Columbia Block Games Discussion

[Jerry Taylor]

Here’s an overview of the game as it begins its first round of serious playtesting.

Blocks
There are 70 blocks in the game. An (L) after the block means there is a Lancastrian version of the block. A (Y) after the block means there is a Yorkist version of the block. A (L/Y) means what you think – there are two such blocks, one for the Lancastrian player, one for the Yorkist player. Obviously, only one of these blocks can be in play at any given time. But an (L/Y) block can switch from one side to another based on the play of event cards. After that, I give you the maximum number of strength points on the block and then the block’s firepower. Finally, I list the block’s home area(s). Those familiar with Hammer of the Scots and/or Crusader Rex will understand what all this means. Anyway, here’s the block roster

King (L/Y) – 4 and remainder of info can be found on the respective heir card; home areas are those areas with a crown
Margaret of Anjou (L) – 4C2
Prince of Wales (L) – 4A3
Duke of Buckingham (L/Y) – 4C2; Midlands, Powys, Kent
Duke of Clarence (L/Y) – 4B2; Chester
Duke of Exeter (L/Y) – 3B2; Devon
Duke of Gloucester (L/Y) – 4A3; York
Duke of Norfolk (L/Y) – 3B2; East Anglia, Upper Midlands
Duke of Somerset (L/Y) – 3B2; Dorset
Duke of York (Y) – 4B3, York; Lower Midlands
Earl of Devon (L/Y) – 3B2; Devon
Earl of Lincoln (L/Y) – 3B2; Lincoln
Earl of March (Y) – 3A3; Shropshire
Earl of Northumberland (L/Y) – 4B3; North Riding, Northumberland
Earl of Oxford (L/Y) – 3B2; Essex
Earl of Pembroke (L) – 3A3; Pembroke
Earl of Rivers (L/Y) – 3B2; Lower Midlands
Earl of Richmond (L) – 4B3; North Riding, Pembroke
Earl of Rutland (L/Y) – 3B2; Essex
Earl of Salisbury (L/Y) – 4B2; North Riding, Westmorland, Cumberland
Earl of Shrewsbury (L/Y) – 3B2; Upper Midlands
Earl of Suffolk (L/Y) – 3B2; East Anglia
Earl of Warwick (L/Y) - 4A3; Midlands, Glamorgan, Sussex
Earl of Wiltshire (L) – 3A2; Hampshire
Lord Bourchier (L/Y) – 2B2; Essex
Lord Grey (L/Y) – 2B2; Carnarvon
Lord Hastings (Y) – 3B3; Midlands
Lord Herbert (Y) – 3B2; Glamorgan
Lord Stafford (Y) – 3B2; Cornwall
Lord Stanley (L/Y) – 2A3; Lancastershire
Calais (L/Y) – 4A4; Calais
King James (L/Y) – 4B3
Flemish Handgunners (L/Y) – 2A3
French Mercenaries (L/Y) – 3B3
Welsh Mercenaries (L/Y) – 4B3
Irish Mercenaries (L/Y) – 4C2
Scottish Mercenaries (L/Y) – 4C2
Rebels (L/L/Y/Y – meaning, two block per side) – 4C3
Action Blocks (L/Y) – n/a

Strength points and combat ratings are by necessity subjective. They represent the relative size of the force those nobles could bring into battle and my sense of that noble’s ability on the battlefield. When I have little to go on, I rate based on what seems reasonable and what will contribute to a good game. Interestingly enough, the richest nobles with the largest estates were not necessarily able to translate that wealth into reliable men in the field on a linear basis.

Home areas had to be corralled so some degree. I’m not trying to post every single place these nobles obtained significant income. I’m more interested in those areas that were the traditional sources of the bulk of their fighting power. And that, too, is unfortunately subjective.

By the way, I’ve since a few mock ups using badges and liveries for ID purposes and I must say I don’t think they’re near as attractive as conventional heraldry. So for the time being, that’s what we’re going with.

