I wonder why the original rule in Adv Civ


has changed in



I think this often brings NT calamities in the hand of the purchasing player, since they are put in the bottom of the stack.

Raffaele
Goblin's lair

Well because there were instances of players being able to buy lots of cards really depriving those later from being able to collect. In otherwords having alot of cities could actually be worse than having an average amount of cities.

Yes it is true, that on average those who buy a card are more likely to be buying a NT calamity, than those natrually collecting them on average (I'm not sure what the average percentage increase is, but I'd be interested in finding out). On the other had you have a choice if you want to buy it or not...

Let's say that in a 9 players game in a turn everybody preserves 8 cards.
That's 72 COMMODITIES out of decks.

During next turn let's say cities are so distributed (Early Iron Age):

4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9

that, 58 more cards (including calamities) out of decks.

Total 130 cards

We have 171 total commodities and 24 calamities so 195 total trade cards.

Considering that you tend to preserve your best cards, discarding or using as a filler low-value cards you can rightly think that most (say 2/3) of the 72 cards are taken from decks 5 to 9.

This means 48 cards from decks 5-9, plus 22 = 70 cards over 78.

Raffaele
Goblin's lair

Hello.

I have not played the game with nine players. Theoretically, I like the new rule and use it when playing regular Advanced Civ. It seems preferable to me than being a player with eight or nine cities and not being able to draw a card because they've all been purchased or a previous player purchasing cards in order to increase my chances of drawing a non-tradeable calamity. As Velusion stated, if you feel the odds of purchasing a non-tradeable calamity are too high, you have a choice not to purchase. That said, the best answer will come from further playtesting. The great thing about board games, as opposed to computer games, is that if you don't like a rule it's easy to change.