Log-2011-03-13 (MARCH 13) Jay, Jerry, John, Uncle Dave (playing D2), Paul (AFKing) **Contents 56 Resource Cards -12 of each color. 2 orange. 6 grey SETUP 2 rings of Hex Tiles. Solid. Place 3 hexes underneath N/S LEFT-storage - 2 storage tokens MIDDLE (under/above N/S)-Hatchery - 2 workers RIGHT - QUEEN - 1 drone, 2 commands, 1 green focus (beginner) Hexes are randomly placed on the board. Game over when DOOM track is full. 10 spaces. Start at 0. When the DOOM track advances, whichever BROWN LEAVES are in play this turn all have penalties. That is, BROWN LEAVES only incur penalties when the DOOM track advances. (multiple penalties could happen) At other times, follow the grasshopper rule BROWN LEAVES: 0 . 1 leaves 1-3, 2 leaves 4-6, 3 leaves 7-9, 4 leaves. Orange leaves are ALWAYS lose 1 unit. (not random at the moment) Grey leaves are ALWAYS lose 1 resource cards (not random at the moment) Discard, not remove TERMS: Harvest= Searching for new tokens. (NOT IN THE GAME ANYMORE) Gather = What a unit does on a Hex not in your HIVE to indicate they have gathered. (mask unit) Deposit = Processing units that have gathered (masked) and drawing resources or storing them. No Buildings yet. Turn Order: 1. Draw Cards = num Hexes of your focus Color (if none, draw 1 card) 2. HATCH any units bought in the previous turns. 3. Move/Gather 4. Expand/Upgrade/Buy/Deposit 5. Resolve Brown Leaves and Grasshoppers Units can only use their special actions once per turn. Brown Leaves activate as soon as you trigger the next DOOM space. available units: THE QUEEN - SP = 0 FOCUS - DRONES (per turn. See below) COMMAND (orders you can give to units) DRONE - SP = 0 EVERY TURN, NUMBER OF DRONES ARE CREATED EQUAL TO CURRENT QUEEN LEVEL. AT THE END OF EACH TURN, ALL DRONES DIE, TO BE REBORN NEXT TURN DRONES ARE EFFECTILY 'HIVE ACTION POINTS'. THE HIVE - SP = +4 3 of a color, or 1 of each other color. Tile counts as a color. -remove these cards from the game. -REQUIRES 1 WORKER WORKER - SP= -1; MP=1; AP=D6; GP=1 -YELLOW -1 DRONE -2 RESOURCE -expand/upgrade HIVE (TYPICALLY REQUIRES DRONES) GATHERER - SP= -1; MP=1; AP=D4; GP=2 -GREEN -1 DRONE -2 RESOURCE -search for resources on empty hexes -*concern whether GATHERERS should be able to fight at all. SOLDIER - SP= -1; MP=1; AP=D10; GP=0 -RED -1 Drone -2 RESOURCES -able to capture/destroy enemy hexes FLYER - SP= -1; MP=2; AP=D8; GP=0 -BLUE -1 Drones -2 RESOURCES -need a special ability. something to do with terrain. GUARDIAN - SP= -2; MP=0; AP=D12; GP=0 -ORANGE -2 Drones -2 RESOURCES -Spend a drone to move it anywhere in your base. -need a special ability other than 'immobility' ChangeFocus - SP = 0; MP = 0; AP = 0; -2 DRONES -4 RESOURCES (4 of ANY resource). MUST OWN the color of the focus you want to switch to. -PLACE CARDS AND DRONES aside. Lose Focus for ONE TURN. -Next turn, discard resources and drones and change focus. ALL hexes can be harvested by units with GP > 0. A unit can GATHER on any Hex and Deposits number of resources = GP. On the 10th leaf, the game ends. When drawing a BROWN LEAF, set it aside (do NOT draw a replacement). BROWN LEAVES will be resolved at the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, compare the Number of Brown Leaves during the turn and compare to the table above. If there's enough to trip the next Brown Leaf level, Discard the leaves and add another leaf to the DOOM track. If there are any remaining leaves, they turn into Grasshoppers. Follow the directions in the notes above and pay attention to the grasshopper limit. **************Grasshoppers: Only UPKEEP at end of turn, If at the end of the turn, after the DOOM track has been updated (or not), if there are any remaining brown leaves, they turn into grasshoppers. MAX NUMBER OF GRASSHOPPERS on the board at one time = Current Brown Leaf Matrix +1. 2,3, 4. then roll the D6 for each one to see where they move. N=1. Go CW. If there are max number of grasshoppers, don't add any more, just move the ones that are there They don't fight you unless you fight them. This means, if you start your turn with units in a hex with a grasshopper, you can move them away for free if you like. However, if you start a fight, you MUST then follow Fight Rules. (fight or flight). Cannot Bribe once a fight starts They block all bonuses from the current tile they are occupying and current units on the same space are subject to the CONFLICT rules. Thus, player units on the same space may have to run away during the move phase, if they don't pay the bribe bonus. BRIBE cost = Grasshopper Level (2,3,4) For now, Bribes are discarded and you can move the Grasshopper anywhere on the Inner Ring or center spot. Roll D6 at END OF EACH turn and move all grasshoppers. If you roll number of the same space