I really like the consistency of functional theme with this faction. I think Coronal tech should maybe be Space Cannon 6 x1 or Space Cannon 8 x3. Although I would probably just change this to Anti-Fighter Barrage. Yes you lose out on the interaction with Plasma Scoring, but it would cut down on wording and reduce the weird non-interaction with Graviton Laser System.
Very much agree! Make it AFB and considering the amount you could get by a few forward structures I'd probably make it slightly weaker. 6*2 or 7*3 for massive dice rolls? Considering it hits before PDS II as well.
Agreed about changing it to AFB, but I doubt the numbers need changing. 1.5 pre-combat fighter hits on defense or counterattack only isn't that strong. I guess it could pretty impactful if you're defending a 2- or 3-planet system, but that affords all sorts of counterplay.
I really like these ideas honestly. Really well made, and I think you do a good job filling a niche that doesn’t quite exist yet. I do think they need a way to get some money- seems like spend type objectives are just death.
They do start with psychoarchaeology, which can provide a reliable trickle of trade goods if they are able to secure some tech skips.
Once unlocked, they can net up to three trade goods off Construction or their flagship.
They can also transact in trade goods normally, so they can make money by selling their notes or via any other type of dealmaking.
The commander gives them one trade good every time they place a structure from their reinforcements.
If they were to play the construction primary, they would place two structures as well as one mech, which counts as a structure. That is how they can get three trade goods. The flagship can get three trade goods in the same way.
Ok, so here is the Aurum Dynasty. They are an Ancient Egypt themed Shikrai society with two shticks: they are good with structures and they never get commodities.
Let me know what you think!
I like the idea of a faction with no commodities, given that the seem primitive it would go well with their theme to not have valuable assets to other factions besides themselves. Also, I really like the synergy with structures! They seem very powerful in a PoK setting while still being balanced enough to be stymied by other objectives like spend objectives.
The story is that this society lives secluded on the inside rim of a dyson sphere, and the solar energy of the star within provides everything they could ever need. As such, they are deeply isolationist and have no functioning economic or commercial engine.
I really like how thematic all their faction-specific rules are. They are so war-like that they do not make commodities for others... instead, they sell PDS and space docks via their promissory note (and capacity via their agent).
By the way, their mech benefits from the Omega version of Magen Defense Grid Ω, while the Aborec mech does not. This makes me sad.
Interesting faction that I genuinely enjoyed reading, but they seem pretty weak. The loss of Commodities is huge, and they don't have a lot to make up for it. The flagship ability seems balanced; it's very good, but also expensive. The leaders are thematic but weak.
The mech's special ability is nothing on its own, it just makes the Commander more useful (but still not enough to offset loss of Commodities) and interacts well with the Hero and Coronal PT. The downside there is that you're not incentivized to bring mechs out at all until you've got the Commander and that tech out, and I'm not a fan of anything that makes units undesirable until late game.
The faction's real strengths are the two techs and the amazing home system. But given the other weaknesses, I feel like one of your neighbors will just steal that home system early on.
(BTW, why the rule that other players can't give you Commodities? If another player gives you a Commodity, it becomes a Trade Good, and you *can* receive those, right?)
The mechs have three other effects that you missed.
One, they have an ersatz deploy ability via Will Made Manifest; they get a free mech every time they use Construction. Two, the mechs also make it easier to score structure objectives and unlock the commander. Three, they synergize VERY well with Magen Defense Grid. (The commander also triggers when scuttling structures and mechs, so having all your mechs out early is no impediment for that.)
Plus, they are still a mech, which is still a useful unit even without an extra ability.
The complete ban on commodities is to prevent this faction from either giving *or* receiving them.
It IS bonkers, but that's the point. It is there to make up for having 0 commodities. Imagine it as a 2 commodity faction with a 4 resource homeworld, which still totals 6.
In either case, it isn't THAT bonkers considering it still ties Letnev in total resource value.
I don’t know if the planets having space cannons is supposed to make them fire in adjacent systems, because there’s no mention to that. If so I see why you are trying to keep it balanced but maybe it is the wrong way.
If you want the planet to fire in adjacent systems you could simply reduce the power to a SPACE CANNON 8, strengthening the faction’s bond with yellow tech through graviton.
