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Author Topic: How to get rid of your hand cards  (Read 4326 times)

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ipofanes

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How to get rid of your hand cards
« on: December 01, 2013, 01:24:54 pm »
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Here's my stab at one aspect of Innovation tactics. Please comment, give hints on what I have overlooked, point to instructive games etc. Thanks.

Why would you want to get rid of cards in hand?

In your hand, cards are a vulnerable asset, compared with your board or your scorepile, let alone your forecast. Before Age 7, no card attacks your scorepile like Construction attacks your hand. And Machinery lays your hand to waste in a way you wish it was Skyscrapers.

There are other reasons to get rid of your cards. For instance, you want to get the maximum effect out of Chintz, for a change, or you want to qualify for Calendar.

But most often you want to achieve Echo eligibility (EE), that is, get rid of blue cards in your hands but still keep your brown ones. Industrialization is the overpowered beast especially if it
draws and tucks you a string of Echoes, accumulating bonus points, building massive Echo stacks, achieving Monument, Wealth, Heritage and whatnot in the process. Industrialization is "self-cleansing" in a way it removes the sought-after Echoes from your hand the instance it draws them.

Many cards like (at least some) Echoes in your hand and empower you if they have a bonus. Unless Industrialization, Chaturanga or Watermill leave you with residue in your hand which removes your EE. Bonus points, therefore, if you regain EE en passant, without
requiring an extra action. After all, you want to get back into Watermill mode as soon as possible.

How do you remove certain cards?

Once you play with No Place, endorse-tucking is an option which is viable more often than not. This is one reason Echoes and Cities are a fierce combo: You can bring lots of Echoes in play and execute them twice, along with their whole stack lurking underneath. Another option
is Bell, which is one reason so many players go after it: Unless your hand is empty, a top Pagoda will always draw you an Echo if Bell is underneath as you may trigger Bell's cleansing effect.

But which cards allow you to rearrange your hands, especially in early ages, in which icon control and splaying has become more important than in base? I have assembled all Base and Echo cards which remove, tuck, meld or score to get cards out of your hands. I have singled out
the ones that allow you to target any card in your hand and leave your hand in EE while leave your board largely untouched. Other cards let you draw extra cards, so you may hold (another) echo in hand at the end of your move, or involve melding which may leave you with sup-par
dogmas on top of your favourite Echo stack. Other cards work on only part of the cards in your hand, some being so selective (Masonry) that hardly anyone would include them in their game plan at all.

Good riddance:
  • Agriculture, Code of Laws, Soap, Bell, Ice Skates, Umbrella
  • Currency
  • nothing really
  • Perspective, Reformation, Pencil, Telescope Echo effect

Involves melding or drawing:
  • Sailing, Tools, Pottery, Domestication, Clothing, Masonry
  • Mathematics, Road Building, Canal Building
  • Sandpaper

Conditional, unreliable:
  • Masonry, Bangle
  • Pagoda, Glassblowing, Watermill, Canal Building
  • Sunglasses

As can be seen, Age 1 is hand manipulation nirvana. No wonder so many players self-indulge in Age 1 without a clear plan to tech up: Stone Agers have fun! Age 3 is very poor for hand manipulation, before Age 4 offers some reasonable ways of getting rid of your hand cards.

Few echo stacks actually allow you to mix card removal and lucrative drawing in early ages. Again, endorse-tucking with No Place accelerates this process.

Disturbing Echoes

Obviously, some echo effects can get in the way of effective Echo drawing. Did anyone say Almanac is overpowered? Not if there is a pesky Ruler underneath, which makes sure you draw another scoreless card into your forecast. Industrialization spree? What's that candles
echo doing down there?

Conclusion

Hand control is crucial with Echoes, and some Echo stacks help you better with it than others.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2013, 03:33:19 am by ipofanes »
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ipofanes

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Re: How to get rid of your hand cards
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2014, 03:19:24 am »
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Addition: Due to the recent No Place rule change, there's one more reason to remove a card from your hand. There is even more reason to look for quick hand-reduction techniques in combined No Place/Echoes matches.
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qdread

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Re: How to get rid of your hand cards
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2014, 02:28:59 pm »
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Nice article. I wonder how many people still play with the original setup rules that came with the Echoes box, as we did the first few times. Not only tedious to set up, but turns the whole game into a crapshoot and renders this entire article irrelevant  :P
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ipofanes

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Re: How to get rid of your hand cards
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2014, 03:25:53 am »
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The upshot of the old rule is that Almanac is tamed a bit, and keeping the Industrialization button pressed for [Wlth], [Supr], [Empr], [Heri], [Wrld] and [Hist] only works twice as fast. I never use it either though, mostly because the whole game didn't fly with my wife and kids.

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