[GB] Balance and Game Thoughts

[Eliahad]

Balance is fast becoming the next step. How do we make all the different Gods have the appearance (if not outright) balance. I think I'm going to have to do some deck analysis to get it a little closer. The thing is, some of these mechanics are subjective. Anyway, that's not the question I'm exploring.

Instead, I want to think about what we want to balance the game toward. Duels? Or larger FFA? Or aim for 3-4 player FFA, and have duels and 5-6 player FFA be a happy side effect of the work to get it aimed toward 3-4 players?

The reason the question is sticking in my mind is:

Poseidon.

He was a terror in duels where he could focus his rage on a single target, but in the larger game he couldn't sustain his onslaught enough to score a point. Now, granted, I did a little work to tone down his deck, so there were LESS terrain creation cards, but he just couldn't handle a spread out field of opponents. So maybe my reaction to make knockdown defendable /and/ change his deck was an overreaction. Maybe knockdown from god power cards needs to go back the way it was (undefendable), and Poseidon's deck needs to change. Or maybe Poseidon's deck didn't need to change so much? (Though I will say that he seems more interesting now. But his theme suffered slightly.)

This is a work in progress, and things are going to change one way, and then change back. Duels are useful for getting a general idea of how decks and cards work. And they were a happy surprise, and still are. They are also easier to set up. But I think 3 and, especially, 4 player FFAs are going to be the testing that needs to get done to truly get a sense of how the different Gods fare against each other. And it will also give us the best data to see what can make the end game faster. It's going to be work, but so has everything been up until this point.

[Mike]

Ideally, I would LOVE a rules set that balances for 2-6 players while delivering the experience we're growing to enjoy.

BUT... I totally agree that 4 is key. 4 is where we should aim. If we get that then I think 3 and 5 will come together, and at worst maybe we have slightly modified rules for the extremes.

[FlameBlade]

And further, as we saw frim duels, even 2 players can add a lot to the board in the end. Look at the end of game for each. Now imagine doubling the stuff on the board for 4 players. Naturally, things are going to be different.

So, in attempts to balancing the cards, we also need to think about what kind of tempo we are looking for in games. Creation of terrains are generally downtempo. Blessings are uptempos. For example.