Worldspanner Factions on Kickstarter Now

Looks great, good luck with it! Duel of Ages II is fantastic.

THEY'RE PLAYING MY MUSIC!

It is tempting.

Cover art and logo images:
worldspanner.com/images/factions/Four%20Square.jpg
worldspanner.com/images/factions/Box%201%20Top.jpg
worldspanner.com/images/factions/Box%202%20Top.jpg
worldspanner.com/images/factions/Box%203%20Top.jpg
worldspanner.com/images/factions/Faction...lue%20Plain%204k.png
worldspanner.com/images/worldspanner/WSLogo1900.png

Rulebooks:
worldspanner.com/images/factions/downloa...WebFactions1and2.pdf
worldspanner.com/images/factions/downloa...ons3FirstSection.pdf

Our Kickstarter summary is here, actual Kickstarter link coming soon:
worldspanner.com/Factions/Kickstarter

The Factions short video FAQ, taking up not many minutes for a good brain dump:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe76B_Tu-bhoK...&si=QbwChdzOADVyTk7r

Discriminating Gamer preview:
boardgamegeek.com/video/458764/worldspan...orldspanner-factions

Worldspanner website: www.worldspanner.com/

Factions section of Worldspanner website: www.worldspanner.com/Factions

Factions hero creator: www.worldspanner.com/Factions/herolist
The hero creator is very new and intended to work only with Windows PC right now (although it might work fine elsewhere), but it will get more functional every week.

Factions on BoardGameGeek: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/346597/world...actions-set-1-heroes

Factions on X/Twitter: twitter.com/WorldspannerG

Factions newsletter. We don't spam. Important news only. eepurl.com/FcvFP

Any questions hit me up, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

san il defanso wrote: THEY'RE PLAYING MY MUSIC!

I thought I had better check in with this thread. Now that I am back in the US my WS:F pledge was one of the first things I received in the mail.

The short version: it's really good.

Duel of Ages II has been a favorite of mine for a long time, but Worldspanner: Factions is better in just about every way with a single exception. (I'll get to that) It has sanded away a lot of the little rules that I had a hard time holding in my brain, allowing me to internalize the rulebook better than I did before. It helps that the rulebook itself is much more direct as well. It's still very much the same game as the Duel of Ages titles; if those were total bombs for your group this probably won't convince you. But if you were on the bubble, in the camp of "this almost works for me" then Factions might push you over the top. The best bit of cleanup comes in the form of the turn-order. The split between moving and shooting phases has been deleted, instead focusing on a single "action round" where you can choose to fire, move, or do a couple other things. Likewise the opfire round, one of more baroque aspects of DoA2, has been reduced to a "reaction round," folding it in with other card effects that use the same part of the turn. It's the opposite of death by a thousand cut, whatever that might be. The cumulative effect of tiny efficiencies definitely adds up for me.

The best change has been reducing the size of the board. I don't mean the physical size, this will still require a lot of table. But the platters and keys are physically the same size but with fewer hexes. In general there are fewer spaces between points of interest on the map, so you can get where you need to go more swiftly. It therefore feels like the game is somewhat condensed compared to previous iterations. You just get places quicker without sacrificing much of the tactical flavor of the game. It makes everything seem a bit more direct.

Not much has been actually added to the game, with a single exception. Factions introduces gold as a resource to be managed, along with a market to buy items with the gold. I like this a lot, because it smooths out some of the luck of never finding decent cards. It's easy enough to win gold as the result of an adventure, and there are several spots you can go buy cards that are face-up, or a blind one if you don't like what's face up. This is the sort of thing that has the potential to tank a game as complex as Factions, but it actually dovetails into the design really well. I can't imagine going back to DoA2 and playing without it.

The game has done away with the concept of "ages," hence the change in name. Instead it focuses on different factions, of which there are nine. This is a good move I think, especially with regard to loot. It was always a little tough for me to remember to check whether ages lined up, because characters got bonuses when they were on a platter from their own age or carrying loot from their age. But now the platters are all essentially neutral territory, and the cards have no age or faction bonuses at all, at least not regularly. The factions do have strongholds on the territory, which is where the adventures are focused. (These replace the labyrinths of DoA and DoA2.) You get a bonus for adventuring in your own faction's stronghold, and a couple of other factions are penalized on each one as well. It's foregrounded visually in a much clearer way, so it's a lot easier to remember.

