Game Strategy : Anticipation vs. Reaction

Is the game at it's core more like rock paper scissors or, for lack of a better analogy, air hockey? Is the strategy based on anticipating the opponent's next move or reacting quickly and intelligently to counter the previous play? Wizard's Duel may wind up having elements of each. Here are two places where the game design could go one way or the other: shapeshifting and movement.

Shapeshifting could be done simultaneously. Each player secretly chooses an animal and then they are both revealed at the same time, like rock paper scissors. This was my original notion of how it would work. My second thought was that players could alternate shapeshifting so that each turn one player becomes an animal intended to defeat the opponent's current form, and then the next turn must survive in that form after the opponent transforms into a new animal. In case that was confusing here is an example. You are a wolf chasing me. I am a deer running away. When it is my turn I change into a bear, turn around, and attack you. When it is your turn again you change into a bird and fly away. I think this may be closer to the intent of the game, as per Sword in the Stone.

There are two different ways that movement could work. Before I explain them let me mention how I do not want movement to happen. I don't want players to take turns moving several spaces at a time, it's too clumsy and artificial. The whole "my turn, your turn" isn't fluid enough. Jon had the idea that each player could choose the direction that they wanted to move secretly and then simultaneously reveal and see what happened, à la rock/paper/scissors. I have this idea about near-simultaneous movement, taking turns moving one space at a time chasing eachother until one animal outpaces the other. Either way I will probably separate it into sprinting and endurance movement phases. More details on that later.

I'm leaning towards reaction oriented on both counts, I think it better matches the flavor of the chase/transform/counter-attack duel between Merlin (The Powerful Wizard) and Mad Madam Mim.

Next up:

1. photograph of the board (going with strictly non-digital game production)
2. card layout (animal stats)
3. turn sequence, movement, & the environment
4. attacking
5. card drawing
6. winning
7. cheating

FYI - WizardsDuel.com is forwarding correctly again.

Another aside: Memorable Quotes from Sword in the Stone. Damn I gotta watch that movie again. That and the animated Robin Hood of the same era. I think Cybil's got those DVDs on back order for me but she won't say, it's a surprise.