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Ethne - a little browser game I made
It should work on any recent browser, even on smartphones, though it is not really optimized for that. No registration or download required. If you bookmark the site you can also play it offline by visiting the bookmark. At the moment only pass and play/hotseat is supported and there is no AI, and I probably won't get to program one for quite some time.
I hope some of you will enjoy it.
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- Sagrilarus
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- Pull the Goalie
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Ethne is set during the neolithic revolution and the early bronze age, when nomadic tribes first became sedentary, learned to cultivate the land and eventually built cities and civilizations. The players' task is to lead their culture to greatness, demonstrated by cultural achievements. Initially each culture consists of a single tribe of nomads, which must find a good place to settle down and expand. By developing settlements into cities or trading with other cultures, cultures accumulate great wealth, which fuels their growth. In order to stand the tests of time a culture must be adaptable, vast and wealthy.
The principal idea behind the game mechanics of Ethne is the strong influence the landscape had on the development of the early cultures, as well as the changes in behavior that accompanied sedentary and urban life. Thus the various types of units (nomads, settlements, cities, seafarers) players will control during the game, interact in drastically different ways with their surroundings and other units. E.g. nomads are adaptable and may migrate to any terrain and evade invaders, while settlements are limited to arable lands and more easily conquered, but also the prerequisite of cities and their wealth.
I hope some of you will find it enjoyable and I'd appreciate your comments and criticisms.
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- I did not see stated anywhere the max number of players;
- The symbols you use in the actions section of the rules can get confusing (the sickle at the same time represents: settle if your ethne is a nomad, cultivate if it is a settlement, that is a sickle too btw, colonize if it is a seafarer and cultivate if it is a city);
- I did not play it yet but the conditions to win seem strange, the wealthy achievement seem in direct contradiction with the vast one, making at least one combination seem weaker than the other two;
- The rules section ends rather abruptly, almost like the end is cutoff, especially because the city has fewer actions;
- English is not my first language either but I think some sections can be improved in regards to clarity;
- It is not clear whether you can lose achievements;
- It is not clear (although rather obvious) that you can't retreat to the attacking hexagon;
- In actions like "sail" that are free actions, if they "are free and do neither cost wealth nor increase the costs of following actions" and "An ethnos may act more than once during a turn, as long as the active culture is able to pay the associated costs", they are unlimited?;
- If there is a one tile inner sea occupied by a seafarer like in the image example in the rules section, how can it be removed?
That's all I have for now, it looks pretty cool and if I can get my friends to play it I'll come back with more feedback.
Thanks!
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Good catch. The max number of players is 6. The board's size depends on the number of players. With 3 and 6 players it can get rather cramped, so it is more important to stake ones claim and attack other players. With 2 and 4 the game is more like a race and with 5 it can be one way or another, depending on the layout of the terrain. I do like that the game is more peaceful at some player counts than other, but the variance may be a bit too much.- I did not see stated anywhere the max number of players;
The intention was to give a hint what the action does. So the sickle is used when the action's target becomes a settlement, which has a sickle as a symbol. Or the helmet is used for attacks. You're definitely not alone in finding it confusing though. I'll try to develop a better iconography.- The symbols you use in the actions section of the rules can get confusing (the sickle at the same time represents: settle if your ethne is a nomad, cultivate if it is a settlement, that is a sickle too btw, colonize if it is a seafarer and cultivate if it is a city);
The idea is to make small cultures a viable strategy. Initially the requirement was set to a specific amount of wealth, instead of more wealth than population. Under that rule there was no choice but to grab as many regions as possible as quickly as possible and care about wealth later. It is definitely more difficult to be wealthy and vast than wealthy and adaptable, but if you have a shot at winning by becoming vast and adaptable you can freely spend your wealth for additional actions. And vast cultures usually act last, too, which means no one can react to their actions and stop them from winning. I'm actually more concerned with the achievement "adaptable". Depending on the map it may be very easy to get for some cultures and almost impossible for others. I'm trying to avoid that by tweaking the map generator, but that may no be enough.- I did not play it yet but the conditions to win seem strange, the wealthy achievement seem in direct contradiction with the vast one, making at least one combination seem weaker than the other two;
The rules are complete, but I agree that they end abruptly. I might add some kind of designer's notes, which address some of implications of the actions. E.g. cities cannot be attacked at all, seafarers can prevent other cultures from setting sail by blocking their woodlands and cities, etc.- The rules section ends rather abruptly, almost like the end is cutoff, especially because the city has fewer actions;
I'm afraid that is true- English is not my first language either but I think some sections can be improved in regards to clarity;
You can. Do you think "A culture has accomplished an achievement as long as it satisfies its conditions." is more clear than "A culture earns an achievement by satisfying its conditions."- It is not clear whether you can lose achievements;
Noted.- It is not clear (although rather obvious) that you can't retreat to the attacking hexagon;
Yes, seafarers and nomads on grasslands can be extremely mobile.- In actions like "sail" that are free actions, if they "are free and do neither cost wealth nor increase the costs of following actions" and "An ethnos may act more than once during a turn, as long as the active culture is able to pay the associated costs", they are unlimited?;
It can't. There is also no way to remove nomads from deserts or mountains, which can only be turned into settlements by colonizing them, not by cultivation. I feel like a naval power should be able to block the other cultures' access to the sea and throughout history it has been notoriously difficult to conquer mountain and desert tribes. So the reasons are mostly tied to the theme, but I think these rules implications also add to the gameplay, because they offer choke points.- If there is a one tile inner sea occupied by a seafarer like in the image example in the rules section, how can it be removed?
I'd like to hear your opinion on it. If it feels to constraining it might be a good idea to give cities the ability to conquer those territories.
Thank you. I hope you'll enjoy it and would appreciate more of your feedback.That's all I have for now, it looks pretty cool and if I can get my friends to play it I'll come back with more feedback.
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