pretty sure this is a troll. But this comment misses the reason why tile #6 is a problem:They implemented 'changes' in the form of arena, which is completely inactive save for elite players beating up on low ranks.
I've been staying in the simple game. This tile isn't an issue, at any level, any more than other tiles like +-1 to die on main, removal of beige tile restrictions, 2 silver per sale.
And everyone has the same chance of getting these. Statistically, it balances out.
So, no idea who started this fantasy, but in my experience, it's all in people's imagination.
- You have a a #3 die.
- You can spend any # die to gain 2 workers.
- You can use those 2 workers to buy a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Or just take from the bank.
- Repeat every turn.
When you have tile #6, each turn you get to change one of your die (of any #) to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.
A yellow tile that lets you change the number by +/-1 is nowhere near this good, in any situation.
- You have a #3 die.
- You can spend that die to play a 2, 3, or 4, but ONLY when placing green/blue tiles.
Not only do those yellow tiles only apply to 33% of the spaces on your board, but they can only use 3 of the 6 numbers on the die.
With tile #6, it applies to 100% of the spaces on your board. And you can use 6 of the 6 numbers.
33% x 1/2 = 1/6
100% x 6/6 = 1
Using dumdum math, tile #6 is strictly better than all +/-1 tiles, because it applies in 6 times* the amount of situations. [for Tile#8, 2x]
There's only one situation where it's even possible for Tile#6 to be worse: playing two tiles of the specific color it reduces in a single turn, plus buying a tile from the central bank.
It's unlikely that a +/-1 yellow tile will be used twice in the same turn, period. Even if you do, it would only be better for that one turn, assuming you had two tiles ready to play of the same type, assuming you were going to buy a tile that turn, assuming the tile you wanted is in the bank and not a numbered depot, assuming you had 2 coins already, assuming you rolled the die numbers you wanted. (lol)
The only downside is that you can only buy one tile per turn, and that applies to silver too. This almost never matters for 2 reasons:
- In any normal game, you are using your "buying slot" (the once/turn restriction for buying) on less than half of your turns.
- This is assuming you choose to change the number on your die every single turn. Quite frequently, if you get two numbers you like, you don't have to spend any workers at all to change numbers. You just take your ideal turn as though you didn't have tile#6, spending 2 die and 2 coins to move 3 tiles. You can stockpile workers -so easily- and with such frequency that everything written above this barely makes a difference, because all those numbers were assuming the worst-possible-case for tile#6, and the best-possible-case for everything else. We never mentioned Boarding Houses or any of the other ways to get workers. We never mentioned how this buy action is completely unbounded and can buy from any of the 16 tiles on the board, and without it you can only buy tiles out of the 4 bank slots.
Everyone is in agreement, though.