Here, I document my journey of creating the Ultimate strategy board game over the past five years. This game combines resource management, battle tactics, and overall strategy into a fun, easy-to-play experience. Join me for behind-the-scenes looks at game development, from initial ideas and design concepts to prototyping and production. Whether you're a board game enthusiast, a fellow designer, or simply love the creative process, there's something here for you. Subscribe and hit the notification bell for updates, and let's enjoy this adventure together!
That feels like a good set of rules for the maneuver cards. They're much better defined then the rules we were trying out. Looking forward to testing them. Any word of the Table Top Sim version?
Thank you, I think they do work a lot better now and I personally think they're pretty fun. TTS is coming along, I should have an update this week on it - stay tuned!
As a freelance illustrator, I still consider it quite unethical to use AI tools to generate images for a number of reasons that you may already be aware of. In terms of game design, I think that using any image, whether in the public domain or even creative commons icons, is a great solution for game prototypes. For the final product, a Kickstarter would be a great way to raise funds to hire illustrators, if you don't have the resources to invest upfront. It's hard to ethically justify the use of AI in a product. I'm making this comment only as a suggestion so that a project as cool as yours doesn't alienate the public due to an issue that is so easily overcome. Good luck with your project!
Possible victory conditions -Domination(Defeat most of the players) -Cultural(Create a monument. The monument will be built in stages. Each stage requires one turn and a specific set of resources to obtain.The monument can only start building after a specific goal has been reached like 2 colonies built or something) -Economic(Most resources at the end of 30-50 turns) Possible DLCs -More player expansion -More tiles for expanding the creative choice -More units I hope this game turns out to be amazing!
And some game variations: - most points till XYZ moves, wins - total annihilation - 5 points win - Killing Kings - improve one of your city up to XYZ times, like building an monument
I playtested with catan and figures it provides in its extension packs, and I can tell you that it works. But here our some critics: Can cannons shoot from.ships? How many turns do you need for using a ship? One? Two, for on boarding and moving? Etc. Where can bridges be built? Can cannons shoot can cavalry walk across the bridges? If a city has a road and it is taken, what happens with it? I might suggest changing too, or destroying it or leaving is so that the player that lost his city can still use it to retake it.
During playtesting, I'd like to try a version where every resource card is a maneuver card. This would create a really interesting tradeoff dynamic, I think, where you can spend resources for victory on the battlefield, but lose the ability to build as many units. It might end up being too powerful of a snowball effect, but this might be countered by having certain cards or strategies that give the defense a significant edge, so that you need really overwhelming force to seal the deal.
If you wanted to add more types of units, you could stuff like mortar, grenadiers, more types of infantry and cavalry, engineers, more types of ships, etc.
Do you have any idea how expensive these are as is? This game would need to include a dozen to a few dozen of every major unit type, which comes out to roughly 60-120 plastic miniatures. Combine that with the tiles, cards, and other small items, and this is going to be costing roughly 60-80 dollars for a base set, possibly more. Secondly, this seems to be more of an abstract strategy movement game, not an actual realistic war board game. So, adding more units is just going to make it impossible to balance, which is what this style of game is all about. No one would play chess if it wasn't fair. The massive amount of strategies and counters in chess is what makes it popular, there's very little about it which is at all related to warfare (there are some small things, such as forcing a trade / defending a unit with another). What you are asking for is not applicable to this sort of game. What you should check out are actual wargames or computer games that allow that level of detail.
@EricNapoli-z3d You are completely wrong and mis understood my comment. I said "if". And no, more units is for sure applicable to this game, I doubt you've played war games.
@@Valadox_ What are you talking about? You said "If you wanted to add more types of units, you could stuff like mortar, grenadiers, more types of infantry and cavalry, engineers, more types of ships, etc.." Key phrases here: "If you wanted to," and "you could." What's your confusion here? Also, your second statement here: "And no, more units is for sure applicable to this game," itself is a confirmation of the intention of your first. So, now that we're on the same page, let's address your defense of your first statement. "more units is for sure applicable to this game, I doubt you've played war games." Axis and Allies, which is a significantly larger game than what has been displayed here, and is the most mainstream and easy to market war board game, has a total of 10 different unit types, including structures. In order to allow for different types of play, the game comes with anywhere from 300-450 individual units. The game costs anywhere from 80 to 160 dollars new, with used versions being usually sub 80 dollars. This game, which is being marketed as being a smaller, more east to set up and play game (the creator is constantly referencing Chess, Catan and Risk), already has 9 different unit types that I can see. What you are asking for is to not only make this game way harder to balance, but also make it as expensive (probably more) as large day-long play war games.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but in the example at 1:41, the red cavalry shouldn't be able to attack the blue musketman because it can't enter mountains or a tile occupied by another unit, right?
@@ophizma7842 Correct that cavalry may not passthrough mountain, but I think it's fair to be able to pass through friendly territory. They can't pass through an enemy unit though.
It feels like this game would be better with a bigger map and more pieces to increase the strategic planning needed to play the game. I think this would make it more fun but some people may not like it so you could also make an expansion to the game that is bought separately which increase the board size and piece count.
with the smaller number of cards, ambush becomes really weak because its only useful if they use retreat or fortify, which now they can use less. the woods are very common and sometimes arent positioned next to wheat and highlands.
@Valadox_ and @julianburke what about the option of playing your ambush card after your opponent plays a card, nullifying the effect. The ambush card is discarded and the opponents card goes back into their hand. It means the ambush card is never wasted and you uncover some info about your opponent.
im assuming it means you can do both the offense and defense option, so like you attack, they cant counter attack, then you use another unit to make another move, all in one card. so basically remove their counter, let you move another unit.
