by allstar64
JazzFish wrote:
Your points are valid, but the biggest problem with the ruby track is that to make it work, you end up skipping 95% of the auctions in the first half of the game. Which is just boring.
Yes when I previously said "but I don't find it all that enjoyable to practically know ahead of time what I'll be doing for the first half of the game." I was referring to not being able to buy artifacts or really go on any other tracks other than the Knowledge of Gemstones. This is a major factor why I don't really like playing him
Now the Druid is by no means weak
Here I disagree mildly. I think the Druid is weaker than the others by a) being forced into a single strategy, and b) either missing out on artifact points and Toad/Raven artifacts in the early game, or getting rubies too late to do much good.
Well to be fair the first point isn't a default reason that a character is weaker. If a character can only play 1 strategy and it is the strongest strategy in the game than that character would be considered the strongest character.
Back when I used to play more regularly the owner of the game had figured out a good starting Druid strategy that virtually anyone who got the Druid used (been a few years so I don't remember it) so the druid always did pretty well in our games.
That being said I hate having to base my entire game on my Rubies. Losing one at any point is more or less game over. In Fact my worst memory of playing this game ever was because a Druid lost a Ruby due to a magic mirror.
5p Game with magic belt, spellbook magic mirrorx3 out. I was bidding on a magic belt and Player B bid it up so high that I just couldn't justify bidding on it anymore. So after losing the belt I bought 2 of the magic mirrors that were out. The third one was bought later that round by another player causing Player B who was the Druid to lose a Ruby (he had no more income to buy the last mirror).
So if he lost the Ruby how did this wind up being my worst game ever? Well on the last turn I was neck and neck with another player but I was also the emerald player with maxed emeralds and the Scarab would give me more points than anything the other player could get. At that very point I learned that Player B felt that it was my fault that he had lost the Ruby and the game and so he purposely outbid me on the Emerald sentinel to cost em the game. Game ended on a fairly sour note.