Impossible Combination of Challenge Cards

[Ezahl Vinclair]

It is impossible to win with the combination of these two challenge cards in the same game:

Let Them Eat Cake

No One Left Behind

The cards to transfer communities in crisis and even displacement crisis cards have been removed from this game once these challenge cards are present.

Please program the game to automatically redeal challenge cards every time this combination of challenge cards comes up.

[DerKolo]

And even if the global project to move community in crisis between players is still available, it is still not guaranteed that it comes up so it is still possible that the game is lost from beginning

[Kayvon]

This has been discussed at length in the bug reports. Take a look:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=99270
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=205584
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=192629
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=152664
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=127825
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=108898
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=104417
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=104055

The short conclusion: It's not impossible: there are effects that allow you to transfer communities. It presents a unique challenge of the sort players who picked the highest challenge settings might enjoy.

Not just that, but it's what the rules say to do. While I would agree with creating a house rule in this case, but BGA isn't about house rules; it's about following what the publisher wants. The implementation follows the rules as written.

However, if that combination comes up in solo play, it's impossible. See this report:
https://boardgamearena.com/bugs?game=1799&text=cake
As a result, that was patched to prevent that combination in solo games.

[Ezahl Vinclair]

I took the time to read all the reports.

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=99270
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=205584
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=192629
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=152664
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=127825
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=108898
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=104417
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=104055

The suggested solution from all these reports is to transfer communities in crisis and/or look for the local projects: Climate Immigration + Inclusive Immigration.

The other answer is to make use of the Displacement Crisis, which requires everyone to have higher social resilience than the player who has the No One Left Behind Challenge Card.

I have had cases where players never buried the climate immigration card or the inclusive immigration card despite multiple uses of clean r+d to go through the entire local projects deck. Plus, the displacement crisis has not shown up.

There’s a bug where the suggested cards to transfer communities in crisis never show up…and the displacement crisis never shows up either in these games where Let Them Eat Cake and No One Left Behind is in the game simultaneously.

While the explanation is someone buried the cards to transfer communities in crisis in a stack, it is highly unlikely that a group of experienced players choosing to play with multiple challenge cards would do such a thing.

They clearly see the person with No One Left Behind has communities in crisis, especially if that player is Majority World or China.

Proposed Solution: Program the game to automatically redeal challenge cards every time this combination of challenge cards comes up. Or, ask players if they would like group and individual challenge cards to be redealt. If there is majority agreement, randomly redeal group and individual challenge cards.

[Kayvon]

Awesome. I seriously appreciate that you took that time to read through the history.

There’s a bug where the suggested cards to transfer communities in crisis never show up

There isn't. There's been one reported, but it's not legitimate.

The game includes special code that checks to make sure EVERY card is still in the game EVERY TIME anyone takes an action. Is it a waste? Probably. It was added during alpha testing to ensure cards didn't go missing. However, it's still enabled today, running on every action and guaranteeing that every card is still present.

While the explanation is someone buried the cards to transfer communities in crisis in a stack, it is highly unlikely that a group of experienced players choosing to play with multiple challenge cards would do such a thing.

Unlikely? Maybe. But at least it's not impossible, which is what the other theory is. As I said, the code actually checks hundreds of times per game.

Proposed Solution

As you've seen, we can't unilaterally change the game without an official rules reference. The BGA implementation follows the rules as written, which include this situation. I agree with you that this is something I'll house rule when I play in person, but online it needs to follow what's in the book.

[Romain672]

While the explanation is someone buried the cards to transfer communities in crisis in a stack, it is highly unlikely that a group of experienced players choosing to play with multiple challenge cards would do such a thing.

If you got that challenge as global, that mean you didn't got the worst ones (the start with 0 resilience, start with one temperature bar, and start with 4 dices and roll cloud, all of those usually increase damage of crisis by 1 until you have resilience).
And if no one lack of energy, that should usually be a good game, I think even at 2 players, not reaching 6 communities in crisis is doable in most games.

I remember having it, and we give many communities to one player once the game was under control.


Though, I wouldn't care if that was removed, that's not fun for me.