Finally got in a new round of Warcaster with my new group for the first time since COVID. I really like the pacing and feeling of the game. I was of the impression that every decision matters. And alternating activations keep me more engaged, even if it is the opponent’s turn. PP has a very nice system there in my opinion. Really hope it will develop further.
Only thing bugging me a little (really not much) is the play duration. Granted it was the first time for my opponent, but it took us 3h for a skirmish mission, which is intensive for the average gamer.
One thing that pleasantly surprised me though was how fast I was able to explain the rules to her. It immediately clicked even though she is not a power or tabletop gamer. Great job there!
Agree with all your comments: the rules are simple but leave a lot of meaningful decisions, simple to learn but hard to master.
On timing: I think the length of the skirmish game is one of the frustrations of the game. It can be quicker than your first experience, but still 90-120 mins. One hint while you’re learning is to keep the turn sequence card (or back of rulebook) next to you at all times: until I discovered it I spent too much time going “what do I do next?”.
I read your blog post on speeding up the game and tried out some things like rolling attack and defense at the same time. It definitely already helped to keep the duration down. I feel from there on it really just comes down to practice.
However we will definitely stick to skirmish for the time being.
I did one thing that I feel like turned out to be a bad idea: I tried to lower the burden of entry by giving each of us only 8 cypher cards. However, that led to us cycling through the deck almost immediately. In hindsight, this was unnecessary. Will play with a full-sized deck next time.
