To display starting tiles

[Amau_Catepetl]

Hello,

In order to avoid 3 builders, 1 builder or 2 players in the same strategy (other than build) in 4 players games, I have some suggestions after discussions with some Tzolk'in players. Moreover, sometimes some players claims startegies in chat. For me the right way to claim a strategy is to have the right tiles and to place correctly in day 1 and day 3.

1 To display the 4 starting tiles for each player. In 4 players games, the first player often build but for other players it can be intersting to see if another player has a tech for skull or corn startegy for example. Even if in rules it is written that start tiles have to be choosen secretly..

2 I don't know it but Great Western Trail players says that there is a system of victory points to sacrify in order to choose a strategy. I copy-paste the suggestion from CrunchyPB: "you display all starting tiles paired with seat positions, then you bid vp for which seat you want. so you can see if it is likely to be a three builder game you can sacrifice vp to play skull if only one has skull tech. Great Western Trail has that exact variant available."

3 To have at least one temple monument in order to have corn or tikal-5 strategy in each game. In this case, there are 2 builders, 1 skull player and 1 corn or tikal-5. Even if who do what is not clear before choosing starting tiles, after the 2 first players have placed their workers, it can be clear for the 3rd player to choose his strategy. The risk is that the last player will be often the second builder. But this is already often the case if he doesn't have tech on his tiles.


Let me know what you think about that. In any case, this should be an option to be choosen at the game creation.

Amau

[jungleboy]

Great post Amau!

For suggestion No.2, I would have to see it in action before understanding if I like it or not. But I am open to it.

For suggestion No.3, I don't think one temple monument is enough to make corn viable if the other good monuments for corn are not there. But yes, if monuments for corn and temple strategy/klek/t5 are not there, then there is virtually a guarantee of three builders in a 4p game. But overall I like the variability and randomness of the monuments.

That leaves suggestion No.1, which I find quite intriguing. It sure would be interesting to see the tiles of other players and guess what you think they're going to choose and see if that affects what you choose. But would it actually solve the problem?

One of the issues is that in general those in our group tend to have an unspoken agreement about who chooses what strategy based on tiles and start order, to create a balanced game. But if we play with someone new or someone decides to make a wildcard move then it can make the game unbalanced (e.g. the 4th player decides they can't compete in building against the 1st player and decide to forfeit the chance of victory in order to try to not come last, e.g. by going skull when there is already a skull player and a t5 player in front of them, leaving a guaranteed victory to the solo builder).

[Amau_Catepetl]

I agree with you, when we play against players from our group, we know what to do in function of starting tiles and previous players placements. This is more when we play against another player. But maybe the best thing would be a tutorial for 4 players games.

The suggestions here are more to be tested, I can't say if it can works or not. But none of these propositions are my ideas, this comes from discussions with some players. So, I think this is a good idea to test it as an option but I guess we have even more chances to test it IRL than to have these evolutions in BGA ^^