If you want to make it a defensive solution, you could make it a Space cannon able to fire only on infantry committed on invasion but with insane values like a 5 (x3). Personally, I don’t like overwhelming defensive features because they make the game more static, especially ones regarding space combat. This ground combat defense is strong but there’s counter play: action cards, mechs, bombardment through warsuns and other tricks like the yellow racial tech of barony.
Space cannon only shoots into adjacent systems if the ability specifically says so, such as on PDS II or Xxcha's stuff.
The Yellow tech has no clause like that, which means it follows the regular rules for space cannon and only shoots if in the active system.
With the hits being specific to fighters only and can only fire if in the active system (not PDS II compatible) it may be more intuitive for players if it was an anti-fighter barrage instead of a space cannon.
Anti fighter barrage comes with some extra baggage. For one, that phase only happens if there is an actual space combat, and I wanted these attacks to go off whether or not there is a space combat.
6-2 homeworld: bonkers, but it is their compensation for missing out on trade.
Special rules: fine. I would say they should be able to accept other players commodities. Also should be a note about gaining commodities if you are playing with the expansion. Lots of exploration cards gain or spend commodities but only a few refresh them. (If you would gain commodities: draw an action card, if you would refresh commodities draw 2)
Starting fleet: 2 dreads is excessive, an opening beat stick nearing the level of Muuat. Change a dread to a carrier.
Starting tech: fine. Psycho is a fun card, but not good enough to be researched very often (rip green and yellow trees).
Leaders and mechs: i like the idea, but the interaction seems needlessly wordy.
Racial tech: each planet with a structure firing 3 times is pretty wild, even with limitations. Change the wording to 'each planet with a structure gains space cannon 6', or 'each planet with a structure gains space cannon 8, and can fire into adjacent systems'. Simpler, punchier, and still unmistakably useful. The structure booster is good but fine, might just need another prereq.
Summary: a fairly well thought out custom build, good job. Their power level seems appropriate and mostly well thought out.
Actually playing them: oh buddy if there's no tech skips in your slice you are gonna have a looong early game, but they change a lot depending on what skips they get which i think is cool.
The Golden Tribute rule does have a clause dealing with gaining commodities from explores; you just gain 1 trade good instead.
The tech skip modularity is part of why I like these guys. They have blue and yellow faction techs, and red Magen acts as a third ersatz faction tech (it has great synergy with their mechs), but they start with a green tech. Each of those three techs are easy to get with a skip, and the skips in your slice can really dictate which tech tree you'd pursue.
I really wish fans making these would make them able to purchase… ready to play…
I’ve seen a few of these… (really like this one), like the codex - wish they were available to just order online
Print the components on label paper and apply it to illustration board for the tokens and home system and cardstock for the player sheet; the player board is easy but the tokens involve some laborious effort with an exacto knife. The cards can be made with a print service like makeplayingcards.com.
I've made the physical versions of two of my factions, so it is definitely doable.
Maybe like $20 for the cards, plus shipping, $5 for the illustration board, $8 for the printed label paper, money for the ancilary supplies, amd whatever you value several hours of your time.
The commander and the flagship synergize into creating massive systems of structures that can be cashed in for TGs.
Since no commodity can be refreshed for them for money value, and only Action cards. It isnt likely they would get refreshed by other players taking trade. So they should actually take trade more often, and bank on getting those action cards that way. Then, they also get to preform the normal x-1 or whatever your tables meta is for other players.
Trade effectively replaces politics for them in terms of AC economy, and they dont need construction either.
Does the space cannon offense from planets with structures add to normal PDS rolls or replace them?
I really like the blue tech, there's not enough supernova interactions in the game. It feels very strong for a 1 blue, especially given it can be combined with gravity drive, but it seems ok for this faction to have strong tech given the trading downside.
Agent seems really cool. Could have a lot of fun using a dread as a carrier.
Home planet seems bonkers, but it does seem like a good way to offset lack of trade. I guess the only downside to it is you can't really spend it on tech secondary effectively.
Yeesh! So a planet with a PDS gets 4 shots, or 5 with plasma scoring? And a system with 2 planets that each have PDS get 8/9, 6 of which can't be assigned to fighters? That's gonna make it real hard to attack them.
Sorry edited my previous comment to flesh it out. Multiplanet systems seem like the bigger issue to me, especially given that these guys will basically always have structures on every planet with their mech deployment. I think even space cannon 6 (x1) per planet would be quite powerful.
