Normally I drop a quick update every other month to say what I’m working on. This time, however, progress has been substantial enough that I feel it’s more appropriate to talk about everything that’s been achieved. Interested? Well, here’s the situation…
Back in April, I was focusing on playtesting ideas for the bugs, with the aim of balancing out the squad-wide abilities the squad leaders gave to the troopers. I’ve done a couple of fairly intense playtesting cycles since then, and I’m pleased to report they’ve paid off.
A reminder: the goals for the new “special” bugs were to maintain the simplicity and tightness of the base game, provide a balancing element to the squad leaders, encourage differences in play techniques depending on which specialists you had available, and generally to feel thematically-appropriate and cool (that’s a technical term). I also very much wanted to avoid the situation I started from, where the special bugs were preventively anti-fun and you were actually better off pretending they didn’t exist!
As of now, all those boxes have been ticked. The specialist bugs – I’m calling them “Hierarchs” – are simple for the bug player to employ, provide significant value when used, cause the bug player to want to play in a manner which reflects the difference in swarm type, and feel cool to use. You’re definitely much better off if you have them in play, and although some of them are risky to get the most value from… well, that’s part of what makes it interesting, isn’t it?
All in all, I’m really happy with how this aspect of the game is working out. Getting the game balance right for these is the next challenge, and one which will require more playtesting rounds to get right. But I feel that the basics of it are now in place, and what’s left is really filling in the details.
On a related note, the writing for the rulebooks and scenario book for the heavy weapons expansion is also making good progress. It’s not finished yet, but it’s well under way, and I don’t see any significant challenges remaining to be overcome.
Between them, these two developments are making me feel fairly hopeful about at least two of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. You’ll remember that I wanted to get at least one more expansion to the point where I can declare it finalised: well, the squad leaders (and Hierarchs) are strong contenders for that. I also wanted to get at least one expansion, and ideally more than one, to pre-production status: the heavy weapons expansion is on track to achieve that, and if the next playtesting rounds go well then the squad leaders expansion might just achieve that status too! It feels pretty good to be able to say that 🙂
As for what I’ll be focusing on in the next few weeks? Well, playtesting with the Hierarchs and squad leaders is going to be the main focus. In between times, I’ll keep working on the writing for the heavy weapons expansion. And on that note, it’s time for me to return to the smithy…
Encounter Table Games 