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June 21, 2009

Agricola - Fruit Tree variant

BGG user senseless has suggested a Fruit Tree variant for Agricola.

For this variant, you may want to use the original cube cows that came with the game as trees, and the E deck minor "fruit trees" as an additional action card:

  • Plant a tree [1+]: You may plant 1 tree on one of your unused parcels or in one of your parcels with 1 tree.

The rules for fruit trees are as follows:
- You may only plant a tree in an empty space or a space with only 1 tree.
- The spaces must be orthogonally adjacent to other spaces with trees (like everything else)
- Spaces with trees aren't unused.
- At every harvest, each tree produces 1 food.
- At any moment, you may cut down a tree to receive 1 wood*. Return that tree to the supply.
- If all the trees on a space are cut, that space is now unused.

At the end of the game you receive points for your trees:

Trees Points*
0 -1
1-2 1
3-4 2
5-6 3
7+ 4

This variant will be featured in the upcoming Ñ Deck, so please test it!

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June 11, 2009

Die Dolmengötter - The Block Cycling variant

I have not played Die Dolmengötter in a while. However, I had prepared this article about two years ago regarding a variant of the game (Source: BoardGameGeek by J.C. Lawrence).


Variant for Die Dolmengötter

1) The game no longer ends when a player has placed all their dolmens (square blocks).

2) If an area is completely surrounded it will be scored immediately. The scoring dolmens (square blocks) are then returned to their players. Returned dolmens may then be placed in the normal fashion on future turns.

3) The game ends when any player has placed all of their stones (octagonal prisms), with each other player having one more turn after that point.

That's it. I shall try it soon.

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April 17, 2007

Taluva Variant

Here is a variant for Taluva. Play it with 2 teams of 2 players: A - B - A - B. The rules remain unchanged. A team wins if one of the players wins.
If no more tiles are left, the team who has built the most temples (then towers, then huts) wins.

This way offers some new interesting tactical possibilities: a player can protect the position of his partner or help him build it in the first place. Anybody who dislikes king-making will also be glad to try this variant...


[via BGGUser Pyjam]

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August 31, 2006

Hansa Variant - Changing Winds

When playing Hansa I am regularly bothered by the "one-way rule". I recently found a Hansa variant on the homepage of game designer Michael Schacht. Although I believe this is not a new piece of information it can't hurt to "repeat the message" every now and then (yes, I am indeed currently watching TV commercials).

Following the original rules, the ship is not permitted to move against the wind. This mechanic is visualized by directed arrows. The Changing Winds variant allows players to pay an additional gold and move the ship up against the direction of the arrow. Basically, movement along the arrow costs 1 gold, while the opposite direction costs 2. Each player can decide to change the wind multiple times each turn. Of course, this requires sufficient financial resources.


In my opinion, this variant makes the game a little bit less confrontational. It removes the option of out placing the ship to a location too distant for the next player. On the other hand, game play should become a little bit more flexible and less frustrating for inexperienced players.

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August 2, 2006

Thurn und Taxis: Stand and Deliver variant

Niclas Stenberg has come up with one of the first variants for Spiel des Jahres 2006 Thurn und Taxis. His variant is called Stand and Deliver.

To use this variant you need a playing piece representing the band of Highwaymen controlling the roads surrounding a city.

Additional rules
Before play starts reveal and discard the top card of the drawing deck. Place the Highwaymen figure on that city on the board.

No routes may be built into a city controlled by the Highwaymen, i.e. no player may play that city card down in front of them while the Highwaymen control it (you may still claim the route if you already have the card in front of you and place an office in the city).

Instead of taking support by an "official official" a player may, before he picks a card, talk the leader of the Highwaymen into taking their business elsewhere (this Leader of the Highwaymen is an "inofficial official"). The player must then place the Highwaymen figure on another city. He may discard and replace one card on the board picturing that city.

The original forum post at BGG can be found here.

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March 27, 2006

Variants for Antike

Two variants for Antike have been posted on BoardGameGeek. The first originates from the author, Mac Gerdts, himself. It's basically adding the Celts as a new power to be. This variant has therefore been called The Celtic Quest.

The second option comes from prolific game designer Alan R. Moon who proposes The Catapult Variant.

