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Izulde · 09-12-2020, 02:20 PM

Here's what a family box looks like with all its starter stuff put in. I'm running York again because I love that extra footman.

Remember that punch sheet of improvements? All of them go in the bag at game start except for the Monuments, seen here. They're powerful - the number of Victory Points is in the lower-right hand corner, and as the circle with the lion represents, they generate you 1 Reputation Point each turn. That adds up. They're also expensive - costing anywhere from $200-400 (pounds) extra in addition to their position on the builders' market.

The number of Monuments you put in the bag depends on the number of players. You always include at least either the Sculpture Garden or the Garden Maze. The default rules say Sculpture Garden, but a lot of people like to play with the Garden Maze because of the lower VP - Sculpture Garden's 10 victory points can be potentially imbalancing.

Okay, so let's go with the Garden Maze. In a two-player game, you choose two other Monuments. I'm going with the Largest Wine Cellar and the Imported Marble Floor.

The Monuments are then added to the other Improvement Tiles in the giant purple bag. It's an okay bag - I'd rather have the crushed purple velvet of a Crown Royal bag, though.

I then set up the rest of the main game board:

The number of servants for hire depends on the number of players. In this case, a two-player game, it's 4 footmen (white meeples), 2 ladies' maids (purple meeples), 2 under-butlers (black meeples), and 2 valets (green meeples).

The initial Builder's Market is also set up. For the market setup, all tiles have to be Prestige Level 1, 2, or 3 (seen in the lower left-hand corner). If you draw a Prestige Level 4, 5, or 6 - including Monuments - they're put back in the bag and more tiles are drawn until you have six tiles of 1, 2, or 3. They're then ordered according to their serial number, which is to the left of the Victory Points (probably too small to see here), with lowest number in $300 slot on the board, highest number in the $800 slot on the board, etc.

So I'm pretty much set to go. Until I get this response from the developer about whether I should also be unboxing Wessex, Promo Cards, and Upstairs Downstairs:

...Ope. Well, I'm not going to change the setup, but I *am* going to add Wessex stuff in.

Two new rooms, a new family (the Wessex family), 16 new gentry cards (including 5 starters - I'll talk about that in a minute), and new AI opponents for solo Extended Play.

Wessex - They really hate the upstart wealth of the Ponsonbys. To keep up, the matriarch has sold a prime piece of land to some noble who wants to build a hunting lodge or something. With the money from the land sale, the Wessex family gets their bonus - either a Breakfast Room or a Tennis Court added to their board at game start. Important Note: If Wessex is not used, neither tile is part of the game. If the Wessex family is used, whichever tile they don't select for their board is not part of the game. IOW, those Improvement Tiles don't go in the bag.

Interesting, but York is still my jam, so not changing.

I do, however, switch opponents at Dan's suggestion:

Another famous name with some withered branch.

So a couple more things:

1. A player's starting hand is composed of the family cards (usually 4, but 5 in the case of the Asquiths) and 2 Starter Guests. Very briefly - Guests are divided into Casual Guests (1 fleur-di-lys) and Prestige Guests (2 fleur-di-lys). Starter Guests are a set of 15 with a crown on them in the base game. Wessex adds 5 more Starter Guests for 20 total. (Though this expansion still limited it to 4 players max. Upstairs Downstairs expands player max to 6).

There's two ways of distributing Starter Guests: 1. Shuffled and randomly dealt out. or 2. Starter Guest draft. Since I'm doing solo play, it's obviously the first, though in multiplayer games with other people, I would definitely do a draft.

Here's the Starter Guests I pull, who are currently existing friends of the Yorks:

You can see the Starter Guest crown.

Now, in the upper left-hand corner, you can see a 1. That's their Prestige Level, same as with Improvement Tiles. In order for a family to host a guest or an activity, their Reputation Level has to be equal or higher to the Prestige Level of the Improvement Tile the event takes place on and the Prestige Level of all guests attending the event.

In the upper-right hand corner, both 0s in this case, are their Victory Points. The other two items I'll talk about when I get to the turn action.

Last thing for setup: Objectives.

Every player draws 5 Objective Cards in a standard game. (Extended Game is 4). There's discard involved, but we'll talk about that when the time comes.

