Today, for the first time since this winter, we are announcing the introduction of small changes in the fleet builder for Gods of War: Togo ⚓🚢. These concern the prices of gunboats 🚤 and are made in response to the wonderful player community 🎲.
The prices of gunboats (and similar 4th-class vessels, such as armed yachts, torpedo rams, etc.) have been reduced 💰. You can already see them in the fleet builder, and the full list of changes is published below 📜.
Let us begin by explaining why this happened 🤔.

For some time now, 9 basic scenarios have been ready, intended for symmetrical games (where both players perform the same task). This made it possible to start observing the balance ⚖️ in other aspects of the game. Observations and testers’ opinions showed that the points balance was good ✅, fleets fairly even, with 2nd-class ships 🚢 as the workhorses, and other classes also finding their use. Except for the gunboats 🚤.

From the game designer’s perspective, gunboats had one major problem ❗. They were relatively slow vessels 🐢, not designed for the tasks most often encountered in the scenarios. Their Achilles’ heel was speed ⏱️. No wonder they didn’t gain much popularity among players.

Therefore, the key step was to reduce their prices 💰⬇️. This way they can be chosen more often as the “last” vessel in a roster, perfect for support tasks (guarding buoys ⚓, scoring zones, defending ports 🏰, islands 🏝️ etc.).

We considered two options – a limited reduction and a radical one (about 50%) 📉. In the end, we went with the limited one, around 30% (depending on the vessel).

Here is the full list of changes for all vessels of this class 📜:

SPAIN 🇪🇸
Aragon was 80, now 55
Infanta Isabel-class was 75, now 50
Isla de Luzon-class was 90, now 70
Castilla-class was 85, now 60
Velasco-class was 65, now 45
Fernando el Catolico-class was 40, now 30
Temerario-class was 70, now 60

GERMANY 🇾🇪
Wespe-class was 70, now 50

JAPAN 🇯🇵
Katsuragi-class (1887) was 80, now 65
Katsuragi-class (1900) was 85, now 70

RUSSIA ⚓
Korietz-class was 95, now 85

GREAT BRITAIN 🇬🇧
Dryad-class was 100, now 80
HMS Polyphemus was 80, now 60

USA 🇺🇸
Gloucester was 55, now 40
Vixen was 50, now 35
Petrel was 60, now 50
Yorktown-class was 85, now 70

Finally, huge and heartfelt thanks 🙌 to all the wonderful testers 👏 who took part in the discussions about this change, with special mention of Miko Gawroński, who did an amazing and tremendous job 💪.

Full steam ahead! 🚀⚓

LINK: https://gmboardgames.com/togo/ab/index.php

PS. This is one of two changes we will introduce in the coming days – before the Polish Championships 🇵🇱🏆. The second will be the revised scenario book 📖. Let me immediately stress that the changes are minimal ✏️. They concern the rules for where lighthouses 🏮 and other objects may be placed, and on which islands 🏝️ in the Port Bombardment scenario 🏰. Most importantly, they concern the rules for cutting the cable 📡 (slightly faster than now) and its placement (further from the edge, thus closer to the enemy ⚔️) compared to the current version. Everything else remains unchanged ✅.
We will not, however, be introducing the new fortifications 🏰 before the Championships – their mechanics are being tested by an excellent team 👨‍🔬👩‍🔬 led by Karol Lemański, but in our view they still require further testing 🔬. Allowing them at the Championships would carry too great a risk ⚠️ of serious loopholes. We cannot allow that at a national event. Therefore, they will be introduced into the game only after the Championships (which we also very much look forward to 😃), because forts are awesome! 💥🏰