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Citadels accident?

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Thu, 05/27/2004 - 13:55
nosissies
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Joined: 07/26/2008

When we started playing citadels we read the rules and decided that the bonus gold was not to be given until the end of the player's turn. That is the bonus which is recieved for having districts of the right color for your character (ie green districts & the merchant etc)

I have since played it the other way, which may be closer to the actual rules where you get said bonus whenever you choose during your turn.

I was intrigued by the depth offered by both interpretations of the rules, each makes interesting contributions to the choices made by a player.

Finally, a question... has anyone else played citadels in either/both of the ways I described? Any thoughts on which is more interesting?

peace,
Tom

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Thu, 05/27/2004 - 15:54
#1
IngredientX
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Joined: 07/26/2008
Re: Citadels accident?

nosissies wrote:
When we started playing citadels we read the rules and decided that the bonus gold was not to be given until the end of the player's turn. That is the bonus which is recieved for having districts of the right color for your character (ie green districts & the merchant etc)

I have since played it the other way, which may be closer to the actual rules where you get said bonus whenever you choose during your turn.

I was intrigued by the depth offered by both interpretations of the rules, each makes interesting contributions to the choices made by a player.

Finally, a question... has anyone else played citadels in either/both of the ways I described? Any thoughts on which is more interesting?

peace,
Tom

Hi Tom...

That's the trickiest rule in Citadels. For the record (and I'm sure you've gotten the rule right by now), all it says is that you get a bonus of 1 gold for each of your buildings whose color matches your role's color, and you can take it either before or after you build.

As you see, this means that you can take the bonus for a building you just constructed that turn. The only limitation is that you can't take your bonus both before and after you build - either you get it all before you build, or you get it all after you build.

I like this rule, and it seems like it took a great deal of playtesting to hammer it into place. Money is tight in Citadels - you can't keep saving it from turn to turn, or the Thief will come after you. Yet you can't keep building 1- and 2-point buildings, or you'll lose the game. This rule is a little fiddly, but it allows all players to have a good amount of flexibility, while keeping the game's challenge strong.

I'd imagine that changing the rule in any way would make a tougher game. If you could only take the bonus before you built, it would be tougher to build momentum in the game. If you could onlyt ake the bonus after you built, the game would take longer because building would be slower, and there would be more Thieving.

Of course, I haven't played any other way, so maybe I'm missing something. :)

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Thu, 05/27/2004 - 16:14
#2
sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Citadels accident?

My rulebook pretty clearly said that you could take the bonus any time during your turn proper, as IX said either before you build or after.

I look at it like this- there are certain actions that occur during the turn, and they're organized like this:

First thing's first, these occur first and in this order. Like Untap and Upkeep in M:tG:
1. Action (Money or Cards)
2. Triggered ability from action (Merchant, Architect)

Now we move tot he 'main phase' of the turn, the following can be done in any order:
3. Build
4. Income
5. Ability (Except Warlord who specifically has to do this at End of Turn)

It might have to do with being so involved with magic that I looked at the turn structure in Citadels in a similar way, but it couldn't hurt since it sort of works that way. Therefore I don't see it as fiddley at all.

We have not tried it any other way, but there might be an arguement for forcing income before building. Why should you get a rebate on your district just because the card you had in hand was the same color as the guy you chose?

Well, the answer is because you chose the guy, and the cards in hand contributed to that decision. I think it would certainly change the game to specifically order the actions, but I don't think it would be for the better. It just reduces the things you can base your drafting choice on, which I think would be a bad thing.

- Seth

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