I see that a couple of official variants were included in this fine implementation on BGA.
The one that's not, that would especially help in my opinion, especially here as 3p has
apparently became the Arena mode even though this is essentially a 4-player game,
is "tighter game map" from p.9 of the rulebook.
This tighter game map official variant allows players to simply block off four land tiles
before the start of the game in a 2-3 player game. I have played it over the board and
like it quite a bit. It almost makes 3p feel like a faster version of 4p.
I hope you consider this suggestion.
EDIT: I'm unclear how suggestions work here, but this would be the link if this gets posted.
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=33395
Thank you,
The one that's not, that would especially help in my opinion, especially here as 3p has
apparently became the Arena mode even though this is essentially a 4-player game,
is "tighter game map" from p.9 of the rulebook.
This tighter game map official variant allows players to simply block off four land tiles
before the start of the game in a 2-3 player game. I have played it over the board and
like it quite a bit. It almost makes 3p feel like a faster version of 4p.
I hope you consider this suggestion.
EDIT: I'm unclear how suggestions work here, but this would be the link if this gets posted.
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=33395
Thank you,