I recently posted about enlightenment in the standard game.
You can read the post here!
I posted it before i had really gave it much thought. It's a bad idea.

After giving it much greater thought, here is my thoughts on the Enlightenment win condition in the standard game.
I have 4 versions that start really simple and get more complex as we go, some of these I think will work better than others and needs play testing to work out the finer points.

Ok let's begin. The Journey to Enlightenment!............(maybe)

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You will need.
2x Dynasty Cards
2x Conflict Cards
10 Honour Tokens
5 Fate Tokens

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Optional Arts and Crafts.
Printer
Scissors
Glue Stick
20 x Coin Capsules

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Enlightenment Version 1.

Super simple version
for this version you need
2x Dynasty Cards (one for each player)
5 x Honour Tokes (Shared between the player)

It occurred to me that on the back of every card is printed all 5 elements of each of the rings, and that this could be the perfect way to track an enlightenment win condition.


Now every time you claim a ring you place an honour token to on the back of your card.
So if you claimed the air ring it would look like this.


If later in the game you claim the Void ring, you'd place another token like this


Claim the water ring for this.


If you claimed the Fire ring you'd have this.


Lastly if you manage to claim the Earth ring and fill you card you'd have this.


If a player claims a ring that has already been claimed by the other player then that player must remove their token from their card.
The first player to fill their card wins the game by enlightenment!

*ARTS* AND *CRAFTS*
To help stop confusion I've designed some Enlightenment tokens to use so they don't get mixed up with the honour tokens.
They look like this.


I think it's better to use a token thats made for the job and I like how they look on the back of the cards.


When all of the rings have been claimed at least once, all of the five tokens will be used
Players claiming a ring will remove the token from their opponents card and place it on their own
Here is a look at what both players cards could look like during a game.


When playing I think its best to keep the cards side by side so its easier to compare how each player is doing
simply place the cards at the side of the game, turning them 90 degrees, something like this.



If you don't want to use the backs of the cards and have access to a printer, I've made this playing board with tokens to print
The image is the perfect size if you print is without stretching or scaling or "fit to page"

Cut out the Enlightenment tokens and stick them onto some spare fate tokens using the glue stick.
Finish off by placing the token inside 16mm coin capsules to keep them nice.


Cut out the board and you've got a dedicated place to track enlightenment.


What a game could look like during play.


Place the enlightenment board at a90 degree angle off to the side.


Final thoughts.
This is probably too simple to actually work as a game mechanic.
I think winning by enlightenment like this could be too easy and "Enlightenment" should be tougher.

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Enlightenment Version 2.

Not So simple version
for this version you need
2x Dynasty Cards (one for each player)
5 x Honour Tokes (Shared between the player)
5 x Fate Tokes (Shared between the player)

For this version we are going to separate the 5 rings into 10 rings,
Each of the rings has type versions, political or military and now to make the enlightenment win condition harder to achieve a player only wins if they fill their card with the same type of ring.
All 5 military rings or all five political rings.

For this we will use fate tokens to represent a political ring claimed and glory tokens for when we claim a military ring.

We first win a military fire ring so place an honour token.


The next ring we claim is a political earth ring.


Claiming the military air ring and the political void rings would give us a card looking like this.


If later in the game we claim a military void ring we have a choice. We can keep the Political token or we can exchange it for the military token.
Lets say we decide to go for military so we exchange the token, our card would now look like this.


Did I say military token? Political token?
To get away from the honour/fate tokens I've designed some Military and Political Enlightenment Tokens


These can be printed and put in capsules too
They are double sided with military on one side and political on the other.


For the sake of clear explanations i will go through an entire game using these new tokens as i think it makes things a lot easier to understand.
So we begin both players having a card each
PLayer 1 claims the first ring and its a military air.


Player 2 gets the next one and its a Political Void


Player 1 strikes back taking a political water ring.


Lets break off for a minute and get rid of these cards
Here is a 2 player board with 10 tokens.
Again if you print with no scaling the tokens should print at 16mm to stick on some spare fate tokens.

Ok we've gotten rid of the cards and we will continue the game where we left off
Player 1 having just claimed the political water ring


Player 1 takes the next ring and its the military fire ring. That ends round 1.


Player 2 responds by claiming the fire ring for themselves but this time its political so player 1 keeps their military fire token.


Player 1 claims the military void ring


Player 2 claims the military air ring and as that was a ring already previously claimed by player 1 it means that player 1 loses the token


Player 2 claims the next ring and its another political victory this time its earth and that ends round 2.


