A Thunder of Dragons – Game 3

This is a continuation of instructive play throughs of the MaYP dragon collecting game, A Thunder of Dragons. It will build on the blog posts describing Game 1, and Game 2.

Game 3 Additions

The Question suit is added to the deck, to make it 24 cards, and the Earth dragon is created on 1 Question. The first box is marked in the # of Earth breeds bonus. There are now 6 more regular hybrids available to breed, for a total of 12.

4x4 Dragon grid

The Limited Valentine Dragon

For the next 4 games (from the middle of January to the middle of February), you have a chance to breed the limited Valentine dragon. Valentine dragon is a place holder name, and like the other hybrids, you can name it what you like, when you successfully breed one. The required breeding combination is the Square Asterisk hybrid (Flower dragon in my game) and the 1 Question Earth dragon.

You successfully breed a Valentine dragon when you reveal, in either order a Question card and a Square or Asterisk card, and the value of the 2 cards adds up to 7. 3 Question + 4 Asterisk will breed a Valentine dragon. 2 Square + 5 Question will breed a Valentine dragon. 1 Square + 6 Asterisk will not breed a Valentine dragon. And, as usual, if you reveal 2 or more cards of the same suit in a row, you use the first 1.

Epic Dragons

The first epic dragon is also available now. You have a chance to breed it when ever you breed two dragons together that contain at least 4 elements. In game 3, it must be a breed that contains Asterisk, Square, Circle and Question. You successfully breed this first epic dragon when the two cards you reveal add up to 11 or 3. At that point, you can name the species whatever you find appropriate.

New Breeding Rule Page

As I said before, new rules pages will replace old ones when the rules change like this. Game 3 adds most of the breeding rules, and so it looks something like this. The idea is that they are listed in order of importance, and you read from the top down, stopping when you get to the breeding rule that applies.

Breeding Page
Breeding combination contains 4+ elements

  • Reveal cards until you reveal 2 different elements that are in the breeding combination.
  • If those 2 cards add up to 11 or 3, you have bred an epic dragon. Read 222.
  • Else, you have bred a regular hybrid, with the first card as the major element, and the second card as the minor element.

Breeding Square Asterisk + 1 Question

  • Reveal cards until you reveal 2 different elements that are in the breeding combination.
  • If 1 of those 2 cards is a Question AND the cards add up to 7, then you have bred a Valentine Dragon. Read 146.
  • Else, you have bred a regular hybrid, with the first card as the major element, and the second card as the minor element.

Breeding combination is Primary + Opposite Hybrid

  • Reveal cards until you reveal 2 different elements that are in the breeding combination.
  • If you have revealed the 2 opposite elements AND they are the same number, you have bred the opposite dragon of the primary parent dragon.
  • If you have revealed the 2 opposite elements AND they are NOT the same number, you have bred the regular hybrid, with the first card as the major element, and an unrevealed element as the minor element. If there is only 1 unrevealed element, that will be the minor element. If there is more than 1, reveal cards until the minor element is revealed.
  • Else, you have bred a regular hybrid, with the first card as the major element, and the second card as the minor element.

Breeding combination has exactly 3 elements

  • Reveal cards until you reveal 2 different elements that are in the breeding combination.
  • You have bred a regular hybrid, with the first card as the major element, and the second card as the minor element.

Breeding combination has exactly 2 elements

  • Reveal cards until you reveal 1 of the breeding elements.
  • You have bred a hybrid with that element as the major element, and the other element as the minor.
Game 3 Setup – End of Game is 30VP

The very first card revealed was 1 Question, so I am starting the game with the brand new Earth dragon. I set up the habitat, and place the dragon in it. At the end of set up, I have 4VP & 2 Magic.

Turn 1

My hand is 3 Asterisk, 6 Asterisk, 4 Circle, 2 Question & 4 Question. They are all blank cards. I can spend my magic on habitats, but I don’t feel like guessing what cards I might get next, so I save it. I discard my entire hand, and receive 2 magic for a total of 4.

