After finally getting to test out the game, a few unforeseen bugs popped out of the woodwork, as well as a couple that I suspected.
A known bug was that some of my stat comparisons relied on multiplication/division, and since some of those stats could be zero, it could mess everything up.
Basically when you compare two numbers, you see not just which one is higher, but by how much as well. If it's too high, you don't get what you want. Originally I had it as "If one number is more than twice as high as the other", and this made it so the player is untouchable if one of the stats gets altered down to zero.
I'd been trying to decide if I should go the multiplication route or just have it be "If one number is more than three higher", which would make a more linear curve, which I am disappointed about, but which would fix the zero bug without having to force a "minimum of 1" in any statistic.
So in any case, next time I try it out I'll be using a simpler comparison, and see how the game plays out.
One unknown bug was that the player who goes first always wins... by a TON. The first player immediately has a huge advantage because they can strike first and clean house on the battlefield before the second player has a chance.
However, I've only played a two-player game so far, but I designed the game to go up to four. I think the problem solves itself in a three and four player game, but to fix a two-player game, I'll have to add a caveat that allows players to start with more Devotees (basically "soldier" cards) on the Field at the beginning of the game, or to change the order of the phases to allow Players to Frenzy their Devotees (change their stats with a hidden card) before Crusading (trying to convert the Opponent's cards).
For now I think I will switch the order of the phases. I thought originally that the order I had made each round feel more fluid and run one into the next, instead of feeling like separate turns (you do "battle" at the beginning of the round, and regroup and call in reinforcements afterwards, to prepare for the next round), but for the sake of balance, I'll switch them around.
Another bug that I didn't even consider is that, since I have four different types of cards, I should write the card type somewhere on the card. Right now they are color-coded, and I think players who are used to the game will be able to distinguish the card types, but for new players who are still getting used to the language of the game, the card type should be printed somewhere on the cards.
I think I may have overlooked that detail because such an indicator was forgotten when I was still toying with the idea of making the game cryptic.
One more half-suspicious bug is that I had way too many Frenzy cards. Frenzy cards allow players to change the stats of their Devotees, initially keeping the card hidden. Each Players deck had an equal number of Devotees and Frenzies, and I realized that that ended up being waaaay too many Frenzies. I've cut the number in half, and I think the game has already been significantly changed.
Before that, a player would find himself with a hand full of useless Frenzies when he had no Devotees on the Field. Cutting Frenzies in half not only solves this problem, but it also helped cut out duplicates (I could only come up with 25 Frenzies, so I printed out four copies of each, and now there are only two copies of each in the game).
After a few more playthroughs, I will discover truly if some players naturally have the advantage over others (I suspected from the beginning that the Player who plays the Green card set will always come out on top), and then I can balance test those.
The bigger issue, of course, is to find any more game-breaking bugs.
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