I got to playtest Sons of Liberty this weekend at Gamex with a whole passel of players.  The game ended up playing in two halves, each with five Patriots against one Tory (me).  I had not been able to test the game and its point-economy with this many players, and I am happy to report it went off without a hitch.

In the first half, we had Paul as Alexander Hamilton, Meghann as the Martin Women, Laura as Fanny Campbell, Ian as Ben Franklin, and a charming gentleman whose name I have forgotten as Paul Revere.  Ian and his friend the charming gentleman had to bow out after the Travel Level and the first Exploit Level.  In their place, James took up Paul Revere and Will brought in Sam Adams for the second half of the game.  The really cool thing here was that James and Will simply watched Paul, Laura, and Meghann play one hand and then jumped in with very little rules explanation.  The game can be learned by just watching it!

The refined Tory figure selection worked very well: each level, the Tory player can bring in one new Tory figure.  I had Admiral Arbuthnot for the Travel Level, where he attacked Fanny Campbell's ship with the entire British fleet (he favors gross overpowering).  In the first Exploit Level I brought in Lt John Enys, the ranger.  I really enjoyed his 'reveal' -- Hamilton had kicked down a door and got the drop on the redcoats ("Stand and Deliver!").  I wasn't really sure how to proceed since in the fiction he had 'won' -- until I had Enys swing down from the rafters and kick Hamilton directly into the stocks.  (Of course, Hamilton spent the rest of the level running around still in the stocks, beating down redcoats with the wooden frame and deflecting bullets with the metal hinges.)

In the second Exploit I brought out Samuel Seabury, preaching against the rebellion from his pulpit (the reasoned response was a punch to the face). In the last level I had Patrick Ferguson construct a giant clockwork sonic countermeasure to flatten all of Sam Adams' beer, which was being used to fuel a riot in the streets.  The final play of the game was Revere subverting the contraption to repressurize the beer.  The figures appeared in each level after they were revealed, and by the end of the game the Patriot players had a good idea of who they were -- especially Arbuthnot and Enys, who had been around the longest.

It appears that the Tyranny currency works in the present configuration.  In short form, in each Exploit Level, the Tory puts out four Tyranny chips.  He can use these (and more from supply) for Abuses and Usurpations, and any that he does use come back to him doubled if he wins.  If he loses, he loses those four Tyranny and any other he's thrown into the level.  So the Tory players wants to spend about four Tyranny in each level: he's going to lose them if he doesn't spend them anyway.  He can toss a few more in from his supply if he's feeling confident.

The rewrite of Abuses and Usurpations also seems to have smoothed things out.  In the last playtest we had a problem where the Tory player never had an opportunity to use an ability -- he needed a set of 5s or a set of 8s, which never came up.  The rank-based abilities come up the least often: not every hand has a set of 3s, and it's more than possible to have a whole game without a set of 3s at all.  Therefore, Tory figures have at most one rank-based ability, and the other is suit-based (which come up all the time) or does not interact with the sets and straights on the table (draw a new hand).  This will also be helped a whole damn lot by a good Tory Sheet, which I will be making now that Abuses and Usurpations are finalized (or close to final).

I started off with ten Tyranny (I lost the Travel Level, otherwise I would have had fifteen).  In the first Exploit Level I played three Tyranny (Arbuthnot's overwhelming force of marines, Enys burning houses, and Enys' men attacking from the trees) and lost all four, anyway.  In the second Exploit Level I played all four Tyranny (Seabury preached from the pulpit, Enys destroyed more livelihoods, and... two others I can't recall) and I lost those, too.  Laura got the next cut scene and went directly to the Primary Objective, so in the final level I had two Tyranny.  I played one (Ferguson's beer countermeasure) and was about to play the other to steal a Club and win (47-57) when Paul called the question and ended the level.  The Patriots won by ONE POINT (48-47).

I have discovered that I am actually a pretty poor Tory player, especially in playtest.  I am way too concerned with watching the other players and making sure everybody knows how the game works, so consequently I lag behind on playing my own cards and jacking the Tory score higher.  This is mostly an amusing observation, since I think we'll hit one more alpha-playtest of this before it goes to beta-playtest where I am not present.  In the long term, convention demos will probably feature me as a non-playing facilitator rather than as Tory player.

One slight concern did come up in this playtest, at least for me.  As presently written, the Patriot Score is the number of cards played to the table and the Tory Score is the ranks of cards in his hand totaled up (face cards as 11).  The Patriots can call the question whenever they like; the Tory player can only call the question once he's collected a trio of face cards.  Now, strictly speaking, the Tory player always knows if he'll win if the question is called that moment.  Once the Tory player gets three face cards in his hands, he 'should' call the question the moment he has the point advantage.  Therefore, shouldn't the Patriots call the question once their score tops 33 plus change?  Like, with a five-Patriot game, if the Tory player hasn't called the question, it means he (a) doesn't have three face cards and his score is around 40 (two face cards and three others), or (b) has three face cards but does not have more than the Patriots.  There is the slight chance that (c) the Tory does have the point advantage but wants to find an opportunity to spend another Tyranny before calling the question.  I am not sure, however, if (c) happens often enough for the Patriots to really worry about it.  Thoughts?  Or am I overanalyzing things at this point, and everybody will be more intent on clockwork power armor and solar-powered laser cannons?

I was Paul Revere in the playtest and though I will take credit for the subversion, Sam Adams gets the credit for reinflating the beer. Anyway, I really enjoyed the game and if I could pick it up at 2AM after a full day of gaming, then anyone can. I haven't played enough to have an opinion yet, but of course, I do. I think you may be over-worrying the issue of when to call the question. It essentially boils down to a race for the Patriots to get to mid-thirties before the Tory calls the question. The Tory will want to throw cards all over the place, especially low cards, in order to get those three face cards as soon as possible. So its a race. That seems fine to me.

I just don't want there to be a killer strategy -- as in a strategy that kills the game and the fun -- buried under the entertaining exterior.

You picked up a character somebody else had 'made' -- I got the impression that everything was clear and you just jumped in, and I think I remember you grabbing jokers and five-card hands, but I can't quite recall if you used Revere's special abilities.  Did you?  Were they clear when they could happen and more importantly, how you could get to a place where they could happen?

Let's see....I grabbed a joker and pulled a 5-card hand. I did not get a new hand or call for a suit, but only because I didn't get a chance. The mechanics seemed pretty clear except I repeatedly would check the sheet to see what actions were playable with a suit, then forget it by the time I looked at the cards. Like I said, sugar plums were dancing in my head that late at night.

As for strategy, the way the game plays the Patriots should call the question at the 33 mark (or so). You could probably change the mechanic to alter the timing (like if the Tory needed 4 face cards the target would go higher). But there doesn't seem to be a way around the fact that at some point it is in the Patriot's best interest to call the question. I guess the issue is on average how many turns does it take the patriots to get to 33?