by davypi
The main problem I see is that there are some buildings that are clearly better than others in the special deck, especially if they come out early. In particular I am thinking of the Farm and the Iron Mine/Coal Seam. If either of these were in my hand, my first move on the first round would be to get that building out because I would be reaping in the free resources and/or the entry fees for the rest of the game. If my opponent(s) don't have a building this good, you've effectively given one player an advantage based on the luck of the shuffle.I remember one variant a friend of mine and I played a long time ago where we each started the game with eight specials. We then picked one and passed, and repeated this until we had each picked four buildings each. Those eight were then shuffled and then used for the special deck and the other eight were put back in the box. This is really a draft and not hand management, but it allowed us to have some knowledge/control over what special came out, but not so much that it gave either of us an advantage. I could similarly see having a variant where each player has eight cards and at the end of a round when the city would build a special you instead let both players (in a 2P game) could play one from their hand to the city. So each player at least has a chance to build a strategy around special buildings, but again, with the city having ownership you at least mitigate some of the bias that could come from a lucky shuffle.