Charterstone Chronicle, Game 2

Well, you win some, you lose some, and last night I lost pretty big, coming in last place with only 25 VP to my name. Dani didn't fare too much better, but she did cross the 30 point threshold.

So, we unpacked a lot of new game elements last night - I'll be honest, it was a little overwhelming. To recap what we have now:

1. General Building Advancement Cards
2. Treasures
3. Friends
4. Private Objectives
5. Minions (Three types: golems, robots, and ghosts).

We put a total of 8 new rule stickers in the book last night, and it was a lot to keep track of for one game. I was certainly having trouble.

The biggest change though, was the realization that we don't automatically get to keep crate and building cards that we unlocked. This question was prompted by the new Monument building, and I began wondering again when Caralee didn't move to build her free building - would she get to keep it? A few minutes after parsing through the rules, we discovered you would not.

Anyway, we were allowed to keep all your building cards from the first game. Indeed, you were supposed to be able to keep EVERYTHING. So....we all screwed ourselves over a little there with that rule misunderstanding. I had such a good combo of assistants too... But, others lost multiple resources and coins, so I won't complain too much. At any rate, we came to the realization that we couldn't carry all the building and crate cards with us towards the end of the game, and it radically changed how people sought to end it.

Anyway, my plan last night was to spam out my two buildings as quickly as possible and take a slower game. This plan received a boost when Richie (can grab back an influence when you use the treasury) appeared in the market, who I grabbed immediately. Using Daniel's kiln and my granary, I was able to rapidly shed influence to get my two buildings on the field. But at this point I hit a wall and realized I was playing the game wrong.

Two major mistakes. First off, at the conclusion of the last game, I had read my new persona's ability as "Get a VP whenever you BUILD a building with a wheat cost." No. It was "Get a VP whenever you USE a building with a wheat cost. This is where not building anything last game really came back to bite me. As I couldn't proc this ability right off the bat while everyone else was racking up victory points on theirs. However, this is made all the worse by the fact that the wheat market (and lumber market, belonging to Danielle), are just worse buildings than their clay, pumpkin, metal and coal equivalents right now. The opportunity to place reputation is simply not as good as the extra victory point or coin, as right now the influence is usually more at a premium than the placement opportunity. I had 3 reputation on the track at the end to finish in second place for 7 VP, and still finished in last overall.

The second mistake I made was going so hard on buildings and a final Charterstone when I could have gone for the relatively easy objectives (actually the same three as last game). I actually met the conditions for two of them I had by the end of the game, yet those VP went uncollected due to my lack of influence.

Finally, over the course of this game I realized Richie's main limitation. I spammed out all my influence early, and indeed, started the ticker going for a couple turns when I ran out. Pulling influence back was slower than expected though, because nobody else is using the market anymore when they have more efficient markets in their charters. I would repeatedly have to pull back my own workers this game.

I did have enough influence at the end to use the Charterstone, and with three minions already on the board, I decided to take the coinflip chance to get my own minion and carry them over to the next game. However, I missed here, and instead unlocked Friends; getting only a free friend and my brewery. I lost both of these an instant later when the game ended and had not the capacity nor the desire to keep them. At least I can guarantee a minion unlock and a free minion next game!

I also had no resources or money at all left at the end... Next game will be a slow start and I may have authored two big losses in a row with my play here. I would have been better off going for double-Grandstand to get another glory and skipping the Chartersone completely, but I thought I could pull that minion.

I kept Richie, which I have come to regret. Basically, he sounds great until you realize that other people can churn through using their markets more efficiently, and he only brings me up to par at present.

For example. Daniel uses his brick field, (Gains one brick), then sells the brick at his brick market for 2 coins. That's 1 coin/turn.

Without Richie, my option is just worse. Dave uses his field (Gains one wheat), then sells the wheat at the wheat market for 1 coin, 1 rep placement. That's .5 coins per turn plus the dubious value of getting to place a reputation every other turn. So, let's look at this where I use my Granary and the center market with Richie. I use my granary (1 reputation for 1 wheat and 1 coin),  then I use the center market (lose wheat for 1 reputation and 1 coin). So that works out to be 1 coin/turn....except I had to use a building outside my charter that nobody else will ever use and bump me off - combined with having to have an assistant to make it work for me. Yeah.... Feeling a little screwed by RNG right here. Especially at present as minions are dramatically buffing having high value buildings in your charter. We didn't see much of that this last game, but we're getting there.

Bad game for me, especially when you also factor in that I didn't use my persona. I didn't have any coins at the end to score extra on the guidepost, and Caralee won handily with 9 coins. She chose to make the King angry....we'll see what effects that has later on. The game is hinting towards a "hidden evil" subplot or something to that effect. In before the King turns out to be an evil despot. Guideposts actually seem to be worth pursuing though, contrary to what I thought would be the case. Getting it was what allowed Caralee to surpass Megan and win.

So, after much ado we made about NO WAY TO INCREASE CAPACITY, it turns out all losers get to raise their capacity by one.... Oops. I feel really bad for Daniel and Danielle, who both started bubbling in their stars before we realized this rule had been changed in the "End of game" stuff.

So, bad game for me, especially because I didn't hit the 3 glory mark, didn't use my persona, and had no resources, coins or minions to store for next time. My goal for next game is simply to get back into it. The guidepost (fewest objectives) will probably be competitive next game, so there might be good value I can get out of Richie to ensure I have the most influence at the end. As far as winning the game... I don't know.  That extra capacity early in the campaign seems worth way more than 6-8 VP at the end. Daniel thinks the end of game rules may change again to make bubbling in the capacity track more worth it. Maybe, I'm not sure to be frank. If you lost all 11 games remaining (starting with game 2), you get 11/12 bubbled in, which would not give you much utility out of of those capacity increases. This supports Daniel's supposition. Then again, to win the campaign, you need to be winning or landing the guideposts for that extra 6-10 VP each at the end of the day, so not bubbling in capacity to get those increases when you win seems to be almost planning to lose. We shall see in due time! 

For my part, I'm thinking about bubbling in my persona track next so I can get two persona's out in a game, score both of them, and make up for this game. You get scored off of how many you have used at the end of the campaign, and I put myself dangerously behind the curve this time.

There are more new mechanics than I can comment on well in one post, and that itself is noteworthy. While I like that players can unlock things at their own pace, it can create a cacophony of new mechanics to keep track of which was simply overwhelming last night. On the plus side, we're over the hump in terms of introducing new ones it seems, so next game there should be less even if players don't slow their roll. That's probably my biggest complaint with the game thus far, combined with the unclear wording of the guidepost which left us wondering who benefited from the win condition (or indeed, what it even was), for a few minutes.

The new elements all seem solid. Indeed, I really like that you can more selectively add buildings to your charter rather than simply be beholden to an upgrade tree. Although, by this point each charter has a distinct character defined by its starting resource. Megan has already filled 5 slots in hers. My favorite addition are the minions though, opening up a new layer of strategy and really emphasizing investment in your charter. The proliferation of advancement cards opens up tons of ways to try and accumulate VP now, and truly, no two players will likely pursue a win in the same way. I really like that.

Hopefully we've now got the last major rule misunderstanding under our belts - one of my least favorite aspects of playing Legacy games. And hopefully I'm less of a trash panda next time around. Atticus of Swananoa will come back with a vengeance next game!

Or you know, at least try not to finish last. XD