Here are my Objective Pulls:

So we've got some synergy here: Literature Group and Domestic Group have some overlap. Right now, none of them are on the market because they're too high Prestige for initial setup, but it's something to keep an eye on. Monuments become even more powerful now (as the Objective notes, there's a few Improvement Tiles, that when flipped, become Monuments).

All right... that's set up! Now on to Season 1.

In a Standard Game, there's 4 seasons. Each season lasts 4 rounds, for a total of 16 rounds. At the end of each Season is a Courtship event that involves the Fairchilds. More on that when we get to it.

Turn 1, Season 1.

I look at my board, then at the Builders' Market. I really want that Servants' Quarters - that's just pure gas of a card. See, normally, you can only play meeples from Available Service. This allows you to pull one from the Servants' Quarters (in between Expended Service and Available Service), so it's some serious BDE.

Do I have a route to get there? Yes! A couple of different ways, actually. I'm going to do it this way, however:

The Yorks decide to invite their dear friends, the cosmopolitan and freely-speaking Lady Sarah Lewis and the kindly, giving Miss Penelope Atwood to the family estate for a few weeks visit. The highlight of the visit will be bowling on the bowling green, the Yorks decide - Lady Lewis is rather sporty and Miss Atwood will no doubt find it a bit of fun.

Most turns, you will be hosting an activity - in other words, moving an Improvement Tile to the Activity Box. In this example:

Notice the card has a white outline. That means you need to play a Footman (white meeple) to host this activity - presumably he's fetching things and keeping the game running smoothly. You also need 2 Gentry - in other words, two guests and the gender doesn't matter.

Footman summoned, invitations sent to Lady Lewis and Miss Atwood, both of who are delighted to accept.

Their cards are then played from my hand.

Hooray, they've arrived! But wait, there's one more condition to be fulfilled. Not only does your Reputation Level have to match the Prestige Level of the event and the guests, but you have to provide service to your guests. There are some exceptions - the family members will never require service, and some guests won't either.

Lady Lewis is one of those guests. She has her... ahem... companion, who takes care of her needs. Great! Miss Atwood; gentle, generous, and broke ass woman that she is, needs a Lady's Maid to assist (indicated by the purple meeple icon on in the lower left-hand corner). The lady of the house quickly arranges for Miss Atwood to be attended by one of the maids.

The bowling is a smashing success (no pun intended), and after the delightful time is had by all, favors come into play.

There are four types of favors, and they're resolved/carried out in this order:

1. Money

2. Reputation

3. Invites

4. Servants (only in a few instances)

In this case, the bowling tournament is a lucrative event for the Yorks - probably selling tickets to the locals to come watch. 300 pounds in the coffer, plus Lady Lewis generously donating 100 more pounds. Neither of these young women brings any reputation or acclaim, but everyone adores Miss Atwood and she happens to mention during the tournament that she knows someone.

The fleur-di-lys (single) means you draw a card from the Casual Guests deck.

Who does Miss Atwood know?

Miss Alice Barstow! She herself is no one of any significance or money, but she's gregarious and will doubtless know someone else due to her chattiness.

Miss Barstow then joins the deck.

So we have 400 pounds after favors are dispensed, so we buy that Servants' Quarters. The other tiles are shifted down to the left, leaving the 800 pound out slot open.

I pull from the bag and... ...shit. Deja vu hitting.

It's a god damn Monument. This is a horrible event for solo competitive play - especially in the early game. More on that in a second.

The cleanup stage then happens. Lady Lewis and Miss Atwood are moved to the player's discard pile, the Footman and the Lady's Maid used for this event are moved to Expended Service, and it's the AI's turn.

Why is the Monument appearing in the Marketplace bad? Go back up and look at the Solitaire Builders' Market AI. There's two columns - Standard Turn (No Monument in the market) and Monument Turn (Monument in the market). Because there's a Monument in the Market, that column applies.

Rolling the d20 that comes with the game (love that shade of purple by the way), if the roll is a 1-7, the AI is buying that Monument - otherwise it buys whatever card is in a given position or refreshes the market (ie all Improvement Tiles are discarded and new set drawn).

Sure enough, I roll a 5. AI snaps up that Monument with its 8 Victory Points and a huge lead in another part of the game.

So I'm behind the d20 as it were already.

