Picking map after seeing cards/association board

[SpajderDzerusalem]

I do not like how picking maps is done, you choose maps in the blind which pretty much just means you go and take the most powerful one (Lake > Outdoor > Harbor ~ Research > Ice Cream > Rest ), and if you take the less strong one because you don't want to keep playing the same ones you feel at a disadvantage.

I feel like if you saw the cards before hand, you'd be more likely to get in situations where the "worse" map is actually the right pick, and would actually make the map choosing way more strategic because you need to think about how'd you play each one with the current hand, where now you just autopick based on raw power.

[pjt33]

Picking the map is step A of personal setup in the rules, and drawing cards is steps E (final scoring cards) and F (zoo cards). This is simply a matter of implementing the rules as written.

Also, I think it's going to be quite rare that your initial hand has such a strong pull towards one of your two choices of board. I can construct some scenarios around final scoring synergies (Large Animals with Outdoor Areas, for example, but I agree that Outdoor Areas is one of the strongest maps and I'd usually pick it anyway; Sponsored Zoo and Research Zoo have some synergy with Hollywood Hills, but when I try to play for one of those I often find that I'm in competition with someone else who either just likes a sponsors strategy, drew the really good ones, or is chasing the other one).

[poserLX]

Also, I think it's going to be quite rare that your initial hand has such a strong pull towards one of your two choices of board. I can construct some scenarios around final scoring synergies (Large Animals with Outdoor Areas, for example, but I agree that Outdoor Areas is one of the strongest maps and I'd usually pick it anyway; Sponsored Zoo and Research Zoo have some synergy with Hollywood Hills, but when I try to play for one of those I often find that I'm in competition with someone else who either just likes a sponsors strategy, drew the really good ones, or is chasing the other one).

I understand that the rules are the rules, and that BGA wants to follow official decisions about variants and such. Talking about the reasons players might want to do things differently is another matter.

You say "it's going to be quite rare" that the opening hand of cards will matter for selecting your map. I strongly disagree. It may not matter every single time, but it is far from "quite rare".

- Maybe you have a hand full of animals that have prerequisites, and you'd prefer a map that makes it easier.
- Maybe you have a hand full of cards you don't want to play, and would prefer to toss them for $3 a pop.
- Maybe you'll want to get all the continent icons for Habitat Diversity, and so you'd prefer a map that better rewards filling up all your partner zoo slots.
- Maybe you have animals, sponsors, and final scoring cards that all care about rock/water adjacency, and so you'll really care whether you have Ice Cream Parlor (far easier for rock than water) or Park Restaurant (both rock and water adjacency pretty much everywhere).

I could go on.

[pjt33]

- Maybe you'll want to get all the continent icons for Habitat Diversity, and so you'd prefer a map that better rewards filling up all your partner zoo slots.

Ironically, here you've hit on something which is already possible because of the one thing the BGA implementation doesn't do in the order shown in the rules: it already displays the base conservation projects before you pick your map.

[poserLX]

- Maybe you'll want to get all the continent icons for Habitat Diversity, and so you'd prefer a map that better rewards filling up all your partner zoo slots.

Ironically, here you've hit on something which is already possible because of the one thing the BGA implementation doesn't do in the order shown in the rules: it already displays the base conservation projects before you pick your map.

Yes, but this is not the only situation in which you would have such considerations. You might have a rhino and a good hand for using it to grab Habitat Diversity. There are many possibilities beyond the considerations that the base projects alone offer.