TaxIt/StartOfGameSetup

Setup should be quick, memorable, fair, but introduce enough variability that there's replability and no "set opening moves".

I like the idea of giving people an initial 2 cities, plus a small amount of money, and then letting them bid on positioning.

Just to confirm: this is 2 of their theoretical maximum 4 cities? So half of their city locations are chosen at the start? This is probably fine but just confirming. --AC

: Yes. It would be theoretically more elegant to start them off with no cities and minimal resources, and let them bootstrap. But I suspect that would make for a boring and repetitive first half hour. Worth trying both ways. Certainly a lot of settlers-type games have a city limit (often 5), but let players start off with an initial 2 or 3.--DR

Players A (ann), B (beth) and C (chris). Randomly chosen start player is Beth.

B : I bid 0
C : 1
A : Pass
B : 2
C : 4
B : Pass
{C places his first city}

A (the next player around from the person who has just placed) : I bid 1
B : 2
C : 3
A : pass
B : pass
{C places his second city}
{C has used 7 of his 10 initial money, and only has 3 left to build roads}

A : I bid 1
B : 2
A : pass
{B places B's first city}

A : I bid 1
B : You're just trying to bid me up, aren't you. Ha, well here's a surprise: pass
A : damn you
{A places A's first city}

B : I bid 0
A : pass
{B places B's second city}

{A places A's second city}

{C spent 7 and has 3 left, B spent 2 and has 8 left, A spent 1 and has 9 left}
{as the player to place a city last, player A gets to play first}

Seems reasonable. But don't all cities have to be supplied with three transport routes for their needs? So these initial cities would have to be on the rivers connected to the external ports? --AC

: Or close enough to a river that they could build roads to it with their cash. Which they might also want to used to build some resource spots. I guess we want to find out how much cash gives them some options, but doesn't let them do everything. Most early cities were close to rivers. --DR