I played out the rest of Season 1, but that would crash the board with pics, so I'll split it into another post.

09-12-2020, 02:20 PM	#6
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Here's what a family box looks like with all its starter stuff put in. I'm running York again because I love that extra footman. Remember that punch sheet of improvements? All of them go in the bag at game start except for the Monuments, seen here. They're powerful - the number of Victory Points is in the lower-right hand corner, and as the circle with the lion represents, they generate you 1 Reputation Point each turn. That adds up. They're also expensive - costing anywhere from $200-400 (pounds) extra in addition to their position on the builders' market. The number of Monuments you put in the bag depends on the number of players. You always include at least either the Sculpture Garden or the Garden Maze. The default rules say Sculpture Garden, but a lot of people like to play with the Garden Maze because of the lower VP - Sculpture Garden's 10 victory points can be potentially imbalancing. Okay, so let's go with the Garden Maze. In a two-player game, you choose two other Monuments. I'm going with the Largest Wine Cellar and the Imported Marble Floor. The Monuments are then added to the other Improvement Tiles in the giant purple bag. It's an okay bag - I'd rather have the crushed purple velvet of a Crown Royal bag, though. I then set up the rest of the main game board: The number of servants for hire depends on the number of players. In this case, a two-player game, it's 4 footmen (white meeples), 2 ladies' maids (purple meeples), 2 under-butlers (black meeples), and 2 valets (green meeples). The initial Builder's Market is also set up. For the market setup, all tiles have to be Prestige Level 1, 2, or 3 (seen in the lower left-hand corner). If you draw a Prestige Level 4, 5, or 6 - including Monuments - they're put back in the bag and more tiles are drawn until you have six tiles of 1, 2, or 3. They're then ordered according to their serial number, which is to the left of the Victory Points (probably too small to see here), with lowest number in $300 slot on the board, highest number in the $800 slot on the board, etc. So I'm pretty much set to go. Until I get this response from the developer about whether I should also be unboxing Wessex, Promo Cards, and Upstairs Downstairs: ...Ope. Well, I'm not going to change the setup, but I am going to add Wessex stuff in. Two new rooms, a new family (the Wessex family), 16 new gentry cards (including 5 starters - I'll talk about that in a minute), and new AI opponents for solo Extended Play. Wessex - They really hate the upstart wealth of the Ponsonbys. To keep up, the matriarch has sold a prime piece of land to some noble who wants to build a hunting lodge or something. With the money from the land sale, the Wessex family gets their bonus - either a Breakfast Room or a Tennis Court added to their board at game start. Important Note: If Wessex is not used, neither tile is part of the game. If the Wessex family is used, whichever tile they don't select for their board is not part of the game. IOW, those Improvement Tiles don't go in the bag. Interesting, but York is still my jam, so not changing. I do, however, switch opponents at Dan's suggestion: Another famous name with some withered branch. So a couple more things: 1. A player's starting hand is composed of the family cards (usually 4, but 5 in the case of the Asquiths) and 2 Starter Guests. Very briefly - Guests are divided into Casual Guests (1 fleur-di-lys) and Prestige Guests (2 fleur-di-lys). Starter Guests are a set of 15 with a crown on them in the base game. Wessex adds 5 more Starter Guests for 20 total. (Though this expansion still limited it to 4 players max. Upstairs Downstairs expands player max to 6). There's two ways of distributing Starter Guests: 1. Shuffled and randomly dealt out. or 2. Starter Guest draft. Since I'm doing solo play, it's obviously the first, though in multiplayer games with other people, I would definitely do a draft. Here's the Starter Guests I pull, who are currently existing friends of the Yorks: You can see the Starter Guest crown. Now, in the upper left-hand corner, you can see a 1. That's their Prestige Level, same as with Improvement Tiles. In order for a family to host a guest or an activity, their Reputation Level has to be equal or higher to the Prestige Level of the Improvement Tile the event takes place on and the Prestige Level of all guests attending the event. In the upper-right hand corner, both 0s in this case, are their Victory Points. The other two items I'll talk about when I get to the turn action. Last thing for setup: Objectives. Every player draws 5 Objective Cards in a standard game. (Extended Game is 4). There's discard involved, but we'll talk about that when the time comes. Here are my Objective Pulls: So we've got some synergy here: Literature