DEINONYCHUS...TRUDGE ACROSS THE DESERT.

Last week we did a fun desert playtest of the game. We played six Deinonychus (raptors) against an Argentinosaurus and a Kosmoceratops. 

The game started as a predictably speedy game but as we suddenly found it slowed down very quickly. The rough ground rules tend to cause (up until now) some real contention in the playtest games, mainly it's difficult to have rules for rough ground that apply to all dinosaurs and in this game specifically we could say that they affected gameplay detrimentally. Consequently we had to make the decision to stop recording the game (photographically) as a very large chunk of the game was simply just Raptors...walking over rough ground. 

Subsequently we put a whole shift into the rough ground rules, two brains just ticking away and working it out. We think we have now some well implemented special rules and general rough ground rulings and we're back on top. 

Gargantuan dinosaurs in Cretcacea have board wide line of sight where other dinosaurs have a line of sight of 25". This is a balancing decision more than anything else, but it came into play in this game when the argentinosaurus saw the raptors coming around the corner, it was a cool cinematic moment. 

Quite far to into the game the raptors had barely crossed the board which shocked us a little. This was the moment we decided to write down notes but stop photographing, hence the rest of the game was simply played until six turns (an extension of two, to allow for contact and combat testing) and not photographed in earnest. 

Although we had a great time this game will need to be repeated for sure with some terrain modified or removed and with the new rulings. It was an educational game.

I have played many wargames with many wargamers, while Charles has more of a background in board gaming. I consequently have left many a game with a rules lawyer wishing i hadn't played in the first place. In fact it is rule lawyers as to why i stopped playing in clubs a while back. 

Wargaming allows for this kind of mental and social frippery, whereas board gaming does not to much, in board games movements are often squares or sections and not measurments. Things like line of sight and opposed rolls are less likely. I mention this and "rules lawyers" because this is the mind with which we write Cretacea, we want the game to be as watertight as possible. The game is a simple one, and a fun one and we en devour to keep all rulings as basic as possilbe, using relevant charts where we can. This game we played in the desert was a great example of our two minds coming together to solve a problem, that being rough ground and it' complications, and how our backgrounds lend themselves to different ways of thinking. 

Hopefully now, moving forward, it will be more simple to adjuticate the decisions relating to rough ground and it's effecting issues and as we generally aim, it'll be a simpler process to "work out" who can do what on the board. 

More to come soon - Arthur