Negative optimization on Moon Base Callisto
Exploring deck-building and unit casualties in Undaunted 2200: Callisto
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I really enjoyed the underlying system and mechanisms of Undaunted: Normandy (Thompson & Benjamin, 2019), but didn’t love the Second World War theme. So I was thrilled to see the release of Undaunted 2200: Callisto (Thompson & Benjamin, 2024) this year, a new game in the Undaunted series with a science fiction theme and mechs:
Jovian Moon Base - Callisto, 22nd Century AD: Tensions have arisen between the conglomerate of Earth's leading corporations that funded the base and the mining collective tasked with operating it. Protests have erupted, strikes been called, and contracts broken. Private security forces have been hired, industrial mining vehicles repurposed for combat, and long-disused military mechs reawoken. The battle for Callisto is about to begin: It's time to choose your side.
Having played a few games of Callisto, I really appreciate the changes from Normandy. The pre-made map board makes setup fast and easy, and the new elevation dice add some strategic interest.1 That said, this is not a review of the game.
Instead I want to explore a mechanism that is common to all the Undaunted games: negative optimization.
Big and small deck-building strategies
I’ve mentioned deck-building before in the article about dynamic markets and Dutch auctions.2 It’s a mechanism related to pool building, where players actively acquire new cards into their deck:
Players play cards out of individual decks, seeking to acquire new cards and to play through their decks iteratively, improving them over time through card acquisition or card elimination.
Players have control over which cards are added (or removed) from their decks, but do not control the order in which cards are drawn. Each turn they draw and play X random cards from their deck, hoping to get the cards they want.
Usually deck-building games force the player to balance between two strategies:
Big deck: Lots of cards, including many valuable cards. The chance of drawing any one specific card, however, is low because the overall deck size is large.
Small deck: As few cards as possible, with a small pool of card types. The chance of drawing specific cards is higher, but comes at the cost of variety and flexibility.
I’ve personally been successful in games of Shards of Infinity (Gary & Arant, 2018) by trimming my deck down to be as small as possible.
Units made of individuals
The Undaunted series of games intensifies this big vs. small deck dilemma by how units are handled, but first we need to look at how the game handles units.
Each unit represented by multiple cards in the player’s deck.
Here’s how it is described in Undaunted: Normandy:
A unit is a small group of soldiers represented by three to five combat cards and a single combat counter. Combat cards and counters in the same unit have the same title and squad designation.
And in Undaunted 2200: Callisto:
…a unit is a small group of people or piloted mech or vehicle. Each unit is represented by a single combat counter, and the individual personnel or crew in a unit are represented by two to five combat cards. A squad is a collection of units, typically under the command of a command card (a Sergeant or a Squad Leader).
This concept can be confusing for players who are new to the system.
Each unit token on the board represents the location of multiple individuals (represented by cards in the deck) who are acting together. Drawing one of the individual cards of that unit from your deck allows you to activate that unit. Once activated it can move, attack, scout, or other actions.
The unit “size” or “strength” can be considered to be the number of matching cards in the player’s deck. For example, you might have Corp-Sec Unit Z on the board which shows its location relative to the overall force. That Unit Z will have multiple Corp-Sec Z cards in the deck, each representing one individual in the unit. They even have names and headshots on the card (e.g. Claretta Arroyo or Jim Steiner).
This is what makes unit attrition so interesting in the game!
Taking damage and unit attrition
Undaunted is a wargame, so attacking and taking damage are key parts of the game. Instead of immediately losing a unit when hit, however, units are slowly degraded over time.
Successfully attacking a unit inflicts a casualty on the targeted unit. The owner of the unit finds a card matching the attacked combat counter (e.g. Corp-Sec Z) and removes it from the game. This is done using the following order:
If possible, they remove the card from their hand.
Otherwise, they remove it from their discard pile.
Otherwise, they remove it from their deck.
If they can’t remove a card from any of those locations, the unit is eliminated and removed from the game. Any cards matching that unit are also removed.
In practice, this allows a unit on the board to take multiple hits (i.e. casualties) before it is eliminated from the game.
If a player has four (4) Corp-Sec Z cards in their deck, that unit can take four hits before it is rendered immobile. The fifth hit (i.e. no cards left), will eliminate it from the game.
Negative optimization strategies
In Thematic Integration in Board Game Design, Sarah Shipp writes, “Probably, the easiest way to handle theming strategies is to design player powers that lean into specific strategies and assign each power a character who has motivation for pursuing that strategy.”3 She then lists a number of player strategies that could be used, including negative optimization (p. 77):
Negative Optimization is the strategy of reducing the scope of your opponent’s options for their turn… [This strategy] is mostly found in combat games or survival games, where you can kill/damage/capture resources or characters that your opponent uses to generate actions. The simplest example is a squad-based skirmish game, where if you kill off some of the opposing force, their options become more limited on their turn.