@@Valadox_ the first effect stated in the video is, when you attack, your opponent can't make a countermove after you attack. If you play the card as an attacker or defender, you can make two attacks. So, as the attacker, you can make two attacks without your opponent being able to make a countermove. Your opponent can still play a card and move a piece (retreat) or prevent your attack (fortify) @julianbirke, can you confirm whether this explanation is correct?
@@Gattninja So basically you attack, they can't counter, then you can attack with a different unit. I don't get hows thats encirclement, and how stone relates to encirclement but I do get it.
Hi @julianburke, were you able to make any headway on finalising the victory conditions for Pincer? Will you be providing an update on that issue soon?
@@Gattninja yes! So, the plan for now I think we're sticking with a domination victory of 2/3 of the board, at least for TTS playtesting. After that's online, I'll introduce an alternative victory condition, maybe 2, for testing and we'll see what works best.
I personally don’t like the idea of setting pieces on their sides to signify its turn being done. Maybe you could add a little slot in the model for a little plastic flag to be placed in to signify it being done. Something like that.
Perhaps add a general unit capable of learning maneuvers, signified by decorations and metals. And/or have units able to learn a single maneuver (perhaps shown with a special feather in their shako). It would cost a maneuver card or 2 and they could do it whenever
The effect of die rolls and random cards dissipates the more frequent they are. For example, many shooter games use random shot dispersion when firing weapons, yet weapons are fired so often, that the luck factor is effectively non-existent, since the player who has better aim will have way more shots on target. Not sure if this will or wont be an issue here, it's certainly not my main issue. My main issue with this game is that it is trying to do everything, and I don't see how everything works together, and I certainly don't see the one interesting mechanic which makes a great game.
At first i was hesitant with the Cards going into a chess like game. But now being used as a kind of "boost" instead of a forced thing makes it really fun! I am already hyped for play testing with some friends! The Cards add another layer of strategy to the game so it makes it really cool :]
@Caipi2070 according to the video, that is correct. The active player can move each of their pieces once. If the active player attacks another player's piece, the active player's turn is paused and the attacked player can make one move in response. The active player then resumes their turn.
I still don't really understand frigates. What do they do if they only attack each other? I think i am missing bits and pieces of the rules or something.
@granttar1981 frigates have a few functions not mentioned in this video. As you say, frigates can attack other frigates. As they move two spaces they can transport troops with a higher rate of movement and/or across water. They can also blockade harbours, preventing your opponent from building frigates and reducing their trade bonus. The trade bonus affects your rate of exchange for converting cards of one type to another. This starts at a rate of 5:1 and is reduced for every Harbour you have or every two colonies connected by roads and bridges. Hope that explanation helps.
I would try to simplify as much as you can when the maneuver cards can be played. It seems like some are when you’re adjacent to that tile som when you’re moving to, and some of them are the tile moving from which could be confusing.
Hey Julian, can I ask a more obscure question thats related to creating youtube videos? Why did you choose to name your channel after yourself instead of "Pincer"? I probably shouldn't linger on this thought too long as it prevents me from just "doing", but Im kinda stuck on how I should present my ideas via RU-vid. Should I use my name? The name of my company that would sell the game? The name of the game? Just curious if you chose to use your own name because you channel will be about more than just Pincer? Stupid question, I know, but helps me think. Thanks for the content! :)
Not a stupid question at all! Personally, I like to use my name because it's let's people get to know me and build up a community. I think it's pretty hard to get people to care about anything online but if you can invite them into your life a bit and see your personality and the journey you're on they tend to care more and get invested.
@julianbirke That's a very insightful answer. I appreciate you taking the time. Definitely a future purchaser of the game, here. Super stoked to watch this channel grow and look to for inspiration.
Its a tradition that the name of s strategy board game has some kind of meaning that comes into play in the game, you should have one of the manuever cards be called "pincer", it doesnt have to be special, just so the name appears ingame
Is that really a tradition? I‘m not the biggest fan of confrontative games so I might miss a few really obvious examples, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of any. Root, Scythe, Kemet, or Twilight Imperium don’t have their names represented by a move or card in-game iirc.
I disagree. First of all, trying to shoehorn in a new maneuver could definitely mess with the flow. Just isn’t worth it. And second, the name Risk doesn’t appear as a mechanic in the game Risk. Nor Stratego. Or Catan. The sci fi strategy game “Eclipse” never mentions an eclipse in the mechanics lol.
@@quickattackfilms7923 i agree you shouldn’t shoehorn something in, but maybe something like that could fit (up to julian to decide) but you can’t deny that risk involves risk taking and that in settlers of catan the island you settle on is named catan.
One emerging mechanic from these rules is that since combat seems to favour the attacker somewhat, the players would end up making frontlines without engaging right away, making it even more chessy
@@artemantonenko4900 Ooo, I like that. Maybe the benefit of 'digging in' is that you can't have a maneuver card played against you? Also, maybe you have to choose between 'digging a trench' or moving/attacking.
Ambush prevents your opponent from playing a card. Encirclement prevents your opponent from making a countermove. So if your opponent plays Encirclement, you can still play Retreat or Fortify to save the piece being attacked. If you are attacked by someone ambushing you, you'll lose the piece but you still get to make a countermove with another piece.
You could also have it where every player gets each of the respective special attack cards to use once each per game. This eliminates the luck component of drawing a special ability card and gives players the choice of when to best use each attack.
