Game Upgrade with Enhanced Gameplay!
4 months ago
– Thu, May 30, 2024 at 07:50:04 AM
Hello all,
This is Jeffrey. I'm going to share with you some news on the latest development of Epochs.
For the last few months, my team and I didn't stop the development and playtesting of Epochs. Based on many reviews and new comments, we have implemented and confirmed some changes to the game. I'm proud to present the evolved version of Epochs!
Higher levels of academic research will have city requirements.
Now, another layer of strategy is added to academic research! In the new version, players will have to balance city development and research. No worries, the research style of play is still valid. You are just required to have 1 to 2 cities if you wish to research a lot. And Greece will have a new ability that reduces the city demand for research.
Some civilization abilities, inventions, and wonders will be updated.
As requested, I updated some abilities in the game, especially the abilities of the first 6 civilizations. They will be a little bit more complex, but more rewarding and unique. Additionally, some cards are updated to adapt to the changes in the game. You can expect the original combos to be kept, and interact with some new combos and paths!
The public area is redesigned and will take up less space on the table!
We have feedback saying the game is taking up too much space. And it's quite difficult to read the cards in the market when they are sitting far away from them. We tried different ways, and we're happy with the latest version that was born a month ago. The areas are rearranged, and the card market is much closer to the players. This redesign will change the look of the public area, and some little rules, but overall, there are no gameplay changes.
The formation mechanics are expanded to various abilities.
There are three different formations in the game, why don't they have different abilities? Yes! We will include this feature! Forming a formation won't provide 1 extra constant strength anymore. Instead, they will give you a specific formation token. You could use it for once(thematically, once you take big advantage with a formation, the enemy will find a way to handle it). For instance, a phalanx can give you a +3 in one defending battle. With a good usage of formation, weaker units could possibly win a critical battle!
Players will be able to declare war without being warmonger!
Opinions towards "War is strong or not" in Epochs are quite polarized. Some players thought Warmonger was too punishing while some experienced a Warmonger dominated game. It is a very interesting topic, and I would like to share what I found in my further analysis and research.
For experienced players who know a lot about Epochs, the Warmonger rule works perfectly. It is like a thin barrier between players, preventing one from attacking the others. But when your opponent doesn't invest in the military, the barrier will fade as the rewards from attacking rise. So, normally, it gives the incentive to arm race, which is thematic and requires players' attention. If the best unit and the best wonder for you is in the market, in the turn you originally planned to change government form, what will be your choice? Skipping the good unit to do another action can give you a higher score, but that might give a window for your opponent to attack. Sometimes, one successful attack(taking 1 point and an important land) can already balance out the Warmonger punishment. But why do some players feel different? I found that it's because the Warmonger is too much like a "go all-in". Yes, if you can go all-in at perfect timing, you can get the benefits, sometimes the benefits can even be significantly good. But for new players to the game, it's too demanding to find the timing. The timing is affected by the current units of all players, the units in the market, the terrain types at the border, locations of neutral cities, the resources you have(and will gain in the following turns), the number of cards and actions left for you and other players, and more.
To enhance the experience for new players, a war declaration rule is added. Players can now declare war on an opponent in the war step, by exhausting one authority. They can't attack one another in this round, but after a round, attacks are allowed. New tokens will be provided in the game to indicate the war status. The warmonger rule is still here, when a player wants to launch a sudden attack or take down some neutral cities, they still need to be the warmonger, with all trade suspended and culture deduction.
Declaring war is like a small investment in "attacking one specific player", compared to the "all-in warmonger" way. We found that new players enjoy this additional a lot, as even if they declare war wrongly, it's just one authority exhausted(and it will come back at the end of Epoch!), plus a player will become your enemy until the end of the Epoch. And for experienced players, warmongering is still the best way to attack. Declaring war is an alternative when you wish to keep trading with other players/neutral cities, meanwhile, give some pressure on the target player you want to suppress. On top of that, 2v1, 3v1, or 2v2 situations will occur more easily and naturally. I can say that the dynamic between players will be more rich and more varied with the additional rules!
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The campaign of Epochs will be ended in three days! Thank you everyone for supporting my team and me! We are not a big company, but we are 100% passionate about developing good games! I myself, am a big fan of civ-type games. Creating civ games is ALWAYS one of my million dreams. I presented Age of Civilization back in 2019, it was a big hit that far exceeded my expectations, and gave me the opportunity to continue my journey of game design. Therefore, I am always grateful to all backers, fans, the board game community, reviewers, collaborators, and my team. Without your support, no games from me can come to life.
We have several stretch goals still locked on the campaign, one of them is the highly requested custom-shape for resources token! We have spent a lot of time discussing with our manufacturers to make it possible, so I sincerely wish we could get there and make it happen!
Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to tell us your thoughts on the game and the campaign, or anything about Ice Makes. We will listen and keep improving. :)
Jeffrey CCH
German Option Confirmed!
4 months ago
– Tue, May 28, 2024 at 04:37:23 AM
Hi backers!
Good news!
The German version of Epochs will be available in this campaign!
Thank you all for participating in the language poll. Based on the results, we've decided to add one more language option to backers. So, the rulebook and all components will be translated into German. After the campaign ends, you'll be able to select your preferred language, English or German, in the pledge manager. We'll provide detailed instructions on how to use the pledge manager in a future update.
We regret that Epochs do not have other language versions in this campaign. You may be disappointed, but after consideration, it can't work out - we will suffer loss. We sincerely hope you'll still pledge $1 to support our efforts and stay engaged. Or, consider the English version, as most players indicated Epochs isn't very language-dependent. Anyway, thank you for showing your interest in Epochs.
See you in the next Update!
