Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Card Fixes

This post has been deleted due to it being outdated and erroneous within newer cards and versions.

Sacrifice

edited a bit on the wiki in the glossary.


Sacrifice - Place card(s) in discard pile for the purpose printed to use up available resources. When you see Sacrifice at the top of a card, it affects the cost of that card. When you see Sacrifice in effects or abilities area of a card, it affects the effects or abilities of that card. This is a total number of resources, not resource cards.

when looking at prisoner enlistment on egyptian empire, i noticed that it takes three water to capture an opponents soldier from the battlefield. when sacrificing, you are actually discarding these resources. so if you were using the caspian sea (huns) or the lower nile, you could just throw that card away to cover the cost of this sacrifice.

if you didn't have a 1/3 resource but had a couple of 1/2-1/2 resources (tura or memphis), you may have to throw away two cards for a total of 4 to cover the cost of that sacrifice.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Testimonials

Here is a brief section devoted to what people are saying about Empires and Generals.

And it all starts with the pirate bay starting the promo bay and me submitting an ad to it that i made on bitstrips.com

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Hi.

This sounds awesome. And it's pretty unique in the big pile of 3000 promo requests we've gotten.
So we're gonna promote you worldwide 26-28 may.

I'd suggest that you write a small presentation post of the whole thing by then. At the top of your site so that all the hundreds of thousands of viewers will understand what it's about.

Any questions?

//TPB

-------

And that was the start of a convo that lasted until today. They loved the idea of the card with their name on it, loved the originality

-------

Lol that's awesome!

Looking forward to promote this.
Perhaps you could make a short youtube video with just you presenting
the game, yourself and talking about the promotion?
That would fit great at top of the site and would help people who
arrive to understand what it's about.
So far we've had like 9 musicians, 1 author and 1 short film so your
game really is unique!

A video is also an opportunity for people to discuss the whole thing
and a great way to measure how many people that actually visits.

//TPB

-------

And so it went. The ad was a huge success and brought in almost 40,000 unique people to view the site. THANK YOU PIRATE BAY!

Many other people have written me. One brought me to tears.

-------

I saw the ad on TPB, and me and my friends decided to give the game you created a try. One word, holy freaking hell, this game is the most real game I have ever tried! Like, every little detail comes to life, sometimes It feels like actual war. You have no idea what this game has done for me. I suffered with depression for a year straight, yet with your game it was like, life's little challenges, and it was emulated with real tactics, and real scenarios, with real (real as in ones where EVERYTHING is a factor), this game, it made me realize that I'm a smart guy, I can accomplish great things, since I have the brain to employ real-life tactics and strategies and win over my enemies. You have done a greater service than you know, I can never express my gratitude enough! Thank you again for this wonderful gift, I have, and will continue sharing, and playing this game :)

-------

There were many others, including several from Brazil. Lucas and Gabe are heading up a team that will be translating the game into Brazilian Portuguese. THAT'S AWESOME!

I hope that you enjoy playing the game as much as I have been working on it for these last two years.

Look forward to blowing your mind some more with Ancient Greece! WOOT WOOT!

Analysis of Advertisement

Here is a small breakdown of what transpired this last weekend with thepiratebay.se so wonderfully having me on their promobay page:

the pirate bay sponsored page views

day 1: 48,289
day 2: 43,677
day 3: 37,610

total unique people for three days: 38,139

--------------

repeat customers with no advertisement

day 4: 990

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SO! to all 990 new players and their friends: I salute you!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Jennifer vs. Pauly

Example of play


One day Jennifer and Pauly set down to play a tutorial game. Here are the first several turns in the game.

Jennifer vs. Pauly

The setup

Jennifer and Pauly sit down and decide to play a game of Empires and Generals.

This ought to be fun.

Jennifer has opened The Huns deck and Pauly chooses the Roman Republic.

They don't have much time tonight so they decide on a quick game.

The first one to score three points wins or the first one to lose three points loses.

This is pretty easy with just two players.

It gets happier with a big group. Lots of fun.

Ok, so they both shuffle and cut each others decks before they begin.

They set up their decks with a draw pile and a supply pile.

To begin, they both draw seven cards.

Jen draws six resource cards from the supply pile and one playing card from the draw pile.

Pauly draws five resource cards and two playing cards.

Pauly and Jen decide that Jen will go first because Pauly is a really cool guy and Jennifer threatened him with not cooking for him for a week. Oh no, that didn't happen.

Jen's first turn

Declaration of play

Jen declares that she will play this turn. She better. Skipping the first turn is kinda silly.

Draw Phase

Jen draws one card from any pile to begin her turn.