This is exactly what Undaunted is doing with the unit attrition mechanism.
Cards are what allow a player to take actions with a specific unit, and each hit removes one of those cards from the player’s deck. This reduces the chances of drawing one of that unit’s cards, making it less effective on the battlefield.
The bolster action on a few cards can draft additional cards from the player’s personal, static market. This reinforces the unit, allowing it to resume taking more actions, but the bolster action is rare and usually limited to a specific unit.
Putting it all together
Undaunted gives the player a number of interesting and hard choices throughout the game. The initiative system is one of them, although not covered in this article.
The other interesting choice is deciding how much to bolster your units:
Bolster a lot: This is a “big deck” strategy, ensuring that each unit can take a fair amount of damage (i.e. losing cards) before it is degraded and eventually eliminated. Each unit becomes strong, with multiple chances to activate. The downside is that the player’s deck is large and diluted. Any one card has a low chance of being pulled, meaning they have less control over the order in which units are activated. This could mean it’s harder to execute strategies to win.
Bolster a little: This is the “little deck” strategy. Units are relatively weak, and will be knocked out after only a few hits. The advantage is that individual units are repeatedly activated, allowing them to effectively move and attack. A single unit is more likely to have multiple activations in a single turn, and it might be easier to execute strategies.
At the same time, both sides are employing negative optimization strategies by attacking and eliminating cards from decks.
After a few plays, it becomes apparent that damaging a unit down to a single card is often as good as eliminating it. It may still be on the map, but limps along with infrequent activations. A mech might have a pilot but no gunner, and unable to attack.
This is mechanically satisfying, but also feels thematic (as Sarah Shipp says in her book). It makes sense that a mech without a full crew doesn’t work as well. It’s thematically coherent that a nailgunner unit with only one person left can’t do as much as a unit with five members.
Controlling the action economy
The idea of negative optimization shows up in many games, including most combat-focused TTRPGs. Rather than focusing on direct damage (i.e. HP loss), some characters will focus on manipulating the action economy of the game (i.e. the number of actions each side can take during part of a game):
Action denial: Prevent the opposing side from taking actions, similar to how Undaunted 2200: Callisto removes cards from the player’s hand. In TTRPGs, this might appear as stuns and silence spells.
Tempo control: Change the pace of the game and intercept a rush by the opposing force. Casting a haste or slow spells would be examples.
Initiative manipulation: Control the order of actions taken, usually by controlling who goes first in a given round.4
Other de-buff actions might fall into this category as well, as they have similar effects.
Negative optimization strategies can be both thematic and give a broader range of actions to players, rather than just slugging away at each other until someone drops.
Conclusion
Some things to think about:
Big deck vs. small deck: I’ve seen deck-building (and TCG/CCG) games that require a minimum deck size to prevent players from over-optimizing their deck (i.e. just cycle the same 10 cards). Undaunted handles this in an interesting way by giving the player reasons to want both a big and small deck at the same time, turning it into a really interesting choice.
Negative optimization strategies: While a positive optimization strategy has a player trying to squeeze the most out of each turn (e.g. an action efficiency euro-game), a negative optimization strategy is focused on degrading opponent turns. This can be done in many ways, but reducing their number of actions (or actions per unit) is one of the most common.
Thematic strategies: Both positive and negative optimization strategies can be thematic, especially when designed around things the player would reasonably want to do based on the theme of the game. In Undaunted 2200: Callisto a player attacks a mech, trying to kill crew members which makes the mech less effective on the battlefield.
What do you think? How is negative optimization used in your favorite board games and TTRPGs? Does it feel thematic and like it is a natural part of the game?
— E.P. 💀
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Previously Undaunted: Normandy used d10 dice. In Callisto, if you are shooting down at an enemy you roll d12s and if you are shooting uphill you get d8s. It’s a nice little change that provides incentive to grab and control the high ground.
Dominion (Vaccarino, 2008) is usually credited with starting the boom of deck-building games, using a static, shared market of cards. Note that most TCG/CCG games like Magic: The Gathering (Garfield, 1993) are not considered deck-building games, but rather “deck construction” games because the decks are made ahead of the game, not during the game.
Thematic Integration in Board Game Design by Sarah Shipp is one of the books I recommend to anyone interested in tabletop game design. The advice contained in it works just as much for TTRPGs as it does board games and videos games.
The Undaunted initiative system is fascinating. Players draw four (4) cards each round, and must discard one of them for initiative. The player with the higher numerical value card wins initiative. High value cards are usually the most powerful cards. This forces the player to choose between winning initiative and playing a powerful card.
I’m getting flashbacks to some recent games of Hero Realms. Negative optimization is the power of the green cards in that game, as many have the ability “target opponent discards a card.” Especially early in the game, when you are trying to generate enough buying power to secure powerful cards, starting your turn with 4 instead of 5 cards can feel like a waste of a round.