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LATEST NEWS:
- Revamped Smartass
website
- Roberta Taylor has won the name our
expansion contest!
- Battlefields of Olympus tournament, July18th
at Craving for a game.
- Name our expansion
contest!
- Battlefields of Olympus expansion in
development
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Designer Comments
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en français
The concept of
Battlefields of Olympus™
was inspired by movies like 300, Gladiator, and ancient Greco-Roman mythology,
and focuses on different facets of military battle.
Some words on the design of
Battlefields of Olympus™.
"Battlefields of
Olympus™
is a non-collectable card game for 2 players with options 3 and 4 player rules. The game was designed to be
relatively simple to pick up and play for beginners, and at the same time, also
have some strategic elements to keep more advanced gamers intrigued.
We wanted to come up with an alternative to dice so we devised a rock-paper-scissors battle mechanic to replace a Risk/D&D style dice rolling
mechanic you often see in games. Warrior cards have symbols at the top that are
used to determine which card “beats” which other card. Instead of dice
randomness, players get to choose which card to play and discard during the
game. Instead of calculating attack and defense bonuses, the cards have a few
straightforward symbols to match. And the matching of symbols on the Warrior
cards during the head-to-head battle phase is just a fun process all by itself.
But that’s not all of course; there are also “Actions”. Actions
have an effect on Warrior cards and the game in general. With these Actions,
players can strategically alter the normal course of game play at opportune
moments. There are 8 Action types and each one is very different, but
also tightly coupled to the game mechanic, giving players numerous options over
the course of a typical game. For instance, the Scout Action forces your opponent to reveal his Warrior cards until they
are used or discarded. If the Scout
Action is used outside of battle to
force a player to reveal his Warrior cards, it could make that player discard his
hand instead of drawing a precious Action card during his
turn. If the Scout is used during battle, only the Rally Action would
allow the effected player to discard his revealed hand and draw a fresh batch of
Warrior cards.
As for other strategic elements, there is a limit on the number of Warrior cards
in a player’s hand --4 to be precise. Once a battle is over, players only
receive a single replacement Warrior card. The rest are replenished through the
process of drawing land trophy cards and the Ares card. If the players reach
their hand limit, the rest must go into a reserve pile (to be drawn at the end
of a battle). This forces players to consider how badly they want to win, or how
important it is to win a particular battle. If it costs too many men (Warrior
cards), and you don’t have reserves, you will be at a disadvantage until you
re-enforce your Warrior cards. Also, there are 6 Ares cards in the deck. When
Ares is drawn, he instigates a battle whether the players want one or not. But
once all 6 Ares cards have been drawn, the game is over. This changes the
dynamics of game play as players realize how close they are to the end of a
game.
And last but not least, there are the land trophy cards. These are what all the
fuss is about. They have a value and the player that wins the most land trophy
cards through battle, wins the game. In addition, there is a color symbol on the
cards. 3 land trophy cards with the same color symbols give players an addition
face up Warrior card (Mercenary) that can be swapped with a Warrior card in the
player’s hand. With the Mercenary, players have another chance to match during a
battle."
Peter Grant
Designer of Battlefields of Olympus™
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