[INWO-list] INWO: Reverse Engineered

[martin laerkes]

Hi all,
just reposting a cleaned up version of my thoughts on the "evil four" and 
INWO's speed problems.


***INWO - Reverse Engineered***

There is something fundamentally wrong with INWO!
Fortunately it can be fixed.

While there are parts of the INWO rules that would benefit from being made 
simpler, the number one problem with INWO has nothing to do with complexity. 
It has to do with speed.

Soon after the release of INWO some very degenerate speed decks cropped up - 
decks so fast that they require little interaction with the other players. 
These decks forced SJ Games to respond by creating some all-purpose victory 
stoppers. The victory stoppers do slow down the speed decks, but 
unfortunately they bring non-degenerate decks to a complete standstill.
Resolving this speed issue is very important to the enjoyment of game. 
Fixing it should make both tournament-level INWO and non-degenerate INWO a 
lot more balanced and fun.

**The Problem**
When the one big deck game Illuminati game was transformed into the trading 
card game INWO, some of the illuminated goals remained unchanged. In this 
new environment, where each player brings the perfect cards for his twisted 
scheme, some of the old goals were so easy to achieve that players could 
build decks that won on the second turn. These hyper speed decks were (and 
still are) extremely powerful. They may not be infallible, but on a decent 
day they beat all other deck types.

In most INWO cabals, this problem is dealt with by a simple gentleman's 
agreement concerning deck construction. After all, we're just playing for 
laughs, and the hyper speed decks pretty much ruin the fun. But having 
gentleman's agreements deal with a major problem is hardly a desirable 
situation, as you will discover if you participate in tournament-level INWO 
or play against opponents from another cabal.

The official rules really ought to deal with the problem.
With the release of Assassins SJ Games did respond to the hyper speed 
isolationist decks. Thus, victory stoppers like Interesting Times, Apathy, 
The Magic Goes Away, Nevermore! and the paralyzes were added to the existing 
stopper Upheaval. Later came Sultan of Slack.

SJ Games also weakened the doubling goals. By letting only 3 groups count 
double, decks relying on these goals could no longer win with just 5-6 
groups in play. But, for some reason the non-doubling goals were left alone, 
even though these goals can be achieved with even less groups.

Still, the remedy worked. The cheap all-purpose victory weakened the hyper 
speed decks, because these decks usually don't have any way to recover if 
their initial burst of speed doesn't lead to victory. Unfortunately, while 
the changes pretty much fixed tournament-level INWO, they had a profound and 
detrimental impact on non-degenerate INWO. The same cards that slowed down 
the hyper speed decks, made every other deck come to a grinding halt. Six 
hour games are not uncommon under the current rules, and neither are games 
with no winner.

So, the intended fix turned out to create a ripple effect, generating a new 
and even more devastating problem. In order to resolve both the original 
issue and the ripple effect, it is necessary return to the source of the 
problem.

**The Solution**
The suggested solution comes in 2 parts.
First, anti-speed rules to shut down the hyper speed decks. Then, anti-stop 
errata to deal with the now obsolete victory stopping cards, restoring some 
speed to casual INWO.

*Anti-speed*
The fast goals should be changed to reduce the basic goal, ensuring that no 
deck can circumvent it, but will instead need a few turns to expand. 
Furthermore, goals may no longer be combined. This prevents the doubling 
goals from working in tandem with the reworded goals, and is also a nice and 
simple rule.
The altered goals look like this:

Bavarian Illuminati: "Control of groups with a total power of 50, including 
Bavaria's own power, reduces your basic goal by 4."
Bermuda Triangle: "Control of groups with a total power of 35, including 
Bermuda's own power, and at least one group of each alignment, reduces your 
basic goal by 4."
Shangri-La: "Having peaceful with a total power of 30 in play, regardless of 
who controls them reduces your basic goal by 5. Shangri-La players may share 
victory among themselves."
Power for its Own Sake: "Control of groups with a total power of 50, 
including your illuminati, reduces your basic goal by 4."

The 4-5 group discounts ensure that these absolute goals are still appealing 
compared to a doubling goal. They just can't be abused. This errata makes 
second turn victories virtually impossible, and third turn victories harder 
to achieve.

*Anti-stop*
After slowing down the hyper speed decks, the existing speed bumps are no 
longer needed. A simple solution might be to ban these cards altogether, as 
indeed some cabals have. However, rewriting them instead allows players to 
still use their cards.

NWO: Apathy: "No group may use global power."
NWO: The Magic Goes Away: "No magic resources have any effect while this NWO 
is in play. All magic groups have their power reduced by 1. Magic resources 
and groups still count normally for all goals. Also, all Illuminati get 1 
less action token during the token placement phase."
NWO: Interesting Times: "Any plot card that cancels another plot costs twice 
the normal price to play."
The paralyze plots: Do not prevent a group from counting towards any goal.
Upheaval: May only be played on your own main phase.

That's all it takes. These changes will reduce the playing time of casual 
INWO to tolerable levels, without leading to a second coming of the hyper 
speed decks in tournament-level INWO. By tying all victory conditions to the 
basic goal, all decks need to take over a few groups before they can win. 
And that should give opponents ample time to respond, or make a victory 
attempt of their own.

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