by Sorp222
marqzen wrote:
Hi Christian. Though I agree with the principle of trying the game as indended before altering stuff, I also wholeheartedly agree that the most important thing is that you have fun, and if changing things make it a better game for you then have at it.
As for your variant, I personally find it too complicated to my tastes. Sure its no problem once you have all the other rules down, but I think it will be a hard variant to understand and grasp with first time players.
A simple thing you could try is to have the Event Deck be face up. That is actually a variant I considered adding, but just did not have the time to sort it out.
But all that said there are some things about the design of the Event mechanics that you should consider (including things that Torala mentions). Quite a few measures have been made to balance their effects, without making them redundant.
1) Many events have both a good an bad thing on them. You may get a good year, but the barbarians spawn (for instance)
2) Many Advances reduce the effect of events. Irrigation and sanitation obviously, but also Myths which is sometimes forgotten.
3) Some events do not affect you unless you have a certain amount of cities or certain advances.
4) The more catastrophic events award you points at the end.
5) You have a large degree of control regarding when events will hit.
Etc. At any rate i just want you to have fun, and hope that you will love Clash in whatever way you end up playing.
Have fun! :)
As for your variant, I personally find it too complicated to my tastes. Sure its no problem once you have all the other rules down, but I think it will be a hard variant to understand and grasp with first time players.
A simple thing you could try is to have the Event Deck be face up. That is actually a variant I considered adding, but just did not have the time to sort it out.
But all that said there are some things about the design of the Event mechanics that you should consider (including things that Torala mentions). Quite a few measures have been made to balance their effects, without making them redundant.
1) Many events have both a good an bad thing on them. You may get a good year, but the barbarians spawn (for instance)
2) Many Advances reduce the effect of events. Irrigation and sanitation obviously, but also Myths which is sometimes forgotten.
3) Some events do not affect you unless you have a certain amount of cities or certain advances.
4) The more catastrophic events award you points at the end.
5) You have a large degree of control regarding when events will hit.
Etc. At any rate i just want you to have fun, and hope that you will love Clash in whatever way you end up playing.
Have fun! :)
I have some concerns about the events
1) You can spawn the barbarians between you and another player - so in fact they become an advantage if the other player(s) is/are close to triggering an event which might send the barbarians their way
3) If you have had a lot of positive early events and action cards then these don't seem to hurt as much in the middle game
4) Yes - but 2 vps for each destroyed building is not a great compensation in the early game for the fact you will need to take an action to rebuild the building and spend the resources again
5) True - but if you are playing catch up to some one who has lucked out with Action and event cards it can just set you further behind
Now these observations are just based on two games and two part games however in the two full games I played it seems that its entirely possible that one player gets action cards and events that sets them ahead and the others events that set them back. In both games I played I felt I was five actions behind the leading player (after the first four turns) ENTIRELY based on the luck of the draw of action and event cards. I love the mechanics of the game but it seems very difficult to catch up from an unlucky event/action start compared to a lucky one. All the actions appear useful - just some are useful to get you started and some later in the game.
Now its entirely possible that after only 2 games I have got this wrong or been incredibly unlucky - but it really soured my game experience. The eventual winner in both games was the player who got the flying start. pretty well everything else about the game is quite cool and I don't mind luck and random factors in most games.