Event Cards
There are 39 event cards. An asterisk after the card’s text means that the card can’t be played during a battle. The title of the cards followed by the text is listed below:

Percy – Northumberland joins your cause
Neville – Salisbury & Warwick join your cause
Beaufort – Somerset joins your cause
Stafford – Buckingham joins your cause
Holland – Exeter joins your cause
Mowbray – Norfolk joins your cause
De la Pole – Suffolk & Lincoln join your cause
Courtenay – Devon joins your cause
Bourchier – Bourchier joins your cause
Grey – Grey joins your cause
De Vere – Oxford joins your cause
Woodville – Rivers joins your cause
Talbot – Shrewsbury joins your cause
Stanley – Stanley joins your cause
Captain of Calais – Calais garrison joins your cause
Rebellion (x2) – Deploy rebel block in unoccupied area of your choice; one bonus draw per turn as long as block stays on the board*
Robin of Redesdale – All rebel blocks fire as A blocks for duration of battle
Betrayal – Reduce one enemy block of your choice to 1 strength point
Scottish Alliance – King James joins your cause; enemy exiles must depart Scotland and go to European exile box.
Best Laid Plans – Negate enemy card just played
Usurpation – King dies; royalist player must discard half of his cards (rounded up); permanently reduce card allowance for new king by 1; unplayable if the King is he last heir*
Kingmaker – If you control the Nevilles but not the King, the leading enemy heir joins your cause
Diplomacy – If enemy has blocks in exile, he must discard half his cards (rounded up)*
Foreign Assistance – Block in exile increased to full strength; reduce to 1 strength point at the end of the year
Sudden Death – Permanently remove non-heir noble of your choice (both red and white blocks if applicable)*
Percy-Neville Feud – If enemy controls the Nevilles, Northumberland joins your cause
Reconciliation – Designated block immediately joins your cause and is redeployed to home area*
Flemish Handgunners – Deploy in friendly army*
French Mercenaries – Deploy in friendly army*
Irish Mercenaries – Deploy in friendly army*
Scottish Mercenaries – Deploy in friendly army*
Welsh Mercenaries – Deploy in friendly army*
Uprising in Kent – If the enemy controls the King, increase two noble blocks in Kent to full strength*
Uprising in the North – If the enemy controls the king and you control a noble with a home area north of (but including) Yorkshire, increase two noble blocks in the north to full strength*
Uprising in Wales – If the enemy controls the King and you control a block with a home area in Wales, the army accompanying that block in Wales is increased to full strength*
Blank – [you don’t want to draw one of these]

Unless otherwise indicated, cards can be played at ANY time and multiple cards can be played at once. The number of cards you have in your hand is determined by the Card Allowance of your King or leading heir (see below). Players may draw cards whenever they choose a “Diplomacy” action (see below), at the end of a turn in which a leading heir first occupies London (in which case, he draws two cards), when they win a battle, or at the end of a turn when they have a leading heir in England. If they draw a card but their hand is already at maximum size, they must discard something after the draw.

You’ll notice that blocks with only a Lancaster or York counterpart don’t have a corresponding “flip” card. That means that those blocks can never join the other side. That makes them valuable – they’re reliable. Blocks that can’t flip to the other side get an appropriately colored rose to sport on their label.

Heir Cards
There are 11 heir cards; six for the Lancastrian player, five for York. Each heir card will feature a colorful quote from Shakespeare about that person (see this thread for the quotes I plan to use: http://www.blockgames.us/viewtopic.php?t=1662), that heir’s combat ability if he/she ever takes the throne, the maximum number of cards you may have in your hand if that heir is your “top dog” (termed “Card Allowance,” or CA for short) and finally, any special notes.

Each player starts the game with all his heir cards. You put them in a tidy little pile with the most senior heir face-up on top. The heirs then follow in the order of their seniority – the most senior heir is referred to as the “leading” heir. When an heir dies, remove the card from the game.

