I finally got my Kickstarter copy of Moonshine Empire. The components were top notch, the artwork was good and the game tray holding the components was very handy. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t as smart as it looked.
The characters in the game were portrayed a dim-witted country yokels with teeth missing. This was a a bit too cheesy for for my taste but I was willing to overlook it if the game played well. The movement mechanism seemed really cool because you could chain together various modes of transportation for some really great plays. In reality, however, it was very difficult to accomplish any significant chain of movements. The swamp tiles, which you get to explore, looked like fun until we realized that they tend to beat up on the players and some were so punishing that they could cost you the game. The rewards for exploring these tiles were minimal, so we avoided this part of the game. Finally, the randomizing of the turn order before each round was a real pain in the butt and had a very minimal effect on game-play. Overall, the game was very mediocre.
This game had many cool items and could potentially be a lot of fun, so my wife and I decided to tweak the game to try and fix it. The first thing we did was cut out some of the components we didn’t like by removing the following:
- “Fix a Moonshine Still” tile – this tile trapped you until you removed one of your stills. This is a game-ender if you only have one still.
- “Find an inventor who Needs an Idea” tile – this tile traps you until you discard an upgrade card. If you don’t have one you you’re stuck until you win one at auction, just to give it away. Another game-ender.
- “Hire a Sneaky Thief” cards – Stealing half of another player’s cash just didn’t seem like fun for us.
- “Steal an Upgrade” cards – These didn’t seem like fun either
- “Mix it Up” cards – These allowed a player change the player order. They just seemed ineffective and not worth bidding on.
The first thing we need to do is tweak that really cool movement mechanism. During set-up, we decided that each player will get one additional vehicle which they don’t already have and place it anywhere on the player-board on the appropriate terrain. According to the current rules, whenever a vehicle makes it to Pappy’s Tavern, it is removed from the board. Instead of this, the player who is last in player order (last to move) will place the vehicle anywhere on the board except on the outer edges. These two rules should get more vehicles in circulation, which should make for some interesting moves.
The turn order is the next item to be simplified. In the original rules, the turn order is randomized each round. This is too often for something that doesn’t seem to have a strong effect on gameplay. Why not randomize the play order at the beginning of the game then alter it each time somebody makes a delivery to Pappy’s Tavern. Whoever made the delivery would take the position at the end of the queue which will let them go first in the auction and last in movement. All of the other players will shift down to suit. This should provide enough variability in player order, reduce the administration, an opportunity for the players lagging behind to catch up.
Finally, there should also be more of an incentive to explore the Swamp Tiles. After removing the two tiles mentioned earlier, there are still three red tiles left. These tiles should be included in the other tiles used each game while setting up. Each time a player reveals a red tile, they can take an Auction card from the top of the Auction deck. This might make it more worthwhile for a player to explore and flip over the Swamp Tiles.
Hopefully these changes will make the game much more fun to play. If anybody has tried these house rules, I would love to hear how it went. Please leave your comments below.
Recent Comments