The visuals are a lot better in general. It's still not a pristine piece of UI and graphic design, and may never be, given the nature of the game. But the production is certainly much improved and generally a bit more coherent. Part of this is due to the lack of ages; the platters all look like they belong in the same board together. It also helps that hexes are bigger and that more effort has been put into putting all the necessary information in front of you. The character cards still have the same pile of stats, but I think the game does a better job of explaining special powers and making those cards marginally less busy. The board, FWIW, is way busier now. It reminds me a little of Small World in how garish it looks. I don't mind it so much, but YMMV. It's helped by two big visual changes though. The first is that every platter and key has a muted side where things are just less busy, so you can change that if you like. The second thing is that the characters are all represented by standees rather than tokens. It is much better to tell where characters are and what team they are on at a glance.

If you went all in on your pledge, you also get the third box, which focuses on a solo/coop "artificial intelligence" to automate a second team. It also includes a solo campaign that apparently had quite a bit of thought put into it. I haven't yet had a chance to play the solo campaign, but the AI works pretty well! I need to take it for another spin to see if I've worked out all the kinks in it. But it puts up a decent challenge, especially if you have the same problem as me where you can't really keep straight every character power. Definitely more to explore here, and it sure beats just playing both sides of a regular game.

The only knock against it is that it's just not as massive in scope as DoA2. By that I mean that there aren't quite as many characters, platters, modes of play, or general absurd generosity that the previous game had. The trade-off is a more restrained product that I think is much more likely to, you know, actually get played. Not only that, but there will probably be further material for this game as it expands outwards, assuming this product is a success. But in this market that's a big assumption. The change in brand and general challenge of the design makes it kind of a tough product to pin down. To be clear, I really like what we have already and I don't foresee returning much to DoA2, if at all. But the sprawl was at least a little of the appeal for Duel of Ages, even if it's just the theoretical joy of playing a game with 6 platters and 32 characters per side.

Anyway, I need more time to really nail down my feelings, but Worldspanner: Factions is great. I'm really happy I bought in, and it should get plenty of play.

*edit* I forgot to point out that the hexes all have an icon on them to make it clear what kind of terrain they are. That's a HUGE help visually.

Also, Worldspanner: Factions has to be the smoothest, most drama-free Kickstarter I've ever experienced. I backed it in October, and it was in my hands before July. No problems, every duck was in a row, etc. Really exemplary.

Sounds like a lot of improvements over DoA 2. I really liked Duel of Ages 2 and had it all, including the strategy book, but it just never hit the table, so I sold it all.

And that is why I didn't go in on the KS, but I'm glad to hear the game is good.

Yeah that makes sense. I think we all have games we keep around aspirationally, and DoA2 was always that game. But Factions does have that solo mode that works pretty well. I need to try it again, and I doubt it'll be my preferred way to play, but I think it'll give the game much longer legs.

"theoretical joy" and aspirational play are such a big part of my gaming life.

I will say, Factions has a much bigger scope for play than Duel of Ages did. First of all, the rules are basically the same but a bit cleaner to remember. They have especially cleaned up the timing of opportunity fire, making that whole structure a lot easier to hold in your brain. In general I find I am able to hold the rules in my head much more effectively than I could DoA2. So it'll probably be an easier sell for more groups.

Secondly, the solo mode is honestly very effective. I'm waiting to pass judgment on the campaign, but I am optimistic about it. Running the solo AI takes some practice, but it feels pretty intuitive once you experience it a bit. So I've been playing the solo game a fair bit and that's another opportunity for play.

I am interested to see how Factions accommodates lower player numbers, like 2-3 people. I'll report back when I know more.

Solo/co-op design is such an interesting goldilocks problem. Too much overhead, people disengage with it. Too little, and it's way too mechanical. I'm pretty tolerant toward co-op/solo overhead compared to most people since I think it buys a lot of narrative engagement if done right.

This one threads the needle for me, after playing another solo game this weekend. It manages to emulate the flow and logic of a multiplayer game pretty well. There’s certainly a pretty big flowchart to manage but my guess is that people who do lots of solo war gaming will find it pretty acceptable. Once you see it in action a couple times it feels pretty intuitive.

The biggest knock on it is that it really requires you to be all in to play that way. All the solo material is contained to the third box and requires the first two.

I still struggle to remember to use the various character powers, particularly with the AI. But I am getting to know the characters better than I ever did with Duel of Ages 2, so that’s good. I have a hunch that the powers were polished to be more evident, easier to parse, and generally more direct. Another mark in the game’s favor.