Balanced Start

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delucamike
Posts: 1
Joined: 11 April 2023, 21:52

Balanced Start

Post by delucamike »

The start of the game sets the tone for the rest. Where the resources are, especially the 1-cost ones, how they're grouped, etc. It's all too possible to simply be dealt terrible starting hands where you see less resources than anyone else. Further, in age 3, there can be a large imbalance in information for each player, given that the starting hands contain the random guild cards. It's entirely possible to not know what any of the guild cards are until your 3rd hand. Also, there are obviously other unlucky or lucky hand setups that can make or break your game regardless how well you play.

So, the fix:

1. At the start of each age, lay all the cards face up on the table.
2. Each player takes a turn picking a first card, starting from player A to player Z.
2. Player Z starts picking their second card, and each player continues to take their second card.
3. Player A starts picking their third card, etc, etc, which continues until all the hands are built.
4. The hands themselves are shuffled and dealt to each player.

What this accomplishes:
- everybody is involved in ensuring that hands are built balanced, since there's no guarantee which hand you get
- hands with 1-cost resources will likely have less no cost resources (since the player last to pick will likely not be able to pick any 1-cost resources but will have two picks in a row)
- card colors will be better distributed
- guild cards will be known at the start of age 3 and likely not be clustered
- some strategy will be involved in building the hands

Other than additional time and physical table space (which is irrelevant in online play) I can't see any downsides to this.

Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts.
Ez0ah
Posts: 247
Joined: 21 April 2020, 17:13

Re: Balanced Start

Post by Ez0ah »

Additional time? That would more than double the lenght of the game

More seriously, those are fine ideas, if you want a different game. Not knowing how the hands are distributed is a huge part of 7W, it forces you to find the best solution within that particular card distribution and players behavior. If you could draft the initial hands, games would probably play out the same way.

I would suggest you try Hadara. It probably fits more with what you are looking for, while having some similarities with 7W.
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ElThoesen
Posts: 27
Joined: 02 May 2020, 04:44

Re: Balanced Start

Post by ElThoesen »

Yeah I huge part of why I love 7 Wonders is the sheer number of combinations of those cards. Even in a 3 player game, it's a lot.
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Tens0r
Posts: 5
Joined: 27 February 2020, 18:04

Re: Balanced Start

Post by Tens0r »

Ez0ah wrote: 09 June 2023, 10:50 Additional time? That would more than double the lenght of the game

More seriously, those are fine ideas, if you want a different game. Not knowing how the hands are distributed is a huge part of 7W, it forces you to find the best solution within that particular card distribution and players behavior. If you could draft the initial hands, games would probably play out the same way.

I would suggest you try Hadara. It probably fits more with what you are looking for, while having some similarities with 7W.
Agree with this. Card drafting adds a ton of time to the game, and to be honest you can play perfectly fine games if you don't get split resources in the opening hand. Many times I get offered a split resource card and willingly take something else. Not to mention, there are always too few split cards for every player to receive one, so someone will necessarily still miss out on one anyway.

I agree that a bad starting hand does hinder you, but it's important to note that everyone else will need to deal with that hand (which will slowly get worse) as well.
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