Variant: Draughting Emperor’s Reward Cards in Confucius version 2

2008-11-08 10:40 · Tags: Game Observances

Building on the previously discussed variant Ben Keightley proposed a twist on #bgdf_chat:

[2008-11-07/14:02] <cocadieta> JC, you around? I had a flash of inspiration this afternoon re: Confucius.

[2008-11-07/14:03] <cocadieta> The bonus card drafting variant (unplayed!) sounds good but really pushes the main problem further up the pipe–say two people are in line to run ships out to sea, the second person could either luck out or get hosed by the card draw.

[2008-11-07/14:04] <clearclaw> That’s why the variant shows the pipeline of cards as well as the current draft set.

[2008-11-07/14:05] <cocadieta> Idea: At the beginning of the game, shuffle the bonus cards and deal five to each side of the board. The left side are the bonus cards available to military conquests, the right side to boats.

[2008-11-07/14:05] <clearclaw> Oh cute!

[2008-11-07/14:07] <clearclaw> So there’s the possibility of the 6th fleet getting stuck.

[2008-11-07/14:07] <clearclaw> There are only 3 possible army cards

[2008-11-07/14:07] <cocadieta> Nahh, if the stock of 5 runs out, players can pull from the other side.

[2008-11-07/14:09] <clearclaw> So players pull any of the face up 5?

[2008-11-07/14:09] <cocadieta> Exactly.

[2008-11-07/14:09] * clearclaw ponders.

[2008-11-07/14:09] <clearclaw> That makes ER cards FAR more valuable

[2008-11-07/14:10] <cocadieta> They’re already that valuable, just at random times.

[2008-11-07/14:11] <clearclaw> But now it is perfectly controlled and can be timed to a nicety.

[2008-11-07/14:11] <clearclaw> In particular it makes the bribe cards even stronger

[2008-11-07/14:11] <cocadieta> A game where all of the bribe cards got dealt to the left of the board would be much different than a game where they were all dealt to the right. Definitely.

[2008-11-07/14:12] <clearclaw> Not just that, but the certainty that you could get the bribe card you wanted exactly when you wanted it

[2008-11-07/14:17] <cocadieta> The bribe cards are already the most valuable cards in the game. It seems inappropriate to hide them behind random draws of any kind.

[2008-11-07/14:18] <clearclaw> There’s some truth there.

I like this change.