Rhythm and dice

Good evening!

I had the chance to play the PnP to begin to apprehend the game, and event though the minis were awesome, the art was gorgeous, the maps ravishing, there are some points I would like to discuss:

- the game feels a bit... slow.
You are supposed to lead bands of monsters, gods and demigods to battle, among some lost canon fodder. But instead you spend many turns waiting for your activation cards/ arts of war.
Want to use a mighty power? Nah, you already used your few AoW.
Want to move this unit? Nah.
The gods seem to have forgotten their inhalers and now stand breathless, gazing to each other, exchanging sterile, broken threats. A clash of wills was foretold, now a battle of ashmatics is raging...
I have seen some in the homebrew section who, as I do, began to look for alternative ways to play, i.e. free deployment.

The way I see it, the game would be smoother if, as I saw, deployments were free, but not only that: first attack too, and being able to turn every Activation Card into an AoW, thus allowing us to unleash the divine fury.

- The dice and attacks.
I don't know if I was too tired or just plain stupid, but the way this goes is not clear at all, nor easy to understand.


My concerns here are for the future of the game: a slow game with complex attack mecanisms is bound to stay a niche-among-the-niche kind of game.

I do not proclaim myself a master crafter of game systems, I am just a player with some experience in tabletop, videogames, and minis, and there is one thing I know for sure: to get out of the box, a game has to be smooth and the attacks have to be easy to understand.

Feel free to discuss, argue, or remove this post into another section if needed.

Cheers,
the voice of Eris.

Kalibaouche - Have you watched any of the Beasts of War gameplay videos. Several of them offer great games with high tension.

I interpret the pace of game as a byproduct of a well crafted strategy game. While you may play several games in which you never get to use a unit's special ability, it's the weight of your previous decisions and moves that is the cause of this.

Also, the draft of your team is vital to the abilities you'll be able to perform. Drafting units with high AoW counts is crucial if you plan on using a special power that eats them up.

As for the battle system - it took a watch of the Beasts of War game play to get the combat system down. Now it just seems like second nature to me. IMO I like the dice system that is employed here because it offers flexibility as to how you choose to inflict wounds. If a specialized attack dice (with hits and misses or blocks) was used, it wouldn't have as much strategy to it and would be even more closely related to luck.

As you've said, house ruling is definitely something to explore if the system isn't to your liking. You may even consider adding extra art of war cards to each player's hand at the start of the game.

Thanks for the tip, I should take some time to watch the gameplay videos.

And indeed I will use custom rules, since even though I may come to apprehend and appreciate official rules, I don't think my friends (occasionnal players) will get it enough to enjoy it.