In between next post

First game

I was fortunate enough to secure the services of 3 others on the inaugural test drive of “Airlords” Alpha.

The Bad

Too much time spent not doing anything makes for bored players, also playing late in the evening. I either need to make the turns more interactive or faster and smoother.

Clearer formatting on the map to establish boundaries, names and cargo numbers. Give colour to the oceans. Even though the geography should be clear, it may help.

Shuffle the deck more.

Get printer ink because when you want to print out a copy of the turn sequence for everyone, you can’t

The OK or expected

Counter and tokens; people love them. Being able to make piles of denominations, lines of tokens and abstract shapes keeps people happy. We are an odd bunch.

Not everyone gets the idea the first time around and it is good to have one person explaining the rules

The Good

Shafting other players is fine. 2-3 Search and Seizure cards were played in the first few turns though this did set players back to early.

WAR broke out several times, as did declarations of PEACE. Both worked nicely.

Moving your Airship one territory and taking actions or two and not doing so was a good call before the game started.

Combat was easy to understand and relatively quick.

Changes to make

Discard mechanism and card type rebalance to stop handfuls of redundant cards.

Cargo Unload at the start of the turn, Cargo Load at the end. It takes too long otherwise.

Fame/Infamy to be introduced.

Create a Player mat with all the costs; turn sequence and structures for quick reference.