Round 3 starts with player 1 claiming his air ring back but this time its political so player 2 keeps his token.


Player 2 claims the water ring also taking the token form player 1.
Player 2 now needs only 1 more ring and he's the winner.


Player 1 takes the next ring and it a military earth


Player 2 claims the military void ring and removes the token from player 1 as player 2 is only 1 political token away from victory they choose to keep their political token. Ending round 3.


Round 4 starts and its an instant victory for player 2 as they claim the political air ring achieving POLITICAL ENLIGHTENMENT!! Yeah!!



Final thoughts on version 2.
Where version 1 is probably too easy, this version may probably be too hard to achieve.
It become obvious which a player is going for, military or political. also a player kinda get locked into going for the one they're doing the best at.
With this in mind lets move on



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Enlightenment Version 3.

More Balanced version
for this version you need
2x Dynasty Cards (one for each player)
2x Conflict Cards (one for each player)
10 x Honour Tokes (Shared between the player)

Where in version 2 we split the military and political rings using the tokens, this time we'll make the split using the 2 different cards.
We'll use a Dynasty card for every military ring claimed and a Conflict card to keep track of the claimed political rings.
Each player gets one of each card.
The first player to fill either of their cards wins by Enlightenment.


A player claiming the military earth ring would put a token on the Dynasty card


Later in the game the same player can have claimed both version of the same ring
This example show a player who has claimed both versions of the earth ring.


Players place their cards at the side of the game at a 90 degree angle.
I think it makes it easier to compare by having them mirrored with the same type of card closest together and the other matching cards furthest away.


You can use cards if you like but to makethings easier I made a printable board
Not that this image is a ONE PLAYER board you'll need to print this image twice, One for each player
Both boards will give you 10 tokens you can stick to some fate tokens
Again this image is the perfect size for printing without scaling.

Print 2 boards and place them at the side of the game. one for each player.



Even better print this all in one version. With a full set of 10 tokens.


Cut out the tokens and stick one each on both sides of a fate token and put them in 16mm coin capsules.


Cut out the board and you're ready to go


This is placed at the side of the game like this.
Each player keeping track of military and political rings claimed using the corresponding enlightenment rings ion the board closest to them


Wether you're using cards or the printable board, I'm going to be using the board as I think it make explanations easier.
So lets begin the example game.
Player 1 claims the first ring and its political earth.


Player 1 takes the next one too, this time military frire.


Player 2 claims the military void ring.


And player 1 ends the round by claiming the political air ring.


Player 1 claims the political water ring.


The political void ring also is claimed by player 1


Player 1 also claims the military earth ring, giving player 1 both versions of the earth ring.


Player 2 finally end round 2 and claims another ring and its the military fire ring. This ring already having been claimed by player 1, so that means player 1 has to give the token over to player 2.


Player 1 claims the military air ring


Player 2 claims the political water ring and takes it from player 1.


Player 1 respond by claiming the political fire ring, (if only player 2 hadn't claimed the water ring the last round)


Player 1 claims the military void ring so player 2 loses the token and that ends round 3.


Round 4 starts and player 2 claims the military water ring.
Note at this point all the tokens are on the board and now they change owners until someone wins


And its doesnt take long, player 1 recovers the political water ring giving them the win by POLITICAL ENLIGHTENMENT.

Final thoughts on version 3.
I think this is probably the best so far.
It stops players being locked into one type or the other.

EXTRA BONUS RULE.
If you claim a ring that you already have claimed but don't have the other version then you can add a token so that you have both version.
For example. lets go back to here in our previous example.
Player 1 has declared a political conflict using the water ring trying to win the game.


Player 2 manages to defend and claims the ring but they already have the political water ring, however they don't have the military water ring, so because they already have the political water ring they are allowed to place a token on the military water ring like this.

This bonus rule could add an extra level to the strategy and also ends this version as we move on to version 4 where we'll use this rule to complicate things even further..


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Enlightenment Version 4.

Things could get too complicated version
for this version you need
2x Dynasty Cards (one for each player)
2x Conflict Cards (one for each player)
5 x Honour Tokes (Shared between the player)
5 x Fate Tokes (Shared between the player)

We split the rings into the 2 types using tokens in version 2 and using extra cards in version 3, in this version we're going to combined the versions 2 and 3 and this is where we can add lots of rules and overly complicate things but could also use the rules to find a perfect balance.
Only play testing will tell.
In this version we are going to use
Dynasty cards to record our military victories
Conflict cards to record our Political victories
Honour tokens for military victories
Fate tokens for Political victories


Even though the cards and tokens work fine, lets get rid of them straight away because it make explaining thing so much easier
Here the 2 player board but this time with the military and political tokens for you to print.