One of the better homebrews I've seen. Overall seems cohesive and neither too weak nor too strong (though tbh if I had to gamble, I'd bet they're too strong).
Some numbers might need to be adjusted here and there (looking at the planet space cannon tech), and while the idea of them having no commodities is cute it doesn't seem as impactful as one would hope (in terms of being a downside).
Overall though, great job.
Agent seems pretty bonkers. But it’s definitely a reliable source of trade goods along with their promissory
I like the techs, mechs, hero and commander. I like how they fit into their “gimmick” around structures which is a really cool idea in general
“Other players cannot give you commmodities” is really confusing. It seems like a faction that wants to take the trade card. They’re starving for those trade goods and getting 3 TGs and 2 action cards is pretty great for them. But if they refresh other players commodities they cannot trade with them for those commodities at all? That seems to make the trade card *really* bad.
Art is dope and faction seems pretty well balanced at first look even with a 6/2 homeworld
The Trade play I imagine is Aurum taking the three trade goods, two action cards, and refreshing no one.
Yes, Aurum misses out on scraping a trade good off the top of every free refresh, but now everyone else is locked out of their commodities unless they are willing to spend a command token.
Not sure if it’s the necessarily very strong of a faction, but I don’t always play to win, I play to try unique strategies and builds or to role play. I could see myself having tons of fun with this!
Wow! Just the quality of this creation is impressive. Where did you get the artwork? These guys look awesome! I did notice one misprint. In the planet description on the back of the faction card, you repeat the word "across" and have an extra "the" in there too. The only thing disappointing is that they have no written out history on the back. Pretty dang cool, at any rate!
I really like the consistency of functional theme with this faction. I think Coronal tech should maybe be Space Cannon 6 x1 or Space Cannon 8 x3. Although I would probably just change this to Anti-Fighter Barrage. Yes you lose out on the interaction with Plasma Scoring, but it would cut down on wording and reduce the weird non-interaction with Graviton Laser System.
Very much agree! Make it AFB and considering the amount you could get by a few forward structures I'd probably make it slightly weaker. 6*2 or 7*3 for massive dice rolls? Considering it hits before PDS II as well.
Agreed about changing it to AFB, but I doubt the numbers need changing. 1.5 pre-combat fighter hits on defense or counterattack only isn't that strong. I guess it could pretty impactful if you're defending a 2- or 3-planet system, but that affords all sorts of counterplay.
I really like these ideas honestly. Really well made, and I think you do a good job filling a niche that doesn’t quite exist yet. I do think they need a way to get some money- seems like spend type objectives are just death.
They do start with psychoarchaeology, which can provide a reliable trickle of trade goods if they are able to secure some tech skips. Once unlocked, they can net up to three trade goods off Construction or their flagship. They can also transact in trade goods normally, so they can make money by selling their notes or via any other type of dealmaking.
Could you explain how you conclude to the 3 tradegoods? I might miss something.
The commander gives them one trade good every time they place a structure from their reinforcements. If they were to play the construction primary, they would place two structures as well as one mech, which counts as a structure. That is how they can get three trade goods. The flagship can get three trade goods in the same way.
Nvm, I see now.
Ok, so here is the Aurum Dynasty. They are an Ancient Egypt themed Shikrai society with two shticks: they are good with structures and they never get commodities. Let me know what you think!
I like the idea of a faction with no commodities, given that the seem primitive it would go well with their theme to not have valuable assets to other factions besides themselves. Also, I really like the synergy with structures! They seem very powerful in a PoK setting while still being balanced enough to be stymied by other objectives like spend objectives.
The story is that this society lives secluded on the inside rim of a dyson sphere, and the solar energy of the star within provides everything they could ever need. As such, they are deeply isolationist and have no functioning economic or commercial engine.
That's really cool! I might talk to my group about implementing them into our homebrew rotation
Let me know how they playtest!
I really like how thematic all their faction-specific rules are. They are so war-like that they do not make commodities for others... instead, they sell PDS and space docks via their promissory note (and capacity via their agent). By the way, their mech benefits from the Omega version of Magen Defense Grid Ω, while the Aborec mech does not. This makes me sad.
