SpielByWeb

[cpsof95]

Recently I've played a couple of games with variant 1, and the games have been quite different. I'm not really sure though why variant 1 would be better than vanilla, so could someone please let me know?

My observations of variant 1 compared to vanilla:
- Higher luck factor because big animal herds (with lucky land tiles) can win you the game.
- Less motivation to build large land chains because they don't give you as much money when connecting to markets and harvesting is relatively weaker action.
- More motivation to chase the markets because you need a big money-making herd to buy enough water or haciendas to win the game, and you can scatter your land around with less relative penalty.
- Hard to score big points with water because your herd and land chains are often tightly together if you have enough money to buy water and your land chains probably aren't large enough for reasons mentioned above.

[Kanga]

I quite like variant 1, but mostly because it's different to vanilla, rather than better.

It plays completely differently, as you have pointed. The luck of the herd plays a role, but the same applies in normal games, either with herds (on some maps you need a big herd anyway), or with the right land tiles showing up at any given moment.

I think you undervalue the role of large land mass, it's quite possible to win variant 1 without a large money making herd, but you'll need a reasonable land mass to harvest for the money instead. While I nearly always try to build a large herd for money, it's quite possible to win without it on most maps, by touching markets quickly instead. You nearly did this to me in our recent tournament game; a 9 point lead at halfway is pretty rarely beaten.

[Rebelslayer]

Yes, V1 is different, not better. I actually think it has less luck than the original version! If you concentrate too mcuh on the herds, you don't touch enough markets. Having the animals worth VP works well I think (I would like to see a variant with normal money but herds worth points).