Heres mine that i printed. nothing new just mixing what we've already done.
The 10 tokens are double sided and as before i glued them onto fate tokens and placed them in coin capsules.


Some of the tokens placed on the board.


If using the bonus rule from version 3 where you get to place the token in the wrong circle when you claimed a version of the ring you had already claimed.
Doing this in version 3 because you were using 10 tokens all the same on both sides, all tokens were the same, meaning that a token placed in the political circle that was won by a military conflict counted towards your victory.

In this version using that same rule allows you to place a military token in the political circle.
ok lets begin an example as i think its easiest to explain as we go.
Enlightenment is achieved by filling in any of the circles with the correct tokens.

Player 1 claims the first ring, and its political earth.


Player 2 clams the political air ring.


Player 2 gets the military fire ring.


And player 2 gets the military void ring. End of round 1.


Player 1 claims the political water ring.


A political earth conflict is declared and player 1 wins but he already has claimed this ring before so the political token in placed in the military earth spot.


Player 1 claims the military air ring.


A military fire conflict is declared and player 2 wins as he already has that token but he doesn't have the political fire yet, a token is placed here.


Player 2 claims the political void ring.


A political water conflict is declared and player 1 wins, as that spot is taken the token is placed in the military circle.


All 10 tokens are on the board and its now just a matter of moving them back and forth until one player fills one of their circles.
Lets take this board and call it FULL BOARD and have a look at some of the things that could happen.

Lets make a list of rules. we'll start with the bonus rule from version 3.

Rule 1
If you claim a ring of an element and type that you already have a token for but don't have that same element of the other type than you can place a token in that circle.

Rule 2
If you claim a ring type where the spot is taken by a token of the other type then you can move that token to the correct circle

So lets start with the full board
Player 2 wins a political water conflict.


Now here something very interesting can happen
Lets say its the start of a new round and a military water conflict is declared.
Player 1 wins
The spot is already taken by a political token and the water spot is vacant in the political circle so that token is moved to the political circle, and as a knock on effect player 2 already has a token on the political water spot as both players can't have tokens on the same spot at anytime in the game player 2 removes the token from the spot. player 1 places this token onto the water spot in the military circle.



Rule 3
If you win a conflict and the correct spot is taken by a token of the wrong type and the correct spot for that token is already taken then you flip the wrong token and make it right.

Lets skip back to when the board looked like this.


A military water conflict is declared
player 1 wins the spot is taken by a political token
The political water spot is also taken by the correct token so nowhere to move it to.
In this case player 1 replaces the political token with the military token


Rule 4
If a player claims a ring that results in a token in both of that players circles that are the wrong type then both tokens are instantly swopped.

Lets follow on from the last picture and this time we will take a step by step of whats happening
A military air conflict is declared.
Player 1 wins. their military air spot is taken but their political air spot is free so a military air token is placed there.


Because both player can't have tokens on the same spots player 2 removes his token.


Player 1 now has a political token in their military circle and a military token in their political circle.
instantly both tokens change places.
If there are more than 1 tokens in the wrong circle then that player gets to choose which token to change it with.


Rule 5
If a player claims a ring of a token they already have and that player also has the wrong token type in their other circle then that player can flip the other token.

following from the last picture
PLayer 2 wins a military fire conflict. as they already have that token they look to their political fire spot and they also have a military token there too.
In this case 2 wrongs DO make a right and they flip the token from military to political.



If a player wins a ring and they already have both token of the correct type in the correct spots then nothing happens (or give that player an honour token maybe)

Thats pretty much it, I don't think we need to play this to find a winner. the first player to fill one of their circles with the correct type of token wins by enlightenment.

Final thoughts on version 4.
There is so much you can do here with combos and chain reactions.
You could even break special effects down even further by having different results if you were the attacking player or the defender.

Summary of each version and what you'll need

I hope somebody play tests some of these ideas and post the results
Enjoy!!!!

Given the amount of complexity in the game already, I think it would be best to try actually playtesting the most simple version.

