Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I have updated the rules, limiting the number of Workers on the field for each player to eight.

With a little play-testing and a lot of discussion with Joe Joyce, it was determined that unlimited Workers always allowed the first player a significant opening advantage.

This restriction actually plays rather nice. With the limitation on Workers follows a limitation of potential introductions, so each player must consider these careful.

And this also brings the game closer to being quantified. ;)

Allow me to list and explain those adjustments which were made with this update.

Playtesting determined that the introduction of five pieces during the production phase was rather excessive and could place the second player in a negative position often. Thus the potential introductions were reduce to two.

And these introductions were predicated on the presence of a Nurse for each. This now turned each Nurse into a highly desirable target. The loss of each Nurse would reduce or eliminate the player's production phase. The rule that permitted two Nurses to be introduced together was eliminated to strengthen this aspect of the game.

The Soldier is now required to be introduced adjacent a friendly piece. This reduced the number of potential introductions, giving the opposing player a break there. This also expanded the power of the Drone. Besides assisting the Nurse in moving some of the pieces around the field and assisting the Soldiers in their attack lines, the Drone now can be used to claim distant positions. This rule also allows for patterns and positions on the field which each player will vie over.

The Highborn was only slightly adjusted. The previous form of promotion was merely a change of state but not position. In the interest of keeping the endgame interesting, the Highborn is now allowed to move and immediately promote on its destination cell.

Now the Queen is no longer the prime determination of the production phase, it was no longer beneficial to have more than one. So, simply maintaining a Queen on the field became a goal in the game. This eliminated the large potential of attrition-decided games(sometimes very long indeed).

One of my personal parameters applied during this 'adjustment phase' was that, as much as possible, the bare bones of this game would remain untouched. For instance, the field, the initial number of pieces and their basic movements. Keeping these changes to those rules which affect the interaction between friendly pieces. And since most of the changes were needed to reduce certain aspects of the interaction of hostile pieces, not adjusting either the simple move or capture ability of the piece proved challenging.

At this point I am quite happy with the game. And it appears to play quite nicely. But, fair warning, playtesting continues. Without a large volume of played games, a designer cannot say that a game is completely error-free.

Congrats, Larry. I'm looking forward to playing another couple games with you. [Adrian, yes it is brilliant and baffling, and I'm not just talking about the zrf. :-)] 

This game plays nothing like Ultima [Baroque], but it is Ultima-like in that it strikes out on its own, away from 99+% of variants, the pieces are strongly differentiated, with unique powers, and, as there's nothing in the game that resembles a standard chess piece, tactics and strategy often require a little sideways thinking. 

Our two playtest games were very interesting but unbalanced*. Those games were far more active than I expected from the rules, with some surprising twists and turns. It sounds like you've pretty much kept the insanity. Good!
* pretty wild, actually

Thanks for the kudos.[blush]

I will admit that Nemoroth had the strongest influence on this variant. Its interlocking conditions inspired me. But rather than make them 'painful' to consider, I opted for a more 'logical' approach to this interactivity. Not saying that I succeeded, just a goal.