to lose a battle to respawn the unit in my city for defense in the next round! Maybe there should be a bigger penalty. On the other hand, losing a battle means that the unit can never reach the opponent's city again because it's so far away.

Yeah, I agonised over this one. I'd perhaps make certain units a one-and-done thing in future.

• I'm missing a bit a more elaborate setting (on the postcard). Who are the two cities? Why are they fighting? Why has the relic site nukes? Giving the player something to immerse helps with engagement, gives purpose and is a big part of the fun in my opinion.

Well you know, lore is hard to fit on a postcard :)

There's plenty though. It's part of a bigger universe. I'll explain soon! Thanks again for the epic feedback.

Vijil

Love the idea of "I'm in a tank/plane/whatever" games where it's more about managing your equipment and less about the map.

I have a few ideas lying around - I'd started a scifi tank commander one, but also started making a game where you have a bunch of units but can only directly control the ones within a set range of your hero/commander. The strategy would revolve mostly around choosing who your commander goes and collects during the course of the battle, as different units would have different abilities. It was going to be called BunFight.

But I ran out of time. Maybe next year!

could you cut it up for the major points? 

Hi all, I'm a marketing guy so thought I'd share a few tips for those wanting to increase their download count. Maybe you're not that bothered, which is cool, but here's what's worked for me:

• Make sure you have at least one screenshot showing what the game looks like in play, or at the very least showing what the printout looks like. Having just a cover image with no way to tell what the game itself is like, is not ideal.

  
  

  
  

  • I recommend using one of those as part of your cover image, rather than just a photo or graphic.
• In your blurb, say something like "___ is a free wargame where the player tries to ___ by ____, using dice/cards/whatever". Don't be vague. Keep it short. Mine is too long honestly.
• Post your link to FB groups like PnP, Solitaire wargaming, etc. - this is where 95% of my downloads are coming from. It's a well qualified audience, while other channels you're 90% dealing with bots and people who just follow because they want you to follow them.
• Think about how people will actually print/play your game. Are you providing a letter/A4 sized page? Are you giving any guidance as to how it should best be printed/glued/whatever? I've noticed most people are printing 3+ copies of mine - one to use as the map, one to use as rules, and the third to cut up for the counters. That's really interesting to me as I definitely designed it to be a one-and-done. Some folks are even laminating it!
• If you're asking people to use dice other than D6, I recommend pointing them to the dice app for those who don't own all the crazy dice.
• Likewise https://deck.of.cards/ for folks who don't have cards lying around.
• Personally I don't know anyone offline who is into wargaming. Some are into board gaming and have been a good help. If you do have a wargaming community around you, of course use them!
• Instagram, twitter etc. are useful in their own ways but you wont get many folks downloading anything via that channel

So if you're like me and want to learn about how to market games, this might be a good place to start :)

Next for me is a video demo. The key with these is for it to be short, and just a quick overview. 90 seconds max. A longer one is ok, but most folks wont be that committed and very, very few people will watch the whole thing unless you're a gifted communicator and/or editor.

And now I have more books to read ;p (nice work)

Ooh, this one looks cool.

https://vijil.itch.io/splintercard

My first game! It's a postcard sized physical print-and-play wargame.

You attack the enemy base with your units, or get nukes to bomb them, or try both strategies at once. Units are controlled by cards, base health is recorded with dice, and the game is over in 5 minutes after some nailbiting near misses.

Please have a go, and let me know what you think!

Mine was completely broken on first release... and probably still is. You're good :)

Love it!

Update: V2 is up! Fully reworked rules, art, everything, and I think I'm calling this one done :)

The only other sci fi game so far! I must play this.

Thanks! Thoroughly enjoying the process.

Perhaps hold fire a bit - I'm redoing the art. Existing stuff is placeholder - new map:

Update: gamebreaking typo error in rules fixed. Oops.

I just found an error that completely broke the gameplay of Splintercard :(

Just sharing my newfound wisdom: read it many times before uploading. Now a bunch of folks have completely broken games. Ah well, this is a good place to learn these lessons.

I love this idea, and it's a great first effort.

Question: do you roll for hostiles in a room if you fail to clear it, or do you roll for hostiles when you first get to every room?

Perhaps it's worth clarifying the sequence. 1: roll on hostile chart 2: either search or clear, 3:... etc.?

I'm really impressed by this. It's super elegant to play and beautifully designed.

Hi everyone,

This is very much WIP and it's my first game that's not a heavy wargame - so please help me test! Things that are pretty much set are the basic rules and layout of the card, but I need to tune:

• Length of the game. Should I add another spot to the doom track?
• Unit stats in general
• Anything else you notice

https://forms.gle/HnqkpScgAtYPncAHA

Feedback form ^

Please note that you don't necessarily need to print the card double sided for the game to work, as nothing other than the rules is on the back side.

There's a low ink/BW version included in the download. Just print the page/s you need.

I want to acknowledge David Thompson's Battle Card which is what led me here, and you can probably see the effect in a few places.