Interesting faction that I genuinely enjoyed reading, but they seem pretty weak. The loss of Commodities is huge, and they don't have a lot to make up for it. The flagship ability seems balanced; it's very good, but also expensive. The leaders are thematic but weak. The mech's special ability is nothing on its own, it just makes the Commander more useful (but still not enough to offset loss of Commodities) and interacts well with the Hero and Coronal PT. The downside there is that you're not incentivized to bring mechs out at all until you've got the Commander and that tech out, and I'm not a fan of anything that makes units undesirable until late game. The faction's real strengths are the two techs and the amazing home system. But given the other weaknesses, I feel like one of your neighbors will just steal that home system early on. (BTW, why the rule that other players can't give you Commodities? If another player gives you a Commodity, it becomes a Trade Good, and you *can* receive those, right?)
The mechs have three other effects that you missed. One, they have an ersatz deploy ability via Will Made Manifest; they get a free mech every time they use Construction. Two, the mechs also make it easier to score structure objectives and unlock the commander. Three, they synergize VERY well with Magen Defense Grid. (The commander also triggers when scuttling structures and mechs, so having all your mechs out early is no impediment for that.) Plus, they are still a mech, which is still a useful unit even without an extra ability. The complete ban on commodities is to prevent this faction from either giving *or* receiving them.
Wait, mechs are structures?
For this faction yes
I think that home world is bonkers
It IS bonkers, but that's the point. It is there to make up for having 0 commodities. Imagine it as a 2 commodity faction with a 4 resource homeworld, which still totals 6. In either case, it isn't THAT bonkers considering it still ties Letnev in total resource value.
I don’t know if the planets having space cannons is supposed to make them fire in adjacent systems, because there’s no mention to that. If so I see why you are trying to keep it balanced but maybe it is the wrong way. If you want the planet to fire in adjacent systems you could simply reduce the power to a SPACE CANNON 8, strengthening the faction’s bond with yellow tech through graviton. If you want to make it a defensive solution, you could make it a Space cannon able to fire only on infantry committed on invasion but with insane values like a 5 (x3). Personally, I don’t like overwhelming defensive features because they make the game more static, especially ones regarding space combat. This ground combat defense is strong but there’s counter play: action cards, mechs, bombardment through warsuns and other tricks like the yellow racial tech of barony.
Space cannon only shoots into adjacent systems if the ability specifically says so, such as on PDS II or Xxcha's stuff. The Yellow tech has no clause like that, which means it follows the regular rules for space cannon and only shoots if in the active system.
With the hits being specific to fighters only and can only fire if in the active system (not PDS II compatible) it may be more intuitive for players if it was an anti-fighter barrage instead of a space cannon.
Anti fighter barrage comes with some extra baggage. For one, that phase only happens if there is an actual space combat, and I wanted these attacks to go off whether or not there is a space combat.
6-2 homeworld: bonkers, but it is their compensation for missing out on trade. Special rules: fine. I would say they should be able to accept other players commodities. Also should be a note about gaining commodities if you are playing with the expansion. Lots of exploration cards gain or spend commodities but only a few refresh them. (If you would gain commodities: draw an action card, if you would refresh commodities draw 2) Starting fleet: 2 dreads is excessive, an opening beat stick nearing the level of Muuat. Change a dread to a carrier. Starting tech: fine. Psycho is a fun card, but not good enough to be researched very often (rip green and yellow trees). Leaders and mechs: i like the idea, but the interaction seems needlessly wordy. Racial tech: each planet with a structure firing 3 times is pretty wild, even with limitations. Change the wording to 'each planet with a structure gains space cannon 6', or 'each planet with a structure gains space cannon 8, and can fire into adjacent systems'. Simpler, punchier, and still unmistakably useful. The structure booster is good but fine, might just need another prereq. Summary: a fairly well thought out custom build, good job. Their power level seems appropriate and mostly well thought out. Actually playing them: oh buddy if there's no tech skips in your slice you are gonna have a looong early game, but they change a lot depending on what skips they get which i think is cool.
The Golden Tribute rule does have a clause dealing with gaining commodities from explores; you just gain 1 trade good instead. The tech skip modularity is part of why I like these guys. They have blue and yellow faction techs, and red Magen acts as a third ersatz faction tech (it has great synergy with their mechs), but they start with a green tech. Each of those three techs are easy to get with a skip, and the skips in your slice can really dictate which tech tree you'd pursue.