I don't really know about this whole losing the ring if the other player wins a conflict of that type though. It really depends heavily on how difficult it is to win a conflict of each of the 5 elements compared to breaking 3 provinces and the stronghold or lowering the opponent to 0 honor.

6 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

I don't really know about this whole losing the ring  if the  other player wins  a conflict of that type    

Are you suggesting players keep score of what they've claimed and never lose a token?

So both player having won a fire conflict would both have tokens on their cards for fire.

This would turn it into a race. Rather than stratergy. In all of the versions above there is an level of strategy trying to win conflicts to take players tokens while filling your own card.

I don't think enlightenment should be easy at all. It should be the hardest win condition of them all to achieve.

In version 4 it's possible to make a move that through a chain reaction would end with a player filling both their political and military circles at the same time. It a player ever managed that I'd say forget enlightenment and move straight to God Mode.

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On Facebook someone commented that doing any of this pretty much takes over the game. Where in practice this would be a simple side game taking up not much space or game time at all.

Example.

Player 1 claims a political earth ring in the normal game. - he places a token on his enlightenment score card and the game continues. This is hardly taking up much in the way of playing time.

I posted this post as a list of possibilities. Not as the difinitive answer.

Maybe I shouldve posted each version into a Seperate post. Maybe this entire post is a little overwhelming for some people.

There are 20 possible ring types to be claimed and I only broke it down into 5 ring types in version 1 and versions 2 3 and 4 having 10 types.

But we can double all that by adding attacking or defending.

An Attacking player claiming a political void ring could effect the placement of enlightenment tokens differently than a defending player claiming the same political void ring.

What I do believe though is that within everything I posted above that there is a perfectly balanced version of enlightenment thats just waiting to be uncovered

48 minutes ago, Maffster said:

Are you suggesting players keep score of what they've claimed and never lose a token?

So both player having won a fire conflict would both have tokens on their cards for fire.

This would turn it into a race. Rather than stratergy. In all of the versions above there is an level of strategy trying to win conflicts to take players tokens while filling your own card.

I don't think enlightenment should be easy at all. It should be the hardest win condition of them all to achieve.

The game is already a race. Whether you are racing to take all of the opponent's provinces or you are racing to get to 25 honor or you are racing to reduce the enemy to 0 honor before you lose all your provinces.

Only if you have an honor deck vs a dishonor deck does it become an ongoing conflict-- but at that point it isn't so much "strategy" as the two win conditions cancel one another out and neither can really win via their main win condition and instead have to fall back on their military and political power to win the match.

Other than that, the game is basically set to be a race to take the enemy's provinces faster than they can take yours. Whether that be to have enough military and political force to take 1 province from each kind of conflict each turn or the Lion and Unicorn special ability to be able to do 2 military conflicts during a turn and maybe a political one too.

As the game is, it is basically never even worth trying to defend your provinces. You lose 1 honor? Means absolutely nothing, honor only affects the game if you reach 0 or 25 and the later is basically impossible. Even if you win a defense victory, your characters still bow, you don't get to resolve the ring effect or damage their army unless you have conflict cards that allow that-- it is basically a waste of fate that doesn't move you any closer to your victory condition. You always want to be on offense in this game, always. Even if you can't actually win the conflict, it is better to be attacking because whatever fate the defender might gain from the ring, it is almost certain to be worth less than what they spend to prevent you from taking the province.

Now, this enlightenment victory condition could actually allow a player to possibly move closer to victory with a successful defense. That would actually add a reward to an element of the game that is currently sorely lacking.

But, if one player can take away a ring from the other player by simply winning a conflict of a type the other person has already won, then the person trying to achieve enlightenment basically has to win at least 5, possibly as many as 10 (if they keep trying for elements you have claimed and declare attacks whenever possible) conflicts in a row. Frankly, if you are dominating the opponent to that kind of degree in both military and politics, consistently for that many turns, then you have already won the game by breaking all provinces and taking their stronghold.

What exactly possibly could be the point of a victory condition that triggers exclusively if you are utterly dominating the game, a clean flawless sweep of everything they put on the board, for 3+ turns?

That's not just "enlightenment is the hardest victory condition", that is "if you have achieved the enlightenment victory condition, you already burned down their stronghold last turn and forgot that the game was already over."

As I said before, try actually playing this out in real games and I am sure you will see-- if only one player can control any given ring, then the system doesn't have "strategy" so much as it is so impossible for it to have any impact on the game that it might as well not even be part of it.