|
1 , 2 Next »
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
It is now less than two weeks to Origins and I will attend every day from Wednesday to Sunday. I will be in the Board Room with all of my GMT P500 Prototypes. This will include Distant Lands, Thunder Alley, Fury, Title Chase Basketball as well as 20th Century Limited which I hope to find a publisher for at the convention. If anyone is going to Origins and is in the Board Room look for me. I will try to have the following sign on my table.
Feel free to approach the table and talk to me. I want to meet you and will be happy to show and teach you any of the games I am currently working on. Don't be shy about interrupting me if I'm in a game (I'm probably losing anyway).
Hope you can get to Origins and if so, I hope to see you there.
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
I am getting some conflicting data from regarding the Japanese counters for Distant Lands.
Right now I have the following icons being used.
Tokugawa
Hiroshima
Kii
Maeda
Sendai
Bizen
Inaba
Shimazu
It has been brought to my attention that perhaps I should change the Bizen to the Ikeda han to better represent who was in control of that clan.
And perhaps I should use the Maori to replace the Inaba.
Sources I have are weaker than I would like on the subject so discussion and a consensus on here would be great. If you have anything germane to this topic please let your voice be heard.
Remember to P500 the game here:
http://www.gmtgames.com/p-356-manoeuvre-distant-lands.aspx
And you can "like" it on Facebook as well. Comments on Facebook will be responded to much more quickly than here.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manoeuvre-Distant-Lands/264623...
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
Just a little update on the game. I have finished my version of the counters. This is by no means the final art. We have not even begun to work with an artist. What you see here is basically my rough draft of what I would like to see as the final artwork. Other than printing difficulties, which will be ironed out by professionals, this is your opportunity to speak out on the images. Is there something you like? dislike? do you have suggestions? Let me know.
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
So I sort of stopped all efforts on Distant Lands for a while as other projects either came to a conclusion or got underway. The great USA-Japan knockdown would have to wait. But today i can declare that after numerous play tests between the United States and the Tokugawa Shogunate I stand by the idea that in the game the Japanese side is slightly, ever so slightly ahead of the United States. So the final rankings that I announced a while back will stand as the official rankings for the game.
Now I am turning my attention to the final artistic and technical details of the game to be ready to hand it over to the developer and artist.
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
So in my final rankings there has been a mild uproar regarding the rankings between the USA and the Japanese. So in response, we will be playing a series of swap-side matches involving those nations and the winner of that direct match-up will get the coveted #9 spot in the rankings. I will post the results as they come in.
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
So in the past couple of weeks I have been trying to decide what games I wanted to be working on in 2012, yes I go by year, 1 year to design-conceive of a game and 1 year to play test and develop a game. If it sucks after two years it is dropped from my rotation at least for a while. I have a number of designs ready to move into the serious play test phase and I began wondering where Manoeuvre fit into that list. Originally I had wanted 12 armies for Manoeuvre but settled on the original 8. I always wanted to spread out into some other nations but held off until this year with Distant Land. I have a new rule book with all of the second edition changes along with the new rules for the new nations and 8 more terrain tiles.
Does Manoeuvre hold any more interest and depth for me? It does only in the notion that I am a completist. Sure I would like to see Danes, Zulus, Mexicans, Native Americans, among others added to the game. But from a time and work stand point I see no need to add any more nations or rules to Manoeuvre. As far as I am concerned, Distant Lands will mark the complete and final version of Manoeuvre. No going back to the well for me. I now have the 12 nations I wanted when I set out to design this game 10 years ago. I am happy with it as it is and hope you are as well.
I have seriously upgraded the Manoeuvre system to Fury and I am enjoying the change of pace the fantasy version provides. So if you thought I might be stringing on the game, let me assure you, Distant Lands is the completed game and Manoeuvre is finally the game I intended it to be all along.
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
We have completed the Manoeuvre: Distant Lands play testing and Joe and I feel quite comfortable with our nations. In the final two weeks of play testing we have established the final rankings of all 12 nations. There is one minor change from the original but it is clear that through play the Ottoman Empire is easier to play and more effective than Spain and Austria. I was also very happy to see how the four new nations ranked. Clearly the expansion will hold four closely-matched sides and power creep has been avoided.
1. France
2. Great Britain
3. Russia
4. Prussia
5. Ottoman
6. Austria
7. Spain
8. Sweden
9. Tokugawa Shogunate
10. USA
11. Qing Dynasty
12. India
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
I have started a Facebook page for Manoeuvre: Distant Lands. It is a bit more interactive than here at the Geek. If you would like to know more and/or have some back and forth with me on the topic, please like this page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manoeuvre-Distant-Lands/264623...
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
This year at the Buckeye Game Fest was very busy for me. I had Distant Lands & Thunder Alley to show off. Fury required some new plays to check on an altered rule. I was overseeing the Columbus Area Design Society's presence at the convention. And as an added surprise I managed to bring another game into the light and get a commitment for publishing.
But Distant Lands did get some play and things are falling into place just as I had hoped. We had two competitive matches to help determine the overall ranking of the nations. The Ottomans, led by Joe Valdez (one of the original six play-testers) managed to defeat Joe Roush and his Indian rebels 11-10 at nightfall in a game with 8 cavalry units on the board between the two nations. In the second game the USA smashed the Qing Dynasty 5-1 in units eliminated.
The current rankings are:
1. France
2. Great Britain
3. Sweden (But with only a handful of games played against the weakest nations)
4. Ottoman Empire
5. Russia
6. Qing Dynasty (same situation as Sweden)
7. Prussia
8. Austria
9. Spain
10. USA
11. Tokugawa Shogunate
12. India
I will be continuing to review plays and update the rankings here.
I am willing to answer any questions you might have about any aspect of the game if you comment here.
-
Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
I suggest that if historical veracity is required in your games, you might want to avert your eyes and check in on the next entry. If you can allow for some historical liberties to make a game fun, well... read on my friend.
The Indians are the second nation designed and detailed by Joe Roush for the upcoming Distant Lands expansion.They are also the last nation to be included in the game and covered in the blog. The Indians are unique and difficult to play, although Joe has developed a very good strategy for playing them. The concept for the game was simple, the Indians were created as a fragmented nation split into four factions. While there were a large number of factions to choose from; Joe chose the Marathas, the Mughals, Mysoreans and Sikhs from the Punjab. Each of these factions were given a cavalry and an infantry unit. We are aware that these factions did not fight together in any war and were often on opposing sides in conflicts.
What makes them interesting is that only the Marathan leader can affect the Marathan units and only the Mysore leader can affect the Mysorean units and so on... The fractured armies of the sub-continent will find it difficult to support each other and the cellular feel of the units are somewhat similar to the Japanese.
The Indian units are generally weaker than most units in the game but that is offset by a large number of Regroup Cards. The army is just as fast as the Ottomans with four cavalry. So what does make the Indians fun to play? As far as HQ cards go, they have a pair of Maharaja cards that allow a given leader to work for any unit or combination of units and they have the same Rockets cards that the Chinese have.
The most unusual hook for the Indians are the special actions for the unit cards similar to the American Withdraw capability. In addition to having Attack and Defensive capabilities some Indian unit cards can be used as Guerrillas or to build a Redoubt or launch a Committed Attack. Yes, the Indians can be a huge thorn in your side if you are playing against them. They move fast, they frustrate you and they don't stay down.
1 , 2 Next »
|
|
|