The objective of the game is to eliminate the other player’s heir cards and end the game with one of your heirs as King. The Lancastrian heirs follow in order of their seniority, followed by their firepower rating as King, their Card Allowance (CA), and any special notes:

Margaret of Anjou – C2, CA5
Edward of Lancaster – A3, CA6; Substitute for Margaret of Anjou in 1469 if Margaret is still in the game
Duke of Somerset – B2, CA5
Duke of Exeter – B2, CA4
Duke of Buckingham – C2, CA4
Earl of Richmond – B3, CA6

Yorkist heirs are:

Duke of York – B3, CA4
Earl of March – A3, CA6
Earl of Rutland – B2, CA5
Duke of Clarence – B2, CA4
Duke of Gloucester – A3, CA5

Card allowances are general reflections of an heir’s political ability. Once again, this sort of thing is highly subjective. Who, after all, can know what talents Edward of Lancaster might have demonstrated as King? Well, the game will probably play better if the Lancastrians have a good heir in this slot, so I accept all the general praise for Edward as a young man that one reads in the history books and give him the benefit of the doubt.

To help you keep track of these VIPs, their corresponding blocks have a little crown on them, denoting the fact that the block represents a would-be king.

A note about Margaret – I don’t pretend to assume that Margaret was hoping to rule – or would be allowed to rule – unilaterally under her own authority as Queen. Her card and block, however, represents the rule of Henry VI, a rule in which Margaret acts as effective guardian of the throne. Why not simply include Henry VI in lieu of Margaret, you ask? Because doing so would require a whole host of special rules. Henry’s combat ability – and his ability to lead troops – was nil. Henry would surrender to the Yorkists and allow them to rule in his name. Other times, he wondered virtually alone while armies hundreds of miles away (usually led by Margaret) fought in his name. In short, Henry VI by this time was little more than a regal prop that both sides fought over. It will save me a lot of troublesome rules if I just take him out of the game entirely and assume that if Margaret takes the throne, she rules in Henry’s name. If York takes the throne early in the game, he may rule independently or in Henry’s name for a short period of time.

Starting the Game
The game will start with York in London with a handful of allies scattered around England. The Lancastrian player, however, controls the King (meaning Margaret rules the realm) in the Midlands, with a handful of allies scattered around England. Another subset of nobles will start neutral. York and the King are deployed normally (that is, facing the player on edge at full strength) while allies are deployed face-up on the board (that is, those blocks are on their back and can be read by both players. Neutral blocks are kept off the board at start.

The Lancastrian player is dealt 10 cards at start (double Margaret’s Card Allowance); she may keep five and discard the other five. The Yorkist player is dealt eight cards at start (double York’s Card Allowance) and he may keep four and discard the other four. Players need not reveal what they have discarded – place them face-down in a discard pile.

We now begin the Turn, and each Turn will proceed alike

Actions
Each player secretly determines what Action he will pursue during the first turn of the year (in our example, it is 1459). There are three actions available to choose from; Campaign, Arms, and Diplomacy. To keep track of your choices, each player has one Action Block. Secretly rotate the block (facing you) so that the action you wish to pursue is at the top of the label. When both players have chosen their action, the blocks are simultaneously revealed and off we go. The order in which actions are executed are as follows; Campaigns go first, Arms go second, and Diplomacy goes third. And to help you keep track of that, each action is numbered 1-3 on the block itself. Aren’t we thoughtful?

A Campaign action represents the decision to mobilize armies, march, and engage in battle. That is, Campaigns represent the decision to enter the field. If you select a Campaign Action, you roll one die; 1-2 = 1 move, 3-4 – 2 moves, and 5-6 = 3 moves. If both players selected a Campaign action, they both roll and the high roll goes first. Ties go to the player with the King. Ties also mean that any cards in the discard pile are immediately reshuffled back into the main deck.