Ice Makes Team
Expansion: Middle East and Latin America | Language Poll Begins!
4 months ago
– Fri, May 24, 2024 at 01:50:45 PM
Hi everyone,
This is Jeffrey and I'm going to share with you some details of the expansion: Middle East and Latin America!
Let me introduce 2 civilizations in the expansion - Arabia and Babylon.
Arabia is a medium-complexity civilization in Epochs. It is one of the few that possess abilities across 3 Epochs.
If other players researched in the early game, research a few more times to push up the research cost and activate Knowledge Protection might be a good idea. It provides a good amount of science and allows you to store them through Epochs. With this ability, several unique styles of play are possible and Arabia can be the civ with the most science in the middle age.
House of Wisdom is an ability with a high skill ceiling. You will have to research and upgrade your army at the same time. It requires a lot of science, and you may have to stay in the monarchy for a long time, to activate the ability more. If you use it well, it brings you not only a cost discount but more importantly, free actions as well. Combining it with Knowledge Protection is a good idea, but be careful not to push the research cost too high or you will find researching impossible in mid-game, while you desperately need to upgrade your army.
Center of Trade is more situational. It would be a great ability if you could occupy the deserts and have the opportunity to trade a lot. If the situation seems perfect, you may consider skipping trade action in Epoch 1 and leaving the opportunities for later. So that the Center of Trade could generate more resources by trade action in Epoch 2, and give you a golden age.
And finally, the Oil Export in Epoch 3 is simple but fun! Place three unique tiles on your territory and protect them well, hence you’ll be a wealthy nation in the late game!
All the abilities of Arabia could give you great benefits in different situations and aspects. The two abilities you choose will shape your path to victory!
Babylon- the ancient city in southern Mesopotamia that brought us the Babylonian Empire, the famous Ishtar Gate, and many achievements in law and mathematics. In Epochs, it is a high-complexity ancient civ that would challenge your planning skill in Epoch 1. (By the way, updated rules- Now all abilities are available to activate in the specified Epoch ONLY, not before nor after that period.)
Hammurabi can give you high rewards depending on the number of your city. Normally, players will find it hard to build more than 1 city in Epoch 1. However with Babylon, you could go with Mathematics Theory to gain abundant production, or Ishtar Gate to give you the ability to build cities at the corner of your lands! Not to mention the combo of the Hanging Garden and the Code of Law.
Okay, let’s come back to Hammurabi. If you could build or conquer 3 to 4 cities in Epoch 1, the amount of resources Hammurabi gives you will be crazy. No more time to spend them? You may consider converting the resources to gold with the monarchy! (Although classical democracy is also very attractive when combined with Mathematics Theory... Your choice.)
Moreover, the Fanatical Record-Keeper provides you with a new way to achieve victory. Each time you change your government form, research, or build a wonder, you can store one science as a victory point!
So you can see that Babylon focuses a lot on city building and science, with a prosperity Epoch 1. However, after the first stage, you’ll see a decline(especially when your opponents are late-game civs). You will have to expect that, and strike a balance between development, scoring points and military defense so that you won’t follow in the footsteps of the Babylonian empire in our history.
When I designed the civilizations in this game, I valued both game-mechanical and thematic experiences. I wish to let the players play with their strategy towards victory, while naturally, writing and experiencing a story that echoes our fascinating history. Giving powerful and game-changing abilities to civilizations is cool, but it may also limit players’ playing style and interaction with random elements like maps and cards that appear in a game. Therefore, I design four abilities for each civ, and let players choose their abilities in the game. No matter what they choose, the abilities are still fun and thematically awesome!
The only bad thing is that it requires much more time for development and play-testing. I believe it’s worth it though! :D
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We need your response! Please take a moment to fill in the survey and let us know your language preference. The deadline is 27th May. We need 200+ backers to unlock a language version!
See you in the next update!
ICE Makes Team
[Poll] Trading Post Design Upgrade
4 months ago
– Mon, May 20, 2024 at 02:42:30 AM
Hi backers!
Over 200 of you enthusiastically participated in last week's voting! Thank you very much for joining us in the development of Epochs! The winning illustrations are the Great Library, Hagia Sophia, Big Ben, and Sydney Opera House. We will be using these 4 stunning artworks to design the interior box art.
This update is also to invite all of you to help us decide on the trading post token design. Beyond the stretch goals, we're constantly looking to upgrade the game design and components to provide an even better gaming experience! Our talented product designer has created the latest City tokens and ideated several trading post designs. Now we're calling on you to vote on BoardGameGeek to determine the final version of the trading post!
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Welcome New Backers!
We have got an exciting social stretch goal:
If Epochs could have 700 fans and subscribers on Board Game Geek, the upgraded dice will be unlocked, with a more epic, engraved design! :D
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A quick note for those of you who may be on the fence about whether Epochs will have more language options - we'll be sending out a survey to backers this Friday. A language version will be unlocked with 200+ backers voting in it. Only backers will receive the survey, so back it now to guarantee a vote!
See you in the next update!
ICE Makes Team
[Poll] Let's Design the Interior of Game Box with Us!
5 months ago
– Tue, May 14, 2024 at 06:35:12 AM
Hi Backers,
We are going to invite you all to get involved in the development of Epochs!
We have created a poll on BoardGameGeek, where you can cast your vote for your favorite Wonder illustrations. The artwork in each Epoch with the highest number of votes will be chosen to design the interior of the Epochs game box. The deadline for the poll is 17th May, this Friday.
Your voice matters. Let's be part of this exciting journey!
Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for Epochs. Together, we are creating a legendary civilization game that we can all be proud of.
See you in the next update!
ICE Makes Team
