As mentioned in previous articles (Design Diary #1 and Design Diary #2), I believe that one of the most distinctive aspects of any card-driven game (CDG) is the set of historical events that are featured on the operations cards used in the game.  Not only should the events provide players with interesting alternatives to the standard operations points offered by the cards, but they should also evoke the correct historic setting for the game as a whole.  These points equally hold true for deckbuilding games as well – the events on the cards players choose for their decks must be interesting in play and must also fit the game’s theme.

Designing the events for a card-driven game can be a very difficult balancing act.  Of course it is important to make sure that no event has a disproportionate effect on the game, and it can take a great amount of playtesting effort to properly exercise candidate events.   However, the events in a deckbuilding game can be an even greater playtesting challenge.  While events in CDGs tend to be a) unique and b) drawn randomly, events in deckbuilding games are frequently purposely selected by players in multiple copies.  This means that the relative effect of events in deckbuilding games can be greatly magnified, and any issues that may exist with combinations of certain events will most assuredly be found and exploited.

For this reason, playtesting for Time of Crisis has been heavily focused on the balance and relative power and desirability of the various events that are offered to players on the Influence Cards.  Very early in the design process, we decided to provide three different “currencies” in the game, each with its own flavor and purpose:

• Red points for Military Influence, allowing the player to create and maneuver his armies.
• Blue points for Senate Influence, allowing the player to take control of provinces on the board.
• Yellow points for Popular Influence, allowing the player to improve and defend his provinces.

We knew we wanted the events on these cards to give players interesting “special actions” that would not be available through normal game actions.  We also knew that the events should “fit” the theme of each influence type.  However, it took some trial and error to settle on the mix of events provided.   Playtesting determined that simplicity was best, as a smaller collection of available events could be better controlled within the parameters of the design.

While final playtesting and development is still in progress for Time of Crisis, and minor modifications are still being considered and tested, here is a brief examination of the events currently provided in the design:

Note: All of the card images below are rough PLAYTEST versions of the cards. They’ll be much nicer when our artists get hold of them. For now, though, we want to show you the playtest versions so that you can see the event text on each card, envision how the game will play, and go place your P500 orders for the game (so we can garner enough order support to get Time of Crisis into our art queue!).

Red (Military) Events

Red 2 – Castra

Game Effect:  Play after an army you command is attacked, but before dice are rolled.  Place a Castra maker beside the army if it does not already have one.  While marked, the number of hits inflicted on this army is reduced by one.  The Castra marker is removed at the start of your next turn or if the marked army is forced to retreat.

Strategy:  In Time of Crisis, it can be fairly important to maintain a defensive position in your provincial capital, particularly if other players are coordinating against you.  The Castra event provides a defensive option that can be available early in the game for players who need a little support.  Not only is the reduction of one hit helpful, but since the winner of a battle is determined by the number of hits inflicted, Castra also helps prevent undesirable retreats.  The way Castra is implemented allows a player to possibly benefit against multiple attacks.

Historical Context:  The Latin word castra (singular: castrum) was used by the Romans to mean (among other things) temporary camps constructed by the legions for use as military defensive positions.  Regulations required a major unit in the field to retire to a properly constructed camp every day.  A trench would be dug around the camp, throwing the dirt inward, to be formed into a rampart.  On top of this, stakes which the soldiers carried while marching would be erected.

 

Red 3 – Flanking Maneuver

Game Effect:  Play after dice are rolled for a battle in which you are the attacker.  After seeing the results for both sides, you may re-roll your dice and choose which set of results to use.

Strategy:  The next level of military event gives an offensive advantage as opposed to the defensive advantage of the level 2 Castra.  By the mid-game, it is desirable to incentivize attackers to avoid stagnation on the board.

Historical Context:  A flanking maneuver is an attack on the sides of an opposing force which significantly reduces the maneuverability of the outflanked force and its ability to defend itself.  One of the most famous flanking maneuvers in history was used in Hannibal’s victory over the Romans at the battle of Cannae in 216 BC.  (Quite a long time before Time of Crisis, but flanking maneuvers have remained a critical tactical consideration for millennia.)

