Ignacy Trzewiczek
Poland
Gliwice
Slask
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So, the interaction in the 51st State. The damn thing – the cause of my sleepless nights for almost a year. Something I‘ve not been able to figure out for months. It's something that appeared all of a sudden and somehow worked right away...
51st State is a game about building your small civilization. You place buildings that produce resources, you place buildings that give you workers or special capabilities and then you place buildings that allow you to convert those resources into Victory Points. Nothing new. You know this scheme from hundreds of games. One building produces fuel, the other allows you to sell fuel for Victory Points. Classic combos building.
The problem I couldn’t solve was this: any attempt to introduce direct interaction involving Locations’ burning meant that the whole mechanism the player had built in sweat and tears was shuttered to dust. First, you place a card that gives you fuel, then you place a card giving you as much fuel as Fuel Type cards is in your possession, and then, by placing an Oil Trader converting your fuel into Victory Points, you start your race for victory... Meanwhile, the opponent makes a raid into your Oil Trader’s site, kills him and - like a house of cards - the whole combo falls apart. And now, what to do with that damn 3 fuels each turn?
And that’s where the problem lays. Players build complex constructions of interconnected cards that form well-functioning mechanisms. And when negative interaction appears, the mechanism falls apart.
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Here, the rigidly defined cards placing system of the 51st State helped a lot. Cards that produce resources are placed in the first row, cards with Feature in the second and cards with Action in the third row. It came to my mind a long time ago when I wanted to make it easier for the players to find themselves in the maze of cards on the table.
Hey, I thought that fateful night, what if attacking the Production cards was easier and those with Actions harder? Visually, it looked pretty interesting - the deeper into opponent’s territory, the more difficult to attack...
Yes! The attack on different opponents’ Locations may vary in its difficulty - it has solved all of my problems! The cards of the first row, the most common ones, in fact pretty replaceable with contracts, would be very vulnerable to attacks, while the Action cards, the ones I worried so much, they would be fiendishly difficult to raid!
Click, and everything works.
You may attack your opponent. You have interaction. You have opponent’s Production Locations in a distance of 3. You can do this without a problem. Opponent’s Locations with Feature mean the distance of 4 and his Locations with Action are even farther – distance 5. You’ll have to use quite a pile of tokens to reach such far.
I’ve been waiting whole year just for this.
***
I'm obsessed with choices. I want them in all of my games. Practically all, in their every corner. I wanted to make the decision whether to attack the opponent a real one. So that you would – even having the possibility to attack - wonder whether you really want to do it, whether it‘s really worth your effort.
When you attack opponent’s Location you get everything that is shown in the red part of conquered card right away (yes, really right away!). The Location is burned, You take the spoils, beautiful, ain’t it so?
Well, not exactly. First of all, the attacked player receives all that is in the blue part of the raided card. He manages to escape with some equipment remnants in his hands. You conquered the School? Great. You get 3 workers, but the attacked one also gets 1. Someone managed to escape from the School during your raid.
Secondly, the burned Location is placed face down and remains on the table. The Player may pay a single brick in order to place there any card from his hand. Yes, even the one with the distance 3. Yes, no one asks here about the card’s type. Any card from hand. This action is called reconstruction. You’ve been burned? Well, take a brick and put anything you want in the remnants’ place. Anything. Anything cool you’ve got on your hand...
It starts to be very interesting.
Attacking is incredibly cost effective - you get loads of hot stuff all at once. On the other hand, your opponent also gets something, less than you, but still something falls into his hands. And what's more, he may happily and effortlessly place something interesting on the ruins... Damn him!
So many choices. Choices are good. Choices make the players clench their teeth. Choices cause you to curse under your breath not knowing what to do. Choices make you want to play the game again and again, as you now know where you’ve previously made a mistake and this time you would not repeat it.
You have to think. You have to calculate. You have to check whether raiding opponent’s Location inflicts him real harm. Because if not, perhaps, you may make him a favor. And it hurts. Just as shooting your knee does. Oh damn, it hurts like hell.
