Hey again, time for the "once in a while" update (even if not many people care for my opinion, I just want to point it out and share it with those willing to have an exchange
) as I think the main topics of the analysis and of the thread are still more than relevant (and finally I had some time - Essen boardgame fair was on his way so lot of effort went there in the last months)...
First things first:
- Iron Just.. ehm, Judgment is out (yes, I know, it has been a little while, by now) and I think it added something good, but still a lot of things are missing (clarification: I bought the packs... I still see slight improvements, I still want to support the game, and I still believe it has the potential to be the best strategic card game out there)
- Mobile version is finally out! (see the last couple of posts here above for some of the issues we think Gwent may have there)
- Gwent Challenger #5 (yes, this is the oldest of the three..... but at the end some thoughts on the watchability of gwent (I saw pretty much all of the stream))
So, right into the analysis:
- Finally
armor is back!!! Yeah, this was an easy call, but still in my analysis... go to p.21, 2.40 - Survivability and indirect Power value: Armor, Shield, Immune. Nice. Not more to mention, good job.
- Bersek change (bonus): go right to p.24 to find my "Enraged X" status, which is pretty much the same of "Berserk X "that there is right now (Berserk has been changed some time ago)... At the beginning, I thought too that the simpler version of the "halved power" berserk was a more elegant way of design by CDPR.... but finally my version was better for balancing and depth... nice to know..
-
Addition of limitation to ongoing effects (example: Barricade, Exposed): Yes, I know, I'm an advocate of engines and I want more added to the game. But I'm never been a fellow of broken engines. I want
interesting engines. So jump into p.12: 2.15 - Balancing Multi-turns effects: not only provisions. In here there are some way of balancing and cap engines, like timers, charges, specific boardstate to make the effect happen. Great job of CDPR to use effects such as Barricade, which is a way to limit the power of an engine. One of my favourite is "Dwarf Berserker": brilliant and simple solution to implement a good engine... The card is doing more than fine, but it's not boring like "Dwarven Mercenary", that has been a bad problem because its Order is abusable via "novigradian Injustice" (But we will have a look at this later)...
Other nice additions: "Dire MutatedHound", "Mantlet", "Ard Feainn Crossbowman" "Iron Falcon Infantry".
-
Addition of mixed Engine/Trigger: Finally!!!! This is the stuff I like the most!! These are very interesting effects that can be played around or even used by your opponent without having to directly answer them! Jump into p.7: 2.10 - Lack of interesting multi-turns effects where I claim that
"As a game of armies clashing, Gwent should have at its core a dynamic game-state board, representing a battle developing turn after turn. That's why cards with engine, trigger and timer effects (and mix of them) should be the backbone structure of Ideal Gwent gameplay."
Unfortunately they are not that many. Such cards are: "Wagenburg" (can be answered by moving or by removing armor and offers, on the proactive, interesting positioning and indirect armor value); "Armored Drakkar", "Terror Crew Axe-Wielder", "Redanian Knight".
Sad part of the last two topics: unfortunately these cards are extremely underpowered, or often sub optimal, because of the Order effects. Here is the clearest case study: Novigradian Justice. Many people thought that the strenght of the Novigradian Justice into Dwarven Mercenary relied into the Justice. That's far from the truth! Justice is a very good card, that's for sure, but the problem is the targeted negative interaction that Dwarven Mercenary has! Let's look at these two scenarios:
1- Novigradian Justice into double Dwarven Mercenary -> opponent plays an engine -> Next turn you kill the engine with four charges.
Possible counterplays: destroy the Dwarven Mercenaries (no other counterplays allowed: if you play for example a tutor into engine, the opponent will trivially shoot at the engine with all his charges anyway)
2- Novigradian Justice into double Dwarf Berserker.... ->opponent plays an engine -> next turn, use a ping to let the engine go to 2, then both Dwarves hit the engine and it dies.
Possible counterplays: destroy the Dwarven Berserkers; use a tutor for one of your engine (lowering the odds of them hitting the engine later); play a tempo armored card so that the dwarves damage is mitigated, then play your engines in the subsequent turn (lowering the odds of them hitting the engine later); with skellige, play a Berserk X card, so to trigger the berserk immediately (impossible to do against Dwarven Mercenaries: the opponent will - again trivially - preserve their charges), etc [insert many creative counterplays here
].
Only the second situation is interesting. But:
- as long as Orders (and charges attached to orders) will be able to manually and specifically target stuff, mixed engine/trigger effects will always be sub-optimal when compared with orders. (see p. 13: 2.17 - Order effects make Multi-turns effects sub-optimal (how to fix it))
- only the Engine part of such cards is used, because for the opponent is too easy to avoid play into the trigger part! Too much control of the situation, there is almost never a drawback in playing an order instead of an engine/trigger. And now the "Redanian Knight", which has a fantastic effect, is only played as a boring "1 point per turn" engine at 4 provisions..... so sad..
- Addition of other effects (or status) such as
Defender: great addition! Though, these are really dangerous as they can worsen the problem of too much optimization and of negative Order interaction and lack of opponent's answer that Gwent has. If Orders are strong, and I can't play around them indirectly, and I can't remove them because there is a Defender, then why am I playing at all? It's only frustrating to play at the "who can put on the board that kind of setup first". First, by letting players answer each other in indirect way, you make Defenders strong, but not too strong. Second, add some kind of limitation to the Defenders, such as a timer, a trigger or something that may make them lose the defender status.
As a result, you can put the defender status/effect onto more cards, and you make the game-state more dynamic.
It can be something like the timer "exhaust" I propose at p.24 (Exhaust: the unit loses all his abilities (it becomes a no effect card))
Challenger 5: I play games, both video and board games... And I can watch a "boring" game of chess feeling exited. But I know that many people can't, and the last Gwent Challenger from an avarage viewer perspective was boring.
Why?
Not because of the casters, the reason was not technical (as always, pretty good job), but just for the game.... Too much optimization, not a single moment of uncertainty, and while I want Gwent to be a competitive product, I want it to be exiting. And chance (aka, luck) should be "heavily" introduced again. In a smart way, don't misunderstand me, but should be reintroduced for the health of the game (see p.10: 2.13 - The purposes of Multi-turns effects).
Remember that luck can be controlled, if you play well (should I mention the old hyperthin Djikstra, for example?)
If you don't think luck can be competitive, just look at poker, the most competitive card game out there, please.
I prefer to see a trebuchet that can give the losing player a 1 in 13 chance of destroying the already damaged 1 strength Villentrentenmert that is ready to scorch his board, than seing a Dwarven Mercenary taking out 100% of the time the same threat...
Remember: on the long run, the best would win a lot more in both situations. Even if one is a lot more exiting than the other!
Finally, a couple of thoughts that I really hope CDPR will implement (don't worry, I will update my rants every once in a while):
- timer locks effect (which lock a unit for x turns) should be implemented (see p.21: 2.32 - Moving to timer lock effects)
- More strategic tradeoff effects (such as p.33: Whenever an enemy is played on the opposite row, do [X], then exhaust self.)
Cheers!
