System analysis of Capitals
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Introduction Our group (3) played Capitals, a tabletop card game, where you race to build 8 (or 7) districts and have the highest score at the end. To achieve this, you get to choose among 9 different heroes (with a set of 2 different heroes ranged from 1 to 9), the lower the number, the earlier you get to play your hand. When it is your turn to play (unless you’re assassinated), you get to choose an action, which is either draw 2 district cards and keep one, or 2 gold. Secondly, you get the option to build a district (if you can afford it and aren’t bewitched or are the navigator). The crown (who pick a hero card first) is given to either the one who plays the King hero card, or given to someone else if the Emperor card is played. At the end of the game, everyone that built 8 districts get bonus points, as well as the gold for each district and a bonus if they have one of each of the districts colours. Objects Players, they are portrayed as either a lord in the capital, or rival countries trying to race for power. Districts (cards), they are the foundation for the game, there are 5 types; religious, trade, noble, military and special (or non-defined). Gold, the games currency. Hero cards, with varying abilities and numbered 1 to 9. The bank, it take care of the gold that the players do not have. District deck, it is shuffled at the start of the game and hold all the district cards. Graveyard, where the discarded district cards are thrown. The crown, it determines who start the hero drawing phase. Properties Players: Districts, built ones. Color. Special abilities, like removing another players district, ending the game early (at 7 district), being any colour at the end, so on and so forth. Gold: Hero cards: The bank: District deck: Graveyard: Crown: Behaviours Players: At the start of the round they pick a hero card to represent them for that round. Once it is their turn, they get an action, either drawing cards or get gold. After their action they can use their hero’s special ability, and then choose to build a district. District cards: Gold: Hero cards: Bank: District deck: Graveyard: Crown: Relationships Gold is the resource of the game, you need it to build districts, and some hero cards let you either build for free or give extra gold. Districts gives bonuses to certain heroes depending on their colours, like the Abbot gaining a bonus gold for each religious (blue) district you own, or the King a bonus gold for each noble (yellow) district you own. Heroes determines how early you get to play, and the first 3 (Assassin/Witch, Thief/Tax collector and Wizard/Magician) usually target another player. Getting to play first can both be considered good and bad, a Witch cannot build during it’s turn, but when (and if) the player he bewitched does play, he also gets this hero’s special ability. Number 1 is designed to hinder other players. Number 2 to gain gold. Number 3 are related to looking at/trading another players cards. Number 4 is to move the crown and related to the noble districts. Number 5 is related to religious districts. Number 6 is related to gold either gaining it through trade (green) districts or keeping it from building districts. Number 7 is related to the players action and build phase. Number 8 is related to the other player’s districts and gain bonus gold for each military (red) district he owns. Number 9 is a miscellaneous card, being very situational. The bank gives the player money, and takes them when the players want to build a district. District deck, the players draw district cards from this deck. Graveyard, the player’s discarded district cards are thrown here, some might be retrieved through special districts abilities. The crown is passed on through hero card number 4, and it determines which player pick a hero card first, there are a certain district card that makes a player loose his turn if they don’t say a line when their turn starts (and the crown bearer with the district notice it). A typical round First the player with the crown shuffle the hero cards and then put one card face-down and 1-4 (depending on the amount of players) cards face-up, which can’t be played that round. He then choose one of the cards that are left, the players following each drawing a hero card until the last player, who also can draw the face-down card. The player with the lowest number then start their turn, doing an action (1 of 2 cards or 2 gold), playing their hero’s special ability (assassinate with the Assassin 1 Card) and (unless they are the Witch, in which case the first have to bewitch someone) choose to build a district (if they have enough money). Then the one with the second lowest number plays their turn, unless assassinated. If bewitched they can’t use their special ability nor build that turn. If they played the Navigator, they may take two actions, but may not build. repeating up until the last player have played their hero card. Good parts It is a very tactical game, you have to weigh between trying to bolster your own advantage or trying to put a leg in front of another player to give them a disadvantage. If you play the Assassin or Witch, you have to accurately determine which player is playing what card to be able to put a disadvantage on that person, Witch can’t even build if they fail to bewitch someone. During the picking phase, you have to consider that the Witch, Assassin or Thief might target you, and have to weigh whether to pick a beneficial or another hero card to not be targeted by them. Playing mind-games on the others are a crucial and well-implemented feature of the game, making the game play out differently each time you play it. Not-so-good parts Number 1 Witch have a decent drawback, making it much less useful if you can’t predict which card is going to be played. Number 1 Assassin have a similar benefit (playing first and destroying for other players), however, it doesn’t have a drawback if you can’t predict the other players cards, except you can’t make them lose a turn. It kinda felt like an overpowered card. The same goes for number 2 Thief/Tax collector. However, they are still somewhat balanced, as the Thief might be able to steal all money from someone, though if he fails, he won’t get anything, while Tax collector don’t have to choose a target, he get one gold from any player that build anything during that turn. Number 9 seems very situational, it would be a card you play if you do not want to be targeted by the Witch, Assassin or Thief, as you normally wouldn’t want to pick this card, as you get to play last and they provide meagre benefits. If this card got some better benefits, it would feel more worth picking, as it would be a high risk, high reward card, right now, it is a low risk, low reward. Compared to the low risk, high reward card Assassin. Interesting parts The tactical part of the game was definitely the most interesting part of the game, the feeling of “yeah, I did it!” you get when you manage to decipher what card the one you want to destroy for has, or when you avoid being struck by their attacks by picking the card they wouldn’t think you have. Target audience The game seems to be mostly centred on males who like mind games and strategy, as the theme is mostly on wars and intrigues, though girls who like to play mind games on others could probably like this game as well. People that want fast-paced gameplay will most likely not like this game, as a majority of the time is spending time figuring out your competitors. Summary It is a very strategic game which put your person reading abilities to the test, the hero cards does a good job of raising the strategic value of the game. However, the district cards are very much less so, there isn’t much strategy regarding these cards, and they will be built whenever there is money to build them, the exception would be the purple cards, but their strategic value is much less impactful than the hero cards. The Armoury is a strategic district card as well, giving you the ability to destroy an opponents district card, and when not played, give the other players something to fear. Finally, the hero cards are somewhat unbalanced, number 1 is almost always preferred over anything else, there is no penalty for using the Assassin for example, which makes it rather boring, the Witch is a high risk, high reward card, and the high reward outweighs the risk pretty much all the time. Number 2 through 8 are mostly balanced, some could need some more penalties (the Alchemist could maybe return half the cost, instead of full refund when building), number 9 however is too situational and would need some better benefits to outweigh the drawbacks, or making the rewards at a much higher risk (if no one plays card X, reward, else, punished, or the inverse, someone plays card X, reward) and improving the benefits greatly, so it’s a high risk, high reward card to play. |
