DNAmers

While it’s rich in there, Sky Traders hasn’t exactly won the hearts of the critics. It’s market manipulation mechanism is novel in itself, but unfortunately serves to stagnate the game, with all players having too much control over commodity prices, meaning the values of goods never really swings to the extremes needed to promote active market trade. This in turn leads to the game frequently stretching on far past three hours for a play.

To help address these issues, FFG have released an official FAQ and Errata (Link) with variants to help sleed up play. But why stop there? Over on BGG, the game’s designer Gioacchino Prestigiacomo (Presti70) has released his own play variant, The Director’s Cut 2.0. Not that this rules set incorporates Errata v1.0.

1. Black market Set-Up
During step 3 of “Setup,” place the black market good slider on the far right space (“50”) of the black market row on the Commodities Exchange.

2.Optional Shortage and Surplus Rolls
Ignore Step 3 of the Guild Council. This lessens randomization in the market, and gives players more control.

3.Investment Limits
The small printed dice icons in the investment boxes of each class of legal goods no longer limit the number of dice that can be assigned to the box. Instead, up to four dice can be assigned to each of the positive and negative boxes. However, when calculating the price adjustments, players only count the dice in each box up to the number of printed dice icons. For example, if four dice are assigned to the positive die box for class 6, only two of those dice are counted towards the class 6 price adjustment. When adjusting the market prices for the Sludge Exchange and the Black Market, count all of the dice in the positive and negative boxes, regardless of the dice icons.

4.Fast Game Variant
Blue Influence costs 3 GP; Yellow costs 5 GP; Orange costs 10 GP.

5.Volcano Variant
When a player dumps his sludge into the Volcano, he will receive a reward equal to 1GP for each discarded Sludge.

6.Battle Rules Variant
During the battle, a player adds the combat value of ALL the Crew Cards hired in his ship.
– Treat the hold number of the Gunner as 6 instead of 4-5-6
– The reward of the pirate king (+5) is 50GP instead of 100GP

7.Wanted Trader Variant
A destroyed player that owns one or more wanted tokens doesn’t receive Insurance and Charity payments.

While younger gamers love the idea of monsters rampaging through Tokyo, very-younger gamers don’t love the games cards so much due to the tactical element they bring to the game being a bit much for them. They don’t care about special armour or being omnivorous … they just want to rampage through Tokyo.

So simply ditch the cards.

Energy cubes are collected as per usual, but are used as follows:
– when in Tokyo, spend 3 gems to convert one dice roll into a Claw
– when not in Tokyo, spend 3 gems to convert one dice roll into a Heart

And that’s it. A simple houserule that maintains the feel of the game, while making the game more accessible to the younger gamer.

When a player’s pawn is in a city at which an Outbreak occurs — even if it’s via a chain reaction — then that Role is lost, either to the spreading epidemic, or to the panic that takes over the city. The player discards their Role card and draws a new one at random from the available pile, but keeps any Player Cards, including Special Event Cards. Remove the lost Role’s pawn from the board, and place the new pawn at the closest Research Station to the site of the outbreak, or at Atlanta if there are no Research Stations. Finally, re-shuffle the lost Role card back into the draw deck, so that the Role may be drawn again upon a subsequent outbreak … the handy Pilot may have been lost during an earlier outbreak, but later in the game a second individual steps up to fill the gap.

While this variant sounds like it may make the game easier for the team, in that they can change Roles in the hopes of finding another more immediately advantageous, it actually makes the game a little more difficult as it disrupts the team’s ability to plan ahead. My gaming group have toyed with the idea of sending an under-performing role to a hot-spot in the hopes of triggering a new Role, but we’ve never been in a position to have an action ‘spare’ to do so.

Some people think Resistance is too easy for the Spies to win, even when using the Plot Cards. If this is so, try skipping the ‘Spies Reveal’ part of the initial game setup, as per the ‘Blind Spies’ variant listed in the game rules … Spies will have to actively work out who their co-conspirators are, instead of starting the game off with that information.

While not technically a house rule, the Variable Play Direction is a formal variant presented in the Rise of Ancients expansions, and it’s one that I’ll be looking to include in all future plays of Eclipse.

It’s a simple, minor tweak, but it makes a solid impact on gameplay. Without the variant, one player usually makes a push to be the first to pass, gaining (or retaining) the First Player pawn … and with nothing to lose, the other players look to eke out as many actions as they can for their turn, usually stretching their economies in the process. Using the Variable Play Direction card makes the second person to pass also a significant tactical consideration, focusing players on the merits of playing for turn order instead of continually pushing their economy for one more action. This change in mindset results in healthier, more robust economies in the long game, meaning more balanced play between players.

What’s more, variable play direction can be a great factor when using the Alliances variant … swinging the play order to favour your alliance while simultaneously depriving your opposing alliance can be a strong tactical move.

The “Draw +2 Sphinx cards” permanent Nile card and the “During final scoring: For each 10 points you scored take 1 point more” are the two most powerful cards in the game. Many players feel that both imbalance the game significantly, and most online gaming sites have options for excluding either or both of these cards from play.

The “Draw +2 Sphinx cards” is especially powerful, allowing the player that claims it to invest minimally at the Sphinx for a potentially huge gain. It’s presence along the Nile usually results in harsh competition as players jostle to claim it. And the “During final scoring: For each 10 points you scored take 1 point more” Sphinx card is just as near-broken, awarding it’s owner 5-10 points for doing absolutely nothing.

Keep an eye out for both of these cards, both are usually worth the effort and sacrifice you’ll need to make to claim them.

Discovery of useful, lucrative tiles on an Exploration action can literally be luck of the tile draw, but a player can maximise their chances of encountering hexes that can deliver the resources they need if they know how frequently each resource type is encountered in each Sector. This is especially so when playing the non-human races where starting resources are asymmetrical, and trade ratios between the different resources are harsh.

