AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

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JaderSegatto
Posts: 7
Joined: 24 February 2016, 02:24

AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

Post by JaderSegatto »

Tapestry card AGE OF DISCOVERY should be at least rewritten. Maybe banned.

For those who don't remember, card says: "Roll the science die. Everyone advances on the rolled track, but only you get the benefit/bonus"

That one die roll late game can cause a loss of 50+ points (when you're forced to advance to S11 or E11, for example), which is basically destroying one's game at its precise climax. I've seen that happening at least 5 times already and it has just happened again.

Tapestry is a long game; matches are almost always over one-hour long (in person is even longer). After more than one hour of careful strategic planning and tactics, one's game shouldn't be ruined by just one die roll. That is just bad design.

Note: I'm absolutely not saying Jamey Stegmaier is a bad game designer. Tapestry is a wonder. I'm just stating that this specific feature is bad. Really bad.
BazzyG
Posts: 10
Joined: 06 December 2022, 20:36

Re: AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

Post by BazzyG »

It is frustrating, but should be part of the game as a gamble that is generally less frustrating than Dystopia and nowhere near as powerful as lots of other Tapestry or even Tech cards.

A draft or auction mechanic for Tech and Tapestry cards like Teraforming Mars and Powergrid with all of them visible would be interesting. But potentially remove some of the suprise and drama of the game, and could be easily implemented as a house rule modification.
Last edited by BazzyG on 10 February 2023, 16:28, edited 1 time in total.
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poserLX
Posts: 39
Joined: 26 March 2020, 20:59

Re: AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

Post by poserLX »

I've been hit by AoD myself, and yeah it's quite frustrating.

The worst I've been hit by anything, however, was Dictatorship. I had just gotten to T12 and placed my cube on Military, was on at least E3 and S3, and had only coin and culture (stars) left. I was about to go up the last four spots on the Military track, but my opponent played Dictatorship on Military. I still had around 9 resources left but could only take my last income turn. That cost me over 70 points!

I've thought about whether or not AoD should be removed. It is, as Jader said, a gamble. And like Dystopia, I try my best to put myself in the best position possible just in case my opponent hits me with one of those.

If I wanted to remove frustration from the game, I would remove AoD, Dystopia, Dictatorship, Broker of Peace, Theocracy, and Mercantilism, in addition to Renaissance and Marriage of State. But then that's a lot of cards to remove, and it would also leave me with fewer cards that I enjoy playing for my own benefit (AoD, Dystopia, Dictatorship). If I was able to get this to the table more IRL, I would probably curate a deck from the base and expansion tapestry cards, but I haven't done that yet.
Mattzord
Posts: 20
Joined: 08 October 2022, 12:18

Re: AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

Post by Mattzord »

I think we have to accept the fact that we can’t control all aspects of the game. MoS and Renaissance are clearly too overpowered and should be removed completely. Other than that there are some real good cards like dictatorship, dystopia and AoD which really can mess up an opponents game. However a lot of the strength of these cards depends on the timing of when you play them. I guess a lot of people on BGA would love to remove as much variance from the game as possible (me included) but at the same time I realize that variance makes games less predictable which is good for casual players. In the end over 100’s+ games everyone will get the same civs/capitals/tap cards so it’s just a matter how you adjust/play to these variables which will decide the strength of your strategy/game.

Seeing the examples provided in this topic I don’t think it’s a big deal right now (<1%)
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mon0kel
Posts: 1
Joined: 26 January 2023, 22:50

Re: AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

Post by mon0kel »

Usually, if I play in person, we houserule that it is a choice to move forward. That works quite well
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SlowSlothSnail
Posts: 16
Joined: 27 October 2022, 18:57

Re: AGE OF DISCOVERY must be changed

Post by SlowSlothSnail »

poserLX wrote: 03 February 2023, 02:01 I've been hit by AoD myself, and yeah it's quite frustrating.

The worst I've been hit by anything, however, was Dictatorship. I had just gotten to T12 and placed my cube on Military, was on at least E3 and S3, and had only coin and culture (stars) left. I was about to go up the last four spots on the Military track, but my opponent played Dictatorship on Military. I still had around 9 resources left but could only take my last income turn. That cost me over 70 points!
......

Maybe a rule change for Dictatorship: If you are blocked by Dictatorship to make your only possible move other than taking income: you can skip a turn. That allows the Dictatorship player to get his/her benefit (pass you), but keeps you in the game with all your resources
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