lord_blackfang wrote:Congrats on making a full product. Not sure what makes it more "ergonomically designed" than, say, Kings of War, or Conquest, or One Page Rules. I'd say it's a bit dry and underexplained and definitely relies on prior knowledge of gaming conventions (what is a 45 degree wheel?). Apart from that, well, it's a build. It's competent, if unexciting. People can play it and it will be a decent time.
Those would be varying levels of 'ergonomics' depending on what the game designers wanted to achieve. I could have stripped things down to the level of One Page Rules for maximum 'streamlined-ness', but wanted a medium-level of detail with lots of potential to launch expansions (new army lists, etc). Within that medium level of detail, it should do a good job of being succinct and accessible to wargamers (I hear you on the assumed 'conventions' thing. I would need to make a stripped down tutorial version of a rulebook with lots of examples to reach new gamers - its probably better done with videos these days
tbh).
I think players should spend more time making in-game decisions and less time checking over the rulebook. There are plenty of decisions to make in
Spears of Valour and I should hope the game rewards strategic thinking as much as luck.
All the games we played in trials were a total blast, but some aspects can take getting used to (i.e. at one point we had two opposing units of archers standing right next to each other, using all of their actions to shoot at units in the objective zone. It made full tactical sense!)