Generally speaking, frequencies of each resource type in the Inner, Middle and Outer regions are as follows:

Inner Region (I) Tiles: high Economy and Advanced Economy, very high Technology and Advanced Technology, very low Materials. Highest probability of encountering Alien ships, and highest density of Artifacts. Highest number of wormholes per hex (4.5), and an average of 2.75 population squares per hex.

Middle Region (II) Hexes: high Economy, high Materials. Lowest frequency of grey population squares, but highest probability of Discovery Tiles, especially if using Alien Homeworlds. Average of 2.0 population squares per hex, or 2.2 factoring in Alien Homeworlds.

Outer Region (III) Hexes: low Economy and Technology, high Materials. Highest probability of encountering grey population squares. High probability of Discovery Tiles, lowest probability of encountering Aliens. High probability of encountering special hexes, but the lowest number of population squares per hex (1.75 on average).

When performing an Exploration action, you don’t have to place an unfavourable hex you draw.

Sure, this is inefficient play, but be it a resource-scare hex (although these can actually be a boon for later-game intentional bankruptcy to manipulated your economy), or a double alien threat too early in the game, it can be wiser play to soak up the lost action now instead of having to deal with an unfavourable neighbourhood for the rest of the game.

Players new to Thunderstone rush to the Dungeon, keen to attack anything their lowly hand of dagger-armed Militia can handle. More experienced players hang back, looking to build the efficiency of their decks in the early game, to guarantee strong play in the endgame.

Thunderstone is a deck building game; he that drafts the most efficient deck will win. And a deck full of cheap, low-value trophies is slow and cluttered, leaving you struggling to scrape together 4-5 Gold or 5 Attack each turn by the endgame, while your opponent is drawing two higher level heroes, two solid weapons, and a spell or two in every hand.

Don’t be tempted by cheap, early success in the Dungeon. Actively adjust your deck in the early game until it is ready to take on the more powerful monsters, then head down into the Dungeon. One or two weaker monsters with high gold values or high XP returns could be worth your attention — and remember, these can always be Rested away if they slow your deck in the endgame — but always keep in mind that more powerful monsters mean less clutter and a more efficient deck. And many come with Attack-based trophy abilities that further strengthen your attacking potential.

Militia are the flotsam and jetsam of your starting hand. They contribute nothing to any forays to make to the Village to stock up on equipment and items, even given their Richard Gere looks, and are laughable in the dungeon, unable to pick up anything bigger than a dagger unless you’ve powered them up with a well-wrapped lunch first.

First and foremost, Thunderstone is a deck building game; she that drafts the most efficient deck will win. Part of deck building is actively whittling out less desirable cards to increase the efficiency of your draws and the usability of each hand. Never be afraid to spend your first 4-5 turns Resting to cull Militia from your deck. In fact, unless there are specific cards in the game that give some value to Militia, Resting them is a strong strategy, and should be your first 4-5 turns. Keep one or two in hand for those pesky ‘Destroy one Hero’ battle effects, and maybe another couple if some of the Heroes on offer offered abilities that triggered off Militia, but apart from that look to clear as many from your deck as you can, as fast as you can.

Some Villages will even offer you better options to ridding your Militia menace … Trainers will trade them for valuable XP, and Pawnbrokers for 3 gold apiece. And keep an eye out for early monsters that destroy Heroes as a battle effect; a suicidal charge into the Dungeon with a hand full of unarmed Militia can be a very efficient way to adjust your deck.

Militia do nothing for your deck except to clutter it up, and slow it down. Actively drafting them out of your deck will result in significantly better purchasing power in the Village, allowing you to get deeper into the Dungeon sooner.

My group love Citadels, and think it works so well with 6 players (although I see Faidutti himself prefers it with 5) that we never play it with more or less. One variant we’ll sometimes play is incorporating the alternate roles on each turn, at the whim of the King (or Emperor). We find that especially near the endgame, when players are jousting for lucrative roles, the King is selected less and less … so we up the ante by giving the King the option to swap one role card for another (of the same numerical value) every turn. This helps to add a little variability to the game, and gives the King role a little extra beef.

If your group is especially social, a more fluff/less crunch variant is to rule that the King/Emperor must be referred to as Your Majesty, or Your Highness. If not, the offending player is immediately assassinated. This might not be too popular with groups just coming to terms with the game, but I’ve seen this rule sway players to taking the King just for the prestige that comes with it.

My first handful of plays with Infiltration were with 3-4 players. It performed well mechanically, it was a good game, but not great. There simply wasn’t the impetus there for characters to explore deep into the complex, and go for a big DF haul, so players would mill around the bottom level, soaking up what tokens were available. Bottom feeding was rife.

Then by chance we played a very-busy 6-player game, and Infiltration’s full potential was realised. Bottom-feeding is simply not a viable strategy with that number of operatives all jostling for position in the same few rooms. Some players rush forward, keen to get to higher level and risk a convenient exeunt, others look for what booty they can get mid-way through the complex with an eye on the lower level exit. Either way, many players means serious competition for the relatively rare resources … and decisions become more meaningful when a second player is looking over your shoulder, ready to rush into the secret room and grab the lone, lucrative Prototype as soon as you open the door.

Definitely best played with 5-6, where the game’s depth of interaction becomes a big player.

The Chaos, Upgrade and Morrslieb Old World Cards in this set add interesting and alternative options for the base game, and I routinely play with a selection of all. The 5th Power, however, I’ve found to be significantly more powerful than the 4 base Powers, in a way that warps play unfavourably. It’s definitely worth getting this expansion for the cards alone, but until a second expansion hits the shelves, I prefer to keep my Chaos at 4 players maximum.