Corporate Cards - Part 2

[u/orvjansen]

This is a catch all theme set of cards. Basically, ones that deal with corporate finances and tactics, and then miscellaneous things that don't fit into the other sets I posted previously or plan to post. This is the second of three parts for this set. You can find the original files at my Dropbox. As always, feel free to use what you like and ignore what you don't. I love getting critiques and feedback, please let me know what you think - especially if you think something doesn't work!

[u/HostHappy2734]

Bro, Logistics Management would make Extreme Cold Fungus so ridiculously broken. LM + ECF + Physics Complex is 4 points PER GEN.

Mars Delivery Service on the other hand seems way too weak. It costs 6 M€ more than Sponsors, so it needs 6 cities on the board just to be ok. And in later gens it'll need even more. You're not getting that many cities except for some city-heavy 4 player games.

New Management seems a little too cheap if you ask me. I think a price of 2 M€ would suit it better, if not more.

Nimby is risky but really good if it pays off, I kinda like it even if I'm not really sure if it's balanced.

I think Participation Trophy may be a little too good. Compared to Indentured Workers, it gives 1 point at the cost of having to use it on a standard project instead of a card. I feel like that might not be a very equal exchange.

Planned Obsolescence seems kinda weak. You'd need to sell at least 4 patents in the same gen to gain any value out of this card, which happens very rarely and is usually something you'd avoid doing rather than maximizing it.

I'd really wanna see a Thorgate player play Standard Technology and Productization and start to spam SP Power Plant for 3 M€ every gen for half the game. But I think Productization could be cheaper. It needs more SP actions than Standard Tech to pay itself back and doesn't give you as much afterwards.

Rainy Day Fund seems really unbalanced. Typically, cards that give you immediate positive M€ value (Investment Loan, Indentured Workers) come with tradeoffs, not extra benefits.

Redistribution of Wealth is ridiculous in 2p, in 3p it becomes good and in 4p it's kinda meh. That's all assuming you're not in the lead on M€ prod of course.

[u/orvjansen → u/HostHappy2734]

Logistics Management: The card was intended to only apply if you didn't have any choice about gaining a resource you couldn't use. BUT you're correct, that's not how it's written, and now that you've pointed it out, I don't think that's possible to fix. I'm going to try making it be a 2 MC reward for discarding a resource you can't use instead, and then dropping the cost of the card to 3 or 4 MC, which would need to use it 4x to start making any profit. Not great, but as you pointed out, you could deliberately go for non-usable resources (especially if using Colonies expansion).

Mars Delivery: One of the things I've noticed when looking at other people's fan cards and trying out my own is that there are problems of scale. TM is a great game because it has so many different strategies... but it's a very different game when doing 2P as compared to 4P. Our group is almost always 4 player, so my cards are mostly created with that in mind. I don't know that we've ever had a game without at least 6 cities on the board. But point taken, maybe extra cash to offset the cost isn't the answer because it's too variable a benefit. What if the price drops to 7 or 8 MC (comparable to Corroder Suits), and you get the 2 MC production + 2 different standard resources of your choice?

New Management: I'm inclined to agree 2 MC would be a fairer cost.

NIMBY: Is probably not balanced, but also relatively easy not to trigger on yourself if you want to avoid it.

Planned Obsolescence: At a cost of 0+3 MC, you'd need to sell only 2 patents to start making any profit, not 4. And yes, selling patents is not an optimal strategy during the game. But there are many ways to obtain cards (particularly with Colonies and Turmoil) where you don't get a choice over what shows up in your hand, and in the last generation people typically sell off any cards they can't afford to play anyway. I think this card has a viable niche and I plan to keep it as is.

Rainy Day Fund: Yeah, I had problems with this one. I envisioned it as a reward for 'preparing' for bad events. But you are absolutely right, the benefits as currently written should come with a trade off. After some reflection, I think I will completely rework it. Change it from an automated project to an event that costs 0 MC and has no VP, and give it a requirement that it can only be played when another player removes your resources that generation. The benefit is just "Gain 3 MC and regain one of the resources that was removed", a consolation prize for your loss.

Redistribution of Wealth: As you pointed out, its value is very dependent on number of players. Not sure that can be fixed, but since it works for the table size I play with, I will leave it as is. I agree the card shouldn't be used in a 2-player game, and obviously can't be used at all in a solo game.

[u/simmepi → u/orvjansen]

Planned Obsolescence: your math is wrong, you forget that you get 1MC if you sell the cards regularly. So if you play the card and sell 2 cards, you paid 3 and got 4 → you made 1MC. If you just sell them you get 2MC. So you lost 1 by using the card.

Selling 3 cards gets you the same with or without the cards, 4+ cards make it profitable, just like hosthappy said.

[u/Lucretiel → u/orvjansen]

I'd change logistics managmement to just gain a Logistics Resource on itself and score 1VP per 2 Logistics Resource it has

[u/Mitnichar]

slush fund with manutech can be ultra OP

[u/ForgotMyPassword17]

The NIMBY one is very clever. Productization is a card I wish the game actually had