Board Game Arena

Dear Players,

Two new variants for the Place Tiles are now available: Market 3 and Market 5. You can pick them when creating a new table.

These work the same but determine the size of the open market of Place Tiles (3 or 5). Once a Place Tile is taken, a new one will be revealed and added to the Market.

Thanks to Reiner Stockhausen for allowing this variant on BGA.

It's a bit perplexing why this variant was designed. So far to me it seems to increase the imbalances that are inherent to Orleans and thus lead to more luck-based results.

Patrick of the Isles wrote: ↑03 October 2024, 12:42 It's a bit perplexing why this variant was designed. So far to me it seems to increase the imbalances that are inherent to Orleans and thus lead to more luck-based results.

I've always been baffled by this too, but there's a lot of people that like these variants in the forums for Orleans on BGG.

I've concluded it's because for competitive folks like us, yes we'll want all the place tiles. But if you're just playing more casually, they enjoy having a smaller decision space on tiles, and being forced to explore different lines rather than taking the same best tiles all the time.

I agree though that these variants further increase luck and reduce skill.

The designer chose against it at first, but has revisited his decision after playing here on BGA. This was his response:

"after playing several games of Orleans on BGA I have an additional note: You asked me about the „house rules“ for place tiles, that there are only some available and others are covered and when someone takes one, a new one will be revealed and I told you, that I don’t recommend this rule. However, I now noticed, that it would probably especially for newcomers a helpful rule, as they choose very bad place tiles sometimes and when you are familiar with the place tiles it’s a huge advantage. However, playing it online and turn based makes the game very different and I also think now, that these variants are especially for online implementations very useful and give games an additional value. So, I think it would be a good variant, if it’s still possible."

Patrick of the Isles wrote: ↑03 October 2024, 12:42 It's a bit perplexing why this variant was designed. So far to me it seems to increase the imbalances that are inherent to Orleans and thus lead to more luck-based results.

Well, im rather experienced player overally. I'm not afraid of complexity, long games or very thick rulebooks. Just recently I've played Orleans for the first time ever. - mostly because physical copy is hard to get in my country atm. A friend brought it to local club. 5 player game, 3 complete newbies to this title. And I very much disliked the way building tiles were introduced into this game.

From the very start game looked and feeled very elegant. Simple rules yet place for nice planning and overall complexity, interesting bag building mechanism, and what is really important, very short player turns and overall clear game. There was 1 aspect, where that "quick turn and clearness" fell apart - when somebody (especially new players) wanted to get a building. Imo such way of building tiles - "here is huge stack of unique buildings, now pick one" completely didn't fit to the rest of elegant game. Maybe, after few games, when You already know what is there it won't be a problem, but for begginers it's terrible solution. It either stalled game too long, if someone really looked thoroughly for right building, or led to suboptimal decisions, when someone just rushed to something decent, not necesarrily best for him.