I will briefly introduce "Monster Keep"'s latest incarnation. Basically the game is played on a 3x3 grid (Much like Tic-Tac-Toe) where one player is on the bottom (middle) and the opponent on the top (middle).
Each player has a Micro-Deck of ten (10) cards. Each player discards one (1) card permanently such that the full deck will not be available for the game. This adds some additional strategy and makes it harder to build a "Deck" that works in ALL scenarios.
That one (1) card is then revealed for BOTH players. It becomes the "color" bonus. For example the player with the most of BOTH colors on the board earns a BONUS at the end of the game. If both cards revealed are the same, the player with the most of THAT color earns the BONUS.
Next the game begins...
One player rolls four (4) dice: Red, Green, Blue and Black. Each of those dice correspond to: Food, Loot, Battle and Wild. Each player writes these 4 dice values on his score card.
Next each player decides what three (3) dice he will use for his various "resources" (Food, Loot and Battle). Each of those stats become the total for that player and the "attacks" he may use during the remainder of the game.
Trying to condense things a little...
Each card has a "score bonus" like "+1" or "x2" or to penalize the opponent "-4" or "÷3" and may be played if logical. Cards are connected using combinatorics (Graph connections).
How to compute scoring???
As you form your "equation" and score points... My problem is determining how SCORING should be computed.
A> Should it be multiple ROUNDS (like 3) and the player with the HIGHEST ROUND is the winner?
B> Should the TOTAL of all three (3) rounds be used to determine the winner?
C> How does the COLOR BONUS "relate" to this computation? Could be a five (5) point bonus. If it's a tie, no bonus is awarded.
This implies that a player may play up to nine (9) cards from his deck. Each turn a player may have three (3) cards in his hand and play those three (3) cards on the table when possible. Sometimes a player may want to WAIT and not play a card until the later round... This also is possible...
Anyone have any ALTERNATIVE(s) to HOW TO SCORE???
Well there "was" an additional catch:
+ Only CONNECTED cards to the "Home" card (Top or Bottom Middle) are actually used to compute a score...
And therefore this is rather a more "difficult" PUZZLE to solve and makes it very challenging to get your optimal configuration based on the cards in play.
If a card is ISOLATED and "not connected", that card doesn't count towards your score.
I'm not sure about the "combinatorics" because it will severely LIMIT the amount of points available to score. That's why I am UNSURE if it should be a TOTAL or only the HIGHEST SCORE to determine which player is the winner of the game.
Tricky to figure out... I'd like to hear other designer's thoughts on the matter...
Cheers!