Our latest video highlighting an entry in the Postcards from the Front Game Design Jam - A long Confinement - designed by R. Tokarczuk.
#pftf2025
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Topic | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| If you played the game, how much did you enjoy it? | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Playability | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Overall | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
Ranked from 2 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Further playing of the game...in solo mode
-Build action: I have to spend a card of the structure value to it's construction side then spend another card to finalize it? Also, do I need a die on the space in order to build a structure?
-Massilian Wall being damaged: I noticed one massilian wall token with reduced numbers...since there are 3 massilian walls on the game perhaps 2 more tokens could be added to the game?
- I also noticed that there are two regular ramps, and one brick ramp. should it be 3 regular ramps + 1 brick ramp?
Thank-you! I appreciate the TTS mod by the way!
To place a counter on the map, on the construction side, a player needs to spend a card with a value higher than what is on the "built" side. To finish the construction (flip the counter), either the counter needs to survive to the reorganization phase or the player plays a second card with the value higher than structural value on a construction side. It is more expensive to start the construction than to finish it. The phrasing is confusing, I think I will try to color code the costs or use symbols on the counter (3A - 1B, for example, to give the notion that first one needs to pay 4+ and then 2+).
Good catch - yes, one builds in an occupied space. I will add this in the next edition of the rules.
Massilian damaged walls counters: I have decided to include only one, because the second damaged wall concludes the game with a Caesarian win. Can it be added to the postcard? It can, but this would require some layout changes... and I would rather concentrate for now on the clarity of rules. Once they are more solid and error-proof, I will know how much space I have for additional counters.
2 ramps and one brick ramp or 3 ramps. Historical narratives/ maps for the siege underline only two approaches/ ramp locations that have been used by Caesarians. In other words, I made a decision for the players to decide which way they want to go. Brick ramp will only enter play once at least one regular ramp has been destroyed - there won't be three approaches available to the Caesarians at any single time.
(Gallic Gate received "weaker" -4 modifier in contrast to other Walls having -5 modifier; it seems that Caesarians concentrated here, maybe because of elevation differences being potentially smaller than with two other parts of the walls).
Same amount of pips for Massilians in Solitaire. I have not written anything about it on the postcard... but possibly even division would work the best for solitaire game: so all Massilian dice end up on 4 pips (12 pips total) and one Albicii die also have 4 pips. Question: where to place Albicii in solitaire variant? They could start with Fleet, they could start in Reserve (where during my solo tests I liked to place them).
Could be randomized... or maybe I will think of some ways of writing those additional details onto the postcard. Space is a tricky thing... I even started considering the two-player version of the postcard and a single player of the postcard... but, at the moment, this is the last resort (though it would give me the chance to flesh out more ambiguous elements - for example, are Massilians AI doing anything doing the reorganization?
Assigning dice pips to the Fleet space = my mistake. During setup, Massilians should divide their 12 Massilian pips and 4 Albicii pips between Wall spaces, Reserve space and Fleet Space = 5 spaces total for 5 dice that they have. So, the Fleet is "populated" during the setup and, later in the game, it can be changed during the Reorganization segments.
I will mark this as the correction that needs to be added to the setup procedure for Massilians. I won't ammend the files immediately, I will leave this for few days - there may be other things that we will find out. (I know, for example, that Massilians could have clearly stated opportunity to re-Build damaged Walls... but the rules as written currently are silent on this)
Thanks everyone for joining this curious designing adventure! (where not everything is set in stone yet :P )
Exactly what I was thinking about the Solitaire setup for the spread of pips for the Massiliann side and Fleet space, i thought that's what you were going for anyway, cool.
I think what you have is pretty clear for the multi player and solo variant. (though I did have a question about Massilian MOVEMENT for the solo mode)
Thank you for creating this interesting game with this piece of history. You had me looking up this battle to find out a bit more. kudos to you sir!
Massilian movement in Solo - offiicially does not exist. Massilians in Solo do not follow the regular sequence of play - they only get x attacks/fights depending on Caesarians' activity. I have not tested it extensively - in my games I was not able to eliminate a single die (because of the modifiers). Slow trickle of losses, sure... so I have never ended up with a situation where Massilian move was crucial. Theoretically, advancing to the weakest target may end up in a move (into adjacent space to the target)... but this would need to be stated in the postcard more clearly.
All of this may be problematic in solo mode - but at least for now, I do not have anything better as an answer.
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