Elemana Chronicles

The Game

Elemana Chronicles is a fantasy themed tactical battle game from local game designer Darius Tan. This is a squad level battle arena game that draws inspiration from online battle arena games like Mobile Legends. It is a 2-player-only game. Each player controls a team of three fighters - one hero and two monsters. There is a mana pool on the board which players try to dominate to score points. You also score points by killing an enemy character. Killed characters respawn and come back to life next round. The game is played over 6 rounds. You win if you have more points by the end of the 6th round. 

There are several factions in the game, each with its own characteristics. Your team must be made up of characters from the same faction. Your hero is usually smaller in size compared to your monsters. 

The miniatures are quite detailed. This is one of the selling points of the game. The miniatures look fantastic. They are all 3D printed. 

This fighter is good at fire related magic and attacks. 

This miniature has been painted

During a round, players take turns activating one of their fighters. Every fighter has some action points, which are spent to perform various actions. Fighters have various characteristics, e.g. movement range, attack strength, armour strength. The common actions a fighter can perform include moving, attacking and casting spells. Attacks can be melee or ranged. You need to use tape measure when moving and attacking. You have to adhere to attack and movement ranges.  

You have to buy your own tape measures

Battles feel, for the lack of a better word, "physical". In that what's physically on the table matters a lot. You use a tape measure to check distance, for both movement range and attack range. You need to physically check line of sight to see whether someone you are trying to shoot is blocked from view. When you need to move, if there's someone physically blocking your way, you have to detour. The white circle on the board is the mana pool. At the end of a round, if you have a fighter next to it and your opponent doesn't, you will control the mana pool and score points. If both players have fighter next to it, then no one controls the mana pool and no one scores points. The mana pool basically forces you to get near each other and to fight. It is not easy to score points so you don't want to allow your opponent any easy points. 

You roll dice for both attack and defense. A successful roll is normally whether you roll a particular number or lower. If the attacker makes more successful rolls than the defender, he inflicts damage on the defender. Every fighter has a health bar. If it gets reduced to zero, the fighter dies (and will respawn next round). 

The health bars of your three fighters.

Every fighter has a character chart which lists its stats, abilities and possible actions. They can cast spells. Some powerful spells are limited to a single use per game. 

There are two types of mana in the game, and they can be used in different ways, e.g. making rerolls for your dice. One type of mana gets recharged every round, so you will usually try to use it all before the end of a round. It will get refilled anyway. It is a matter of how you want to use it. The other type needs to be used more carefully, because you may want to leave some for future rounds. Mana is stored at player level and not fighter level. Your three fighters share the same mana. 

You can upgrade your fighters, increasing their stats and abilities. You also collect gold to buy equipment. These are done between rounds. 

This is an NPC (non-player character). I think of them as monsters, as opposed to my hero's sidekicks being called monsters (what kind of boss calls his assistants monsters?). These NPC's get activated after all the players' fighters have been activated. They will move towards and attack the nearest fighter. So generally you want to stay away from them, or kill them swiftly before they start attacking you. But then there are other complications - e.g. your opponent. 

The Play

This is a miniature wargame, so the simulation level is high. The precise positions of the fighters are important. They affect line of sight, attack range, blocking and movement range. You have to juggle all these details as you play. Because of that, it feels real and immersive. You can imagine yourself on the battlefield. Whatever you can do in real life, you probably will be able to do in the game as well. Or at least something equivalent. For example, when I played, I had a general strategy of getting all three of my fighters to focus their attacks on one particular enemy fighter. The idea was this was the most efficient way to kill one enemy. Once that was done, my opponent will lose one third of his power. But soon I realised this was a rather simplistic strategy. My opponent could tell what I was trying to do, and he simply used a tough warrior type to block and engage some of my fighters. If I ignored that tough warrior completely, it would keep pounding my fighter. I might end up losing a fighter even faster! 

This rock golem was one tough nut to crack. 

Each fighter has its unique characteristics. Within each faction, there are synergies you can make use of. To play well you must discover and understand them. You need to understand your fighters well to make good use of their abilities. 

My tall guy fighter (left) wanted to rush Darius' petite hero (middle), but the rest of my team couldn't catch up. Darius had a monster-class fighter (right) nearby protecting his hero. 

Fighting is resolved using die rolls, so there will be some luck. However the game is still primary about tactics. You must use your fighters and their abilities well. Dice will be rolled many times, and each time multiple dice will be rolled. The luck evens out. Sometimes you'll be luckier, sometimes otherwise. Ultimately you still need to make the right moves to be victorious. Luck won't save you if you play poorly. 

Three-headed dog and rider. 

This guy looks hangry. 