Jen drew a card from the draw pile.

Harvest Phase

Jen plays her resource cards. She has Caspian Sea, Gobi Desert, Outer Mongolia and Armenian Highlands.

This gives her two water, two food and two iron per turn if she decides to keep them in play.

These are the regular effects that the cards give per turn.

If she decided to discard a card, she would receive a resource bonus for that turn but would not be able to use it again. The card would be discarded and unusable in the future. That would kinda be dumb, so she keeps em for now.

Kingdom Phase

Jen has no Kingdom or Strategy Cards that she wants to play at this time. As a matter of fact, she doesn't have any at all. Poor Jen.

Army Phase

Jen can't afford to put anything down right now (or doesn't want to discard any resources to do so).

Attack Phase

Nope!

Resolve Phase

She's all good. Nothing lost. Nothing gained. But it's still just the first turn.

Pauly's first turn

Declaration of play

Pauly declares that he will play this turn. Oh yeah. Bring it on!

Draw Phase

Pauly draws a resource card. Most defiantly.

Harvest Phase

Pauly plays Iberia, Mediterranean Sea and Mediterranean Hills.

Kingdom Phase

He skips the Kingdom Phase. No Kingdom cards or Strategy Cards.

Army Phase

Pauly plays Conscript into the Warcamp. The cost is two unaffiliated resources with a one strength and a three life.

Attack Phase

No attack this turn. No one may attack on the first turn, and besides, the Conscript can't enter the Battlefield or attack without a General anyway.

Resolve Phase

Pauly is done.

Jen's Second Turn

Declaration of play

Jen is gonna play!

Draw Phase

Jen draws Carpathian Mountains out of the Supply Deck and...

Harvest Phase

...plays it in her supply line on TOP of the other cards already played. This gives her 1 more food, water and iron. Mmm. Good card.

Jen also plays Abandoned village which states that she can gain four resources immediately this turn. Cool. She chooses to make these four resources Iron.

Kingdom Phase

Skips...

Army Phase

...and plays Attila. Woah. Attila costs seven Iron to play and is a General with a ten strength and an eight life. She places him directly into the Battlefield.

Attack Phase

Jen attacks! Hi-Yaaaaaa!

She is attacking FROM the Battlefield TO the Warcamp. This means that Pauly can either choose to block with his conscript or just take the hit to his cultural health. Well, this isn't acceptable.

Pauly blocks with the Conscript. This is Attila with a 10/8 against the 1/3 of the Conscript. Attila attacks 10 against the Conscripts 3 and the Conscripts 1 is Block/Counter-attacking with a 1 against Attila with an 8. There is no way that the Conscript is going to win this one and NO way that he will do any damage to Attila.

There are arrows showing which way the attack goes. Attila shows the 10 with an arrow up and when you line up the cards, you see that the 3 of the conscript is opposite it.

Attila is able to kill the Conscript, but the Conscript is NOT able to kill Attila. The defending card is the loser. The block was unsuccessful. The unit dies. Attila has a successful attack.

Pauly then Discards the Conscript and takes a look at the Attack Resolution Card. It shows that under option three, Pauly loses a Cultural Health. Pauly takes his Cultural Health counter one space down.

He is at -1 while Jen is sitting pretty at 0.

It is a sad day in Rome while the Huns rejoice.

Resolve Phase

Jen is tired of humiliating Pauly and calls it a turn whilst Attila stays in the Battlefield mocking all my attempts at a happy day.

Pauly's second turn

Declaration of play

Pauly declares that he will play.

Draw Phase

Pauly draws from the draw pile. He draws a really cool card... but can't play it and...

Resolve Phase

Resolves his turn.

Jen's third turn

Declaration of play

Jen declares that she will play this turn. Hooray!

Draw Phase

Jen drew a card from the draw pile and gets a really good card.

Attack Phase

and attacks Pauly again with Attila.

Pauly has no tactics cards to counter and takes the hit. He is now at -2. One more point and he will be out.

Resolve Phase

The rest of the game...

And as Jennifer resolves her turn they go back and forth for several minutes until the tides turn and Pauly seems to be on top but then Jen smashes him and wins the game.

The game took around twelve turns each to play and was around 20 minutes long.

Quite fun actually.

They are glad they played, and, even though Pauly lost in the end, there was a good chance that later that day they would play again and the tables would be turned.

But that is another story.

avatar

here's a couple of avatars for you.




Updated Qin


Updated!

