Prowl Design Diaries #2: Strategising for a Small Hand
The Art of War
As a fast-paced and portable game, Prowl's small footprint sometimes belies its tactical depth. Though games often last no longer than 10-15 minutes, our players have found a surprising amount of strategy within just five simple cards.
When the chaos gets dialled up there's no way to perfectly guarantee success, but there is quite a bit that a clever player can do to swing the odds in their favour. In this article, we'll try to showcase the skills that you can weave into a game as short as Prowl.
In fact, one the game's most important tactical considerations exists precisely because of its short play time. For this update, we'll be talking about how the game's strict 5+1 card hand creates an emphasis on a very specific type of card advantage.
Meet the Squad
In Prowl, your starting hand of six cards represents all the agents you've got at your disposal. These are the various animals whose loyalty you have ensured, drawn from across the four clans. In some games, you'll have a roughly even mix of them across the four; in others, you'll find yourself more invested in one clan or another.
Crucially, you won't be getting more agents even as the game progresses. The other animals have either wisely chosen to sit out the conflict ... or are in the employ of your friends around the table. Either way, the only tools you'll have at your disposal are those with whom you start the game with.
This thus makes when you play a card extremely critical; using up a card now means you won't have it later on. Put more tactically: if I use my first and only Spring clan agent in round one of the game, I won't have access to Spring later on. This can make influencing the track in a certain way more difficult, but more importantly, it means I won't be able to Change my clan into Spring!
We’re in the Endgame now…
Managing opportunity cost is hence a big part of good strategy in Prowl. The right card at the wrong time can leave you short of an agent you need later on in the game, and players can sometimes find themselves grasping for straws in the closing round of a game - trapped knowing that they threw away their chance at victory a round ago, when they played the wrong card.
Part of getting good at this is thus reorienting how you think about phases of a game. Where in most games five cards might be one hand out of one round (maybe out of one phase!) of the game, in Prowl it's the entire game. "Early game" lasts about one or two cards, and by your 4th and 5th card, you're in the endgame. Even from the first card you choose, you're already preparing yourself for the closing moments of the game.
The Right Animal for the Job
Each time you start a game of Prowl, you'll be greeted by a new hand of six cards. Your agents are eager to do your bidding, and it'll be up to you to deploy them wisely. In a game with as few moves as Prowl, everyone has their place, and everything has its cost. The victor is often the one who's best able to understand this simple truth.
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