The Thoughts

Elemana Chronicles is a miniature game. It is a tactical battle game like Warhammer. Many aspects of fighting are simulated in detail, so it feels realistic. At the same time this level of detailed simulation also means more work for the players. It can be a little tedious. This is unlike boardgame type tactical battle games, where many aspects are abstracted and simplified. In Elemana Chronicles, the battlefield is not abstracted to a chessboard grid or a hex map. Every millimeter on the map counts. 

The game concept is similar to online battle arena games (MOBA games) like Mobile Legends. You have two competing teams fighting. If you get killed, you respawn. The factions and the individual fighters have their own characteristics which you need to understand well to play well. Now I must admit that squad level battle games are not really my thing, regardless of the boardgame type or the miniature game type. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience for me to try a genre I don't usually play. 

Darius and I have chatted several times about tabletop games and the tabletop game industry in Malaysia. Making and selling a miniature wargame in Malaysia is difficult. In fact, making and selling casual boardgames and card games in Malaysia is already difficult. Most Malaysian do not know boardgames other than a handful of mass market games. So miniature wargames are a niche within a niche. Elemana Chronicles is aiming to go overseas eventually. If you are interested to give it a go, contact Magick & Drumstick Games. 

TTGDMY playtesting

TTGDMY (Tabletop Game Designers Malaysia) has been busy attending events in June and July, and we only resumed regular playtesting in August. Vivae boardgame cafe (Ampang branch) invited us to have our session there on Merdeka Day, so we had the opportunity to playtest with the public. It's always useful to do playtesting with the end user. Usually at TTGDMY playtest sessions it's just us game designers helping one another with playtesting. 

I played several of my prototypes with this group above. I managed to play my upcoming game Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves with them too.

That day the prototype I most wanted to playtest was Taking Sides. This was a newer game I brought. I had the idea for the game some time ago and I did some initial brainstorming then, but it was only recently I resumed work and managed to get a prototype out with complete first draft rules. A week earlier when we had our first playtesting session of the month at Central Market, I had brought it out for the first round of testing. I quickly found a number of issues with it, and received much feedback from fellow designers. Issues and criticisms are great! They are much better than people politely and generically telling me yes nice keep it up, which basically means the game is not interesting at all. I was quite excited with the problems and quickly worked on them to create version 2. 

Taking Sides is, at least for now, a game for 3 to 8 players. The core idea is everyone must pick sides. You are with me, or you are against me. Every round, the players will split into two teams. Every player gets a character card, which has a strength value and a power. The teams add up their strengths, and the team with the higher strength total wins. The winning team gets to split the loot available that round. The twist comes from the powers of the characters, which can modify the strengths of the characters. This is not a team game. Every round you can pick a different team to be on. You choose who to partner with. Teams are temporary alliances. This is still an everyone for themselves game. 

When we playtested, my designer friends said this was a very Chok Sien game (Chok Sien is my given name). I wonder whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. It can be good in that I've developed a signature, a unique style that people can recognise. It can also be a bad sign if it means I've become restrained to only making a certain type of game. There is still a lot I need to learn and explore and I don't want to limit myself. 

That day I got to try a game from Faris about making batik. In Malaysia, batik is painted cloth which uses wax in the painting process. The batik game is a heavy Eurogame. Not many Malaysian designers make such games. 

The game is played over four rounds, and each round you get to perform four actions. The game felt complicated when I listened to the rules, but now that I have played it, I have a much better idea of the overall process. This is a game with polyominoes and a big part is about fitting them into grids. The polyominoes are batik cloths in different styles. In general, you collect batik, and then you place them in three different areas. As you fill the grids in these different areas, you will score points, increase your storage capacity, unlock workers (a resource type), gain new abilities, and also gain new ways of scoring points. 

This is the central game board. The seven rows are seven different action types you can perform. Within a round, you will choose four to perform. 

This is the player board. Part of it is your storage area. You also keep track of your special powers and extra scoring criteria here. You place polyominoes in the two grids to increase storage and to unlock workers. The polyominoes in the game reminds me of Uwe Rosenberg games. The overall game reminds me of Vital Lacerda designs. There are many interwoven parts and you need to know how to balance your progress in each area. I am keen to see how this game develops and to see the eventual final product. 

Another game I managed to try was the lion dance game from Darryl Tan. This was the champion in the ButtonShy global game design competition last year. It is great fun. It is a 2-player drafting game in which you draft cards from a central pool to build your own lion dance performance platform. The cards are pillars and you collect and order them to build your platform. The pillars have various powers and properties. There are a few different ways to score points. As you build your platform, your lion can start dancing on top of the pillars. The further it moves across the platform, the more points it will score. This is just one of the ways you score points. 

