wild idea - playing only sponsors and association

[k4r]

what if we can play a duel game without using animal card at all?
you can do whatever you want, except buying animals with your animal card.

anyone wanna try? message me

[FrankJones]

For anyone interested in this unusual variant:

We just played one, and it worked reasonably well. Best done in friendly mode so either player can request a mulligan if the draft results in 2 animal action cards, or 1 animal action card and 2 of another type of cation card, because it wouldn't really be fair if one player had to play with a specialized animals action card.

The game took 50-51 turns, which is probably to be expected since the options for increasing appeal are limited unless some crazy combination happens with the pavilion build card and Engineer and landscape gardener or something like that. Which might as well be a re-do anyway since I can't think of any way to win against that.

Our game was reasonably competitive, and I realized later I made a really stupid decision in the draft by picking a usually good card that wasn't much use in this variant, and passing up one that is very useful in this variant. (Even worse, not only did I not draft it, but I passed it back. Whoooops.)

[SiRan90]

For anyone interested in this unusual variant:

We just played one, and it worked reasonably well. Best done in friendly mode so either player can request a mulligan if the draft results in 2 animal action cards, or 1 animal action card and 2 of another type of cation card, because it wouldn't really be fair if one player had to play with a specialized animals action card.

The game took 50-51 turns, which is probably to be expected since the options for increasing appeal are limited unless some crazy combination happens with the pavilion build card and Engineer and landscape gardener or something like that. Which might as well be a re-do anyway since I can't think of any way to win against that.

Our game was reasonably competitive, and I realized later I made a really stupid decision in the draft by picking a usually good card that wasn't much use in this variant, and passing up one that is very useful in this variant. (Even worse, not only did I not draft it, but I passed it back. Whoooops.)

209 points each is kinda insane lol

[FrankJones]

209 points each is kinda insane lol

If you're referring to the 209-209 game in my recent history, that was just me goofing around in a hotseat game. It was a failure; the intent was to score 212 and maximize (to the extent possible, since some sponsors have conflicting end-game scoring goals) the end-game scoring of the sponsors.

My first try I had 212-212 with no animals by either player, but I didn't plan the map right and missed both 5-Kiosk conservation points on the two sponsors that require it. My second game, the 209-209, I go the map right but misplayed some other stuff. It's a lot to keep track of. A lot of things have to be done before other things.

I shouldn't have tried it without the specialized build card that allows building on water and rock spaces, because it makes it nearly impossible to accomplish the first time through the deck unless the special tile sponsors come out in the perfect order and/or diversity researcher shows up early. And running through the deck a second time to get the necessary cards is super a hassle. Drawing as many cards as possible while guarding against a crucial card being wiped away by the wave animals, while also not drawing blindly from the deck, which could put a key card in the wrong player's hand.

[FrankJones]

Some notes on the 212-212:

1) Both players began the final sequence at 99 points, and were at 174 after the final turn each. But, the player with the unique buildings actually had an 83-point final turn, with 9 appeal points lost because of the cap at 113.

This was before the final scoring.

2) In the final scoring, The Pavillion player lost out on 2 appeal to the 113-cap, so it could have been 214 points without the cap.

3) In the final scoring, the unique-building player lost 6 points because of the 41 CP cap (would have been at 43 CP), and another 16 points because of the appeal cap, so without either cap, that would have been 243 points.

4) If I had arranged the water playground properly to allow for 5 Kiosks, that would have been another 2 CP for 6 more points, 249 total without the cap.

5) If the base projects included both diversity projects with the 5-slot available, that would be one more CP for the unique-building player. So, that would be 252-214.

I am not sure any more points are possible in this crazy no-animals scenario. Nor am I sure that having animals would allow for a higher scoring situation, since both players in this hypothetical are getting all the possible CP points related to having 5 continents or 5 animal icons. Perhaps animals would allow for a couple more CP for meeting the 6 bird or 6 Primate Criteria, but as it is, I had to be careful to get all the end-game scoring cards into play and the maps set up appropriately without going over 99 points, so I'm not sure adding those couple of CP would make for a higher end-game result.

Something better than the 10-money tile at the end of the reputation track could also increase the points, maybe by a lot. Can the x2 multiplier be there? That could add a lot of points.

CREDIT: I got the pavilion idea from watching a video on Sam's "No Wonders" Channel showing a game in which someone actually tried it and it almost worked.

(The unique building map idea is one I came up with myself and is purely an exercise in puzzle solving, since that approach would never be viable in an actual game. I just wanted to see if I could those buildings and maximize the points.)