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Conan the Barbarian


Arthadan

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On 9/12/2017 at 11:38 PM, Xaltotun said:

The big problem appeared from the game is that 2/3 of the map was completely unused during the game. 

 

-as the game began, Conan took the Heavy Axe and Subotai collected all the arrows, then they run to the Yasmina's mound, since both the players recognized it as the best defendable position. This way they were safe behind the palisades, and Yasmina was safer behind them! 

 

IMG_4358.thumb.PNG.edb7529e08d36c86449fe36414468210.PNG

 

Subotai (red line) stood on the top of that hill, behind the palisades, shooting at everything was coming by.

Conan (blue line) changed his weapon and run to the Yasmin hill too, but he stopped on the top of a black stone to kill some of the upcoming knights.

After a first attempt to help Conan, Akiro (orange line) tried to escape on Yasmina hill too, but he was intercepted and killed in the marked position (orange cross). Poor Akiro was completely ignored by Doom riders: he was killed only because a rider stopped his movement in the same area and had nothing else to do. I fear the poor Akiro felt himself a bit useless... 😢

 

There is something I'd like to point out: If you can place only one token per area (the bow token gives you 5 arrows, and the arrows token 5 each)  and you have to make a simple Manipulation to pick up a token (thus losing the rest of your free movement) and crossing the pallisades is 2 extra movement points... Subotai must spend 7 gems out of 10 in his first turn to do all that!

Then the OL will move his units (4 movements points) and he can double the movement points spending gems meaning he could attack a quite weak Subotai in his first turn!

 

 

Quote

 

 

Attention: almost half of the game passed, before some fight happened.

 

The OL can spend gems on movement benefit at any time, meaning he can have at least some of his units engaged since his first turn.

Edited by Arthadan
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  • 3 weeks later...

@Vincent255 I hope you have had a great time as well!

 

We are pretty close to a beta release, I just need to playtest an alternate River configuration. Currently we have one that works but it takes too long to bring Thorgrim and Rexor to the table, and we have tried a second one trying to solve that but it doesn't quite work. So I'll try a new one between those two and quite probably you'll have the two best River set-ups in the beta.

 

I just want to present things as polished as possible even if it's just a beta.

Edited by Arthadan
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  • 3 weeks later...

Time for an update!

I've been playing around with some new ideas and I've playtested them this weekend. I wanted to know if they work before presenting them. So I came back with a bunch of new suggestions to hopefully improve the scenario:

 

VICTORY CONDITIONS

This is the major change. Our problem was that all the action was centered around Princess Hill and the monolith field saw little action. It felt wrong to play in a huge map and use just a corner of it. So I've changed a bit the OL victory conditions:

 

- Take the Princess out of the board AND hit hard the Heroes (in game terms cause at least 6 wounds to Conan and 5 to Subotai).

- When Rexor or Thorgrim are dead, the OL can win just killing the Princess with Thulsa Doom. If she's out of the board already when this conditions are met, it's also a OL victory.

 

Effect: since Conan starts within the monolith and he is heavily armoured, the OL must send troops to attack him, specially the heavy hitters Rexor and Thorgrim. Also is a good idea to try to get one of them killed, since that would make victory much easier later when TD appears. Also it makes sense for Conan to stay within the monolith field because the smaller zones there makes more difficult for the enemies to reach him in great number.

 

MOUNTED COMBAT

Any Mounted miniature can be dismounted. You can now have Dismounted and Mounted units in the same tile. Just place the dismounted tile below the Skelos Book, next to the corresponding Mounted tile and move it alongside it. 

 

Effect: This gives more flexibility to the OL when attacking Conan in the monolith field or climbing up Princess Hill. However, Dismounted Units have worse attack dice and reduce movement, so in my games it's seldom used.

 

THULSA DOOM

He is available to join the fray from the start of turn 6 onwards (OL's choice), the OL replaces any two tiles from the River (dead tiles first) when he comes with the purple Riders of Doom. The biggest change here is that his spell has a cost of only 2 and can be used as normal (instead of being  and event card effect).

 

Effect: we get rid of one special rule (even card "crow" effect) and we give Thulsa a bit more prominent role. Also, Now is possible to have TD, Rexor and Thorgrim at the same time in game.

 

ITEM TOKENS

Some weapons tokens start in fixed positions:

- The Heavy Axe is the more powerful weapon in this scenario. It is placed around the center of the monolith field.

- The Helmet starts near Conan, forcing him to lose part of his free movement in the first turn if he wants to pick it up.

- The Ancient  Shield starts on Princess Hill: Heroes have parrying weapons from the start and its only real use is to parry Thulsa Doom spell if used against the Princess. Besides it is placed there in the movie as well.

 

Pit Traps:

Pit trap is slighthy changed. First effect is the same, remains in game as before, but it now reduces 1 movement point from Mounted units. Also instead of 2 pit traps, there is just one.

 

Effect: Speed up game a bit, since the heroes have less tokens to decide where to place at the start, also Conan is hinted to remain in the monolith field / delayed there, since two very useful tokens are there.