This is an 18 card game and it's pretty fast. The game ends when the pool runs out of cards. You want to score as many points as you can in all the categories, but it's not possible to work on everything. This is the delicious part of the game. You want to do just a bit more, but you only have that many turns. You have to make those difficult choices. What to work on, what to let go of. I find the game mechanisms quite fitting. This is not a mechanism-first game looking for a theme to paint on. 

ButtonShy will be publishing this game. Now Darryl is still doing development and tuning. He's also working on an expansion for it. The expansion will probably be released at the same time as the base game. This is also a game I am looking forward to. 

Kaki Lima: Downtown KL

The Game

Kaki Lima, released in 2019, is a game about the five-foot ways in Penang - those pedestrian walkways in front of colonial era shophouses. Kaki Lima: Downtown KL is a new standalone game in the series with different game mechanisms. It brings us to the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Gameplay in Kaki Lima is based on card plays. In Kaki Lima: Downtown KL, you take actions based on die rolls. 

During setup, you form a 5x3 grid using street cards. This is downtown KL and your game board. Everyone plays a different character and gets busy going about town. You create and participate in business or leisure activities. You take your time admiring the floor tiles. You score points for all these actions. 

One of the characters you can play. 

One special aspect of the game is these transparent cards. These are activity cards, and they show the various business or leisure activities that people do at the five-foot ways. During play, you place these cards on top of the street cards. The numbers in the stopwatches represent how much time is spent on the various activities. This is related to scoring points. 

When you place an activity card on top of a street card, it means you are now using that five-foot way for an activity. Space is limited in five-foot ways, so the total time must not exceed 3. If you exceed 3, that's considered obstruction and you'll get in trouble with DBKL. 

This is the player board. It lists the four actions you can perform on your turn. On your turn you roll three dice, and you get to pick two to perform actions. The third die is passed to the other players. They each use it to perform one action. Normally you'll pick the highest dice, and leave the lowest to your opponents, because the die value determines the points you score.  

All four actions score points. First, you can move your character around the board the same number of steps as the die value. You score points based on the number of characters at your destination. What this effectively means is people naturally tend to assemble, because you'd get more points. 

You can create or enjoy activities. These two actions are similar. You score points based on the activities happening where you are standing. The main difference is when creating, you may add an activity card before you score points. Whether you are creating or enjoying, you must place one of your floor tiles after you score points. This is a reminder that you can't score the same street card any more. You only have a limited number of floor tiles, so you must use them wisely. 

The last activity is to appreciate beautiful floor tiles. Okay this sounds a bit lame if you do it in real life, but in the game it is more interesting and also challenging. Appreciating floor tiles means completing secret missions. These secret missions are cards you hold in hand, and they specify various floor tile arrangements. If you fulfill the condition on a mission card, you may perform this action of appreciating beautiful floor tiles. You score points based on activities, and you also gain a single-use power which you can utilise any time from then onwards. 

These are the mission cards. The one on the left says you need the floor tiles of one particular player in this specific configuration which involves three street cards. 

The game ends after a fixed number of rounds, and the highest scorer wins. 

The Play

Kaki Lima: Downtown KL is about maximising points for every action you take. You are always looking out for opportunities. It is not easy to interfere with your opponents. You don't directly attack them. So you might as well focus on optimising your own moves. Thus this is mostly a peaceful game. I can only think of a few ways you can try to minimise helping your opponents. Don't create crowds, because it just tempts others to come score points. Add activity cards to street cards which your opponents have already scored, because you know they won't be able to score those street cards anymore. Activity cards available each turn are limited. You can choose to grab cards which you think your opponents will want. 

In the early game I thought the number of floor tiles was rather low. I felt forced to use them when I wasn't quite willing to. On my turn as the active player, I could do two actions. I chose walking as my first action. At the time I couldn't complete any of my mission cards yet, so for my other action I would have to either create or enjoy activities. Both would force me to use one of my floor tiles. I had hoped the streets would get filled with more activities before I took these actions. However later in the game I realised the number of floor tiles was pretty well balanced. You may not finish them all by game end. In the late game you'll be spending more and more time appreciating beautiful floor tiles (i.e. completing missions). Appreciating floor tiles is mostly multiplayer solitaire. Your opponents don't know your missions, so they can't really mess with your plans. You focus on completing your missions. It takes some planning skills and spatial reasoning. 

It was halfway through the game when I realised the dice were not standard 1 to 6 dice. They didn't have 1's or 6's. No wonder I never rolled any 6's. I thought I was having a bad day. The luck in dice rolling does affect your scores. If you roll low too often, you will be disadvantaged. 

This mission card on the left requires the floor tiles of three different players to be lined up side by side. The mission card on the right involves floor tiles of two players only. 

As more and more floor tiles get placed, missions become easier to complete.

The Thoughts

Kaki Lima: Downtown KL is beautifully produced. It showcases Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian culture. I feel a lot of heart has been put into making this product. If you have visitors from overseas, this is a nice souvenir for them to bring home. If they explore downtown KL, they might just pass by some of the locations featured on the street cards.  

