Jed Litwiller
United States
McPherson
Kansas
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Recently I introduced Carson City to four other guys which I occasionally play games with. This group is open to new games but plays Settlers of Catan frequently, and is hesitant to try a game twice unless it has some real legs.
We played a five player game, which ended up taking around 2 to 2.5 hrs, even though the last turn was the Kit Carson official variant, where players may place their cowboys in real time. After playing the last turn of our first game of CC together this way, we all agreed that the next time we would play the whole game Kit Carson style. After playing our second game together 2 days ago (a 4 player game), I am vowing to play Carson City this way virtually every time. It makes for a more fun and exciting game, IMO, for two reasons:
1. GAME TIME- Like I said, our first game took over 2 hours, where as our second, 4 player game took right at 1 hour, including setup. Granted we did have one less player, but still with the Kit Carson variant I believe that extra person would have added maybe 10 minutes, tops.
2. Strategic, versus Tactical decisions- Some people may disagree, but I think the Kit Carson Variant actually forces you to make more strategic decisions, as opposed to long term decisions, if your group agrees to keep cowboy placement phases under a specified amount of time, it forces players to form a plan, then execute it. I realize that some people are prone to AP or will wait for others to place cowboys first, but those people are going to do the same in the original style of play anyways, forcing longer game time.
So this is why I prefer the Kit Carson variant so much more than the original. Teaching first timers, I would play the first two rounds in the original style, then switch to Kit Carson variant for the second half of the game, as it is pretty crucial that players understand the sequence in which actions are executed, and the cash limits at the end of the round. Still, the fact that you can play a game of Carson City, with much of the depth still intact, and possibly allowing for more chaotic fun in less than the time it would take to play a typical game of Catan, makes me want to play the game more often, and apparently I'm not the only one because my friends thought so too!
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