A move will allow you to mobilize one block under your control. Blocks that are lying on their back on the board need to be mobilized before they can have any effect on the game. In essence, blocks on their back represent a noble who has yet to mobilize his men – the army does not yet exist and does not have any effect on movement or combat. For 1 move, the block stands up on edge and faces the owning player. A block that is mobilized cannot subsequently move during that same Turn.

A move will also allow you to move all the blocks in one area up to three areas. And, like in Hammer of the Scots and Crusader Rex, blocks need not stay together during movement. Blocks can be pinned during the course of movement as per those games as well.

Blocks in the European exile box can move to any coastal area but must end their turn in that coastal hex. Blocks in Scottish exile move normally.

An Arms action represents recruitment of men and victuals. Players may add 2 strength points to any block of their choice (or, alternatively, 1 strength point may be added to two separate blocks). Blocks can only be strengthened if they're in they're home area or in exile, but if the latter, it costs 2sps to get 1 build.

Arms may also be used to deploy a new block to the board if it was previously eliminated (of course, if you don’t have a version of the dead block, you can’t bring it back to the board) or if it is made available with the passage of time. That is, the Earl of Lincoln becomes available to the King after 1467 I think. The Duke of Gloucester becomes available to the Yorkist player after some point in time. And so on. New blocks (or previously dead blocks) are deployed in one of their home areas or, if you choose, in exile if the enemy owns the King. There is an important caveat, however – heir blocks, once dead, stay dead.

A Diplomacy action represents political activity. Players choosing a Diplomacy action may draw a card from the deck. If as a consequence of this draw they are holding more cards than their leading heir is allowed to hold, then he must discard a card after the draw (face down, of course).

If neither player chooses a Campaign Action to START the year, the year ends after the respective actions are undertaken. For the End of Year routine, see below. If a Campaign Action was chosen by either player, then after all actions are undertaken, combat may begin.

Combat
Battles will work just like in Hammer of the Scots and Crusader Rex with a couple of major exceptions.

First, ALL A blocks will fire simultaneously, then ALL B blocks, then ALL C blocks. Hits are applied simultaneously after the respective die rolls. Rather than fire, a block may retreat, in which case, it will be subject to damage until after its class (either A, B, or C) is done firing during that round.

Second, there is no limit to the number of combat rounds in a battle. You’ll dice it out until an army disappears.

Third, blocks that retreat out of battle may either retreat to an adjacent area or into exile. If the former, standard HotS rules apply. If the latter, reduce the block to 1 strength point and put it into the European exile box or – if you control King James of Scotland – into Scotland. Blocks that entire exile cannot return from exile until the following year.

Whoever wins a battle gets to draw a card. If the lead rebel heir or the King is defeated in battle (meaning, his side lost), the other player gets to draw two cards. Again, discards must be subsequently made if those draws give you a larger hand than you’re allowed.

Campaign End
If a Campaign action was undertaken by either player, the campaign ends after battle. As noted earlier, if a leading rebel claimant to the throne is in England at the end of the turn, the player controlling that claimant draws a card. If that claimant is in London for the first time, he draws two cards. Once again, discards must be subsequently made if those draws give you a larger hand than you’re allowed. A new turn will now begin.

End of Year
A Year ends under two conditions – first, if neither player played a Campaign action during the first turn of the year; second, once one player has put his lead heir into exile.

At the end of the year, all blocks must return to a home area; the King automatically goes to London if it is unoccupied by the enemy. If it is occupied by the enemy, then the King goes to any area with a crown symbol. All blocks are demobilized (that is, placed on its back) save for the King and any blocks in exile. The player with the King ends his year first – the other player, second.

If a Year ends because neither player played a Campaign action to start, then discards and previously played cards are NOT shuffled back into the deck. If a Year ended because a leading heir went into exile, then discards and previously played cards ARE shuffled back into the deck. If a year ends with a new King in charge, ALL cards are returned to the deck (including those held by the players) and new cards are dealt to reflect the Card Allowance of each leader.

The game will end immediately if you have no heirs left.

