[GB] Cards: the good, the bad, and the ugly

[Mike]

With every playtest, I want to start getting a feel for three classes of cards:

1) Cards that really stood out... awesome cards that gave us those WOW moments.

2) Cards that might be overpowered and/or broken. This group may well overlap with the first group.

3) Cards that never seemed to find a use. These are ones that the player held onto for way too long and never used, and/or cards that didn't seem useful and got traded in.

All three of these categories are very subjective and depend a lot on situation and experience level. But after talking with Flame last night, I realized the only way we're going to suss these out is by gathering this data over a ton of playtests and looking for trends.

[Mike]

As for group number 2, broken cards definitely need fixing, but "overpowered" cards? I think if every deck has roughly the same number of these, then we're all cool. I could be wrong, but right now, I'd rather add steroids to an underpowered deck than to try to shackle an overpowered one.

[Mike]

Off the top of my head from my last playtest:

Dolphins. Poseidon. Just an awesome card. Useful, strong, but best of all, a great visual. Everybody loved the idea of dolphins popping out of nowhere to score a point.

Volcano. Poseidon. HUGE card. So much going on with it. So many possibilities. A single card got to shove the ball into the goal AND move one opponent to a slightly less convenient position. Maybe in the overpowered category, certainly complicated in play, not broken.

[Eliahad]

The Lion. Zeus. Overpowered. It has had a huge effect on 2 different games. Overpowered, though not necessarily broken. (Tweaks may be necessary.) It will, at the very least, occupy the attention of your opponents until it is off the table.

Fascinate. Aphrodite. Overpowered. It keeps one opponent from moving if they are within a 2 hex range of Aphrodite. It can be debilitating, but leads to very creative play from the one who is fascinated.

The gift that forces you to sprint if you move on a turn. Hera. Overpowered. This needs a slight reduction, or at least a way to remove the gift without having to play another card on top of it. It keeps you from both sprinting...and resting. If it had some benefit like ignoring hex cost, it might not be overpowered.

[Eliahad]

Not including Pillar of Heaven cards:

Athena has 0 move terrain cards.
Aphrodite has 1 move terrain card.
Hermes has 2 move terrain cards.
Poseidon has 3 move terrain cards.
Hera has 1 move Special terrain card.
Zeus has 3 move terrain cards.

Athena needs one, I think, and the "Sowing Seeds" card is a good candidate for replacement.

The thing about Zeus's move terrain cards is that a) they're not conditional to the location of Zeus's hero, and b) they all involve moving the terrain great distances.

I just had an idea...Zeus has move terrain cards that target all sorts of places on the board.
Posiedon has move terrain cards that all originate from the point of his hero. if we tone down Zeus's cards so they're not /so/ nuts. Say Choose 2 mountains instead of 3. And we exchange them with Posiedon's 3 move terrain cards. We end up making Poseidon feel more epic terrain-y. But also, make Zeus feel more direct in his interactions through his her.

Also, not that the heroes matter as much in this case, it makes more sense with Calypso influencing wherever, and Heracles just shoving things out of his way.

[Mike]

I think that all makes sense.

[Eliahad]

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

[Mike]

[Mike]

Can Zues decide WHEN on his turn the lion moves or should it be "at the start of..."?

Also, if the lion has then Godball and is 1 hex away from Heracles, does it have to throw it 2 hexes. (As written, the answer is currently yes.)

[Eliahad]

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

Lastly, should probably add (cannot be defended) or (undefendable) to that shove.

[Eliahad]