Improving the combat system

Basing on the general combat system, with which I am already quite satisfied, I took a look at the combat mechanics of champions and monsters.

Of course, they have more health points that need to be represented somehow. I've thought of a system that doesn't display the creature's health points, but the damage points the creature has already received. These damage points then have a direct effect on how many humans the monster or champion can have in his army, what items it can activate and whether it’s  about to lose a level or even die.

This system combines so many game mechanics that where already in place and all I needed were some "markers".

I even combined these damage markers with an hourglass symbol on the other side, so that they can be flipped to indicate if a spell or skill is reusable.

A NEW IDEA FOR THE COMBAT CARDS

A big effort was the development of the Combat deck. I printed some stamps for the development, which bring the combat symbols easily onto the proxy cards.

To accomplish this task and make each of the 54 cards unique, I always created 9 cards at the same time. The deck contains 27 common cards with 4 main symbols that can be used by humans, monsters and champions, 18 uncommon cards with 7 symbols that can be used by monsters and champions, and 9 rare cards with 10 symbols that can only be used by monsters.

Per battle, the attacking player draws 4 cards, selects one, and discards 3. The defender draws 3 cards and discards 2.

In the second half of the month, I have developed some items with which monsters and champions can be equipped. This is a pretty fun work and I am pretty satisfied with the functions and artwork. Playtests will show if they need balancing cost/power wise.

A NEW MAHAGONY GAME BOARD

Then there were the first pictures of the mahogany prototype to see. I really like the color and the more minimalistic carving, but on the next prototype I have decided to go back to the old carving style.  

At Amazon I found quite useful bags that finally brought order to all the small parts of the game like coins, humans, upgrades and markers.

In the first playtest the mechanics turned out to be very consistent and fun which I was really happy about. Now all I have to do is test all the cards and build on the basics while creating new ones.