About Those Cards
Now that you’ve seen how the game will be played, go back and look at the cards for a sense of how decisively they will effect the game. Remember, they can be played at ANY time (most can even be played in the midst of battle), in any combination, and even boom-boom-boom one after another. Players can carry cards over from year to year unless the throne changes hands (or unless an enemy card forces their discard), so they will constantly be forced to choose between offensive and defensive strategies (like holding on to cards they most definitely don’t want the enemy to have even if it’s of little immediate use to them) and the tension associated with launching a war before their cool cards are knocked out by an enemy card versus holding back until the ideal hand is set.

The fact that an insurgent claimant to the throne gets a lot of draws for simply hanging around in England means the King will want to stomp out the insurgent army as quickly as possible. But that might mean going into battle with less than his full compliment of troops. Tough decisions about when to attack versus when to gather men ought to abound. Similarly, rebels will be sorely tempted to stick around and fight it out for as long as possible. But since heirs can’t be replaced (and you only get five of them per side), you will face tough choices about when to flee the island and when to push on.

When cards mention that a block will “join your cause,” several things come into play. If the block is neutral when the card is played (as some are at the start of the game), it is deployed and mobilized on the board . If it’s in the enemy’s hands, you switch that block with your version of the block in whatever status is happens to have at the moment (mobilized or unmobilized). If the block is dead, then it means you are allowed to rebuild it using a subsequent “Arms” action.

If a card allows an unspecified block to join your cause (for instance, the Kingmaker card, which allows you to take control of the second-ranking enemy heir), it cannot be put into effect unless you have a counterpart for the enemy block in question. So for instance, if the Lancaster player plays the Kingmaker card and the second-ranking Yorkist heir is the Earl of March, then he has wasted his time. The Earl of March cannot and will not ever join the Lancastrian cause. Play that card when the second-ranking Yorkist heir is the Earl of Rutland, the Duke of Clarence, or the Duke of Gloucester, however, and you’re in business.

About Those Actions
Forcing players to commit in advance on a course of action should introduce a nice little guessing game while also requiring players to make trade-offs regarding how they might best strengthen their position. For instance, at the start of the year, the King can either improve his political position by choosing Diplomacy or he can improve his military position by choosing Arms. And there is a reason for the trade off. In this game, adding strength points to a block when you’ve got the King reflects the use of patronage to advance one’s favorites (or even, oneself if you’re putting those points on the King). Other nobles generally aren’t going to like being left out in the cold when others are advancing and they are not.

Combat losses aren’t automatically replaced as a matter of course because, as these wars went on, the number of men willing to fight in them declined quite steadily. Old animosities were also hard to squelch and there are only so-many members of the gentry willing and able to fight. And since strength points by and large represent the gentry under a noble’s affinity, losses often were not easily replaceable during the period reflected in the game. Players will likely find that mercenary cards become more and more valuable as the game wears on.

Another interesting tension will involve when to commit your nobles to the fight. If I design this right, it will mean that losses are not so easy to replace. The Earl of Northumberland controls a fine army, for instance, but if you lose him early or engage with him recklessly or unwisely, he will be hard to replace.

The King might also want to use that first turn of the year to Campaign if he expects his opponent to do likewise. After all, if he’s jumped by a big army while he’s concentrating on Diplomacy to begin the year, he may find himself unable to assemble a fighting army in time.

An insurgent player will likewise face tough choices. If he’s in exile, he likely won’t have enough blocks there to build up into a fighting force by using Arms actions alone. Without good cards, his army probably won’t be able to do much. Of course, he might bluff the enemy by using nothing but Arms actions, spooking him into thinking that he’s got killer cards when he really has squat. This might effect the decisions the King has to make about what blocks to mobilize and what actions to take. Likewise, relying on a threadbare army with good event cards to launch an attack out of exile is risky. If the army is jumped quickly and with force, those cards might not help you out of trouble.

Ideally, of course, you’ll want to wait until both your army-in-exile and your cards are top notch, but while you’re building up, so is King. Moreover, how often are you going to have the time to pull this off? Decisions, decisions.

