[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I'm eager to get a more-than-two player game in. The Builder's Market feels pretty stagnant with only two players, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of risk to letting the tile you need hang out for a bit on the market. I think it would be a much more dynamic game with it changing more often.

Agreed. That's also one advantage of solo play - you're guaranteed the AI will eat a tile every turn.

We're now three games in, all standard length, two just plain vanilla and the last one tonight with all the extras from both expansions. We've covered all six houses so far (each of us have played three of them), and Howard, who starts with the Cook, is by far my favorite. Jenn completely waxed me in our first game, we played a very tight game that I won in the second, and in this last one I cruised to an easy win with Howard.

I was able to pull a level 4 prestige guest early, then used the Cook to bring him into an event while only at reputation 2. That cascaded into me ending up with nearly 50 points just in Gentry alone - I took good advantage of one of the Promotional cards for an actress who dinged my reputation, but allowed me to add 3 casual guests to any event - without having to provide service to them - and gave me some absolutely monstrous turns. I ended up splurging on the Ball Room and had a 9-Guest event (default 6 plus 3 from the actress), and then a 12-Guest event (9 guests on the back of the Ball Room tile) on the final turn.

I feel like Howard might need to be houserule banned from 2 player games. I haven't cracked open US/DS yet, but my sense that the Cook is way too OP in 2-player games unless you spend a turn early to buy your own Cook, or hope you get the improvement tile that lets you steal an opponent's staff member. Might need more testing, though.

I'm loving that all three of our games have been won by a completely different path; Jenn cruised on the back of a huge Estate Improvement + Objective score in the first game. My victory in the second game was a muddy affair with no huge emphasis. And this last one was all gentry all the time.

It's been a huge blast so far, and as I said I cannot wait to get it to the table with more than two players at once!

Yeah I think a six player game with all families in play would be absolutely amazing. And agreed that the different routes to victory make for much more varied gameplay. I noticed I have a tendency in solo games so far to really want to go for Estate Improvement tiles, though that might just be how the Objectives play out.

Okay, time to get the final turn finished and post, with end-game scoring.