I've been working on a game on 16th century conflict in the Mediterranean for several months, and have gotten to the point that I could use a few blindtest groups.
If you're interested in testing it, contact me and let me know.
I'll only be looking for three groups -- managing and getting meaningful results out of blindtesters does take some time and effort, as does making physical copies for them. More below the fold.
Ideally, you are part of group of boardgamers, either a formal club or an informal group, who get together reasonably frequently (e.g., at least once a month) to play games, and can commit to playing the game multiple times and providing cogent commentary. (By "cogent" I mean not "it sucks," but why you think it sucks, or if you think it rocks, where you think it could still be improved.)
To give a little information about the game, the working title is Philip & Suleiman, and the board depicts the Mediterranean and surrounding lands in the 16th century. The game can be played by anything from 2 to 8 players, and the playable powers are the Hapsburgs, the Ottoman Empire, the Papacy, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, the Kingdom of France, the Knights of St. John, and the Barbary Corsairs. It is a wargame, but a "wargame light:" no hexes, no CRT, and a complexity about on the same level as Axis & Allies. It does, however, take about 4 hours to play -- thus far longer than a typical Eurogame (and more complex than most -- and with some chance elements, which Eurogames strive to avoid).
Ideally, you can play it not only multiple times, but with differing numbers of players as well, since it needs to be tested with any number.
Testers who do provide useful contributions will, of course, be credited in the ultimate rules.
At opposite sides of the Mediterranean, in their respective palaces, brood two men: Suleiman the Magnificent, brilliant and handsome, the perfect exemplar of Turkish virtue, the wisest and most charismatic prince ever to grace the Sublime Porte; and Philip the Second, lantern-jawed, dour, mistaken in his youth for a lackwit, scribbling his memos but almost never venturing forth from the Escorial, always cautious, sometimes excessively so -- but equally, perhaps the most brilliant monarch Spain will ever see, the architect of Hapsburg greatness, and ruler, with his cousin Maximilian, of the largest European domain since the days of Charlemagne.
This is the world of Philip & Suleiman.