Finally, the tension surrounding the true loyalty of your noble allies ought to be something. What looks like an easy battle may go south in a hurry if the enemy plays a couple of cards turning your most powerful allies into enemies. See Richard III at Bosworth.

Uncertainties
Only playtesting will tell whether we’ve got the hand sizes right or the Arms buildup right. We want players to have interesting options with regards to the cards, but not an abundance of riches. Likewise, we want players to be able to replace their combat losses to some extent and to introduce beefy blocks to the game like the Duke of Gloucester, but we don’t want buildup to be so rapid and concentrated that armies at the end of the game are as large as armies at the beginning. We also want tough decisions about how to spend those builds, and that’s not going to happen if the armies can get re-juiced in short order. We’ll see if the 2 strength points per Arms action does the job and adjust accordingly. Likewise, we’ll see if the Card Allowances work well and, if not, will adjust up or down as needed.

There’s also a chance I’m going to confuse players with too many things that will prompt draws. At the moment, you’ll draw when you play the Diplomacy action, when you have a leading rebel heir in England at the end of a turn, and when you win a battle. And if you beat a leading heir in battle or occupy London for the first time in the year, you get a bonus draw. That might be asking players to remember too much. If so, I’ll have to cut back.

The same thing goes for stipulations about when to reshuffle the deck and what goes into the deck when reshuffling is required. I want players to worry about having a discarded event card finding its way to the enemy, but I don’t want to burden players with a constant need to reshuffle the deck.

I’d also like to introduce a mechanic that allows the leading insurgent heir to go about England recruiting allies by the force of intimidation. That is, if an enemy noble hasn’t yet mobilized, is alone, and is “attacked” by a leading insurgent heir, roll a dice and a successful die roll bags the noble for your team. A failed die roll leads to nothing. Not sure, however, if that rule would add to the game – it’s historically defensible to some degree though.

The biggest uncertainly, of course, is related to the card mechanism itself. Everything else in the game is relatively tried-and-true. The new card system is not. Tom Dalgliesh (CG’s Boss of Bosses) is increasingly convinced that the HotS/Crusader Rex card and movement system has so many things going for it that trying to improve on it will be tough. He’s willing to give this a try, but he thinks that there’s a good chance it won’t work as well as the HotS system we’ve all grown to know and love and that we’ll find going back to it with some modest modifications will be warranted.

My own sense is that each of these two systems have their strengths and weaknesses. The HotS system provides interesting challenges about how you might plan your year and doesn’t require players to noodle endlessly about how they are going to play multiple events. It also reduces the inevitable rules ambiguities associated with having a lot of event cards that might be played in ways I didn’t anticipate. On the other hand, the HotS system does not allow for the robust political tension I’m trying to introduce into this game. I dunno – we’ll see.
_________________
Designer, Hammer of the Scots & Crusader Rex

[Laurie Gordon]

Hi Jerry,

Your description of the game sounds great. Of course, it will require lots of play-testing to see if your concepts work in practice, but it I really think you've captured the on-again, off-again nature of these wars in a simple, playable system. Bravo!

I've played quite a few card-driven games from AH and GMT, and based on my experience I don't think your cards will cause much confusion. The important thing is to specify the sequence of card play when they are not played as a diplomacy action. For example, this could be the rule for card play in a battle: "After the blocks are revealed but before the first die-roll, the attacker may play non-asterisk card. If he doesn't the defender may play a card. The other player may respond by playing a card or passing, then the first player may play another card. The option to play a card goes back and forth until both players pass consecutively."

Laurie
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Toronto Area Boardgaming Society - www.tabsonline.net

[astroglide]

jerry, thanks for the informative update!

does this mean the card that exposes your opponent's hand has been removed from the game? i'm only recalling it because it stood out to me in a past design diary as one of the only things i disliked. i've found that kind of stuff promotes analysis paralysis and distracts from the game.

looking forward to reports on how the card system works out.

