Since this is the suggestions forum, Ill share a few ideas. I dont wanna force them on you, but maybe you might like some.
- Place the face-open cards first, then the face down. If you do it opposite and the king turns to be the face up card, everyone knows that the king cannot be the face down card.
- Allow the use of character powers ANYTIME in their round. This is actually what the rules say: "You may use your character's power once at any point during your turn". No point in limiting some characters.
- Please add the 2 & 3 player rules where you control two characters each. Is this maybe a problem? Four open cards with 3 players is really too much. Also, if the assassin is always face up, you do more harm to the game than good.
- Use the queen with 7 or 8 players only but increase her power to 4 extra gold. With so many players it¡¦s very hard to judge where the king/crown will be. With less players, there are too many face up cards. When you link her to the crown instead of to the king, the queen isnt useless when the king is face down. The crown is also more visible than the king card.
- You might wanna let the architect build two cards instead of three. In shorter games, his power becomes too dominant.
- Have the condottiere take the destroyed district into his hand, instead of placing the card underneath the district deck. This way the condottiere receives something for himself. The rules dont mention anything where the card must go, so this is a valid interpretation. If there could be only one change, this is the one Id take!
Dont include all these cards together: two keeps, graveyard, and great wall. They limit the condottiere too much. Include no more than two of these, if any.
- I dont know how you handle the purple cards, but it seems they are ALL included. Please don¡¦t place more than 14 purple cards in a deck. Twelve is ideal.
- You might wanna redistribute the number of cards. For ex, adding more 1 point cards increases the potential of the condottiere. Adding yellow cards will have the king/crown shift more often. Dropping a few green cards will make the merchant a bit less dominant. Etc...
I found out that this is a better redistribution of cards (gp = gold piece):
12 BLUE districts
3 x 1gp Shrine
3 x 2gp Church
2 x 3gp Monastery
2 x 4gp Temple
2 x 5gp Cathedral
12 RED districts
3 x 1gp Watchtower
3 x 2gp Prison
2 x 3gp Battlefield
2 x 4gp Barracks
2 x 5gp Fortress
12 YELLOW districts
4 x 2gp Hunting Field
4 x 3gp Mansion
2 x 4gp Castle
2 x 5gp Palace
18 GREEN districts
3 x 1gp Tavern
3 x 1gp Shop
4 x 2gp Market
4 x 3gp Docks
2 x 4gp Harbour
2 x 5gp Town Hall
-> In total, two thirds of the cards are 1-3gp and one third are 4-6gp. Perfect imo.
12 PURPLE districts
My preference: university, dragon gate, throne room, hospital, school of magic, library, observatory, smithy, laboratory, museum, armory, haunted city.
- School of Magic: You could simplify the rule to :
"Each round, this card takes a colour of your choice."
Thus making the Haunted City obsolete. You can then add another card, for ex one keep (tho I never found this card useful), a great wall but at the cost of only 3gp so the condottiere still has a chance to destroy it, or a 3gp Poorhouse... If you do add the haunted city, 3gp gives it more chance of survival. The doesnt grant a benefit when it's built in the final round¡¨ is a useless complication.
- Library: I dont think this card is worth 6gp. The other 6gp cards are all more useful. Instead, 5gp seems better. The Observatory could then cost 4gp instead of 5gp.
- Smithy: 3 cards for 3gp makes this card more useful than the more expensive Library! Simply rule ¡§Once per round, you may pay one gold to receive one district card. Just the opposite of the Lab.
Have fun!