I want to give the designer some advice

[antimyth]

since the 4th edition is on process, i want to advocate many balance adjustments.
firstly the base game:
1 THE WHEEL: add a bulb in the middle to replace a castle.
that's to make THE WHEEL less dominant, and now player can't get supremacy with out any slay in first age.

2 FERMENTING: add a second dogma, "return all card with a leaf in you hand"
I have see the change in the forecast, but from the flavor of game, i want to give another version. since you use grain to fermenting, you shouldn't get more grain, that's violate of the law of thermodynamics!

2 MATHEMATICS: add a special rule: "if no opponent have higher top card than you, don't get share bonus"
that a great problem. i see many people, once they get this card, they start to "draw one play one". often the case they get into a trap, and few time make the game like a dice. with echo expansion, you can force opponent to share and jump age twice fast. so the game end at second age: you have maths but i don't, cool! --not at all. but there should be a card like mathematics, but i have no idea now.

3 PAPER:
I agree the change in forecast.

4 REFORMATION: change the first dogma to "choose a color, tuck all cards of that color from your hand"
if no any expansion, this card may be a trap, which make you burn your hand and get more icons, the same time opponent get more scores. but with more expansion, this card become more and more overpower(especially city expansion). and the flavor, religion reformation isn't poetic in history, it shall perform like a I DEMAND.

4 PRINTING PRESS: add to first dogma: "if the drew card is purple, score it and draw a card one age lower"
from 4 to jump 8, even 10 is not all right.

5 CHEMISTRY:
the combo between 5 CHEMISTRY and 3 EDUCATION can end the game too fast. but since the game will extend to 11, the problem can be reduce.

5 MEASUREMENT:
with more expansion, it can end game even at 5th age. end game by score is a excellent dimension of this game, but if so early...

6 INDUSTRIALIZATION: add a special rule: "your opponent can always choose to share the first dogma even they have less factory than you"
the one who start INDUSTRIALIZATION first can left other far behind. should give they a way to follow.

7 LIGHTING: change dogma to "You may tuck up to three cards from your hand. If you do, draw and score a card of the same value for every different value of card you tucked."
the speed of getting score by LIGHTING is far more stronger than DEMOCRACY, EVOLUTION, QUANTUM THEORY, and tuck cards is a postive thing, so it really overpower. and from flavor, it should lighten the past, right?

8 SKYSCRAPERS: change dogma to "you transfer a top non-yellow card with a from your board to my board! If you do, score the card beneath it, and transfer all other cards from that pile to you hand!"
we all agree that strong I DEMAND should make some compensate. if no expansion, the score may be enough, but with expansion, it nearly nothing. we need some card to rebuild the building, so at less give them some card of same color.

[Micah Stairs]

Hello, the game designer (Carl) passed along a response to your suggestions!

THE WHEEL, FERMENTING, PAPER

One of the goals of the new edition was to lessen the dominance of card-drawing strategies. When one player spams into a large hand, for that player it can feel trivial to keep the game under control due to the number of options available, and on the other side facing this feels hopeless as often you will be in a losing situation, and even if you happen to draw a solution it can be countered by the opponent who has everything else in their hand already. The other problematic issue with large hands is analysis-paralysis for the player choosing between all their possible melds, drawing out the game.

Making The Wheel more shareable by adding a bulb would add more cards to more players' hands, which is exactly what I don't want to do. As for the Supremacy achievement, if you are playing Echoes, it is a castle card, and with a couple of the updated Echoes cards having castles is going to be more trouble than it used to be.

MATHEMATICS

An opponent need not share with you, and it is an interesting decision whether they should or not.

REFORMATION

With fewer cards in hand due to the draw engines being toned down, Reformation will be less of an issue without any changes to the card itself. There will be fewer cards to tuck.

PRINTING PRESS

Another goal of the new edition is to make scoring and achieving early a less successful strategy. One of the existing ways to counter an early achiever is to tech up ahead of them, and this card is one of the most fun ways to do it.

MEASUREMENT

With fewer cards drawn and fewer tucked, Measurement will be less powerful also.

INDUSTRIALIZATION

The new Industrialization will expire naturally and if a deck or two are removed due to Steam Engine or Sanitation, one dogma of Industrialization may be enough to retire it immediately.

LIGHTING

If you are teching up against an early achiever, once you get there the scoring cards need to be powerful enough for you to grab the late age achievements before they do and you lose the game.

SKYSCRAPERS

This is a bit too oppressive and yes it has been nerfed. Once again though, large hand sizes are a problem so this is not the way I want to go about it.

EXPANSIONS

Given all the expansions key off of the base set, the base cards were tested first and of course have continued to be alongside each expansion and each possible expansion pair. This close to launch it is relatively unlikely any further change is going to be made to a base card given how much play they have been seeing already to get them to their current state and how much the expansions rely on their stability. The expansion cards, unavoidably, are tested a fraction as much and have fewer interdependencies. Although I probably won't be responding to specific ideas like I did here, it is more likely you could catch an unresolved issue or out-of-balance effect with an expansion card before we go to print. I appreciate your feedback and will be considering everything you would like to say about the expansions.