Group and Domestic Group have some overlap. Right now, none of them are on the market because they're too high Prestige for initial setup, but it's something to keep an eye on. Monuments become even more powerful now (as the Objective notes, there's a few Improvement Tiles, that when flipped, become Monuments). All right... that's set up! Now on to Season 1. In a Standard Game, there's 4 seasons. Each season lasts 4 rounds, for a total of 16 rounds. At the end of each Season is a Courtship event that involves the Fairchilds. More on that when we get to it. Turn 1, Season 1. I look at my board, then at the Builders' Market. I really want that Servants' Quarters - that's just pure gas of a card. See, normally, you can only play meeples from Available Service. This allows you to pull one from the Servants' Quarters (in between Expended Service and Available Service), so it's some serious BDE. Do I have a route to get there? Yes! A couple of different ways, actually. I'm going to do it this way, however: The Yorks decide to invite their dear friends, the cosmopolitan and freely-speaking Lady Sarah Lewis and the kindly, giving Miss Penelope Atwood to the family estate for a few weeks visit. The highlight of the visit will be bowling on the bowling green, the Yorks decide - Lady Lewis is rather sporty and Miss Atwood will no doubt find it a bit of fun. Most turns, you will be hosting an activity - in other words, moving an Improvement Tile to the Activity Box. In this example: Notice the card has a white outline. That means you need to play a Footman (white meeple) to host this activity - presumably he's fetching things and keeping the game running smoothly. You also need 2 Gentry - in other words, two guests and the gender doesn't matter. Footman summoned, invitations sent to Lady Lewis and Miss Atwood, both of who are delighted to accept. Their cards are then played from my hand. Hooray, they've arrived! But wait, there's one more condition to be fulfilled. Not only does your Reputation Level have to match the Prestige Level of the event and the guests, but you have to provide service to your guests. There are some exceptions - the family members will never require service, and some guests won't either. Lady Lewis is one of those guests. She has her... ahem... companion, who takes care of her needs. Great! Miss Atwood; gentle, generous, and broke ass woman that she is, needs a Lady's Maid to assist (indicated by the purple meeple icon on in the lower left-hand corner). The lady of the house quickly arranges for Miss Atwood to be attended by one of the maids. The bowling is a smashing success (no pun intended), and after the delightful time is had by all, favors come into play. There are four types of favors, and they're resolved/carried out in this order: 1. Money 2. Reputation 3. Invites 4. Servants (only in a few instances) In this case, the bowling tournament is a lucrative event for the Yorks - probably selling tickets to the locals to come watch. 300 pounds in the coffer, plus Lady Lewis generously donating 100 more pounds. Neither of these young women brings any reputation or acclaim, but everyone adores Miss Atwood and she happens to mention during the tournament that she knows someone. The fleur-di-lys (single) means you draw a card from the Casual Guests deck. Who does Miss Atwood know? Miss Alice Barstow! She herself is no one of any significance or money, but she's gregarious and will doubtless know someone else due to her chattiness. Miss Barstow then joins the deck. So we have 400 pounds after favors are dispensed, so we buy that Servants' Quarters. The other tiles are shifted down to the left, leaving the 800 pound out slot open. I pull from the bag and... ...shit. Deja vu hitting. It's a god damn Monument. This is a horrible event for solo competitive play - especially in the early game. More on that in a second. The cleanup stage then happens. Lady Lewis and Miss Atwood are moved to the player's discard pile, the Footman and the Lady's Maid used for this event are moved to Expended Service, and it's the AI's turn. Why is the Monument appearing in the Marketplace bad? Go back up and look at the Solitaire Builders' Market AI. There's two columns - Standard Turn (No Monument in the market) and Monument Turn (Monument in the market). Because there's a Monument in the Market, that column applies. Rolling the d20 that comes with the game (love that shade of purple by the way), if the roll is a 1-7, the AI is buying that Monument - otherwise it buys whatever card is in a given position or refreshes the market (ie all Improvement Tiles are discarded and new set drawn). Sure enough, I roll a 5. AI snaps up that Monument with its 8 Victory Points and a huge lead in another part of the game. So I'm behind the d20 as it were already. I played out the rest of Season 1, but that would crash the board with pics, so I'll split it into another post. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)