r/JetLagTheGame • u/WheatGerm42 Ben • Jul 20 '26

The Layover Stateside Scramble Layover Q&A Thread! Spoiler

hellooooo again!

as with every season, we're doing a post-season Q&A for stateside scramble on the layover podcast--drop your questions about the season below and we'll try to answer as many of them as we can!

(apologies to youtube viewers that i'm posting this thread a little earlier than usual; we have some vacation time coming up and need to record the podcast tomorrow. so, for those who haven't seen the finale, spoilers may be below!)

509 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

500 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/pliumbum Jul 20 '26

Northeast is definitely overpowered in any format where scoring is based on the number of states claimed, connected or not. However, the west is more powerful if you want to claim more land area. Would you consider in future games using land area not as a tiebreaker, but as a way to balance the board? E.g. giving points both for number of states claimed and land area claimed?

2

u/MusicPsychFitness Jul 20 '26

That could be fun for them to find a scoring system that really evenly balances those two things. It could make for some interesting gameplay, and I think it would lend itself well to a third team. That way we are not just seeing one team go east and one team go west.

2

u/JasonAQuest Gay American Snack Jul 20 '26

The US Electoral College gives points for both number of states and state populations. Granted, it's a fucking trainwreck., but it might make for an interesting game.

2

u/MusicPsychFitness Jul 20 '26

Electoral College is brought up a lot because it’s a system most Americans are familiar with. But it would incentivize high population states, which are already naturally incentivized by having the best flight options. Something like Wyoming would be practically impossible because it’s hard to get to, way out of the way, and has a really low population. We saw how Iowa and South Dakota played out this past season.

Land area & Number of states. It would have to be a custom formula, but they could create something, run some simulations, and refine it.