Continue reading "Variants for Antike" »

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February 21, 2006

Random Destination Ticket variant for Ticket to Ride

Silverpenny Random Ticket Variant for Ticket to Ride / Zug um Zug
A sample Random Destination Ticket by Silverpenny. Ticket to Ride is publsihed by Days of Wonder and designed Alan R. Moon.


Already a little while ago, Silverpenny developed a random ticket variant for Ticket to Ride (Zug um Zug).

Preparation
In this variant two new destination decks are added to the game. Each new destination deck gets a different color, e.g. red and blue. Write the name of each city on the original Ticket to Ride map on one card of each color. The combination of different red and a blue tickets will be used to create new random destinations.

Modified rules
The following modifications are required to the existing rules.
At the start of the game, each player receives six destination cards:

  • 3 from the original stack

  • 3 red and 3 blue cards that need to be combined into at least two Random Destination Tickets

As a result, each player will hold nine cards. The red and blue cards need to be combined to Random Destination Tickets according to the following rules:
  • A Random Destination Ticket (RDT) has to consist of both a red and a blue city.

  • An RDT must consist of two different, non-adjacent cities. (e.g. Denver - Salt Lake City is not a valid RDT as the cities are directly next to each other on the map)

  • Players may not form the same RDT twice in the same game (e.g. Player A pairs an RDT with a red Boston card and a blue Duluth card. This player draws the blue Boston and the red Duluth card. This combination cannot be used to build another RDT)

  • Multiple tickets using the same city are acceptable (e.g. The RDT Dallas blue / Montreal red and the RDT Dallas red and Toronto blue are permitted).

At the beginning of the game, the player must combine and keep at least two RDTs. The player may keep all three.

During the game, players may draw additional destination tickets during their turn to form additional RDTs. This is done by drawing the top three cards from the blue and red deck. The player must form and keep at least one valid RDT from these six. It is permitted to keep two or three RDTs.

Unused red and blue cards are placed in two separate discard piles. When the ticket decks are exhausted, the dicard piles are reshuffled and placed back on the table to replenish the original piles.

Valid RDT combinations are kept hidden from all other players until the end of the game. However, once an RDT is formed it may not be altered. Thus, these pairs of red and blue should be put on the table very visibly.

Scoring
Each RDT is worth victory points. The number of victory points is calculated by counting the shortest route connecting the two cities. At the end of the game, players will add the ticket value to their score if the RDT is completed. Otherwise (i.e. if the route is not complete, or if the route is invalid), the victory points are subtracted from the player's score.


Variants
This variant can easily be adjusted, based upon the competitive nature of the players. Silverpenny also suggests a couple of variants for the RDT variant:

  • Three ticket variant: Each player must form and retain a total of three valid tickets from their initial three potential ticket pairs and may not discard any red/vlue destination cards.
  • Four destination card variant: When drawing destination cards during play to form additional Tickets, the player only receives two cards from the red/blue destination deck.

The full rules are available for download at BoardGameGeek. Click here to download. In addition, BoardGameGeek and Silverpenny have provided a full set of destination cards here.

Note, this variant is currently the only way to play this map of Italy for which no custom destination tickets had been developed. Thanks to Jean PAYET for pointing this out.

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September 28, 2005

House rules and variants

I was intrigued by a rather hot public discussion on a variant for Euphrat & Tigris on BoardGameGeek which was referenced by some comments on Mikko Saari's gameblog. This made me think about house rules and variants in general. First of all: I do like fan-produced extensions and other variants. These become interesting when you've made it down the learning curve of a game. Once you are at a stage where you fully understand game mechanisms and know successful strategies and counter-strategies, I typically want a little bit more spice.
A new game mechanism for Carcassonne, either official or unofficial, a new map to Ticket to Ride, another scenario for our Catan settlements. If you play a game regularly with the same group certain player-specific strategies and tactics will become transparent. Let's take Ticket to Ride as an example. While one player may have a tendency to connect the East and West of the USA, another player may prefer a blocking approach. After a couple of games, the players can adjust and fine-tune their strategies. At this point, something interesting can happen.

Continue reading "House rules and variants" »

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September 19, 2005

Louis XIV. variants

Several (half-official) Louis XIV. variants have been posted on the alea website. This includes suggested two-player rules as well as modified scoring rules for the crests. Although I have my doubts with regard to the usefulness of these rules, I have tried to translate them into (D)English. In case of questions or corrections, please do not hesitate to leave a comment.

Continue reading "Louis XIV. variants" »

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