Habitats Game 3 Turn 1

Turn 2

Hands Game 3 Turn 2

I build the fire habitat and I play 5 Square, my Flower dragon, to it. The 2 dragons I need to try for the limited Valentine dragon have shown up in my first 2 turns, so I will be trying for it, for the rest of the game. I have 2 magic left, which isn’t enough to attempt a breed this turn. Keeping 6 Circle, I discard the rest of my cards. I have 8 VP, and I earn 3 magic for a total of 5.

Habitats Game 3 Turn 2

Turn 3

Hand Game 3 Turn 3

The earth habitat can only hold 1 dragon, so I spend 1 magic on the plant habitat, to give me some options. 4 magic left, which allows me to breed my Earth dragon with my Flower dragon, with 1 magic left over. 2 Square is revealed (then 2 Circle and 3 Circle) and 6 Question. They total 8, 1 over the target of 7, so I have made the fire/earth hybrid (which is Lava in Dragonvale). The fire and earth bonuses get a check mark. Then I create the dragon on 2 Square and place it in my fire habitat, which is now full. My whole hand goes into the discard, and I earn 4 magic. My totals are 14 VP, and 5 magic at the end of turn 3.

Habitats Game 3 Turn 3

Turn 4

Hand Game 3 Turn 4

I use 3 magic to breed Earth + Flower again. My deck is empty, so I shuffle the discard pile into a new deck. 6 Asterisk, and 4 Square means I have created a new plant/fire hybrid (Poison in Dragonvale). I add a check mark to both the plant and fire bonus, which reveals first plant bonus, the large plant habitat. You can upgrade the small plant habitat (you cannot build the large from scratch) for a cost of 4 magic. You will receive 4VP when you do, and your habitat can hold 4 dragons, and has a magic cap of 4.

I create the new dragon on 6 Asterisk, and place it in the plant habitat. That puts me at 17 VP. I discard all my cards and +5 magic puts me at 7.

Habitats Game 3 Turn 4

Turn 5

Hands Game 3 Turn 5

3 magic to try again for the Valentine limited. 6 Square is revealed, then (4 Circle, 5 Circle and) 4 Asterisk for another Flower dragon. Check marks added for plant and fire bonuses. I earn the first fire bonus, which means I can now build a large fire habitat. It costs 5 magic, but I only have 4 remaining. I set the dragon free.

Now up to this point, if I bred the earth/fire hybrid, which I don’t have yet, I would be forced to set it free, because I have no room in either the fire or earth habitat. This wouldn’t have been too big a deal, because I will breed another one in the future. But now I have the chance to keep it. So I will build the large fire habitat, and then I’ll have 2 more tries for the limited before I definitely go over 30 VP and end the game. I currently have 20 VP and I earn 5 magic, for a total of 9.

Habitats Game 3 Turn 5

Turn 6

Hands Game 3 Turn 6

It costs 5 magic to upgrade the fire habitat, which gets me to 25VP. I use 3 magic to try for the limited again. 4 Question + (3 Question, 1 Circle and then) 3 Square. This makes the sought after total of 7 with the question and square cards, so I have bred the Valentine dragon. First things first, I mark plant, fire and earth bonuses. There’s no Dragonvale equivalent, so I call the new dragon Cupid. It is the first 3 element dragon, and earns me 5 VP. This totals 30, and ends game 3.

Habitats Game 3 End

End of Game 3

I now have 10 dragons (of a possible 18) in my deck of 24 cards. I have bred 6 of them, in 11 tries, including the limited.

Dragon Grid end of Game 3

This is probably the last play through I’ll show, as I think this gives you a fair idea of how the game plays. The remaining 2 elements get added over the course of the next 4 or 5 games. More epics are added during the course of the campaign, and limited dragons come and go during the “year”. As you fill up cards, you add new ones to your deck. I’m going to play through a couple of campaigns now, while I lock in all the written materials required to play.

It already seems like playing from January to December is a mistake, so I think I’m immediately going to change that to July through June. I’ll post again when I have some “big picture” information to discuss. In the mean time, all thoughts and comments are welcome.

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

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