By Ryan Hawkeye Brosseau

4 players (2 teams) 8 tokens (2 for each player) 4 decks of cards (1 for each player) 20 push pins 28x48 game board with 1 squares 2 Flags (toothpicks with Post-it Tab and clay base)

One of the first problems we ran into was the fact that after a player picked up the flag, there was no telling where the respawn points were since no marker was left behind. To fix this, we drew an x in the space where the flags were originally placed.

At this same point I noticed that each player controlled 2 pieces, but only used one. On both teams, 2 pieces remained at their home base and did not move for the entire first match. Rather than removing one piece from each player, players were forced to make one action per token during their turn.

At this point, each team had one player in each others base, flags on opposing sides, and neither team could shoot at opponents because all attack cards were used up by the defenders constantly using dodge cards. After putting the Aces into our Actions Deck and a little shuffling, we used the Aces and Kings as Shoot actions and double the amount of attacks players can make. We ultimately just called this a stalemate and moved onto the next round.

After a few more minutes of play, we figured out that the map is a lot larger than what we actually needed. There was a lot of space that we were not utilizing because there was no incentive to use it. So we decided to narrow the play area by 10 spaces on the left and right sides. Soon after this shot was taken, it started to rain. This brought us to another conclusion that we should have foreseen: this is an indoor game, so it should be played indoors. So we decided to make some changes to our board and start the next round inside.

After moving back inside and applying our changes to the size of the game board, it seemed to us that 30 push pins on each side was now a bit too much. So we brought the count down to 20 on each side. 20 still offered a lot of obstruction but still allowed a lot of free movement. We also thought that since now we have the Aces and Kings to make attacks, why couldnt we be able to shoot back at our opponents after they opened fire on us. So we implemented the counter-attack. After a player uses an Attack card and misses the defender, the defender then can use an Attack card to shoot at the attacker. However, the attacker can still use a Dodge card against the defenders counter-attack.

After a couple hours of playing, it became apparent that our makeshift flags have had enough. The PostIt tabs kept falling off of the toothpicks with the slightest bumps or even touch of the game board. We all finally had enough of the tabs and used markers to color the ends of these floss/toothpicks instead.

It came down to the final point and a dilemma. The flag carrier was able to use the Rush cards to get from one base to the other in only a couple turns. With of the team still on their half of the board, the flag carrier only had to make it past 1 opponent. However, with the use of Dodge cards and able to use opponents as protection, the flag carrier was able to make it to their flag with only one shot fired at them. We came to the conclusion that because the defending blue team could only either move or attack, but not both, he was unable to save his flag from being captured. For now, the game was won. We were too tired and exhausted from a long night of playing.

1. Attacking By only having 4 Attack cards for each person, all players had to do was save their Dodge cards and they would be able to avoid any possible attack that may come their way. This made the game very unbalanced and unfair to players. By adding the Aces as Attack cards, players doubled their chance of actually making an Attack. 2. Game Board and Pieces Design Right off the bat, the size of the board was obviously too large for the amount of players we had. Perhaps if we had a game using 16 tokens then 48x48 would work, but for 8 tokens it was more than what we needed or would use for that matter. The original idea of using Postit tabs on the toothpicks soon became a disaster when the tabs were just not holding. By coloring the picks themselves, there was no hassle over the tabs and we could continue playing. 3. Overall Satisfaction of Gameplay Early on, everyone was not satisfied by the way the game was going. It was slow, boring, and nothing was going on except for running the flag back and forth. Second of all, the fact that there were multiple rounds as well made playing 1 game way too long. By making it only 1 capture to win, players could choose continuing playing or leave it at that.

By Ryan Hawkeye Brosseau

As we got into our next game the next day, another problem we had from the day before was cutting the Atk/Def decks and reshuffling each time. It slowed down game play and it didnt seem very reasonable. This time, we decided to just flip over the cards instead to speed things up and keep it interesting.