 

Red 4 – Praetorian Guard

Game Effect:  If you are Emperor, place a Praetorian Guard favor marker beside Roma if none is present. The favor marker is removed at the start of your next turn or if you are replaced as Emperor.  If you are not Emperor, remove the favor marker from Roma, or if none is present, replace the Governor disk in Italia with a neutral disk.

Strategy:  To win Time of Crisis, a player must become Emperor after achieving a certain number of Legacy (victory points).  The favor of the Praetorian Guard can be critical for ousting a well-supported opposing Emperor at a critical time.  However, it may also be used to protect your own position as Emperor when you need it.

Historical Context:  The Praetorian Guard may have been tasked with protecting the Roman Emperor, but they were also the single greatest threat to his life.  The guard or their prefect played a part in the murder of Commodus in 192, Caracalla in 217, Elagabalus in 222, and Pupienus and Balbinus in 238.  Emperor Pertinax was confirmed by the Praetorians in 193 and then slain just three months later when he tried to force them to accept new disciplinary measures.

 

Blue (Senate) Events

Blue 2 – Tribute

Game Effect:  Remove all barbarian tokens of a single tribe from any one province and return them to the tribe’s homeland still on their active side.

Strategy:  If a player is not pursuing a Red/Military strategy, Tribute can provide a means for keeping the barbarians out of your provinces without needing to conduct a battle.  While convenient, there are some pitfalls to this approach as well.  First, you will be missing out on the Legacy that can be gained by actually fighting and defeating the barbarians.  Second, the barbarians that get sent home laden with bribes remain active and may return with more friends in the future.

Historical Context:  Historically, Rome paid tribute (basically bribes) to the various barbarian tribes to keep them from pillaging the countryside.  In one example, Alexander Severus, on the advice of his mother, attempted to buy off the Gauls who had invaded Gallia.  This caused the Roman legions, who would have preferred to see the Gauls punished for their insolence, to see the Emperor in a rather unfavorable light, eventually leading to the assassination of both Alexander and his mother.

 

Blue 3 – Foederati

Game Effect:  Remove from the game one barbarian token or leader located in a barbarian homeland and place one Auxilia counter in the provincial capital of a province that is listed first on any of that tribe’s invasion paths and is free of enemy legions.  Auxilia are commanded by the governor of the province and are considered one step legions who cannot move and if forced to retreat are eliminated.

Strategy:  Moving up the scale to a three-point event gives a double effect for the mid-game.  Not only can a player permanently remove one barbarian token from the game, but it is turned into a friendly military unit under that player’s control.  Again, for a player who is focusing on a Blue/Senate strategy, this gives an alternate method of raising military support without needing to build up a lot of Red points in your deck.  The downside is this can only affect one barbarian at a time.

Historical Context:  Foederati (singular: foederatus) were neighboring nations that provided Rome with military assistance in exchange for various economic and cultural benefits.  Groups of “barbarian” mercenaries would be allowed to settle within the Empire.  In game terms, the barbarian selected must be in its homeland because a barbarian that has invaded has already occupied the land the empire would be offering.  In addition, the Auxilia counter can’t move to simulate the barbarians’ willingness to only defend their own land and the surrounding areas.

 

Blue 4 – Reforms

Game Effect:  Draw the top card of the event deck.  If the Diocletian event is drawn, the game ends as normal; otherwise the event text is ignored.

Strategy:  The top Blue event is a subtle but very powerful means for a player who is in a leading position to accelerate the end of the game.  Ordinarily, a player must have 30 legacy and be Emperor (or have 40 legacy and be Pretender) to win the game.  But remember that you only need to have the highest Legacy total to win if/when Diocletian appears and the reformation of the Empire is complete, so hurrying the end of the game could be very beneficial.

Historical Context:  Diocletian was Emperor of Rome from 284 to 305.  In game terms, his appearance indicates the completion of the reforms that fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling the empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite coming near the brink of collapse.  Diocletian was the first Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate the position.  This turning point in Roman history represents the end of the Time of Crisis and the end of the game (if no player has been able to win outright earlier.)

