This is a copy of the Kickstarter Update #31. Source: https://bit.ly/EUpdate31
Keep yourself updated!
First and foremost, if you would like day-to-day updates about development. The place to go is Aegir Games Facebook Page and Aegir Games’ Discord Server where there are daily discussions and playtesting of the game. There is also a collection of Kickstarter Updates with in-depth information about the game development over the past year.
The Solo Rules
After a lot of brain-work and the always welcome help of the community over Discord (greatly from Christophe Correia, Steve Malczak, and many others) we have come to a Bot system for the game that will be remembered, played, copied, and talked about for years. I am serious here. Thanks to the tremendous feedback that the Solo rules have received, the Bot charts have been updated to make the Bots even more formidable Opponents, as well as integrating new mechanics that were implemented in the game recently.
Take a look for yourselves, at the now revised Solo & Bot Rules. As usual, we welcome comments and proofreading from the keen eyes of the community. Further down you can also catch a glimpse of the Scenarios I booklet.
There is the main chart that leads the Bot through the most urgent needs, such as Defending their Realm from enemies, Siege Enemy Provinces located in the same Area their Army is in, or Colonizing new Territories when having enough resources.
The beauty of these flowcharts is that they take 10 seconds to go through, making their decisions faster than a Human Player (even if I still like humans, their efficiency is to be praised). With a few Yes and No answers, you will navigate through their turn depending on the board situation. 10 seconds, I tell you.
The rest of their Actions come from the Bot Deck, a set of 20 mini cards composed differently for each Bot Realm, simulating their historical tendencies. These will point you to which Action chart in the Solo Rules you must follow. Additionally, each of these Realms has individual Targeting Charts for selecting both Military and Diplomatic targets.
Bot card preview
From the new additions to their charts, we can highlight how Bots will now actively Core their Areas after either militarily conquering them or pacifically annexing them, ensuring that they don’t become independent after a Rebellion. Furthermore, Bots are now able to prioritize Battleground Areas (from Power Struggles) or Realms with a Disputed Succession where they have Marriage ties, on their Military Actions.
On top of those new additions to the Bot AI, they have also received some tweaks to their behavior all across the board. Naval Combat triggered due to a Declaration of War is no longer detrimental to Bot warfare, and an improved Diplomacy chart now leads the Bot into focusing more on adjacent Realms and securing Marriages with large NPR Allies to be able to later Annex them diplomatically.
Additionally, new charts have been created to guide the players through both the Naval and Land combats, rather than having to read through blocks text on the fly. These flowcharts should be much easier to use, allowing us to accomplish our goal of reducing the time a Bot Turn takes to complete.
So please, check them out, comment on them, come to our Discord, where we can have live discussions about them, and you’ll have a community that has been testing them, and can help you guide your way through.
Sometimes there are so many people active in the Adobe link that gets frozen, one solution is to use the link in incognito mode when opening the link, another one is logging out (if you already logged in). If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can open the rulebook directly there once you clicked the link one time (you’d have to have an Adobe account I believe).
The targeting charts will go in the Scenario Booklets, so you can check them easier side-by-side with the Bot Action charts if needed! Brilliance comes in many shapes.
These are being worked on and revised, and are right around the corner, but they are still a little rough around the edges, so we will save them for the upcoming Scenario Booklet Update.
The Scenarios
We would, however, still like to show you some of the first Scenario booklets. This excerpt shows the introduction, with sections on how to create your own scenarios and build your own Mission decks, as well as the Introductory Scenario and the standard 4-Player Western Europe Scenario.
The rest of the scenarios are almost done. All that remains is going over the details, in the light of the latest revisions, and beautifying it all just a little bit. And when those are done, all that remains before it goes to print is final proofreading.
Some Printing!
We got some pictures of the production of the Giant Play Mats! They are being done in Poland by Playmats.eu a fantastic bunch of people, very professional and very friendly. I do recommend you to check them out, they also sell high-quality mats for all kinds of games. You can even personalize yours and they’ll print it for you!
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Muskets and militia
Eivind og Víctor @ Aegir Games.