by comrade7
I just played 2 games with a friend. First a short variant then full variant.In the second game I got 202 points and won. It was my frist full game.
My impression is some actions in the game are totally overpowered while others are very weak in comparison.
1) Harbour Watch. It pop up early in our game. A total game changer. Games where this card comes out early will surely have a TOTALLY different flow. Every action is now available, no possiblity of blocking actions. You will be able to fully exploit infinite coke transformation strategy (see below)
2) The game is about actions where you can transform basic resources into advanced resources. But some of these actions are total crap while others are totally overpowered. The crap actions are limited to x4 (Tannery) or x6 (Smokehouse) and/or require energy while others allow for INIFINITE transform completely for free (without energy) e.g. Cokery or slaughter house. Even though Cokery is available in the late game, all these buildings seem relatively cheap and there's enough time to build everything pretty fast. There's a lot of time to build large stockpiles of resources to convert in the end game.
3) Coke is a perfect example of an overpowered resource. Compare how easy you can get 4 x Coke worth 20 coins and 40 energetic value with, say, 3 steel worth 24 coin or 4 leather worth 16 coin and zero energy. Getting lether is a joke! The strategy in my game was a no-brainer. Especially with Harbour Watch where my opponent couldnt stop me from visiting coal mine and stockpiling coal before using Cokery (to generate coal worth shitload of money to sell later AND get immediate cash!). I only got enough steel to build 2 steel ships for VP and to sell my huge stockpiles of coke in the very last round of the game. I had 5 ships total, 2 wood 1 iron and 2 steel. Sold 15 resources in my last action, mostly Coke Image may be NSFW.
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I mean WTF, why would I want to go for any other resource? The coke strategy was so obvious, and other resources I just needed a bare minimum to build the necessary stuff or feed my population.
4) I noticed it's better to pay money for food and build this ridiculously big stockpiles of grain and cows, and then in the mid-game transform a selected heap of stuff into food in just on action. Visiting slaughter house or bakery multiple times is simply a waste of actions. I did exactly this and solved food problem for the whole game in ONE ACTION where I baked 14 bread. I ended the game with about 14 cows. I didnt even need to sluahgter them for food, because I had food surplus. They were just sitting there. Couldnt even sell them because I was a coke dealer Image may be NSFW.
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A 2 player game is about exploiting infinite Coal->Coke transformation action and ability to sell the stuff Image may be NSFW.
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Infinite transformation is so much superior to any other action that have 2x, 3x, 4x limits it felt like the game was broken...