Just throwing this out there, but is healing really so important that it needs to be in the game? I mean it’s clear that healing was included only as a solution to what to do with those dead minor cards. Why not have have a rule that once per turn if you draw a dead minor card you can reveal it, discard it and draw a new card? It’s a big change, but it would have the effect of speeding up the game (where as currently healing drags it out).
I think it’s probably fine the way it is. I like the penalty of getting weighed down with minor cards, and the strategy of beating a player by first taking out his minor. For example, that’s about the only way you’re going to beat Gandalf in LOTRED is by taking out Pippin and hopefully water down Gandalf’s draw. If we changed to your suggested rule, you’d no longer have that strategy available. As it is, heal is a pretty weak use of an action but it does come in handy at times, like when facing an opponent who relies on more direct damage.
First, thanks so much for doing this Roman, I’ve certainly enjoyed reading it! I especially liked that now we know what that ED sequel was about.
The only thing I have more than a few thoughts on is how in part two, he mentioned that ED was intended for 8-10 year olds and so they didn’t fuss over little things like trying to find a better replacement for the heal rule. I sometimes wonder what an “advanced” ED would look like, you know if it was re-made, but this time for an older audience and with more strategic depth. I think Mike Maloney has made some great decks that add a lot of strategy to the game without changes the basic mechanics, but that’s not quite what I’m thinking of. Probably it’s just better to let ED be a fun, fast shoot ’em up and look in other places for deeper games.
Glad you enjoyed it! I am pretty pleased with it. It was actually fun to go back and listen to it, rewind, and sort of unpack it all.
Well, we could literally make the heal rule 25% more effective by allowing a player to play up to 2 cards at a time and heal up to 2 instead of 1. But, do you really want to make the games longer, and to drag out what might be the worst part of the game?
This version and Kylo Ren, another forced discarding deck, wreaked havoc on Luke Grand Master and Jyn Erso. Jyn had a bad game, not getting much of anything going, but Snoke’s revised MIND STRIP makes him pretty nasty. Once Rey was gone, Snoke was able to apply some DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR pressure on Luke. I think this is probably a good place for Snoke to settle into, but I’ll certainly accept any feedback.
I played against Luke with the 3 DD version of ILLUSIONARY STRIKE. It’s a pretty good card. I think I played D4s against, it, and it’s like an A7 against those. At the same time, it’s an A3 if you have no defense at all. Luke is still very, very strong defensively and has a deep enough bag of tricks that this is probably all he really needs. I’ll test him some more to make sure he wins a game, but if he isn’t a Tier 1 deck, that would be ok with my group. I think he probably still is Tier 1, though.
Thanks but we didn’t do them. They were done by Robert Moore, Sultan, and some guy named Brian. With the initial 4 maps + 4 Transformers maps + 4 good LOTR maps, additional maps haven’t been a big enough need for us for anyone to learn how to make them.
Hi!
Out of curiosity, how do you determine unit starting spaces with these maps? Can players deploy their Majors wherever?
Also, how do you set up decks with multiple Majors?
Thanks for sharing these, by the way!
I recommend the Epic Duels Online Rules for placement: Major must start on a space on the back line, then you place the minors anywhere adjacent to the majors.
There are some unusual decks: For the Uruk-hai Army, I’d say both majors must start on the back line and the minors can be placed adjacent to either major. For the Nazgul, I’d say one Nazgul must start on the back line but then the other 2 just need to be adjacent to the first one.
It’s probably a good idea if I fetch those EDOL rules and post them before the Yahoo! group that they’re stored on disappears completely.
From Just a Difference of 12 Cards: Rob Daviau Interview Part 3 – Geektopia
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Darth Maul
[…] thought it was nice that we were able to tweak out the feeling of Count Dooku being different than Darth Maul from, I can’t remember now, you probably remember better than I do, how many special cards were […]
From Just a Difference of 12 Cards: Rob Daviau Interview Part 3 – Geektopia
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Count Dooku
[…] feel like the characters. And I thought it was nice that we were able to tweak out the feeling of Count Dooku being different than Darth Maul from, I can’t remember now, you probably remember better than I […]
I figured out a potential tweak for the heal rule but as I think about it… it would just extend the game a little more, it would be less of a punishment to the major to have his minor(s) killed off, it would encourage more running, hiding and healing… I suppose it would make movement a tad more valuable but in hindsight, I think I would have told Rob that the rule is fine the way it is.
