Reply: Spheres of Influence: Struggle for Global Supremacy:: General:: Re: Faction Abilities

by JoshLamont

So here's how I'm feeling:

Black:
P Rule :star::star::halfstar:- I could see making the adjustment you recommended as I think its pretty close.
Iron Curtain :star::star::star: - Agreed, I think this one is basically

Blue
Command of Sea :star::star::halfstar:- I could see boosting this... however, I'm not necessarily sold on making it sea vs land. I'll have to play a couple of games with it, but I'm afraid of how scary Blue would be.
Capitalism :star::star::star: - Happy with this one.

Brown
Cavalry Tradition :star::star::star:- In the games that we play this gets used a lot, its a great way to set up traps for opponents by faking your your intentions during the mobilization phase. We've also found it surprisingly useful for island teams.
Rapid Expansion :star::star::halfstar: - I could see adjusting this, but I don't think I could give it the 2 extra units you mentioned, it would be too similar to Yellow.

Green:
Warrior Code :star::star::star:- I think the boosted output here is finally hitting that sweet spot.
Imperialism :star::star::halfstar:- Our group is really excited about this one. It makes island expansion really quick in the early game. As far as boosting it to more units goes... I'm actually a little concerned it might be too powerful. There was some debate when we were thinking about it, maybe having it just be 2 units.

Pink:
Modernization: :star::halfstar::nostar:- I agree, I think this looks better on paper than it does in gameplay, for the reasons that you mentioned. I'm up for changing it. I'd have to think on your suggestion a bit... my gut says it might be too strong.
Command Economy: :star::star::halfstar: - I'm only rating this this way since I haven't had enough time to play with it, but I feel its pretty solid.

Purple:
Holy Order :star::star::star: - Played with this last night, a lot of fun. It changes your expansion goals a little bit as you're very eager to establishes as many "bases" as you can.
Missionary Zeal: Holding off on rating this. In my head it works, but haven't had a chance to see it in action yet.

Red
Lightning War :star::star::star: - Agree, this is a very fun ability.
Social Darwinism: - I've only seen it in play once, as a friend got it last night. He paradropped over a large enemy army that only had a couple of oil and couldn't really chase him very well. Over the course of a couple of turns he was able to take out 3 territories with only the 5 units who had originally made the jump, without taking any casualties. We liked it, but definitely needs to be seen some more.

Teal
Rivalry :star::star::star: - A very fun/aggressive ability.
Royal Decree: - I'd need to see it more in action. In my mind, I can imagine it being very effective since its potentially such a clutch ability, but I don't have the evidence yet.

White
Economic Union -:star::star::halfstar: - I think your suggestion on this is actually a pretty good idea... it captures the spirit of what I wanted this to do but gives them a small military boost (and since I'm figuring its going to be high production factions who are going to be using this anyways, its nice to stay with the theme of still granting them strength).
Innovation :star::halfstar::nostar:- Your idea on this is also pretty good. My first thought is that it would be too powerful, but since most of the faction abilities have been tweaked to generally make them a bit better, I think its not a pretty acceptable change.

Yellow
Strongman :star::star::halfstar:- Presently we like this ability a lot, however, I'm up for experimenting with giving them one more card (if so, I'd probably just do it on round 3 so its a bit easier to remember).
Compulsory Service :star::star::star: - In our group, this tends to be a fan favorite, as we consider it a scary ability, since those units show up "live" and can change the dynamic of a situation very quickly, especially in the early game when unit counts are still pretty low. Also, its lets certain areas (africa/middle east) which sometimes get more oil than they have units to move, a change to maintain their expansion/aggression.

So as far as what your saying - in terms of honing in on just the abilities that really need changing go, I definitely think thats a good idea. From my perspective, my list would match up close to yours in terms of what I think is "settled", with maybe just a couple of additions:

My Pretty Confident List
Holy order
Rivalry
Warrior code
Capitalism
Lightning war
Iron curtain
+ Cavalry Tradition
+ Compulsory Service
+ (almost) Imperialism
+ (almost) Command Economy

I'll post some edits to the other cards later today (for me, these cards are in flux, so we just print them on paper - I hope the constant edits aren't annoying for anyone else).