One of the problems that we had early on was determining line of sight and how far we can shoot. With no rule set determining range, if a player had line of sight of another player on the other side of the map, technically he could shoot him and constantly send him back to his base until the attacker ran out of Attack cards. So we implemented the 15 space range rule. This also played into line of sight and how do we determine diagonal shots where counting spaces is slightly different. For this we just determined that we should use our best judgment and if anything use a straightedge (such as a ruler) to dispute any line of sight disputes. As far as diagonal discrepancies went, a ruler worked best and just measure 15 inches from center of the Attackers square to center of the Defenders square. We also decided that an attacker could not shoot through another player to attack a certain target.

One of the problems we had from the previous iteration was what to do with Rush cards so that players couldnt move from one side to the other in only a couple turns. Another problem we had was not being able to move and shoot in one turn so that a player could come out from cover and take a shot. The upper picture shows a player playing a Jack (now referred to as a double-action card) and then a 2 to move 2 spaces. The lower picture shows the player moving his piece forward two spaces and then playing an Attack card. This effectively shows how the Double-action card can be used to come out from cover and attack an opponent.

Since Double-action cards now use up three cards instead of just two and players are forced to play both tokens during one turn, the regular 5 cards we have in hand started to quickly diminish and did not leave players with very many options. By upping the hand card count to 7, players were able to plan and strategize more appropriately for both their characters.

We had taken care of the problem with not having enough attacks during the previous iteration. However, even during this round we still didnt see a lot of action with successful hits because of the Dodge cards. In this picture, a player used a Double-action to get an open shot against an opponent, but then misses due to a Dodge card even though he is only a couple paces away. It seemed very unrealistic that with being that close of a range that a person would have a 0% chance to hit another player. To counteract this, Dodge cards no longer represent automatic misses, but instead offered a +5 to their Defense card. However, this meant that numbers 6-10 meant that an attacker would always miss. So now we made Aces a +3 to an Attack card. It allowed a small chance for even gameplay but gave a chance for players to still dodge.

Tensions were high as both teams were raising back to their home base with the enemy flag. The next team to score would decide for sure who was the reigning champions of Cards, Flags and Paintball. Since at this point in time, teammates depended greatly on each other to strategize and plan their turns so that they could work on getting their flags back and win the game. However, a heated debate sparked when teammates were looking at each others cards and started to discuss what cards to keep, which to discard, and which to play at certain points. One team disliked the fact that teammates were able to look at each others cards and it represented an unrealistic advantage. In a real game of Paintball players cant really disclose what they can or cant do in a game, but they can still discuss strategy. So we implemented the new rule that teammates can discuss strategy, but cards are to be for the holders eyes only.

At this point, we got into a heated battle. The Reds had taken the Blue flag and managed to carry it across the middle of the field. After a successful attack against the flag carrier, the flag drops where the player was. We asked our selves Now what? We discussed whether we just moved the flag automatically back to the spawn point, or have a player carry the flag back to his own base. Ultimately it came down to what do they do in real paintball? Well, players have to run the flag back to their own base, so that is what we had to do.

After an intense battle for the blue teams flag, the blue team finally triumphed over the reds and captured both flags. With the end of the game, all the players were very well satisfied with the playability of the game in comparison to the first design. In the beginning, the gameplay was slow and boring with very little action at all. Basically, the only thing the players really focused on was grabbing the flag and running it back with no other worries. By the end of the final game, players were taking shots and making them count, fighting over control of one flag, and didnt have a lot of downtime in-between turns. Each player said that they had a lot of fun playing the game and would like to try it again someday.

1. Attacking The new Atk/Def system made the gameplay a lot more fun and balance. By making Dodge cards only adding a bonus to Defense, Attackers still had a chance to eliminate their opponents. Also, by making Aces give a bonus to Attack, there became a difference between Aces and Kings thus allowing players to strategize even further. With the new system, even gameplay speeded up because players were more interested to see how an attack turned out and were faster at placing dodges and counter-attacks. 2. Debating of Rules As the game began to take form to a more balance and realistic game, players began to dispute rules more and more since up to that point they were able to make observations and make changes. To a certain point, I had to point out to players that certain rules were already debated and we had agreed upon them already and that they could no longer be disputed. Overall, players accepted the rulings as that is just how the game is played just as the same with any other game bought off store shelves. 3. Overall Gameplay After the game finally came to its final results, players really got into running t he flags, shooting other players and using cover for protection. When the final flag was captured, even with one team rejoicing over victory, the losing team still cheered at a game well played.