by davypi
Steve496 wrote:
But sometimes, people don't want to play Diplomacy - they want to play, for instance, Terra Mystica
This statement assumes (falsely, in my opinion) that Terra Mystica doesn't have a negotiation element to it. In my mind, TM is civilization game without military. Civ games often have a negotiation mechanic. Your claim that one single negotiation turns TM into Diplomacy is simply wrong. If you want to house rule that such deals shouldn't be allowed, I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with the analogy you are trying to make here. I've seen players cooperate for spots in Egizia, but do you really think that turns a medium level worker placement game into Diplomacy?
Steve496 wrote:
But in a competitive setting the 1st player is already at an advantage, so if you remove one of the few disadvantages that afflicts them, that's bad for game balance, at least from a "strategy game" perspective.
Isn't it up to the players at the table to look at the game board and decide if the first player has an advantage or not? If they think the start player is that far ahead before the first turn has been taken, they can choose not to deal with him/her. Again, I can probably see where if you are playing at the higher levels on snellman this could be an issue, but my group skill level isn't advanced enough to where having first or second choice of race really decides the game.