Follow-up to my earlier post here about Vienna 1814: Waltz of Nations a medium-heavy thematic Euro about the Congress of Vienna, the salons-and-gossip side rather than the maps-and-borders side. Still in development.

The game has two main routes to influence: throwing parties, and pursuing political goals. And playtesters kept quietly drifting toward the political one. Not because it was stronger, but because it was easier to understand. That’s the kind of signal you can’t argue with: if people avoid a whole subsystem, the subsystem is the problem.

The party side had three things wrong with it. Too much luck up front a bad opening draw could make organising a party painfully hard through no fault of your own. An unreadable payoff – you couldn’t reasonably estimate how many points a party was worth before committing to it. And death by a thousand exceptions – the attractions, the music, the food each carried their own little pile of special-case rules. Elegant in isolation, chaos on the table.

So this iteration was, honestly, mostly deletion. I unified the three sub-mechanics into one consistent shape, cut the exceptions, and pulled the worst of the luck out of the setup. Same feeling as when I cut my rulebook down a while back. I removed far more than I added.

The honest cliffhanger: it’s rebuilt, not yet tested. Playtests start next week, and I don’t know whether I’ve made the party genuinely competitive with the political route, or flattened it into something too safe. Ask me in a while.

Attaching entertainment card design – I am still in wireframe mode, but it is much clearer then the previous iteration.

For the heavier-game players here: when players keep avoiding one part of a game, how do you tell whether it’s genuinely broken – or just needs a few more plays to click? I read it as broken this time. Curious where others draw that line.

        • slimerancher@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          16 days ago

          In case you don’t know, it’s a reference to a recent post here, about 2 guys doing a podcast about playing one of the most complex boardgame. Here’s the link: https://lemmy.world/post/50602647

          Edit: The game is called Campaign for North Africa and apparently requires 1500 hours, with 10 players, to complete the game. There’s a rule in the game where Italians need more water supply, because they cook pasta.

          • Wandering Pine Games@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
            3·
            16 days ago

            Lol. Had no idea. Thanks for clarification. I admit it was a little surprising. I’m trying to cut out such clutter. After one of my playtests someone called this game Vienna Tycoon, and while it was a bit flattering (and they meant it this way), I would like to keep playtime in around 3 hours for 5 players. So I need to minimize the amount of “let my check the rules” actions.

    • Wandering Pine Games@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      Great question – but no. At least in the base game there won’t be an Italy faction, so no faction-specific actions. There will be some characters from Italy though – obviously Joachim Murat, trying to hold on to his title as King of Naples. His special power will most likely be tied to his unique horseriding skills, or to his famously spectacular outfits. Not sure yet.