[Jerry Taylor]

Re card action order - I think it would be neat to say "the first card that hits the table goes first - ties go to the King." And I don't see why we need to restrict when a card gets played. Any old time you want unless the card says otherwise.

And yes, the old "show your hand" card is gone. Too blunt an instrument.
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Designer, Hammer of the Scots & Crusader Rex

[astroglide]

[Jerry DeMoss]

Jerry:

Any rough guesses when this one will be released?
_________________
A wargamer since the AH games of the 1970's with rekindled interest in the last several years.

[Jerry Taylor]

When it's done! My guess is that we will have a publishable game by the latter part of this year. Then it's up to CG to decide when to go forward. I'm hoping for a late 2007 release, but wouldn't be too terribly surprised if it slips to early 2008.
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Designer, Hammer of the Scots & Crusader Rex

[bigcheese]

Great. Thanks for keeping us up to date. It seems that you have made progress on both movement and combat. You have also retained the variable time element i.e. a year can end quickly which clearly reflects history.

My only tiny reservation concerns rolling for movement allowance. I found rolling for initiative in Gettysburg frustrating while the cards in Crusader Rex strike a good balance between luck and choice. Have you considered using the cards like many other card-driven games? Perhaps a player has 1 movement by default but can sacrifice a precious event card for 2 or 3 movements instead?
_________________
Matthew

[Niko Ruf]

Thank you for the update!

Did I get this correctly: if either player starts the year with a campaign action, the only way the year can end is if either sides' heir goes into exile? And heirs go into exile only if they retreat from combat, at the discretion of their player? It sounds like it might take a long time until that happens.

I realize that there is no intrinsic benefit to "wintering" , i.e. no automatic replacement steps. So it does not really matter what year it is. But what does this very open time-structure do to play length?

[Jerry Taylor]

[bigcheese]

[curtwine]

I'm very pleased with your design so far. I think you're really on the right track in capturing both the scale and political aspects of the Wars in a playable fashion. The Wars of the Roses is one of my hobby interests, and I've been waiting for years for someone to publish a good strategic level game on this topic (naturally, like all gamer/history buffs I've also tinkered around with my own design ideas on this subject). So my hat is really off to you.

A couple of questions/comments:

1) In cases where you have blocks representing a noble's sons, for example Lincoln (son of Suffolk), March, Rutland, Clarence & Gloucester (all sons of York), Warwick (son of Salisbury) etc. will you have rules that account for inheritance? Do the junior blocks remain in play even if the senior dies or is eliminated. It appears that the blocks are intended to be an abstraction of the family leadership rather than representing particular people. Am I right? So if Salisbury and Warwick are both in play, it could represent the father and son, or it could represent the son who has inherited both titles, each block representing a different power base under the same son? If that is the case though, can one block be Yorkist while the other is Lancastrian? I know from thinking about these issues myself that it is difficult to come up with an ideal solution to such historical anomalies without making the game too complex or unplayable. I'm just curious how you view this in the present design.

2) In a similar vein, with the later Yorkist blocks like Clarence and Gloucester, will there be any requirement/limitation on those blocks coming into existance only if a Yorkist heir is king? It is very unlikely that those heirs would have received those titles and power bases had it not been for the Yorkists taking the throne.

3) My opinion about the event/political cards is that you should keep this design element and make it a focal point of play as you proposed above. I think it would be pointless to do a game on the Wars of the Roses if the uncertainties and stresses imposed by these random elements was missing. The way you described your intentions for the decision-making of the players is exaclty the right approach for this subject. I'm afraid any dilution of that would turn it into just another war-game and not a reflection of history. I heartily encourage you to keep the political elements at the forefront, and hope the playtesting vindicates that this would be both fun and realistic for the players.

Anyway - thanks for the updates. This is my most eagerly anticipated game.

Curt Winegarner

[phlegm]

Hey Jerry do you need any more playtesters for this one?

I'm bored now that Crusader Reex is all good.