grasshopper started on, move to center. Grasshoppers fight matrix = 3. ************************************* NOTES: all units can gather from any explored and empty space. When non-Gatherers return to base, they gain 1 RESOURCE card. Gatherers roll D6 I didn't write down ALL of the email notes. We'll work it out in-game and summarize at the end. immediately realized we needed to go to three orders per turn. South: moved both workers to O6 & gathered North moved both workers to O12 & gathered South: brought resources back to HIVE and cashed them in for 2 CARDS. Bought a Gatherer North: did the same thing. South: moved all units back to O6 and gathered. North: did same (O12) question was raised about the negatives of gathering? Are you vulnerable? Are there downsides? John said we used to have it so if you had a conflict and you'd gathered, you drop the resource. Jay said maybe it should just be a penalty on the combat roll. We revised Gatherer to roll D4 for cashing in. South cashed in. Rolled D4 = 3 and drew 5 cards (no brown leaves yet). Was presented with an interesting dillema on what to buy. Had 3 red cards and O6 is red, so saving them for expanding next turn. ***FNL: Start with 1 worker and 1 gatherer to allow more variety in resource diversity due to dice rolls North: workers explored O11 & O1 (all blue) Cashed in the Gatherer (rolled 4). COMMENT on there's no hand limit, so no reason not to horde. COMMENT: redefine gather as either pick up or cash-in resources. (can only do 1 per turn). This means you can't gather, expand the hive to that spot, then cash in on the same turn. But you can drop a resource at any time. COMMENT: if a worker has gathered, he can't build. Basically, a unit can only do a single action type per turn. (gather, build) for now. this needs more work. COMMENT: when discarding RESOURCES due to brown leaves, for now, discard. But we might want to REMOVE them. However, we might need a way to gain back REMOVED cards to balance it. COMMENT: remember, no MP needed when in the HIVE. COMMENT: we forgot to drop brown leaves. Jay said, he didn't think we were going to do it till later anyway. Suggested to drop leaves after the second one. Said that this game hasn't had a lot of brown leaves so in a typical one, we might be up to 3 by now. COMMENT: discussion on how many leaves to drop. jay worries it might be too much to slow the game too much. For this loop, we didn't drop on the first Brown Leaf, but did on the second one. But we only dropped 1 leaf per exposed tile, rather than 2. (HIVE hexes did not get any fallen leaves) COMMENT: what to do with Dropped Brown Leaves? Need some basic rules: 1. When a unit gathers on a hex with brown leaf(s) they take 1 leaf back to the HIVE with them and receive 1 less RESOURCE card. (opens the door for upgrades that allow you to get a + for resources, making it worth it for a non-gatherer to gather on the spot. Otherwise, it's pointless for non-gatherers to gather there. Grasshopper finally attacked! Rolled D6 (got 2) put it on I2 (unexplored) COMMENT: john suggested grasshoppers can move anywhere. Jay says there should be safe zones. Suggested maybe the inner hexes give some sort of bonus and keep the grasshoppers moving there. ***FNL figure out a bonus for the Inner Ring. Risk vs Reward, etc COMMENT: john suggests that if you want to expand HIVE on a hex with a Brown Leaf, you need to pay 1 extra resource per leaf. Jay says you should have to remove it. For this loop, we'll require removal of leaves. ***FNL figure out a permanent rule or address it better COMMENT: rolling for grasshoppers is annoying for john. Thinks there needs to be a card or something that triggers them to move (maybe on an event card or RESOURCE card). just a suggestion to keep in mind. ***FNL Define Grasshopper placement/movement order. COMMENT: add events to resource cards to add some texture to the game. Eg. maybe red cards trigger grasshoppers to move, rather than at the end of every turn. Additionally, number each card and only play the top (or bottom) X cards as events. Or they can be something the player can play in-lieu of using them for buying things. What Worked? Dropping Leaves on the board seems to work. Just remember to drop on first time. What didn't work? It was easy to forget the number of Control Points. Grasshoppers didn't affect the game at all expansion didn't really have a point, cept maybe expanding in the outer ring only (since it's safer) ***FNL how to expand command? John/Jerry suggest Hive size affects command. start with 2 command. Each different color in your Hex gives you an additional Command. COMMENT: If you lose connectivity to your main HIVE, you still get benefit for cards/command, but not for free-move bonus or cashing-in.