Mythball matches
Myth & Goal is a 1-2 players Fantasy American football game in which two 8-player teams are pitted against each other to score goals and engage in the occasional bloodshed. It is published by Blacklist Games who already have a line of Fantasy minis. The Kickstarter campaign will launch on September 21.
To start the game, you must pick one team of 8 players out of the four factions available in the box (humans, dwarfs, orcs, and high elves), and choose a “team focus”, an ability that you may use throughout the game and that will help you define your playstyle. Both your faction and your focus will determine your Tactic cards deck. You can customize your team further by swapping players of your faction with free agents from other factions. Players come from six classes: Chargers, specialized in tackling enemy players, Strikers, that can throw the ball more easily, Vanguards, agile players that run past the enemy lines to receive the ball, Sentinels, who act as support for other players, Guardians, to defend your side of the field, and Rangers, that are best to recover the ball from the enemy team. Each player also has four ability ratings (Power, Agility, Skill, and Resolve) used in Action Tests, a Speed stat and a Fatigue limit, and a special ability that is common for all players of the same class of that faction.
The board is made of five lanes of five squares in the middle area and of the Gatehouses of each team on the sides. To win points, a player may bring the ball to the Gatehouse of the enemy team (5 points), or throw it through the goal above that Gatehouse (2 points). If this happens, all the players of the team that scored who were near the enemy Gatehouse get teleported back to their own side of the field. The game takes place over three Periods. Only five of your players are on the field at once during a given period. Due to a system of Fatigue and Infractions, some of your players can be too exhausted to partake in the game, or some might get expelled, so you have to manage your team accordingly. The Period runs over four rounds during which the two teams alternate turns. At the beginning of each Period, you also select two Tactic cards from your deck to use during that Period.
On your turn, you have four actions that you can distribute as you wish among your players, but a given player can only perform one action. When a player performs an action, they earn a Fatigue token. If the number of Fatigue tokens on their card exceeds their Fatigue limit, you flip their card and they become exhausted. They can still play although they no longer have their special ability and their ability ratings become worse. The different actions players can take are Run (they move across the field up to their Speed, but need to perform an Evade test to exit a space with enemy players), Tackle, to knock down enemy players, which will fatigue them if successful, Pass (the player who owns the ball passes it to another player) and Shoot (the player who owns the ball attempts to send it through the enemy goal). Tactic cards and player abilities may also provide additional types of actions. If the action you perform involves another player, both teams roll dice. The number of dice depends on the Ability ratings of the involved player. Dice show “Hit” and “Block” symbols: all blocks rolled by the inactive team negate hits rolled by the active one. If the active team still gets three Hit symbols, the action is successful. To get better odds, you may swap a regular die for a Gambit die, with greater chances of success, except you can earn an Infraction. Two infractions and the player must skip a turn and return to their side of the field, three and they are expelled from the game!
In the solo mode, you are facing an AI which relies on a team-specific strategy and on a behavior deck. There is also a Risk Gauge that adjusts to the state of the game: if the Risk level increases, the enemy team will become more reckless. The strategy board lists objectives in priority order that the AI players will try to fulfill during their turn. The game trusts you to implement the corresponding player actions to the best of your ability. Furthermore, at the beginning of each AI turn, a card from the behavior deck is drawn, which will apply a modifier for the whole duration of the turn.
Finally, you can engage in a League competition over many games. After each game, you earn Training points that you may use to gain a new Focus, becoming more versatile in the process, or to upgrade your players with advancement cards that will grant them a new, powerful ability.
This one got cancelled with 42 hours left, at 180% funding.
The Solo Mode sounds okay - you don't have to control a bunch of other Players.
I was ignoring this, but it might actually be fun. I hope there will be a video of solo play.