[…] Tower of Madness also has a very impressive table presence, one needed if you’re going to hold back the forces of Cthulu. This one follows the line of Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition. […]
It was a pleasure attending this years Toy Fair with you. I believe we accomplished what we wanted and perhaps left with more opportunities and ideas then we could have imagined. I look forward to attending future shows with you.
Cage Match is a great game and time and effort will get it where it needs. It is a nice step and beginning to building your library of games.
[…] I talked to the folks at Stronghold Games about an official, sanctioned Terraforming Mars tournament at GenCon. “I so hope they do a tournament,” said my friend, Televator, one of the […]
[…] Tower Madness also has a very impressive table presence, one needed if you’re going to hold back the forces of Cthulu. This one follows the line of Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition. […]
Feel free to add 1 HP to each of them for your set, but it will make the deck really, really strong. They are already Tier 1B and I don’t think they should be 1A. With another HP each, I think they’d be at the very top.
Ehh from my experience the printer cartridges were significantly more expensive. I am just trying to use my work printer and I think that will work out nicely!
So I don’t have my own printer to use, I did have a cheap one but color printing was out of the question because of ink cartridge costs. I’ve been using fed ex print which is a little pricy ($.65/color page) but the quality is really nice. I’ve tried increasing the border a bit (I think to the 3 pixel setting) so we’ll see if that works, but I also noticed when printing from Adobe on another printer if I choose the print option “fit” it seemed like the page was oversized so I might try messing around with those options. Haven’t really had a chance to try again.
Hi Roman, been a while since I’ve been back here… Haven’t had many people to play the game with but I’m trying to get some new people into it. Thanks for updating the Shaak-Ti deck, I’ll have to give it a try! (also keeping this site up… it’s great)
I’ve got a question about the deck designer program. Whenever I print decks off from PDFs, I have problems aligning it just right. It’s good but not perfect. Some decks I’ve seen have added spaces between the cards on the front side which kind of hides any alignment problems, partly because the back images are larger than the front side. “Is it possible to learn this power?” Or do you have any tips for printing? I think the problem is the image part of the PDF doesn’t sit in the exact middle (slightly too far left, like 1/16 in, ends up being 1/8 between both sides).
Hi Paul, you’re probably better off getting set up at the Wiki: http://epicduels.pbworks.com/w/page/9779461/FrontPage. You can see all the decks out there, and download the Deck Designer software that makes it easy to create .PDFs and Vassal extensions, plus chat with others who can help you put everything together, including myself. See you there!
Thanks for letting me know. I’m not sure what caused that. I checked most of the other pages and all the other .PDFs appear fine, just that one was a problem, but it’s fixed now.
Hey Roman! Here is Raistlin from Italy 🙂
I received your message. How are you old friend?
I constantly play Epic Duels right now eheheh – I played it just last friday night as an entry level game for a new gamer-girl. She liked it a lot (and played your 4-arms Grievous deck!).
Yes, I stll write boardgames reviews and… my first game is out now: Warstones.
I created it with a good friend and famous italian game-designer (Andrea Chiarvesio… Kingsburg, Olympus, Hyperborea and other games)
You will find it also on Boardgamegeek, here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/218519/warstones
(hope the link is legal here – if not, remove it)
The game will be available in the USA soon – if all things go in the right way.
Cage Match looks interesting. Tempus fugit here… but I hope to have some spare time to look at it more in depths.
Thank you very much for your message. I’ll never forget you and the others Epic Duels fans.
È bello parlare di nuovo con il mio amico italiano! Congratulazioni per Warstones! Fantastico!
Ok, I’ve used up all of my Italian. I’m delighted to hear that you still play Epic Duels. I would love your feedback on Luke Grand Master and Supreme Leader Snoke!
However, I mainly contacted you about Cage Match, as mixed martial arts has tremendous international appeal, and because you and I seem to have similar taste in games, including the particular flavor of Epic Duels that we like to play. I hope you can find time for Cage Match to play test it, review it and/or help me find distribution in Europe or at least Italy. Let me know what you might be interested in, and if there’s anything I can do to help with Warstones, as I will be talking with game companies in February at the Toy Fair in NYC.
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