This is a mid-weight game, so this is not one of those brainless take-that games which non-gamers tend to play. This is the kind of game that will introduce modern game mechanisms and new innovations to non-gamers, showing them that contemporary boardgames have something more to offer. Introducing the joy of boardgames to people is a wonderful thing! 

C2AGE Exhibition 2024

The C2AGE (Cosplay, Comics, Anime and Games Exhibition) event is happening this weekend 7 - 8 Sep 2024, at Jaya Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya. Entry is free. My booth will be on the Ground Floor. There is a free game play area on the 1st floor where my games will be available for play. Come visit me if you are in the area! 

Asian Board Games Festival (Penang 2024) interview

I was part of an interview series when I was in Penang for the Asian Board Games Festival - Malaysia 2024. The interview is in Mandarin. Link: https://youtu.be/OqfP2HogfRc?si=CYLFV0WSjaF6zi9V&t=444 

Counting down to Essen 2024

The Essen game fair held in October in Germany every year is the largest boardgame convention in the world. Essen is the Mecca for boardgamers. I have been a boardgame hobbyist for 20 years, and every year I take note of what the interesting new releases at Essen are. There is no way to avoid news about Essen when you are a boardgamer paying any attention to boardgame media. It is simply huge. It has a gravity well and everything revolves around it. This year, 2024, will be my first time ever visiting Essen. I'm going not as Cili Padi Games (a publisher) or as a game designer. I am just a boardgamer. Just a kid in a candy store. With about 4 weeks to go, I am feeling pretty excited. 

Flights and hotels have been booked. In fact they have been booked quite some time ago. Finding a hotel is crazy. I probably should have booked within 2 months after the previous convention. Convention time is super peak season. The hotels are not just much more expensive, they are also often fully booked. I first checked availability of accommodation in January. At the time I could still find some options. About 3 weeks later when I checked again, all the places I had considered booking were fully booked. Nuts! And lesson learned. 

Map of the convention halls

This will be my first time visiting Germany. Thankfully some of my friends have been to Germany and also to the Essen game fair specifically, so I can ask them for tips. My wife Michelle is going with me. We will do some sightseeing before the convention. The convention days will probably be intense and exhausting, so if I do the sightseeing after the event, I might not have much energy left. 

When researching for and planning our trip, I realised that there really is not a lot to see or do around  the city of Essen. So we will be visiting Cologne, and will also be spending a little time in Bonn, where Beethoven was born. Michelle has traveled in Europe before, and she says it gets dull quickly because it's all churches, castles and museums. We will try to experience the local culture and foods. That should be more interesting for us. They say Germen beers are the best. I don't normally drink, but I'm certainly interested to try. 

 

The event organisers developed an app for the convention. This looks pretty nifty. You can keep track of publishers and games you are interested in. You can even use AI to create a schedule for you based on the publishers and games you want to see. Many gamers make highly detailed plans when they go to Essen, drawing out exact paths to specific booths to buy specific games. I don't have the patience to do that. I plan to just stroll at a leisurely pace, and stop whenever I come across anything that catches my interest. I'll listen to the game introduction and I'm happy to watch others play. I don't necessarily have to sit down and play. 

I don't buy as many games as I used to. I still have plenty of opportunities to play new games, but I don't often come across games which surprise me. Aaaahh... the jaded gamer speaking. I don't often find games which I'm eager to have in my collection, which already has more games than I can play. I bought the 4-day pass for Essen, but I'm not entirely sure I will be there for the whole four days. Okay I know that's blasphemy. The true gamer should have no hesitation about fully utilising the four days to play as many games as possible, and to also use the evenings and hotel lobbies to play more games after leaving the convention halls. My plan is to take it easy. I'm there to experience the vibes. I don't intend to pack my schedule. I'll take my time to discover little gems and innovations. 

For many years I have told myself I won't be making any trip to Essen. I live in Malaysia. Germany is a long way from home and thus rather expensive. Spending that amount of money for four days of playing games and visiting game booths doesn't seem worthwhile. All that information about the games will become available on the net very quickly. The hot games will eventually make their way to Malaysia anyway. The money I save will allow me to buy many games. Only more recently I changed my mind about making the pilgrimage to Essen. It's not just about playing games or buying games. It's about the experience being part of such a large international event. It's about soaking in the atmosphere. As they say, YOLO. Sometimes we allow ourselves to indulge a little. 

And this is me. If you are going to be in Essen this year, if you see me, please stop me and say hi. My name is Chok-Sien. Hiew is my surname. I would love to meet friends who know me through my blog. If you want to support my games Dancing Queen or Snow White, message me privately and I can bring them to you at Essen.