"Raids" modifier

[terse ice]

I have been thinking a lot about the fact that the only thing I dislike about Classic Fixed is its tendency to lead to very similar stalemates.

So I was thinking of ways to reduce the likelihood of stalemates forming and I came up with a simple idea for a modifier I wanted to share.

Call it Raids: when a player breaks another player's bonus, they steal one of the player's cards at random. The longer a bonus goes uncontested, the more cards are stolen (maybe one extra card every 5 turns). If the player has no cards then the player gets additional cards.

This would force players to defend their borders more heavily, which I think makes the game more "realistic" but that's just personal preference.

The main idea is that stalemates should reduce under this modifier because there is a tangible reward for going on the offense.

What do you think?

[drowsy oxide]

Interesting concept of stealing cards from alive players. The application is what bothers me. Players are fluid and you can switch which bonuses you hold. How would you assign bonuses to players? Another solution I want to propose is having a special building called 'Arsenal' which would contain cards that can be stolen by opponents if they conquer it.

[terse ice]

The idea was to create an active downside to owning a bonus and sitting on it, which is the main driver of stalemates in my opinion. Players who hold continents will get the advantage of the additional cards, but will be pressured to progress the game by going on the offense as the longer they don't, the more profitable it becomes for other players to attack them instead

[drowsy oxide]

Bonuses rather give troop advantages to be able to eliminate players. This could just lead to every player having a foot in all continents and therefore stalemating that way.

[sage tinsel]

Or players defending bonuses even more, meaning less troops available for attacking which then just means more stalemating.