Silly rules combination?

[Mark L.]

I just had a game with the following 3 rules:
One too many (Player with most beers loses points = to other players beers)
Boom or bust (5/0/4/8 points for 0-2, 3-6, 7, 8+ pickaxes)
Smalltown charm (Player with smaller city gets points equal to the difference between the two city sizes)

It seems like it might be worth preventing this rules combination, because it has basically nothing to incentivize you to not stack all your cards on top of each other - there are a couple of minor things about forcing your opponent to end with a card that has 2 of color not touching / avoiding the same happening to you, and also not ending with the 3 pick axe cards / 3 beer card, but overall it's very uninteresting

[Jimmy V.]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for posting. I have encountered those rare cases while developing the game.

I have asked the publisher and designers what they think about it.

[Clive P.]

I thought one of the rules was that you cannot place a card directly over another card entirely?

[Jimmy V.]

No Clive, you can do that.

As for the original question, here is my answer after speaking to the publisher.

There are indeed a few configurations with Smalltown Charm that can lead to very extreme strategy. I had thought about that while programming the game to be honest.

Those cases are not very common though. Out of the 816 goal combinations, the only one that I think is guaranteed to lead to a quick ending is Smalltown Charm, One too many and Undiscovered. Even the combination that you mentioned Mark is not guaranteed to make the game uninteresting. You can still score lots of points with Boom or Burst I believe, enough to win the game if the opponent takes the last card very early.

All in all, I have to agree that these rare configurations are not the most interesting part of the game but:
1) they are very rare
2) as you pointed out, there is still skill in recognizing the configuration, picking the right starting card and arranging your cards in that case, enough to make the game worthwhile.
3) If the game is quick, there is always the next game.

Good luck with your quest! You are the best so far Mark!