Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:35 am
I have heard legends of the keyword apocalypse, but the "single decisive battle" was a thing that happened even in Imperial.Lokey wrote:In short, it was keyword apocalypse and was pretty much the game was decided in the first battle, the player with one more appropriate kill x ability won the game.
The basics of battle was that every Personality, equipment, or group of followers contributed "Force" to their side in a battle and that force was reduced to zero if they got bowed, kicked out, or destroyed by battle actions taken by either side. And then, barring a few effects like ranged attacks or Crab Berserkers, the side with the larger Force kept all their cards and the side with the lower force lost all their cards. And the real kicker is that the winning side then gained 2 honor for each card.
So not only was being on the losing side of a major battle something that could set you back like 8 turns or more of production and empty your fate hand, but the winning side probably gained enough honor that when their turn next came around they'd win the game on the spot. Hybrid strategies were almost universally build-up strategies, trying to bait or force their opponent into a final showdown that would make them win on the spot.
There were always battle actions that could cause really big swings in battle force. Just the bullshit advantageous terrain that was rarely used gave your side +1F per dude. And there were all kinds of cards like Iajitsu Duel and Test of Might and Blocked Supply Lines and shit that could be used to outright remove one of your opponent's entire units. So big fights were always risky as fuck if your opponent had a reasonably full hand.
There were matchups like Lion where the attacking started before you got your second turn and individual battles didn't completely dominate the game. And there were matchups like Unicorn where they would attack you in a place your units weren't and you could crack back with more force than they cared to engage and you'd both lose a few provinces before getting down to business. But in many games, and every multiplayer game, the first really big battle was probably also the end of the game one way or another.
-Username17