[antimyth]

next the expansions:
echoes:

3 LIQUID FIRE & 6 STEAMBOAT: when show red / yellow or blue, let opponent keep this last card.
0 and 1 is far different, we should make this little compensate.

4 CLOCK & 7 ELEVATOR: if transfer card from score pile, return it instead.
a card both lock hand and score pile is danger, and for elevator, clock means no any defence below 6. yes there should be some reward for tech up, but i think 7 FERTILIZER is more suitable.

4 KOBUKSON: change the echo to "choose a unsplayed color on any player's board and splay it left"
this echo is underestimated now, but from my experience, if you get this, meld another card and splay red to left or up, which is not hard or expansive, then by left splay opponent's pile, you can easily advance in all icons. no any other card can do so.

9 ROCK: exchange the place of Scissors and Paper in dogma
when some one win by ROCK, the opponent may think: that all because you have Paper and i don't. so, since Scissors is more rare than Paper, maybe exchange their place is a good idea.

cities:

7 SAN FRANCISCO & 10 BANGKOK: add a "PLUS" on the up-middle bonus, which means additional bonus to other bonus, so if you already have a bonus-6, then with SAN FRANCISCO you will have 1+9+9=19 (19-6=13 more), but not 1+1+9=11 (11-6=5 more).
this two city card really far weaker than others in same time, i think a lot and this idea come of my mind.


artifacts:
(my friends say the designer may "let yourself go", and i think although the I COMPEL can perform like a "negative feedback regulation", but some of it really far overmuch)

3 CHARTER OF LIBERTIES: let it can't trigger itself
COL!COL!COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!tuck any of you hand! draw five cities! and finally draw another five cards by PAPER! all in one! all time best!!!!!!


all the special win:
1 DANCING GIRL: remove second dogma, and change the first dogma to "I COMPEL you to transfer Dancing Girl to your board! and return all the top card with a blub other than Dancing Girl!"
this card suffer me and manyone a lot. if your opponent dig this out, then you would have some scruples all the game (in chinese we say 投鼠忌器), you would worry about tuck card, splay or use those cards with "draw and meld", because you opponent can use COAL, PUBLICATIONS and many other card to find it in later game. in summary, this card have too much strategic value, and from the flavor, we would like the DANCING GIRL can jump back and forth?

2 HOLY LANCE: change the second dogma to "If Holy Grail and DEAD SEA SCROLLS are all top cards on your board, you win."
i think a way to counter the tech-up should be there, but should add some diffculty and reduce the randomness.

4 CROSS OF CORONADO: change the dogma to "Return five cards with different color from your hand, if you do so, claim a special achievement ignoring eligibility."
the best way to avoid your opponent to get an achievement is getting it yourself early. but some time it's hard, and it should be a way to get any special achievement. so this idea come to me.

6 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE:
one of the best design in this game.

7 INTERNATIONAL PROTOTYPE METRE BAR: change the dogma to "... is exactly equal to the card's value, claim a special achievement ignoring eligibility. Otherwise, return the melded card."
we compete with each other so long, and finally "let's throw a dice"? i don't think that's good.

8 EARHART'S LOCKHEED ELECTRA 10E:
a big negative effect and a special win needed a lot plan, good design.

8 PARNELL PITCH DROP: change "you win" to "claim a special achievement ignoring eligibility"
1/5 really like a dice, since you would draw 9,10,11, then the end already there, don't need a special win.

8 '30 WORLD CUP FINAL BALL: add a condition to the second dogma: "if everyone have the same achievement, then draw..."
the penalty shootout is only for a tie.

8 GARLAND'S RUBY SLIPPERS: change "you win" to "claim a special achievement ignoring eligibility"
a city card is not hard.

11 BATTLESHIP YAMATO:

9 VELCRO SHOES: change the dogma to "...If you do neither, transfer a special achievement from your achievements to mine!"
attack other's achievement is enough for this card.

9 MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY: change "you win" to "claim a special achievement ignoring eligibility"
1/5 really like a dice.

9 LUNA 3:
good.

9 THE BIG BANG:
good.

9 MARILYN DIPTYCH:
good.

all the 10th is all right.

[biwebof]

While veterans of the base game know Wheel to be one of the best opening cards, in all expansion gameplay it is quite bad, as most of your first turns are meld actions to find cities and artifacts. The good opening melds are cards like Writing and Ruler, which give you a leg up in the digging.

Wheel maintains use into midgame in base, as 1s tend to be depleted and often 2s and 3s as well, but this is not generally true in expansion gameplay, with + cities, especially Timbuktu which is easily obtainable as a relic and can quickly get you to 4. Thus, Wheel's only use in midgame is to give you a bit of endorse fodder, as 1s tend to drop off in power.
Fermenting is similar.

