The "Battle" Game Mechanic

As I started to work out the battle game mechanic, I started thinking about how it all works.  War is all throughout the scriptures.  I thought that most of the verses that would use the mechanic would be Tales (white) or Trials (black), because most of the scriptures that talk about war are telling about battles, and going through war is certainly a trial.

I've long believed that even though at times, war may well be necessary, nobody really "wins".  One side doesn't lose as many men or resources, and so they end up occupying the land, or getting their way, or whatever.  So, really, the "winner" is the one that "loses the least".

So, in the battle mechanic, you pull a verse from one of your incomplete books, and one from one of your opponent's.  Presumably, you'll pick a less important verse from yours and an important one from his. Thus, by picking the right cards, you "lose less".

Then, I started finding some scriptures where circumstances, like faith and divine intervention made a big difference in battle.  So, those verses will protect books from being the targets of battle mechanics, or things like "The Title of Liberty", which allows you to search your deck for battle cards, much like Captain Moroni did when he waved the flag to recruit an army against the kingmen.

When we do a Book of Mormon set of cards, there's gonna be lots of battle-related cards.  I mean, the whole books of Alma and Helaman are pretty much war, war, war...  It'll be fun to see how this plays out in the game.

Welcome!

There's so much happening in the world of C&V these days, that I finally decided that just having the news posting on the main page wasn't going to be enough.  Don't worry, those listings will still continue, so you can see at a glance what's happening, but for more in-depth stuff, come here to the blog!

One of the most exciting things is that there is a very real possibility that the game might actually get published.  It's an expensive prospect, but it might actually happen.  What I've been working hardest on of late is getting things ready for the creation of some prototype sets that can be used to promote the game to retail stores.  That way, with relatively little up-front money, we can determine if it's even viable in the market place.

What that's meant is that the testing and the reworking has been turned up to 11.  I think I've revised the rules twice in as many months.  I refuse to release a game that hasn't been thoroughly tested.  If the game doesn't work, or if it's not fun to play, then nothing else matters.  Not the graphics, nor the marketing, nothing.

Well, check back here from time to time and I'll have comments on new revisions, and other things.  I'd like to comment on some of the verses, and how they struck me as I tried to translate them into the numbers and the effects on the cards.

I'd also like to hear about your favorite verses and how we could make them into cards.  If there are any cards/verses already in the game that you don't understand, and you might need some help interpreting them in the game context, comment below, and I'll answer.