by Ryric
My wife and I finished last night with a final score of 839. We lost March twice, some month in the middle once, and barely lost our first try in December with the carrier one move away from Johannesburg. We had 129 points worth of cities, none Forsaken by the end, although some dipped there occasionally over the course of the year. We spent a lot of production trying to keep cities at 2 so a stray Plague cube wouldn't drop them to 0.I agree that rationed events aren't very exciting when you don't expect to get to use them. They get to be somewhat ho-hum when you just stick it in the pile without reading it because you don't lose very often.
I like Season 1 better. Season 2 does feel more like you're directing things yourself, but Jan-Sep are basically "explore, connect, and search until you get your three supply centers built." Season 1 felt like there was a lot more variation in what was going on and what you needed to do each month.
We started out with the farmer and the laborer. After June or so we switched to the Laborer(who had the architect upgrade to build for 3 cards), and the Sanitation worker who can fish in the discard. In November we started using the guy who builds shelters without cards, instead of the Laborer. He was our failed carrier in December, so the Sanitation worker and the Farmer came back in the latter half of December to finish up.
We didn't remember the hint about establishing a supply center in Johannesburg, so we spent a lot of the first try of December scrambling to get that built. Having it pre-established was a huge help on our second try. Trying to build a supply center, connect PEARL, get to PEARL, and get back out while also keeping a bloated grid supplied with only 30 cubes ended up being just a little too much to pull of in one game.