Another way is to bag the colonist for a three player game in one ziplock bag. Then put the additional colonists for a four player game in a second bag, and vice versa for a five player game.
Then you simply take the number of bags corresponding to the number of players present each game. You can add the differing vp chits et al in the 3, 4 and 5 player bags as well.
At least, that works for us. The ruler method looks fun, though
Why should you do such tricks when you have at least four guys whose effort can be used to pack the game back in the box?
If you play with 5 players you have to order one guy to put the 5th player stuff into one bag and another guy to put 4th player stuff into another. Rest of the stuff can be packed according to their type. To ease up the process you should've written the desired contents to the bags' labels.
I believe that making weird tricks with a huge pile of colonists takes a lot more time than counting colonists up to 21. Players can usually get most of the stuff required for a 4th or 5th player bag from their very own boards - there isn't even need to return everything into a single place before packing the stuff.
Therefore I don't see why this image is anyhow useful - unless you haven't got access to any small bags.
The 55, 75, and 95 are the starting reserve piles. The colonist ship starts with as many colonists as there are players. Therein lies an easier way to count out colonists.
If you're having trouble remembering how many extra rows to count off four a four and five player game and then how many from those extra rows to throw back, try this method, instead:
- Plop 3 colonists on the colonist ship for your starting quota, then use this method to get the 55 colonists for a 3 player supply, pull those 10 rows out and put them into the colonist reserve pile.
- Then for each additional player, repeat the process counting out exactly 6 rows of colonists. Pull those 6 rows out. Take one colonist piece from those 6 rows and place it on the colonist ship. Put the remainder into the reserve pile. (If you're playing with 4, do this once, with 5, do it twice)
In the 6 rows, there are 21 colonists, the exact number needed for each additional player (20 into supply and 1 onto the colonist ship)
This is similar to the device pharmacists used to use to count out tablets before dispensing them into bottles (before the use of sealed patient packs). - these were metal triangles with 1,3,6,10,15,21 etc noted down on each line.
you could proably get one from a pharmacy supplier but i won't be held responsible for what happens if you type "tablets" into google.
It was the pharmacist trays that inspired me! I've never seen one, but my sister told me about them when I was trying to come up with something easy to build that might help count out the colonists. I guessed the trays used triangle numbers in some way. As a maths teacher, triangle numbers are never far from my mind...
I'm surprised it's been described above as a "trick", and by the suggestion that it required "some major extra time" to come up with; when I realized how easily those little counters merge into a triangle, the rest was basic arithmetic . (By the way, Puerto Rico mats work just as well as rulers for dragging the counters around.)
Why use this method instead of getting friends to help bag up the bits? Well, if you're anally retentive like me, you probably don't trust those friends to count properly. You probably don't even trust yourself ("I'm sure I counted one of the colonists twice. I'd better count them all again to be sure...").
But perhaps the main reason I use this method is, as long as there are no gaps in your triangle, and you can count up to 13 (the highest number you ever need to count up to, for a five player game), then you MUST have the correct number of colonists – there's no way to get around it. Anyone watching can confirm for themselves, more or less at a glance, that it's correct too. AND there's no need to count the colonists back into separate bags at the end of the game (though you might just want to check no colonists have escaped. I did once use this method at the end of a game to confirm one was definitely hiding on a brown carpet...)
I don't think having seperate bags for 3, 4 and 5 player games are a good idea. All it takes having one fall on the floor in a 3 player game. You will not catch the missing piece for several games.
I'm going to use this the next time I play. Thanks.
My geometry teacher in High School TOLD me that there were REAL LIFE applications for that crap... and now I know there are!
I mean, really... how many times have you had to figure out the height of a flagpole based on the shadow it casts? Just measure the flag pole! You've obviously got enough measuring tape to do the shadow...
But I'll give geometry THIS ONE.
For those keeping score at home, that's Geometry :1, Real life:1422
My geometry teacher in High School TOLD me that there were REAL LIFE applications for that crap... and now I know there are!
I mean, really... how many times have you had to figure out the height of a flagpole based on the shadow it casts? Just measure the flag pole! You've obviously got enough measuring tape to do the shadow...
But I'll give geometry THIS ONE.
For those keeping score at home, that's Geometry :1, Real life:1422
I know this is quite a delayed response, but... Parallax anyone? Like, the one of the most basic techniques to measure very long distances?
Has anyone been able to find this Donald Duck ruler? I have been searching on and off for years and have yet to find it. We've been playing Puerto Rico a lot lately and now I find I really, really want to make my gaming experience complete with that Donald Duck ruler.
. (By the way, Puerto Rico mats work just as well as rulers for dragging the counters around.)
