RamblingRocket
Vagabond
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« on: May 17, 2008, 02:04:04 AM » |
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Following are rule variants I made that I always like to use.
TOWER RULES VARIANT
People often complain that the Towers suppliment is too overpowering. Personally, I think that builders in the Traders and Builders suppliment is just as bad, but anyway...
I actually like the Towers alot, but I do agree they need at least a little toning down, so I play with the following changes.
1. Tower tiles only make up 10% of the tiles. I generally play with 120 tiles (equally divisible by 2,3,4,5 or 6 players) with 12 tower tiles in that total.
2. To be able to capture a follower, a tower must be higher than that followers majority value. So a tower must be 2 blocks high to capture a ordinary follower with a majority of one, three blocks high to capture a large follower witha majority value of two, and five blocks high to capture a mayor sitting on a 4 penant city.
3. Any follower capping a tower has a value of two, so another tower must be 3 blocks high to capture a capping follower.
4. At the end of the game, a follower capping the highest capped tower earns their player one point for each block in that tower. In the case of a tie for height, all players concerned in that tie earn tower points. Only capped towers go into consideration for being the highest.
5. All other tower rules that do not conflict with the above amendments remain the same.
With the above rules, towers remain dangerous, but in competetive two player games, they now give the opponent a chance to lessen the effect by capping a tower (stranding a follower). In multiplayer games, people can still gang up against you, but that is not something that should change. Also giving some point value to the highest capped tower gives a futher distraction to farmer placement in the late game.
LIMITED FOLLOWERS
Nothing new really. Like many, I regard managing limited resources as part of the game. But with each expansion, more followers seem to be added. I limit followers in the following way.
At the start of the game, you have seven points with which to pick followers. Once the game starts, your particular followers remain fixed. You may have as many basic followers as you have points to pay for them, but you may only have (at most) one of each type of special follower.
Basic followers are worth one point each.
Mayors are worth one point (Their placment restriction keeps them cheap).
Pigs are worth one point (They become full followers but with placement restriction).
Big followers are worth two points.
Carts are worth two points.
Barns are worth three points.
Builders are worth three points (Unlike pigs, they remain dependant on followers).
As you can see, if you chose to have a barn and a builder, you would only have one point left to buy one ordinary follower, for a total of three playing pieces (not much to play with). So having limited resources is maintained, but also what those resources 'are' can have a big impact (Followers need to be chosen wisely with the points available). So with any further expansion of the game, new types of followers just get a point value and can be chosen if a player wants to use them (and has the points available).
CLOISTERS VARIANT
While some seem to think cloisters are overpowered, I actually consider them underpowered compared to farms, cities and roads(with inns). Borrowing a rule from 'Carcassonne:The Discovery', I add the following to Cloisters.
When a Cloister is completed by being completely surrounded by tiles, not only does it score one point for each of those tiles including the Cloisters tile, but it scores one point for each farmer that is in a field touching the Cloister.
This makes Cloisters potentially very valuable late in the game when farmers tend to struggle against one another, but only if they are completed (which may be risky late in the game). It also means that rather than clustering Cloisters, there may be more reason to spread them out so as to be attached to changing farmlands.
KING AND ROBBER VARIANT
Instead of scoring at the end of the game, if you currently hold the King or Robber tile, then you score one point ever time the related feature is scored by anyone.
This makes scoring easier, you do not score points for features that no one scored points for, and it gives immediate incentive to make the biggest feature, rather than leaving claiming the relevant title to late in the game.
END
Anyway, I like using these above adjustments to the rules. Like them or hate them, let me know what you think. I regard them as fairly balanced, but would like to know what others think.
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