 

Yellow (Popular) Events

Yellow 2 – Quaestor

Game Effect:  Play when a province you govern is targeted for a Place Governor action.  Place a Quaestor marker beside the provincial capital if it does not already have one.  While marked, the base cost of a Place Governor action is increased to the province’s support level times three.  The Quaestor marker is removed at the start of your next turn or if you are replaced as Governor.

Strategy:  Similar to Castra, Quaestor provides some extra defensive capability in the early game to help protect a key province against your opponents.  Also similar to Castra, Quaestor allows a player to possibly benefit against multiple attacks when multiple players might be cooperating against him.

Historical Context:  A Quaestor was a magistrate in charge of the city’s treasury.  As time passed, quaestors’ duties were expanded to include collecting taxes and tributes from the territories as well as recruiting new soldiers for service in the army.  This event supposes your provincial governor has the help of senior officials looking after his interests in the province while his attention is focused elsewhere.

 

Yellow 3 – Mob

Game Effect:  Place a number of Mob tokens in a province equal to five minus the support level of the province.  If a province contains any Mob tokens, it is ignored during the owner’s Buy/Trash step.  A single Mob token may be removed by the owner of an army in the province (not in the provincial capital) spending one Military influence.  No Legacy is gained for removing a mob.

Strategy:  Forcing an opponent to spend influence points on putting down a popular revolt can be a very effective way of slowing down a leader.  While a province is in revolt, it may not be used by the player for building additional influence, and a province whose support level has been allowed to fall too low may require multiple valuable turns to recover.  Do not underestimate the offensive potential of a Yellow/Popular strategy in the mid-game.

Historical Context:  Over a million people lived in ancient Rome and many of them did not have a regular job.  Even the most powerful emperors had to keep this vast mob of Romans happy.  Most did this by distributing grain and holding vast spectacles to keep them occupied.  The Roman satirist Juvenal described this in his famous quote – “Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.”  During the Crisis of the Third Century, constant turmoil and civil war was not exactly conducive to a stable way of life, and popular unrest was rampant in cities and towns throughout the empire.  In game terms, mob action is assumed to be spread around in various locations across the province, which is why the army must be in the province and not just sitting in the capital.  Quelling the mobs is more a matter of showing up and demonstrating force than having an outright battle, so results are automatic, but no statesman builds a legacy on bullying mere rabble.

Yellow 4 – Pretender

Game Effect:  You may play this event if you are not Emperor and you govern two or more adjacent provinces, each of which have a support level of three or more.  Place a Seat of Power marker in one of the provinces and Breakaway markers in the rest.  See section 11 of the rules for additional details about breakaway empires.

Strategy:  The possibility of creating your own breakaway empire is what makes a Yellow/Popular strategy a very viable alternative approach in the mid- to late-game.  Instead of trying to become Emperor the “standard” way by taking over Rome, you can use your Yellow points to build up your own provincial support and then play Pretender to form your own Empire to rule.

Historical Context:  During the Crisis of the Third Century, it was not uncommon for an ambitious statesman to simply declare himself to be Emperor.  In at least a couple notable cases, significant portions of the Roman Empire were consolidated under command of a Pretender who mustered the very real possibility of permanently breaking away from Rome.  Marcus Postumus was one western Roman emperor of provincial origin.  He usurped power from Emperor Gallienus around the year 260 and assumed the title and powers of emperor in the western provinces of Gaul, Germania, Britannia and Hispania, thereby founding what was called the Gallic Empire.  He ruled for the better part of ten years before he was murdered by his own troops.  In game terms, the support level of the breakaway provinces must be three or higher as you are trying to convince the populace to pledge allegiance to you rather than Rome which was a very risky move.  The presence of a pretender drains support from Italia each turn which encourages the Emperor to act historically and march his legions out to defeat his rival.

We think that this mix of events gives a good mix of special actions that enhance both the mechanics and the theme of Time of Crisis, giving players a number of interesting choices to make as they build their decks.  In the next article, we will examine the deck of random event cards that provide even further historical flavor to the game.

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Design Diary #1

Design Diary #2