A Thunder of Dragons – Game 2

This is a continuation of instructive play throughs of the MaYP dragon collecting game, A Thunder of Dragons. It will build on the blog post describing Game 1.

Game 2 Additions

There are another 6 cards used in Game 2, adding the suit of Blue Circles, and the primary Water dragon. I create the cards, and because I made a new dragon I mark off a square in the # of Water breeds. This brings the deck to 18 cards, and there are another 4 hybrids we can collect. We now use the 9 squares in the top left of the dragon grid.

3x3 grid Game 2

Because it would be too unwieldy to be adding all these dragons to the grid every time we add an element, all the dragon information is there from the first game. I have put shading under these water squares (and the future elements) to help keep them separate for these first few games. (First game is the 4 white squares. Second game adds the surround 5 light grey squares. Etc)

New Breeding Rules

With the addition of a 3rd element, there are new breeding rules. If you breed together 2 dragons with 3 elements; say Water + Flower (which includes plant, fire and water), you need to reveal cards for both the major and minor element. The first card is still the major element, and the second card is the minor element. If the second card you reveal is another card of the major element, repeat the process as necessary.

Breeding Opposite Dragons

Also, fire (Square) and water (Circle) are opposite elements. They cannot be mixed directly. You cannot breed a primary Fire dragon with a primary Water dragon. To make the fire/water hybrids, you must either breed a primary Fire dragon with a plant/water hybrid, or the primary Water dragon with a plant/fire hybrid. And because opposite hybrids are harder to breed, you only succeed if you reveal the same number of both the fire and water suit from the deck.

For example, you breed the 1 Circle Water dragon with the 5 Square Flower dragon, in the hopes of breeding the Circle Square opposite hybrid. The 1 and the 5 of those suits can not bring you success, because they are already in habitats (because you are using them to breed). So you are hoping for the 2, 3, 4 or 6 of both suits to come up 1 after the other. If you reveal 3 Square and then any Circle that is not 3, you have failed to breed the opposite. By default, you have breed a Square Asterisk hybrid. This will be demonstrated in my play through below.

Evolving Rules

Now this is a lot more Rules about breeding. And I was left with the question, how will I introduce these in Game 2? In a legacy game, you get new stickers that you add to the rule book, which is not something I could do. In the full version of the board game, I was going to keep the breeding rules on cards. And when new cards are added with new rules, the others were archived away, thus replacing them fully. To do that the same way in this MaYP game, I am essentially going to replace a page of the rules when things like this change. The Rules will have footer text, showing the version number, the game number and the page number. The intro to the game will say something like “Replace “Game 1 Page 3” with “Game 2 Page 3”. And the new rules will be added.

Rules Version - Game 1 - Page 3 (footer text)

The specifics on where the new pages will come from are still up in the air. Perhaps each game will come with a separate document of updated pages. But I’m sort of leaning towards a Updated Pages document that includes all the upcoming changes for the 48 games. You print out this document in the beginning, that includes a “Spoiler!! Don’t Read Until You Are Insructed To!!!” header page, with all the pages underneath it, in roughly the order you will grab them.

Game 2 Setup – End of Game is 20VP

On the bottom of 1 Square, the primary Fire dragon, I write “Cannot Breed with 1 Circle Water“. The similar, but opposite, note is added to the bottom of 1 Circle. I grab the Dragon Grid and the Habitat page, and mark off Game 2. Then I shuffle the deck, and discard cards from the deck until I reveal a dragon. I have 18 cards, with only 4 dragons at this point, so I end up discarding 9 cards before I reveal 1 Square with the Fire dragon. It must go in the fire habitat, so I place a cube on there, and give myself 2 VP (1 for the habitat and 1 for the dragon).

I draw 5 cards, which, unsurprisingly at this point, contain a couple of dragons. Then I gain 1 magic from my fire habitat. And the game begins.

Turn 1

My hand is

A Thunder of Dragons - Game 2 Hand 1

Action Phase – My options are either build the plant habitat, or play the Flower dragon to my fire habitat. Adding an extra dragon generally means more magic generation, so that is the optimal play. Horatio joins Billy, I get 3 VP, and I have used all my magic.

Discard Phase – The 3 blank cards must be discarded, but I decide to keep 1 Asterisk in my hand. I might play it later, but mostly it is to increase the odds of breeding a fire/water opposite.

Draw Phase – I draw 4 cards, which necessitates shuffling the discard pile into a new deck.

Earn Phase – My fire habitat generates 2 magic.

A Thunder of Dragons - Habitats Game 2 Turn 1

Turn 2

A Thunder of Dragons - Game 2 Hand 2

It’s a no brainer to build the water habitat, which takes all my magic, and earns me 2 VP. I discard the 3 blanks, and draw 3 new cards. And I earn 2 magic at the end of this turn.

