Aron F.
United States
Champaign
Illinois
-
We just played a 5-player game, and as soon as one player got this card, he totally crushed everyone else.
Looking at the 3-4 player rules, you could force another player in your space to throw away 1 BP, and then you would need 1 food less to eat. In the 5-6 player version, the numbers are doubled. The opponent has to toss 2 BP, and then your amoeba needs 2 less to eat.
Since this player had 5-6 amoebas at any time, and had movement 2, he had no problem moving to where he could eat up all money that players had saved for genes. The result was that money we had saved for protection against radiation was gone, and no one could hold onto enough money to buy gene cards.
I know this sounds a bit whiny, but the card is not balanced at all!
From what I can see, the 5-6 version of parasittism is better than the 3-4 version in 3 major ways:
1) There are more enemy amoebas to attack, so this gene is much easier to use repeatedly
2) The opponent has to lose 2 money instead of 1
3) You get 2 food from it instead of 1.
The rules for the card say that for each food cube (1 or 2) you reduce, you need a foreign amoeba in the square. From this wording, it seemed clear to us that any amoeba was fine, even the same one, since the words "different" or "unique" were never used.
Did we play incorrectly?
-
Eric Clason
United States
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
-
I think you played Parasitism correctly. I've only played one 6 player game with Parasitism in it. It was very annoying. The player with Parasitism didn't win, but came in a close second. After just one play, I'm not prepared to call a gene broken. I notice that in the 5-6 player game, Frugality is 1 BP cheaper then Parasitism.
I can think of a couple of possible counter measures:
- Struggle for Survival. You can eat the Parasitic amoebas before they can suck your BP. Add Holding,to avoid drift, and you can usually eat the amoeba that sucked your BP (depending on what poop is left in the space).
- Avoid having any BP when it's the Parasitic amoeba's turn for eating. If Parasitism is causing the player to be ahead, he takes his turn last. This counter measure does leave you open to radiation. However if most of the players use it, the Parasitic player will find that his very expensive gene is less useful.
-
|
|