Rules Change


changed attack phase in the rules to read:

1) You must have a General to place a unit in Battlefield.

also on resources/harvest phase, changed it to read:

1) Play any resource cards that you may have, placing them in the Resource Area

2) EFFECT - When a resource sits in your Supply Line it acts as a
continuous resource that you may harvest every Harvest Phase. The
Effect may read: "Gain one stone". This is what you are adding to your
"cash pool" every turn. If your total for that Harvest Phase is 8
Stone, 3 Water, having a total of 11, then you may spend those
resources that turn. You may spend the common 11 points or selected
points that are equal or less than 8 Stone and 3 Water.


3) ABILITY - During your Harvest Phase you may also choose to use the
ability associated with the Resource Card. Usually this causes you to
discard the card to gain more resources. If you have Liaoning Mine
that has a continuous harvest of 1 Stone and need to discard it for
the extra Stone that turn, then you gain 3 Stone for that card on that
Harvest Phase. The card that has the ability used is discarded that
Harvest Phase.

constant revisions

i have beta tested this game but it is under constant revision.

there are a few cards that may not work with everything.

if you find a rule that needs to be written differently or are hazy about something, don't hesitate to copy, paste and edit it and post it on the forums page. that way it can be addressed and the rules amended.

ciao.

5/27/12

thepiratebay.se continues to blow me away. they are awetastic.

special thanks to all the people who have written me emails. especially that guy that took the time to bash me personally. that was awesome. too much flattery and my head might explode. thanks for keeping me humble. i hope you have a great day.

changed out the download buttons from printable pdf's to .rar files so you can just OWN EVERYTHING without the pdf crisis.

i use sumatra pdf viewer after all. great program. i was using open office draw to create them but in the end, .rars and .zips are way more better.

a special thank you also to those who want to collaborate with me on projects.

what i have right now, you see links to.

if you create a better forum or wiki i will just use yours.

the fans are the best part of any show anyway.

100,000 unique page views with 10% sustainability in viewing. so, there are 10,000 of you that are my newest friends. it is you who will carry this torch.

i will continue to make the next deck: ancient greece, and it will be more better and more awesomer. you will like it.

more blog posts to follow.

Friday, May 25, 2012

the pirate bay.

news from the world of piracy:

today in a wonderful show of affection similar to a gift of flowers and hugs, thepiratebay.se decided to host my game as their "the promo bay" artist.

God bless those wonderful Swedes.

at almost 6pm cst, awash with shame, happiness and glee, i now sit in the spotlight and can only say thank you for the over 33,000 unique visitors that have been over to empiresandgenerals.com. over 500 of you came here to view this blog and find out what it was all about. that's 1.5% of you that really think that i've got something going on. thanks. there are no words to tell you how wonderful you are as gamers and strategists.


i just want to say that, as a newbie game developer this is only phase one and that there is more to come.

phase one includes what you see over on the .com. a free game to print from home and play with your friends. awesome and unique are words that people have emailed to me today.


phase two includes MORE GAME. what you see on the site is only the first four decks.

here is a very partial fluid list of decks that I have been working on for phase two.
Classical Ages:10 Editions (40 Decks)
Medieval Age: 7 Editions (28 Decks)
Discovery Age: 8 Editions (32 Decks)
Industrail Age: 6 Editions (24 Decks)
The Americas: 7 Editions (28 Decks combined Classical - Discovery)

i might get to my old age making phase two. but we can start on phase three while phase two is still in the works.
phase three includes a digital version of the game. phase three is big.
i have no idea how this works. i ain't no code-monkey. i'm just an artist at heart.

God bless you all and thank you for your time!
Take a moment to add to the forums or the wiki!

-pauly hart, gamer against cipsa.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

E&G WIKI

finally got this going.

http://empiresandgenerals.wikia.com

off to a really slow start.

you should add something.

:)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Leonidas and Plato

Here is a little sneak at some of the goodness soon to be in the game.



The resources are clay (brick) and honey-mead (vase).

5/16/12

working on fixes for the ancient greek deck.

color coding the top info banner

other stuff

Introducing the Expanded Edition

Seems a little wonderful.

Here is the next expansion in the card game. The Expanded edition.

Featuring:

Ancient Greece
Persia (Pre Alexander)
Carthage (and Phonecia)
Maurya

The Expanded Edition will include things that you haven't seen before

Such as:

Naval Battles
Leaders other than Generals
Acts of God Cards

and much more...

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Plato



Note on the resource: The vase you will note is honey-wine... otherwise known as mead. Both honey and wine were incredibly important to the Greeks so I figured I could use both together and save us the trouble of more than three resources.

Ancient Greece notes

Resources include Clay, Mead, and Sheep

Philosophers and Generals will be similar but with different roles.

Athens and Sparta will also hold specific roles.

Look forward to lots of boats!