Fall Balance Update
The Bishop, a Clergy Character
BALANCING ACT
It took a few weeks after Gen Con to decide what exactly to do with Coalition. September was for experimenting; once we landed on something sort of stable, the focus shifted to collecting playtest data. I’m feeling pretty good about the current iteration and am excited to bring it to BGGCON next week.
As detailed in my last post, using the Sumptuary Law Edict to hose Freedom exclusively had emerged as a dominant strategy for the Order parties. My goal is to fix this without completely defanging the Council Chair.
Here are the the major highlights of this iteration:
Iconoclast Buff: The Rebels’ main Influence-generator is now a much stronger bargaining chip.
Reworked Economy: There is no longer a “gain Influence” step at the end of each round. All Influence gained is now tied to Role Abilities and Edicts. Most of the Edicts in the game now generate Influence in some way.
Edict Updates: Mostly Wealth and Order. The Freedom and Justice Edicts are, if not exactly the same, at least recognizable. The Wealth and Order Edicts have been reworked for balancing purposes.
One-Council Games: Coalition is now playable with as few as 4 players.
I’ll discuss each of those in greater depth below, then end with some thoughts on how the game is faring with these updates. One last note: if you have a group that would like to playtest, let us know! We might be able to loan you a prototype!
REBEL ROLE UPDATES
ICONOCLAST: Use the first time a player becomes the new Council Chair each round. Choose another player. You and that player each gain +2 Influence. If this ability is triggered by a player moving to another Council, you may choose that player.
This version of the Iconoclast generates more Influence than the previous version. However, it can no longer trigger more than once in a round. This version is more consistently powerful, and is a great bargaining chip. Merchants and Clergy who hold the Council Chair can be persuaded to give it up in exchange for some extra Influence. Alternatively, the Iconoclast might persuade them to conspire against the current Chair, using that Influence to sweeten the deal.
I’m very happy with how Iconoclast has played so far. It’s definitely been the highlight of our playtests so far. We’ve also updated another Rebel!
ADVOCATE: Discard 2 matching Influence: If an Edict of the Virtue opposite the discarded Influence would resolve this round, your Council resolves the Edict matching the discarded Influence instead.
The Advocate remains as the Rebels’ Edict-manipulation role. This version can force a certain type to be resolved at her Council. For example, even if Order is ahead on the scoreboard, the Advocate can ensure that her Council resolves a Freedom Edict. This ability appears to be a good bargaining chip, but I’m not yet certain of its power. It needs more testing!
REWORKED ECONOMY AND EDICTS
In previous iterations of Coalition, players would gain 1 Influence at the end of each round. Now, all Influence is gained from Role abilities and Edicts. This creates a much cleaner gameplay loop. While gaining one Influence each round kept things fair, it was also a fiddly bit of housekeeping that was easy to forget. This update makes Coalition more elegant, and has still felt fair. Opportunities for gaining Influence are plentiful, so in most scenarios, everyone will gain at least one Influence per round!
To support this change, all of the Lesser Edicts generate Influence now (where previously only Wealth/Justice would). Let’s take a look:
LESSER ORDER EDICT - STATUS QUO: The Council Chair chooses a Virtue. The Council Chair gains +2 Influence. Each other player gains +1 Influence. Influence gained this way cannot be of the chosen Virtue.
This is much fairer than Sumptuary Law, which formerly occupied this slot. In fact, Sumptuary Law has been promoted to the rank of Greater Edict (with some changes to make it a bit more flashy). Status Quo is still worthwhile, though, especially if the Council Chair manages to keep their position for multiple rounds. The Chair can slowly shape the game’s economy to work in favor of their Virtues.
LESSER WEALTH EDICT - DONATE: The Highest Bidder chooses another player. The Highest Bidder and the chosen player each gain +2 Influence.
This is very similar to the last version of the Donate Edict, but this one rewards the Highest Bidder instead of the Council Chair. It favors the Merchants a bit more, and favors the Nobles less. By rewarding the Highest Bidder, this encourages players to keep spending. The most powerful play in Coalition is to get the Article that you want at your Council without spending Influence, but even if your Council is in agreement, this Edict provides incentive to chuck in an Influence or two.
LESSER FREEDOM EDICT - ABDICATE: Each player besides the Council Chair each gains +1 Influence. Then the Council Chair places their Placard at the bottom of the Council List.
This Edict is very similar to the previous version, with the added benefit of generating Influence for everyone who isn’t the Council Chair.
LESSER JUSTICE EDICT - ALMS: Each player declares honestly how much Influence they have in their hand. Each player who doesn’t have the most Influence gains 1 Influence.
This is unchanged from the previous version. It does feel a bit different now that its counterpart, Donate, has changed. Donate rewards spending Influence; Alms rewards having lower amounts of Influence. These are similar, but not the same thing. The Wealth and Justice Edicts now both give incentive to spend!
EARLY INDICATORS
Results of 11 playtests of Coalition’s current iteration
A few notes on how to read the above graph:
First of all, this is not a statistically significant sample size. It’s impossible to do a rigorous analysis of these games. However, game design is more of an art than a science. Instinct, while not infallible, can tell you a lot about game balance.
So far, the Merchants and Clergy have an outsized number of victories. Already, this is looking better than our summer games, in which Nobles and Clergy were dominant. The summer games were skewed towards the Order side of the Order-Freedom axis. In this iteration, the two leading Parties share no values - the game is not skewed towards a particular alignment. A game in which the Merchants win likely plays out quite differently than a game in which the Clergy win.
The Rebels feel much stronger in this iteration. They have serious bargaining power; it is tempting for the Clergy and Merchants to shake up the status quo in order to benefit from the updated Iconoclast. The Edict updates also go a long way towards making the Rebels viable; it’s much easier for the Rebels to build momentum early in the game.
The only thing I’m uncertain about is the Nobles. Lessening the power of the Lesser Order Edict was definitely good for game balance, but I fear I may have overcorrected by changing the Lesser Wealth Edict. In previous iterations, the Nobles were the easiest Party to play. Their path to victory hasn’t felt as clear in this iteration. Only additional playtesting will determine whether or not the Nobles are currently viable.
Thanks for reading! I’m excited to see how this version continues to play. If you have a group interested in playtesting, let me know! We may be able to loan you a prototype.