Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 15:24:31 +0200
From: esoeding@geomar.de (Emanuel Soeding)
Subject: Entdecker Variant
Hi Ken,
Reading Mikes review of Entdecker and your comment, I thought I'd send you the game changes I usually play, and which make Entdecker a much better game (at least for me). The rule changes were made for the "Deutsche Brettspielmeisterschaft" in Herne, which I have the honor to attend this weekend by qualifying with my group, hence the changes were obviously made with more possibilities to plan a game.
Ok - 'nuff rambling... This is what changed:
1. Before the game, give each player a set of 4 tiles. One tile with four sea edges, one with three sea edges, and one of each with two sea edges (sea on opposite sides, sea on adjacent sides).
2. Instead of declaring how many tiles to explore, players declare how many gold they want to spend for exploration.
3. Instead of exploring a tile from a stack, a player may choose one of the tiles he got at the beginning. This tile costs him two gold. A player may build only one of his tiles per turn in addition to any number of the stacked tiles.
4. At the beginning, determine a starting player. This player receives the gold-spinner. When the turn is over (each player explored something), instead of turning the spiner again, the starting-player gives the spinner to the next player to his left. This player is now the starting player for this turn, spinning the arrow and so on. This results in the starting player missing one turn after he was the starting player.
These game changes worked very well with my fellow gamers. I remember, that we indeed were quite disappointed of Entdecker in the beginning, but we are having a lot of fun with it, using the above changes.
Don't hesitate and give it another try - I really enjoyed Entdecker.
So long - Ciao Manu
I like the measure of control the tiles dealt out to players provide.
Now if I only had a copy to try it with!
What do you die hard Entdecker owners think?
ken