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Yoki Erdtman
Sweden
Södertälje
Handsome devil huh?
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I'm happily looking forward to picking up my pre-ordered copy and giving the game a try. I love the interaction as you spell it out, and how it's not a simple choice. Great work Ignacy!
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Dave Kudzma
United States
Gumboro
Delaware
Muffins.
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Does the new card stay in the same row regardless of type (resource, feature, action) after reconstruction?
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Ignacy Trzewiczek
Poland
Gliwice
Slask
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Reconstructed card is put in a row depending of its feature - is is a production, or trait or action card.
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Bryan Graham
United States
College Station
Texas
I am Broccoli, most intelligent vegetable!
I will destroy you all!
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Wow, I just read the new rules, and I love the new spin that the interaction places on the original factions. Mutants being able to attack at range 3 makes for some really interesting attack options. Appalachians getting a free brick each turn makes people really have to consider whether attacking them is worth it (due to Reconstruction), and now Merchants can (effectively) have 6 agreements (3 themselves, and 3 with players). It seems like the wait was worth it, this interaction seems like it will work really well.
I did have one question though. I don't see anything in the rules to prevent it, so I was curious, is there any limit to how many other players can make a cooperative agreement with the same location? I mean, is it possible to have several players all getting the trade stuff from 1 location?
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Ignacy Trzewiczek
Poland
Gliwice
Slask
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Yes, it is possible, there is no such a limit.
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Marchal Stéphane
France
Montpellier
France
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trzewik wrote: Secondly, the burned Location is placed face down and remains on the table. The Player may pay a single brick in order to place there any card from his hand. Yes, even the one with the distance 3. Yes, no one asks here about the card’s type. Any card from hand. This action is called reconstruction. You’ve been burned? Well, take a brick and put anything you want in the remnants’ place. Anything. Anything cool you’ve got on your hand...
It seems you forgot to say that reconstruction action brings 1VP to the defending player!!! After all I'm wondering if the defending player is not winning more than attacking player...
More than this, I think there are not many cards that bring conquest tokens so it's very difficult to have 3 to 5 strenght to attack an opponent's location (and with defensive tokens the defending player may have stacked)...
Maybe it's not true if I add 51st state 's cards?
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Sean Flinn
United States
Ohio
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lilajax wrote: trzewik wrote: Secondly, the burned Location is placed face down and remains on the table. The Player may pay a single brick in order to place there any card from his hand. Yes, even the one with the distance 3. Yes, no one asks here about the card’s type. Any card from hand. This action is called reconstruction. You’ve been burned? Well, take a brick and put anything you want in the remnants’ place. Anything. Anything cool you’ve got on your hand...
It seems you forgot to say that reconstruction action brings 1VP to the defending player!!! After all I'm wondering if the defending player is not winning more than attacking player... More than this, I think there are not many cards that bring conquest tokens so it's very difficult to have 3 to 5 strenght to attack an opponent's location (and with defensive tokens the defending player may have stacked)... Maybe it's not true if I add 51st state 's cards?
This is confusing. In the rulebook, under Actions, for Reconstruct a location" it states the following occurs after paying 1 brick and discarding said debris:
-Reconstruction Action brings 1 VP to the Player.
-If Reconstructed Location has a Production rule the Player immediately
gains the Profits produced by this Location.
There is no mention of being able to place a new location from hand over any debris.
This to me sounds more like a development action, however, the rulebook also states:
It is impossible to perform Redevelopment Action on the Debris.
Am I missing something?
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Petr Dvorak
Czech Republic
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Could the authors of the game comment on this confusion? Anybody?
The question is: Do I place a new card from hand on the place of discarded debris and get its profit immediately or do I not place a new card and the profit taken is from the discarded debris card?
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Ignacy Trzewiczek
Poland
Gliwice
Slask
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Yes, Reconstruction action is another way of putting new cards into game - you put new card in the game.
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