Add drafting scenario

[317070]

We discussed this at the last game. I will write down the last idea, and want to add an alternative:

1. What we discussed:

   You first distribute the 4/6 starting regions randomly you draft the (23 remaining +1 any-sea) cards, throw away one at the end

2. My alternative

   you draft the (11 strategic + 23 remaining + 2 any-sea) cards, with no more than 2 strategic cities per deck. Throw away two cards at the end. You are not allowed more than 1 strategic region.

Thoughts? I think the second one has more 'freedom' for diverse approaches. You could start in Scandinavia for example. Or North-Africa.

[Tantali]

I see some problems with this. First off, what will be the teams? And at what point will you know your teammates and their drafting choices?

Setting up the shuffled drafting decks also seems a bit cumbersome.

• Shuffle non-strategic
• add some non-strategics to strategic
• divide strategic deck in piles of 2
• add non-strategics to it

I'm open for more freedom, but not at the cost of setup/rule complexity.

[Tantali]

Also, we wanted to prevent players from being too close to each other and too far away from the enemy. This lead to unbalanced teams and explosive gameplay. Having full freedom (and knowledge of homebase of your teammate) will result in more of those scenarios.

Nonetheless, I'd love to see more diverse games, with players starting in Sweden, North Africa, ... But I don't see that working in the current game and these proposed rules.

[317070]

Also, we wanted to prevent players from being too close to each other and too far away from the enemy. This lead to unbalanced teams and explosive gameplay.

The thing is, this is the part they can choose. They have some freedom over their starting locations. But, coordinating a draft while others can hear, is difficult. I don't immediately see what would be the optimal strategy to deal with such a draft.

First off, what will be the teams? And at what point will you know your teammates and their drafting choices?

You start off by knowing the teams. The teams are sitting crossed-wise and in order. All of the teams get their tokens.

For 4/6 players: Give everyone 3/2 cards from the 12 strategic cards. Give everyone 6/4 of the remaining 24 cards.

Every player drafts by picking a card from his deck, and putting it face down on the table. When all players did this, reveal the card and put a unit on the region you picked. Give the remaining cards to the player on your left, and repeat the procedure with the cards you received from the player on your right. Do this until all the cards are drafted.

At the end of the draft, every player chooses at least 3/2 cards from their drafted deck of cards and puts them face down on the table. When all players did this, reveal those cards and remove all your units from those regions. No player may have more than 1 strategic region at this point.

Put 2 coins and 1 extra unit on every strategic city you own, put 1 coin on every remaining land region you own.

I'm open for more freedom, but not at the cost of setup/rule complexity.

That setup is not a whole lot more difficult than the scenarios we have now. Especially since now we throw dice to scatter coins on the board. Also, these are rules only 1 player needs to understand anyway.

I am trying to get to a game with more replayability. I at least want to try it once, and go from there.

[Tantali]

The thing is, this is the part they can choose. They have some freedom over their starting locations.

That's what I think will often result in those scenarios (Nash equilibrium?).

I do really like your current more detailed suggestion though.

That setup is not a whole lot more difficult than the scenarios we have now.

I was comparing with drafting suggestion 1. Our current setup using dice is indeed annoying.

[Tantali]

And apparently, there are only 23 normal region cards?

[317070]

23+1 any sea card = 24 cards, which is divisible by 4 and 6

[Tantali]

Isn't it a bit strange to have an any sea card added to the strategic cards, and one added to the non-strategic as well?

[317070]

Yes, but not overly so. The drafting mechanism balances it out somewhat. On one hand, you'd like to have more strategic cities to choose from, on the other hand, you can only keep one.

I don't see an immediate alternative, other than creating one extra of both strategic and non-strategic regions (which has other issues).

So, it is something which might fix from an aesthetic aspect later on. I've also been thinking of making both sea cards slightly different, but could not think of anything. We could also add another card instead of the sea card. Start with artillery iso two units? Be the last player to choose which regions you forfeit in the drafting phase?