Potential turn-trackers

[Tantali]

Considering #161 and thinking about the design, I really like the idea of having something covering up each turn, that you need to remove, instead of having a turn-token. I would also see this as something which might change up gameplays, to increase replayability.

This is an open-minded ticket to suggest whatever you can think of that fits this description:

• brings the end of the game closer the more turns are played and guarantees an ending
• should be tracked by something players will naturally keep track of

For design reasons I'd like to know whether anyone would be open for an asymmetric advantage/event every turn for each team? Or would this be a big no-no independent of its actual implementation?

My suggestions:

• a resource covering the turn which is distributed globally, or to some player base on a condition, for example:
  • a coin to everyone / worst player
  • a free unit to worst player in area of choice or in sea
• random/deterministic, face up/face down, event cards, for example:
  • neutral troops added to a city (shown on the card) or revolting (aka starting a fight) if a player is present
  • reinforcements you can add somewhere or you get on sea
• random/deterministic, face up/face down, goal cards with rewards, for example:
  • occupy a specific land, giving a team reward (units, coins, trench, invest, ...)
  • take over an enemy land / starred city / ..., giving a player reward
  • invest / deinvest / deploy sea-troops / ..., giving a player reward
  • ...
• goal cards per team (maybe asymmetric) and if obtained, you require less point-advantage to win, meaning you also remove the need for a turn-counter entirely
• some other suggestion which would involve teams dropping their required point-advantage as a way to guarantee an ending

[317070]

Well, the fundamental reason why you want a turn counter, is that you want a guarantee for the game not to be longer than X, when players play with speed Y. Risk for example, can take anywhere from 2 to 24 hours or more. This is generally regarded as A Bad Thing. You want your game to have a limited variance in play length.

I am strongly not in favor of asymmetric advantages/events. If it favors who is winning, you get a snowball effect. If you favor who is losing, they cause the leaderboard to not show who is in lead anymore (like Mario Kart, where you don't want to be first). It then might then be better to strategically keep behind.

I am in favor in predetermined, random events for all players, in the style of Terra Mystica. You know from the start of the game which turn has which bonus points, and you can account for them from the start. They improve replayability and provide a natural ending to the game.

I also don't like asymmetric goals, or non-monotone goals. They are almost always unbalanced, make it impossible to effectively boycot other players, they make players who know all possible goals way better, they can make the decision which team wins depend on turn order, etc.

[nymanjens]

Idea based on Robin's list: Face up region cards that gain 1 extra point if you occupy them when they are turned over (might be Benelux, Poland, Italy, ... but may even be regions that have no star)

[317070]

This is an open-minded ticket to suggest whatever you can think of that fits this description:

• brings the end of the game closer the more turns are played and guarantees an ending
• should be tracked by something players will naturally keep track of

At some turns, you get some additional command tokens. So you start with less command tokens, and evolve to more.

• Simplifies first turns for new players
• Different strategies are more or less powerful in different games, depending on order of new tokens.

Maybe additionally: require the player to turn in a command token of choice on some turns.

[317070]

Upon further thinking: a lot of these ideas can be mixed. On some turns, you can get extra coins or lose coins, extra military or lose military, extra command tokens or lose command tokens. (Those are the 3 scarce elements, if I'm not mistaken)

I personally would watch out with making certain regions more or less powerful, as I don't see how you would balance that.

[nymanjens]

Both #167 and #187 claim to (partly) solve this.

Closing this, even though it's yet to be seen that turns will not be forgotten.

As always, please raise a new issue with a concrete proposal if you have one.