Mortal Gods - if cards are strangling a game what can you do?

Had two really good games last night, and we played with rosters. It worked sort of. 

In my earlier post I mentioned Footsore were no longer printing the cards for Mortal Gods. This is a very real pain in the arse if you want to introduce the game to new players. Footsore are obviously thinking about covering this while they transition to Version 2 which I suspect will be card less, so they have posted up rosters that you can copy your unit stats onto and play that way. 

Similarly they have produced a reasonably cheap pdfs of the various factions which includes the other elements that the cards cover: Wounds, Omens etc. It is possible to play without the cards - great!

Except the cards are cool and functional and the rosters as they stand are not very useful. Each roster sheet covers only three troop entries and that means a small Lochos (force) will need several A4 sized roster sheets. This is because the smallest Lochos will include two "Hero" types, and at least two Companion entries - a full strength and a single warrior version. Worse, the rosters can't be moved and must be on the table because this is where you put your damage die and activation stones. We tried to counter this by leaving activation stones and casualty dice with the models on table, and it was looking "rather cluttered".  After trying it, I'm going to say in the current format, its a big NOPE from me. 

How to fix it? Footsore need to think a bit more about the roster layout so they can get at least six units on a sheet just so there is only one on the table for each side because without it, practically and ergonomically the game isnt going to work on a 3ft playing area. Also rejig the currently available pdfs so they're all in one place, rules and card amendments.

There is another solution of course. The crazy thing is at the moment a single roster take up about the same space on table as a dozen cards. Let players print the cards themselves. Even better - print the recruitment cards two sided where there is a group and single model option. Similarly put the heavy Lochagos and Medium back to back on the same cards as you can't have both on table at the same time. I know this means work at Footsore that they have little or no capacity for because they are short on warm bodies and concentrating on new stuff, but at the moment the rosters are not really viable.

It's a bloody good game, but at the moment the practical barriers to entry are a problem that will put new casual players off.

Cheers

Thoughts in comments?  

also trying out the auto link button so if the links work can you let me know or are they too generic??

Mortal Gods - That was quick!

Err I painted my Mortal Gods force. In less than a week!

OK it is slightly less impressive when you realise there are only 17 figures, but still, fast for me.

And they're all quite easy paint jobs - undercoat, contrast paint, metal, done. All Victrix plastics via The Sprue Shop  - which is a damned good way to get your models if you don't want to have to buy full sets. 

So here we go  

Lochagos - 65
Promachus 50
Hoplites x3 40
Peripoloi x6 70
Peltasts x3 38
Akontistai x 3 30
Total 293 pts

So enough for our planned campaign that starts at 225 points and escalates to 300.

Here is the boss

Six Year Plan - Mortal Gods hits the table, and why cards will strangle a game.

So in 2019 I was playing Impetus in 28mm (great game) and Mortal Gods from Footsore Miniatures* was released. As I already had some Persians I thought Hoplites? "Why not?" So I split the starter set with my mate Paul and then ............... got distracted. The plastic hoplites got given away and the rules sat idle.

Then a few weeks ago Rob and Mark suggested we get into a small scale historical skirmish - they suggested Saga, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. I'm not a fan of Saga. 

While the Saga wheels were slowly turning I remembered Mortal Gods and mentioned it - and was surprised that both Rob and Mark had it but had never played. So we decided to give it a go.

AND - it's been fun. We've played twice now and will be introducing them to our games group next week.

The rules are a development of Test of Honour, but they certainly have quite a lot more hidden under the hood and don't have the problems I remember with power creep that ToH succumbed to (IMHO).

One positive now we are playing is just how small the forces are. The rules say the usual 12-20 figures a side, but as we are initially only playing 225 points it's looking very much on the 12 figures end of the scale. I can probably paint that in a week. The group bases were easy enough to manage now I have a 3d printer (yes everything is a 3d printer problem when you have one)

AND - there's the rub. The starter set is now out of print. The game relies on a number of cards. Stat cards, Omens, Wound Cards, and Gifts (special abilities). Back in 2019 when this was released cards were all the rage. EVERYTHING had cards, and some of them were even limited availability just to encourage the FOMO \ Gotta catch them all thing. Luckily Mortal Gods didn't, but it did rely heavily on cards to carry the info that in the past would maybe be handled by army lists and playsheets. This is a bugger if you want to introduce a game to a new player "It's great but you cant play without the cards so tough" etc

So now I'm speculating (based on conversations with folks in "The Industry") but cards are expensive. Compared to the other content, printed materials are a major cost factor. You can't do without rules, and playsheets are pretty much essential, but other printed "stuff" like cards or counters ain't cheap. Plastic figures - what usually draws the punters in, is ridiculously cheap to manufacture once the frame \ mould is created. I'd wager in many cases the cardboard box almost costs more than the figures inside. Here the Mortal Gods starter set was already in a happy place because the project was a collaboration with Victrix, who had already made the Hoplite and other figure sprues. The problem is the Mortal Gods starter had 163 cards in there. When Footsore planned the game they will have bought x sets of cards, which would be enough for their expected production run. No idea, but let's say a thousand just to work with. They got the printing done at a bulk discount, but what happens when you sell them all? Crap! You probably can't expect to sell another thousand sets any time soon as the peak demand will have passed, but printing cards in smaller batches is going to ramp up the costs. So cards strangle wargames. 

Footsore have obviously realised this and have converted the info on the cards into a more traditional roster system and tables. They have done the same with their Gangs of Rome game which in v1 released with lots of individual cards but now have shifted to playsheets and roster sheets for v2. 

So I've bought some Hoplites and will hopefully be playing some more games soon.

*It's a skirmish \ warband game set in Ancient Greece, a little bit like Warlord's SPQR except it works . I forgot to explain that !