Turn 3

A Thunder of Dragons - Game 2 Hand 3

Again, it’s obvious to play my Water dragon into the water habitat. 2 more VP, for a total of 9, and all my magic is used. The 3 blanks are discarded and I draw back up to 5. I now earn 4 magic at the end of this turn.

A Thunder of Dragons - Game 2 Habitats Turn 3

Turn 4

A Game of Thunder - Game 2 Hand 4

I’m going to breed my Water dragon with my Flower dragon. This gives me the chance of a Circle/Square opposite, either of the water/plant hybrids, or the Asterisk/Square hybrid. There is really only 1 combination that is “bad” for me, which is Square/Asterisk, which would make another Flower dragon, which I don’t need.

Oh, but this brings up something important. I don’t have anywhere to place a Asterisk/Square hybrid, because the fire habitat is full. If I did breed the plant/fire hybrid I was chasing, I would have to set it free. So the first thing I do is spend 1 magic to build the plant habitat, earning me another VP. Then I spend my remaining 3 magic to breed my Water dragon with my Flower dragon.

I remember I discarded 3 Asterisk cards after turn 2, and I have the other 3 in my hand right now. There are only Square and Circle cards in what remains of the deck, so the odds are not terrible. Let’s find out.

I reveal a 3 Square. And as I have the 3 Circle in my hand, I know I cannot breed the opposite dragon. The minor element must be plant, and this is going to be another Flower dragon. I turn over the 2 Circle, and that is that. (There is no need to keep revealing cards until I actually reveal an Asterisk.) I mark off another box in the # of breeds bonus for plant and fire, and gain 3 VP. This Flower dragon is being set free. My magic is 0, so I discard my blanks, draw back up to 5 (after shuffling my discard again) and earn 4 magic.

Turn 5

I’m going to use 3 of my 4 magic to use the same breeding combination, so I use 1 magic to play my Plant dragon into the plant habitat. Then I breed my Water dragon with my Flower dragon again. 5 Asterisk comes up, meaning this will be a new breed, what ever the minor element will be. This is followed by 3 Asterisk & 6 Asterisk, before 2 Circle makes it a Asterisk/Circle hybrid. This is Swamp in Dragonvale, and I will continue using their names in this first play through. It has a magic value of 2 and gives VP of 4, and I create it on the 5 Asterisk card I turned over. I mark it off in the dragon grid, and add a tally mark. I mark a box in the plant and water bonuses, and give myself 4 VP, totaling 17; 3 left till the game ends.

Now, I have to decide which habitat I’m going to place it in. (Side note; it seemed like being able to move the dragons into other habitats during a game, would make it too easy, so you can’t do that. Once you play them to a habitat, they stay there.) I realise I’ve made an error. I shouldn’t have played the Plant dragon, because it has taken up a valuable spot in the habitats, and I will only have 1 vacant spot after I place the Swamp dragon. This means 2 habitats will be full, and if I breed a new dragon with both those elements, I will be unable to place it, and will have to set it free.

With only 3VP until the end of the game, I will only have 1 more breed anyway. I place the Swamp dragon into the plant habitat. With the plant and fire habitats full, if I breed the Asterisk/Square dragon, I will have to set it free. But a Circle/Square hybrid is harder to get, so it would be worse having to set one of those free. So I make the decision to leave the space in the water habitat. I discard my hand, draw 5 cards, and earn 6 magic.

A Thunder of Dragons - Game 2 Habitats 5

Turn 6

A Thunder of Dragons - Game 2 Hand 6

This is not a great hand to try and breed a fire/water opposite dragon. Between my habitats and my hand, five of the Square cards are out of play. My only chance is for the two 6s to come up. Which is certainly possible. Plus there’s another plant/water hybrid I could get. I pay 3 magic to breed my Water dragon with my Flower dragon.

The first card I reveal is 6 Circle. Which is the best I could hope for. Then I discard 4 Circle. (Hope is still alive.) The third card is 3 Asterisk. We create a water/plant hybrid, (Seaweed in Dragonvale) on 6 Circle, which gives us 4 VP, taking us to 21, and ends the game.

A Thunder of Dragons - Habitats Game 2 Turn 6

End of Game 2

There are now 6 dragons (of 9 possible) in my deck of 18. I have bred 2 extra Flower dragons, which I have set free, but which add 2 more check marks to my plant and fire # of breeds. There is just 1 more plant breed until I receive the first plant bonus.

A Thunder of Dragons - Grid of Dragons at the end of Game 2

I hope this has been pretty clear. Obviously hit me up with any questions. There will be more complexity added to Game 3.

All the posts for the design and development of this game can be accessed at the Index Page.

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