In general, while base innovation is known as a trick taking game, with expansions I'd say that it's worth focusing on achieving maybe 30% of the time: Not only are many achievements available to get when you do not focus your actions scoring (the city achievements, monument is very easy to obtain with endorsing, lots of relics), there is many ways to win the game faster than the achiever can find 9 achievements, such as Empricism, or Internation Prototype Meter Bar.
In fact, as a scoring strategy, its often faster to win not by taking the achievement action 9 times (more like 6 times, + some special achievements/flags), but instead grabbing the Newton Wickens Telescope and returning 11 cards!

As for artifacts:
Dancing Girl: I think this card is not overpowered, but it is quite unfun. With 3 bulbs in age 1, it's very easy (but very frustrating) to play around it by not playing bulbs, and being careful with splays/blind melds. I think also holding Dancing Girl in display is a bad strategy, since you do force your opponent to be careful, but in return only they will dig up artifacts, and artifacts are extremely powerful! That said, I think this type of effect should not be available in age 1, I suggest instead:
- Reduce to 2 bulbs
- Instead of winning the game, claim TWO achievements ignoring eligibility.

Holy Lance/Holy Grail: This win NEEDS TO GO! Unlike Dancing Girl, sometimes the win in unstoppable, especially if the opponent gets a tower advantage, spams the blue artifact that gets 2 artifacts each action, and you have maybe 5 actions to find a way to not lose. Leads to many non-games, and should not be available this early.

Cross of Coranado: If anything, this card is too weak! It is a crapshoot to find 5 cards of different colors and get rid of the ones that don't match, and your opponent can interfere with you not just with hand attacks, but sharing "meld from hand" effects. I understand its not healthy for the game if this is too easy, but digging a age 4 artifact, hoping for something good, and getting this is not a fun experience.

Pride and Prejudice: Rare for you to win with this, because with cities you should be splaying your cards early and often, however, as a free action, it is still decent value.

International Prototype Meter Bar: This is a bit overtuned in my opinion - a 20%/40% chance to win the game outright is very good, and you can definitely race up in tech and dig a 7 before your opponent can get 9 achievements. Even if you fail, you get an up splay as a free action, which gives you 2 more actions to make use of your new icons and newly drawn city. I think at 20% always it may be fine, eg. "Choose a color. Draw and tuck a 7. If it is the chosen color, you win. Otherwise, splay the color up." and this would still be very good.

Earheart's Lockheed Electra: I think this is below average for an 8 artifact. Rarely does the board line up where it can give you the win, and aside from that, an achievement ignoring eligibility for your free action is good and all, but the penalty is very severe, especially considering the opportunity cost of the artifact 8. The power level of this card feels more like that of an echoes 8, which is still strong, but feels a bit lacking compared to the other artifact 8s.

[biwebof]

On the base game cards:

I think without a doubt mathematics is one of the best cards in base. While the opponent may choose to not share (to avoid speeding you up), this still means that you have free rein to tech up even through a bulb disadvantage.
There are ways it can fail:
- The board may be attacked, in base, by road building, compass, enterprise, societies, banking.
- The hand may be attacked, however this requires a bulb advantage to share and force a sharing bonus.
- Math may cover itself, the blue 5s in particular may be very disappointing, as there is no way to do physics without leaving yourself vulnerable to a hand attack.
That said, draw, math, draw, math, draw, math, coal for example is a line that happens fairly common in base and is hard to beat.

Printing Press: Definitely very fun, and not overpowered IMO, despite the high roll potential.

Measurement: In base game, this is the poor man's metric system. In all expansion play, can be very strong (but see Slide Rule for another card with similar high roll potential). I think wheel nerfs do not impact this much, as most of the big piles come as a result of cities mechanics.

Industrialization: Significantly weaker in all expansion gameplay, as cities means that monument tends to be claimed far before age 6, and all the icons it gives you is a liability when compel effects happen.
Even in base, it is a good 6, but not out of line with other powerful 6s such as atomic theory and vaccination.

Lighting: I think the problem isn't so much the power of lighting, but that most of the other base 7s are so weak in comparison.

Skyscrapers: One of the best dogma effects when successfully executed, but rare to do so, as it requires a crown advantage and an opposing clock. I think Mobility is an 8 with much stronger average case power, which both attacks the board and can grab you a lot of achievements, even if it gets countered in the 1 on 1 matchup.

[biwebof]

If changes are coming in the expansion, I would love to see the effects of more cards becoming mandatory. For example, one of the advantages the oars have over archery is that you can use oars while behind in towers to force your opponent to draw 1, then draw 2.
Sailing is another example of a card that can be used as a compel in lategame situations.
An amusing example is activating Chemistry when your opponent has a top 10 - this will force them to draw and score an 11, ending the game!
I find all of these examples to be quite fun.

An example candidate for such a buff would be agriculture:

Return a card from your hand. If you do, draw and score a card of 1 higher than the card you returned.

Or even:

Return a card from your hand. Draw and score a card of 1 higher than the card you returned.

(which would give it a comparable use to pottery)

Admittedly, the sharing bonus giving agriculture a constant stream of cards to return might make it too powerful, especially the latter version where it can't be played around by emptying your hand.