Steve Oliver
United States
Alameda
California
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This game has a lot of appeal as a family and/or casual game. The bits are great (nice dice, a large variety of cards, chips), the rules are simple, and you can get it for less than ten bucks online.
But so far I've found that the game can get very frustrating. Early in the game when you have few if any chips, and faced with a handful of cards where you just need to roll lucky without any decision on your part, this turns into a dicefest without any of the qualities of games like Can't Stop or To Court the King.
There is a provision in the rules whereby you can discard & redraw a card, but only after two failed attempts, AND you have to use an entire turn to perform the discard & redraw. So that's three turns wasted by a difficult card. I'm getting frustrated just thinking about it 
Why not let a player discard and redraw any time they have failed to score a card? That way they get to say "good riddance" to the card, and get the chance to try something else. They still have the same number of cards in their hand so they haven't improved their chances of winning (except to hopefully draw a better card), and they are not required to discard if they want to make another try at the card in a future turn.
This might also work with a 2- or All-player card. If anyone wins chips from the card, it is discarded. If the person who played the card did not get any chips from the card, they draw a new card.
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Tony Richardson
Australia
Melbourne
Unspecified
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Hi Steve,
I think you have a very valid point for making the game flow a lot easier, when playing the game as just a filler.
Although a friend and I played my game as a gambling for money game the other night and we completely scrapped the discard rule because we had penalties attached to what cards you were caught with at the end of the game. (Chip values were 20 cents each) > "Big Spenders" - 
I have always found the stategy to get rid of a hard card was to build chips by completing easy cards, therefore using those chips to either get extra rolls or swapping the hard card with your opponent.
Anyway, thanks for your comments as Combo King has evolved over the years due to constructive imput like yours. I will post this gambling variation soon as it was a lot of fun.
All the Best
Tony Richardson
Inventor
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Steve Oliver
United States
Alameda
California
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Interesting! Please let us know when you've posted it.
Sounds like for a non-gambling "family" version, the goal is to not only go out of all your cards, but also finish with the most chips? If you get rid of all your cards first, could someone else (with more chips) still win?
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