Balance Issue: Civ 3 Unionization

[viperfang4]

If Unionization moves a player more than about 6-7 spots total, the game is basically over, that person wins, no point in continuing the game. This has lead to a lot of players spamming the Civ track early while forgoing other tracks for an over 50% chance at finding it to score an easy win moving 12+ positions. 12 positions is basically the equivalent of 6 tiles placed aka 6 turns of tiles.
The card is so swingy that if no one gets it early, it's among the few cards to do nothing if all tracks are moved past 5. This leads to feeling crumby almost no matter if the card shows.
Would recommend removing or changing to move 4 tracks 1 space (this makes it a consistent value).
Not the only balance issue, but the biggest.

[Anarchist-Nomad]

I hear you about the Unionization card. Personally, I don't mind it. It's part of the overall strategy, and many people will start the game with a race for Civ 3, as you suggest.

In the BGA implementation if Space Base, there is the option to remove a particular card. This is because many players don't like it and removing it was a common house rule (including in my house).

We can't change the card, because that's what is in the game. If a lot of people prefer to play without it, that could be implemented as a BGA option.

I wouldn't select that option, but it would be nice for people who prefer to avoid having this card and its effects on gameplay.

[evanrnhall]

I have mixed feelings on the card, but lean toward @anarchist-nomad's take. Yes it's powerful, but when you set out on a CIV race you're taking a big risk that someone else doesn't beat you to it, and also that it was dealt in the game to begin with. Not a sure thing in Arena games, though if I'm playing a larger multi-player game with lots of cards in the CIV stack I'm more likely to chase this card. If you go all in and don't get it you're pretty hosed, so over the long run I'm not sure how dominant a strategy it is (it only looks dominant within the view of a single game). Also, CIV racing can hurt your ability to compete on objective goals, so having more of those goals might temper the value of unionization.

One of the many amazing things about BGA is that they have this data! At some point I reckon they could analyze win-rate differential based on people who get this card within the first X turns and see just how much it moves the needle on eventual victory. If it's crazy then maybe they add the option to remove.

But, I'd also argue this is part of the strategy of being Station Commander. And to be fair, it's maybe harder to watch this online than if sitting in front of a table IRL. But if you see someone CIV racing... turn the SUSAN so they can't get a CIV tile. Delay them getting to the card by a couple turns or more and the benefit OP dries up.

BTW @viperfang even if I'm not totally agreeing with you, I think it's a great question and one of the best worth debating in the game from my viewpoint. My mind's not totally made up.

[viperfang4]

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=497633366&nr
I mean, I'm in a tournament I got the card tile 3 and moved 16 spaces, this is honestly every other game something almost as crazy happens. There's nothing else in the symmetrical game close to as out of line this is. While there are other balance things i might mention in a different post, I just don't think the card as is should be in the game at all.