CHANGES, MANY CHANGES :P

A quick update in-between my 62 hours of work a week.

We have taken some of the elements of the original version of the game and changed them around!

A few minor changes before a massively updated rulebook comes out.

1. IP has become FAR more integral to the game as a whole, it now is used for Political cards (ALMOST exclusively), claiming territories, building structures, PRODUCING Conflict Tokens, Buying Techs from the market, EMPLOYING specialists (look for a future update on this one), and using some of the newly developed EMPIRE ACTIONS.

2. Resources are further streamlined down to play parts in the basic development side of the game, while not being used for the majority of combat (Still NO DICE COMBAT)

3. Auctions have been more streamlined for ease of use, bid tracking, and to prevent too many cards from fizzling, we have instituted a new and better design!

4. Limits for all items in the game have been substantially lessened to keep the player from having to do too much math (Which I personally hate anyhow :P) as follows

A. Resources are now limited by the number of squares on your player board and not by how much you get...Upgrades throughout the course of the game will make you able to carry and hold more. (Download for Testers soon!)

B. IP is capped at 24 and will be useful for a variety of actions placed conveniently on your Empire Board, for building, and for playing cards...all as noted above

C. Followers are capped at 30 max and will grant a political card at every 10+ you have. (not during upkeeps, which no longer exist!!)

5. Followers now apply towards specialist card costs! (IE: you must have X number of them in order to be able to EMPLOY the specialist) This is the same with Faction Cards and building structures too.

6. We have completely eliminated Armies from the starting game - Instead you produce a combat token and apply followers (from your pool) towards combat. When the followers drop too far down in your pool, bad things occur to and for you, and it's the opposite when you have many. You can PRODUCE armies only by gaining a specialist, getting the upgrade unlocked, or by playing political cards.

7. Welcome the new PRODUCE action to the game! You begin with 3 possible productions and throughout the game, can upgrade your standard ones OR earn more to use. The standard actions for this are

A. Produce a Combat Token

B. Produce a Building

C. Produce Trade Value (Explained in a later post!!!)

8. And finally, welcome to the table a new combat system!!! We have heard you speak, seriously!!! and worked and worked to find a way to keep the feel and rush of combat without using dice, having over-proportionate resource costs per monster, and bogging down the other players whilst in combat. We have developed a streamlined and dynamic system where luck plays very little part and it is primarily up to you how the tides go. Political cards now have fight values which can be attributed to combats, and you may spend IP to adjust the odds. But that's not all!!! This combat system uses a unique mechanic where the monsters have a temperament which is based on your empire at large.

(MORE LATER!!!)

See you in the Wastes,

JRC