 

SUBOTAI

He gets his weight allowance changed. It felt wrong he could carry as much weight as Conan before suffering movement penalties. Now is 7/9.

 

THORGRIM

He gets his damage increases to :rougerel::rougerel::rouge:. Heavy hammer!

Effect: It makes him more of a threat, increasing his chance to be killed.

 

CONCLUSION

This changes work well enough to divide the action between the monolith field and Princess Hill, but the two biggest zones of the monolith fild need to be smaller, because the whole idea is that heroes will prefer to remain there because they are saffer than out in the open.

 

 

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on these ideas.

 

Edited by Arthadan
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Read it through...

 

Revisions to the OL Victory Condition does make sense to me, seeing as it adds more to/toughens their requirements, so the Heroes have more of a chance - I think I recall you stating that that was an issue before.  

 

Though forcing Conan to leave behind the Heavy Axe and Helmet does make me wonder as to why.  I'm sure in the movie, he had both of them the moment the Battle of the Mounds began, though Doom's 'Army' was already approaching when he picked them up and selected his first point to fight - just as he made his One and Only Prayer to Crom.  

 

As for Thorgrim?  Don't you mean 'increasing his chance to kill'?  Because as you worded it, it's, rather confusing.  

 

Still.  It's a good update, and it's good to hear that this scenario is getting closer to completion. :smile:

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8 hours ago, Vincent255 said:

Read it through...

 

Revisions to the OL Victory Condition does make sense to me, seeing as it adds more to/toughens their requirements, so the Heroes have more of a chance - I think I recall you stating that that was an issue before.  

 

Though forcing Conan to leave behind the Heavy Axe and Helmet does make me wonder as to why.  I'm sure in the movie, he had both of them the moment the Battle of the Mounds began, though Doom's 'Army' was already approaching when he picked them up and selected his first point to fight - just as he made his One and Only Prayer to Crom.  

 

As for Thorgrim?  Don't you mean 'increasing his chance to kill'?  Because as you worded it, it's, rather confusing.  

 

Still.  It's a good update, and it's good to hear that this scenario is getting closer to completion. :smile:

 

Conan equipment is tricky, because he uses up to 4 weapons in the movie (2 axes, the Atlantean sword and a spear), and most of them are used for a couple blows only. To avoid having him heavily overloaded from the start, we decided to create the token system.

 

Regarding Thorgrim, I meant both, he is more dangerous with his increased damage thus it's more likely the heroes will need to neutralize him.

 

Thanks for your comments!

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Some more ideas I'll test this weekend:

 

- Conan starts with the helmet and the heavy axe, in addition to his current equipment.

- The first turn is for the OL.

Advantage: less item tokens for the heroes to place during the set-up, more movie-like.  No 'silly' heroes first turn picking up items.

 

- Conan (or both heroes) will drop the weapon he has used more recently when he loses 6 wounds. It will be placed in any adjacent area by the OL.

Advantage: balance the fact Conan starts with a very powerful weapon. More movie-like (Conan will need his Atlantean Sword now).

 

- New trap activations:
- stakes will be placed in a fixed position, roll for activation. Once activated, remains in game giving a movement penalty.

- Spike Trap: now its used with the hidden movement rules  within the monolith field.  I'll elaborate later, but basically when an OL unit attacks the "hidden Conan" counter and that counter is placed in the Spike Trap area, the trap is sprung and Conan loses the helmet (the reason is it's used as bait for the trap, like in the movie).

 

Thoughts on these?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/2/2018 at 2:11 PM, Arthadan said:

I think I'll remove the special rule with the skeletons. It doesn't add much to the gameplay and the scenario is a bit complex.

 

Worth it keeping it?

 

I think you're right: as you know, I'd  simplify the scenario

Edited by Xaltotun
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So, next steps are:

- Modify Mounted Combat rules to allow minions to dismount.

- Make new tiles for dismounted OL units.

- Adjustments to some existing cards (mounted Thorgrim with increased damage, Helmet).

- Some small adjustments to the map (divide two big areas in the monolith field).

- Incorporate last changes in the scenario, aimed to a quicker setup (less items/traps tokens to place, as some have been removed and others have a fixed location), simpler rules (two special rules removed, other simplified and one crow effect removed) and hopefully a more balanced game (victory conditions tweaked).

 

I'll be working on this over the weekend.

 

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10 minutes ago, Footballzs said:

Wow, he is very tough!

 

That's the idea!

Conan is heavily armored in this scenario (plus he has a special rule which makes Valeria come back from Death to save him from the first fatal blow), and one of the OL victory conditions is making him lose at least half of his gems.

But don't worry, Conan can use the Spike Trap against him..

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Working on foot tiles:

 

 

TG_foot_tile1.png

TG_foot_tile1_back.png

Fang_tile.png

Fang_tile_back.png

 

I'll probably replace the Sacrifice skill with the Reach one for the Fangs, as Thorgrim and Rexor are tough enough and they don't need  minions taking the blows for them. 

Remaining foot tile would be the Warriors of Doom (foot tile for the Riders of Doom).

Edited by Arthadan
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