by xipuloxx
lolmaus wrote:
A very frequent situation is that you spend all your meeples to objects that won't ever be finished and become bound hand and foot for the rest of the game.
That's only "very frequent" until you learn to stop doing that! :D
What I mean is, part of the skill in this game is learning how to use your limited supply of meeples wisely.
:meeple: Don't place them all on features that will be hard/impossible to finish. 1 or 2 farmers is enough early on.
:meeple: Put 2 or 3 on cities -- at least one of them on a city that needs only one piece to complete.
:meeple: Put 1 or 2 on roads -- at least one on a road that needs only one piece to complete.
:meeple: Once most of them are on the board, try to focus on completing some of your features so as to get meeples back.
:meeple: Always try to keep at least one or two meeples in your hand for placing on 2-tile cities or roads as the chance arises, or for opportunities that are too good to pass up.
:meeple: Late in the game, you won't need to keep meeples back so much, so you can take more risks, and put more on farms or other features that probably won't be finished.
If you allow yourself to run out of meeples, the game can become fairly frustrating. You need to consider every time whether it's worth using a meeple up or whether you'd rather save it for a better option. But I don't think there's any need for a variant rule.