Card hoarding near game end (0 cards in draw deck)

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LDB62
Posts: 7
Joined: 25 October 2020, 01:09

Card hoarding near game end (0 cards in draw deck)

Post by LDB62 »

I was in a long game recently and both of us got deeply into the deck. Near the end of the game my opp had 26+ cards while I was holding only about 3. There were 7 cards left in the deck and after a few more draws (and some plays by me), my opp had like 31 cards. it was very easy for him to determine what was in my hand since he had most of the other cards. This allows him to play around cards that might help me go out. I took the last card from the deck because I still had no plays and this ended the game.

Firstly, I did not realize this would end the game but I really had no option, and the game was determined to be a tie. I feel that there should be a new rule to encourage some playing of cards. If one player takes the last card then the player who has the most cards in his hand should lose. They were intentionally keeping me from playing after determining what cards I mus have had. This seems to be against the spirit of the game.
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Lotus Blossom
Posts: 149
Joined: 12 November 2017, 01:45

Re: Card hoarding near game end (0 cards in draw deck)

Post by Lotus Blossom »

Please see this https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=162

It used to be that the person with the least cards wins, but this just encouraged the sort of person who hoards cards to play all his cards right at the end. Trust me, the person you played with would almost certainly have done that. They are not really playing this game for the fun of it but to win at all costs. Hoarding of cards strategy is probably the best way to win on here but like you said, is against the spirit of the game, and if somebody did that in real life, they would eventually not have very many friends to play with!

The addition of the 'can't play more than 13 cards' rule helped somewhat, but I still find this game totally soulless and frustrating when playing a hoarder, and that is why I have stopped playing Machiavelli on here. I don't think there is anything the developers can do to make it any better though, it's just something that card manipulation games often have a problem with, and is probably best played with friends and not in a competitive setting.
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PhaeJea
Posts: 1
Joined: 12 December 2020, 01:07

Re: Card hoarding near game end (0 cards in draw deck)

Post by PhaeJea »

I am new to Machiavelli as a competitive game as it was originally taught to me a cooperative game (how quickly can we rid our hands of all drawn cards if we work cooperatively). Only on BGA did I learn of the competitive origins. It was reading the strategy suggestions on BGA that I learned to hoard and how to draw a tie. It seems to me that the 13 card rule works very well and I am always looking to see how many cards the other player is holding. However, in the case of a tie, I would imagine that BGA could program the game win to go to the person with the fewest cards. If this was in place, the "win at all costs" strategy would dminish in power.

(To all those who I have played and gone out/won by playing 10 cards at the end, I apologize, I learned strategy here on BGA.)
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