The Ming Voyages is live (Thinky voyages)
Update: The Ming Voyages has launched on Kickstarter (together with the 2 player game, The March of Progress), and the campaign will run for 21 days. You may pledge for either or both of the games.
Our preview post below was published on February 20.
The Ming Voyages is a 1-2 player card-driven area control game in which, as a solo player, you are trying to complete seven voyages for the Chinese fleet while fending off Barbarian hordes from your borders. The game is launching on Kickstarter on February 24.
In the solo game, the Barbarian bot has three decks of cards that control its behaviour (and three difficulty levels). At the beginning of the game, both you and the AI will draw event cards: four for the Barbarians, three for the Emperor, then the Emperor draws two more cards. Cards can be used either for their Command points or for the event written on them. Events with a dagger symbol can only be used by the Barbarians, and events with a scroll symbol can only be used by the Emperor.
Command points can be spent to recruit troops, move them, gain gold through taxes, build junks or voyage. The problem is that, when you play a card with a Barbarian event on it, then the opponent will perform that event. When it is the AI's turn, you play the card with the highest Command points from its hand, then perform the equivalent event from its AI deck. If a battle occurs, it is resolved via dice rolls.
At the end of each turn, the players swap hands. You take the cards that the Barbarians had before, draw two more and continue.
Ricky Royal has filmed a solo playthrough: