Assorted Counterintuitive Effects and General Comments

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DeviousRogue
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Joined: 15 August 2015, 21:30

Assorted Counterintuitive Effects and General Comments

Post by DeviousRogue »

Things to Note:
Lucky Potions don't stack (neither additively nor multiplicatively). I suspect neither does Potion of Fortune
Incomplete quest count towards hex symbols
Money going towards Room of Riches won't count towards Offering to the Council
You will have time to sell items, use scrolls, etc between Building and Hiring. However, if you trigger Kings Statue, you won't have time to sell loot before bidding on it. Nor do you have time to sell loot before activating things like Ranger, etc. (In edge case where you go bankrupt paying for Statue, you won't be able to activate Ranger, etc)


Suggestions:
Give text to clarify the above
Create an early-forfeit option, at least in 2 player mode. Some games are simply lost and there's nothing players can do to turn the situation.
Adjust the starting money of the guilds to balance (see below)
Have some sort of rule or "starter quests" deck to ensure players whose turns are later don't get choked out so easily, or a bidding system where players can bid for first. That, or give certain guilds priority to be starting player.


Balance Issues 1:
Players who go earlier have like, $1 or $2 fewer dollars, but in return, they get the opportunity to absolutely choke out opponents if the quest deck allows it through a combination of resource denial and pre-emptive quest taking. This is mitigated somewhat if the later players are a guild that starts with resources, but it's still kinda terrible. Any catching up after being lamed at the start requires pretty significant bad luck or poor timing on the winning player's part, as there are no catch-up mechanics and the consequence of getting nice things at the start is usually more nice things later.

Balance Issues 2:
RNG can make or break the game by favouring one side or the other at the start. Getting good chests or quests that align well with your resources can let one player surge ahead while the other(s) stagnate in circles. Which kinda leads to the main point of...
The starting guilds are imbalanced. Resource guilds start with 2 resources which they can pick in response to available quests, which often gives them a turn 1 craft, getting them money AND quest tokens and possibly a chest.
If we break down a two-turn sequence of gather->craft=money+rewards, resource guilds get essentially a free turn at the start, while the money guild only gets half the crafting turns benefits. Admitedly, this lets them rush Storage Room, but that's suboptimal play since again, you're losing half a tempo. The Chest Guild is terribly RNG dependent and often ends up being an inferior version of the Money Guild. Even if they start off with an econ item, it takes a while before it can kick in which is prime time for competing for things like Storage Room, etc. Extra Storage Guild gives a BIT more flexibility, but it's kinda of situational and doesn't give much in the way of early econ rushing. Shrine is also kinda terrible, since it can be used to get an early build bonus, making hetero-resource items more obtaining in 1 go, but that depends on both their board and the quests. The extra slot is very rarely actually needed, assuming good utilization of tempo, and the 1 point is... meh.
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