by JoeAubrey
We've only played 6 times so far, but we're having fun with the rules as written.I look at it like this: if we ever feel like the occupations swung a particular game, then we'll try to balance the randomness of occupations with a job market (maybe three face up cards, five seems like a lot). But that hasn't happened yet. And being bent towards uncomfortable strategies with occupations we didn't choose have allowed us to really explore the game and not get in any one rut.
But like I said, we haven't played this a bunch yet. I could see us adding the occupation market to spice up the "combo" feeling that can be elusive with random occupations. But only later, after we've really explored the apparent but not always obvious "combo" possibilities of actions, special tiles, home boards, exploration boards, buildings, etc., etc.