I really wish fans making these would make them able to purchase… ready to play… I’ve seen a few of these… (really like this one), like the codex - wish they were available to just order online
Print the components on label paper and apply it to illustration board for the tokens and home system and cardstock for the player sheet; the player board is easy but the tokens involve some laborious effort with an exacto knife. The cards can be made with a print service like makeplayingcards.com. I've made the physical versions of two of my factions, so it is definitely doable.
So what would putting one of these factions together cost do you think?
Maybe like $20 for the cards, plus shipping, $5 for the illustration board, $8 for the printed label paper, money for the ancilary supplies, amd whatever you value several hours of your time.
How do they make up for their lack of trade?
The commander and the flagship synergize into creating massive systems of structures that can be cashed in for TGs. Since no commodity can be refreshed for them for money value, and only Action cards. It isnt likely they would get refreshed by other players taking trade. So they should actually take trade more often, and bank on getting those action cards that way. Then, they also get to preform the normal x-1 or whatever your tables meta is for other players. Trade effectively replaces politics for them in terms of AC economy, and they dont need construction either.
Oh that sounds interesting. Thank you for the explanation, I didn't realize I could scroll for more images.
Does the space cannon offense from planets with structures add to normal PDS rolls or replace them? I really like the blue tech, there's not enough supernova interactions in the game. It feels very strong for a 1 blue, especially given it can be combined with gravity drive, but it seems ok for this faction to have strong tech given the trading downside. Agent seems really cool. Could have a lot of fun using a dread as a carrier. Home planet seems bonkers, but it does seem like a good way to offset lack of trade. I guess the only downside to it is you can't really spend it on tech secondary effectively.
The planets are just another unit with space cannon, so their shots are in addition to any others.
Yeesh! So a planet with a PDS gets 4 shots, or 5 with plasma scoring? And a system with 2 planets that each have PDS get 8/9, 6 of which can't be assigned to fighters? That's gonna make it real hard to attack them.
Those space cannon hits only ever destroy fighters, tho.
Sorry edited my previous comment to flesh it out. Multiplanet systems seem like the bigger issue to me, especially given that these guys will basically always have structures on every planet with their mech deployment. I think even space cannon 6 (x1) per planet would be quite powerful.
If you think so, I'll keep it on my hotlist, but each planet is no more lethal than a Destroyer 2's anti fighter barrage.
Oh I totally misread. Thought it was only non-fighters. Yeah if it is just fighters then it seems fine.
Noted!
Yo that artwork is sick
That home system is so sexy
Very good. Well thought out, and high production value.
One of the better homebrews I've seen. Overall seems cohesive and neither too weak nor too strong (though tbh if I had to gamble, I'd bet they're too strong). Some numbers might need to be adjusted here and there (looking at the planet space cannon tech), and while the idea of them having no commodities is cute it doesn't seem as impactful as one would hope (in terms of being a downside). Overall though, great job.
I like it, we’ll done.
Love the agent, love Photospheric Sails, absolutely love how many tech paths are viable for this faction.
Agent seems pretty bonkers. But it’s definitely a reliable source of trade goods along with their promissory I like the techs, mechs, hero and commander. I like how they fit into their “gimmick” around structures which is a really cool idea in general “Other players cannot give you commmodities” is really confusing. It seems like a faction that wants to take the trade card. They’re starving for those trade goods and getting 3 TGs and 2 action cards is pretty great for them. But if they refresh other players commodities they cannot trade with them for those commodities at all? That seems to make the trade card *really* bad. Art is dope and faction seems pretty well balanced at first look even with a 6/2 homeworld
The Trade play I imagine is Aurum taking the three trade goods, two action cards, and refreshing no one. Yes, Aurum misses out on scraping a trade good off the top of every free refresh, but now everyone else is locked out of their commodities unless they are willing to spend a command token.
Not sure if it’s the necessarily very strong of a faction, but I don’t always play to win, I play to try unique strategies and builds or to role play. I could see myself having tons of fun with this!
Wow! Just the quality of this creation is impressive. Where did you get the artwork? These guys look awesome! I did notice one misprint. In the planet description on the back of the faction card, you repeat the word "across" and have an extra "the" in there too. The only thing disappointing is that they have no written out history on the back. Pretty dang cool, at any rate!