The current game mode plays a lot like a standard RTS game, with the added objective of killing the opponent’s king. It’s fun but I’m experimenting with other modes that can take more advantage of the ability to construct complex structures.
One of the issues with the standard game mode is that there’s no reason to ever have the king move around, so it’s a pretty viable strategy to just encase the king in a giant block of stone.
That’s not very interesting! I’d rather force people to defend an entrance to the king’s chambers. The other issue is that because you have to build so fast to stay competitive, speed ends up trumping layout even though there are strategic advantages to designing a good castle layout.
A variation I’m trying is to divide the game into a series of rounds. You get a ‘build’ phase where you can build anything within the boundary of your territory, but you can’t send enemies into others’ territories. At this point you don’t have a king yet so you have to build with the king in mind for later.
Secondly, there is a short ‘place your king’ phase. Your king spawns at the outside of your territory and you have to move him inside to a safe place. At this point it’s no longer possible to build so there has to be a path into the castle for the king to follow.
Finally there is an ‘attack’ phase where you attempt to kill your opposing king. During this phase you are still not allowed to build, so you have to have created a strong enough defensive structure during the build phase. Because it’s not possible to quickly replace structures, it’s more important to think about a good defensive layout during the build phase.
I haven’t had a play test yet with this mode so I’m looking forward to finding out if it achieves my goals! If not, I’ll keep experimenting with other ideas.