13
votes
Accepted
Is Root really asymmetrical and balanced?
Root is highly asymmetrical
While each faction has technically the same goal (reach 30 victory points), and there are some universal ways of gaining victory points (destroying your opponents' ...
- 12.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Balancing a Momentum Mechanic
I can imagine this system working better if implemented as an additional layer to the general action system, rather than a standalone concept of managing actions - let me outline what I have in mind:
...
- 9,156
7
votes
Ticket to Ride house rule to help players with short destination tickets
I disagree that the player who draws the longest routes has an advantage. A winning play in Ticket to Ride (TTR) doesn't boil down simply to that. Here are a few reasons why I don't think changing the ...
- 129
7
votes
How to balance Dixit?
Definitions
A turn consists of one player being the story teller and all other players guessing.
A round consists of as many turns as there are players, so that every player has been the ...
- 1,598
7
votes
Are the A-sides and B-sides of the wonder boards really balanced?
[EDIT]
As promised I'm getting back with more stats.
TL;DR: You can view an interactive version of the stats in this js fiddle
There are 3 tables. One for sides only, one for wonders only and one for ...
- 587
5
votes
Accepted
Has computer go impacted the discussion about komi?
Something to note because many people are confused by this issue... The skill of the players is irrelevant to komi. Komi is defined as the number of points given to white such that perfect play will ...
- 260
5
votes
Accepted
How can I determine whether two decks are equally strong?
Playtesting is by far the best option (and how all major (and minor) trading card games) have been designed. Do not only pitch the two decks against each other, but also against other decks.
Other ...
- 29.6k
5
votes
Balancing a Momentum Mechanic
The easiest way I can think of to balance this sort of mechanic is to have certain actions only be available at certain momentum levels.
In particular, you could introduce a class of "desperate ...
- 6,682
4
votes
Are the A-sides and B-sides of the wonder boards really balanced?
The two sides are not designed to be balanced. On 6 out of 7 wonders in the base game, side A has been in fact created to ease new players in the game, by providing a common pattern among them:
3 ...
- 3,722
4
votes
Accepted
Most important elements of easy-to-learn hard-to-master?
Make sure that single actions can have multiple different outcomes depending on how and when they are used
Strategic complexity is created when a player has multiple mutually exclusive actions* they ...
- 12.6k
4
votes
Accepted
How to deal with being a 'dungeon master' and the other players finding the missions too hard?
Efficiency and focus is the name of the game in Imperial Assault. Let's look at your specific issues:
Running out of time
My group ran into a similar issue until we realized that many of the ...
- 1,294
4
votes
Accepted
For Star Realms, what's the appropriate ratio of Wealth-per-Card-per-Faction?
Alright, so I found google docs with cards, added some more data concerning base sets and made a diagram with it. I used a sophisticated formula of counting only half of the trade from ally and scrap ...
- 3,236
3
votes
Accepted
How can I use chess piece value to balance my homemade TCG?
When Glorfindel linked you to the Chess piece relative value article, he was providing an example of how you can compare relative strengths in very simple situations.
In the case of your game, you ...
- 11.2k
3
votes
Battlestar Galactica: How to balance core game
There is some strategies that can make you human group win. Is hard to fight the cylons in the board game (exactly like the TV show), but not impossible, even without changing the resources markers to ...
- 458
2
votes
In Axis and Allies, could a house rule upgrading the German navy finally "balance" the 1942 game?
Interested in what you say here about the Allies having a slight edge. I assume you mean First Edition here.
My friend and I have been playing for years. We originally used to think that the Allies ...
- 241
2
votes
Flash Point without the Deck Gun?
I agree that this is a major flaw in the base game. To counteract this (a little), my wife and I sometimes use 2 characters each, which is allowed in the official rules. That isn't a complete solution ...
- 472
2
votes
Could Axis and Allies be "balanced" by weakening the US just a bit more?
This would be an interesting variation. I'm thinking you would have to remove all 3 IPC from Brazil. The timing of when IPCs are delivered has a huge effect. Early IPCs allow the Germans to build up ...
- 61
2
votes
Ticket to Ride house rule to help players with short destination tickets
I think you could mitigate this by having a hand drafting of initial routes, ala 7 wonders/agricola. Let's say you seed each player with a minimum of two long routes and two short. On top of that, ...
- 21
2
votes
Ticket to Ride house rule to help players with short destination tickets
In my experience, I don't think starting with short tickets is an automatic loss. In fact, I've been very successful with shorter tickets. When I start with short tickets, I try to complete them ...
- 316
2
votes
How to fix very high impact of losing players last turn
While I haven't played Game of Thrones, kingmaking is something that happens in a ton of games. And I've only ever found a couple ways of effectively dealing with it.
Embrace it. Sometimes, it is ...
- 5,540
2
votes
Accepted
Balancing Creature battles in a new card game
Forget fixed stat blocks decided by the type. They're too deterministic! Nobody wants to remember all those different number triplets! What should you do instead?
Use non-transitive dice
Each ...
- 3,521
2
votes
Is Root really asymmetrical and balanced?
Root is asymmetrical.
Aside from a game where you have 2 Vagabonds every faction is wildly different while still using the same core mechanics. Even in a game with two Vagabonds however, they do ...
- 4,756
2
votes
Is Root really asymmetrical and balanced?
I've played it a dozen times and seen all factions win. Also, in BGG comments all factions are alternatively seen as the "best" faction, so I guess it depends on the playing groups. For example, ...
- 816
1
vote
Accepted
Can you tell if one board is balanced or not compared to the others?
You probably could produce a mathematical formula taking into account the different factors that obtain you points based on your wonder. It would be long and arduous to figure out, especially ...
- 424
1
vote
Has computer go impacted the discussion about komi?
DeepMind provided a set of 50 games played by AlphaGo against itself, where black won 12 games. It could be an indication that a 7 1/2 komi (Chinese rules) is too high.
- 1,061
1
vote
Accepted
Balanced, 9-player setups for Bang!
The problem with larger games in Bang! is that they tend to be unbalanced by the way the game is played. In a 7 or 8 player (in 6 also really) it is very easy for players to be killed before they get ...
- 14k
1
vote
Balancing Creature battles in a new card game
So, one thought I had was that you could have combat be a series of steps.
Say there are 2 combat steps. Both you and your opponent would, for each creature, have to split up the attack/defense ...
- 11.1k
1
vote
Accepted
Outnumbering in Unknown
I read the rule as enemies (plural) being outnumbered leads to an enemy (singular) having it's damage reduced. So each enemy has it damages reduced the same amount by being outnumbered. I would ...
- 197
1
vote
Ticket to Ride house rule to help players with short destination tickets
Yes, I've also observed that to be the case in friendly games of the original TTR. Probably it means that you have to be more aggressive in disrupting each others routes. Other boards, like ...
- 806
1
vote
Is Saboteur biased towards the miners?
I think it sort of boils down to a basic Nash Equilibrium for the miners. If you're playing for teams (i.e. cooperating), Miners have the upper hand. Tactics vs Strategy, Aggressive vs Cooperative.
...
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