Royal Docks
Action/Duration - $5
+1 Buy
This turn, when you gain an Action card, you may set it aside under this.
While any cards remain under this, at the start of each of your turns, play one twice.
Note: Royal Docks remains in play until it doesn't have any cards under it and all the cards it plays are discarded from play, same as other Throne Room variants. If you play the same royal docks twice (with Throne Room), it's all set aside under the same docks, and you can play 2 cards from under it at the start of every turn. There is no way to set cards aside under a Royal Docks other than on the turn you play it.
This is a really cool card;
Also the computer programmer in me is very happy that you withdrew Queue because that's how a Collection-Iterator design pattern works, not a Queue.
Entry for the week, Shopper, a terminal copper that lets you save a buy for when you need it.
This idea for this card started with me thinking about +Buy tokens. It occurred to me that a) they might be too powerful to have them on a card as just +1 Buy token (I called them Shoppers), and b) clearly you can't have then be on buy, because then you could just buy the whole pile (with Bridges in play). So why not reserve buys?
I'm very curious what people think of this card. As a terminal copper*, you really don't want it, but that reserve buy can be very powerful. And once you play it and goes onto the tavern mat, it's out of your deck (until you need that buy, of course).
* there's a reason that there are only a handful of official terminal coppers
I also liked the idea of my +1 Buy card costing just $1, since you might often have an extra $1 to buy a 2nd card - so the non reserve part needs to be weak. And it makes it interesting to Upgrade your coppers to this...
So what do you think?
Some (not mutually exclusive) possible tweaks:
• forget the $1 cost and make it $2
• add +1 Action, or alternatively make it a treasure
• make it +$2 (though this would then
have to cost $4 to compare with woodcutter)
• give an additional +$1 when you call it
Lastly, official (all $2) cards to compare this to:
• Coin of the realm - it's a treasure that reserves +2 Actions
• Peasant - $1, and +1 Buy (though not reserve) - of course it's real strength is that it travels
• Herbalist - $1, and +1 Buy (though not reserve) - it's extra is saving a treasure
• Squire - one of the options is +2 Buys
I think it's interesting the cards you picked to compare it to because when I read it, I immediately thought it was a reverse-Ducat - this gives $1 now and +1 Buy later, Ducat is +1 Buy now and a $1 later.
I think it's a hard sell as-is with it being terminal, especially on a board with no +Buys; Maybe do a reverse-Candlestick Maker and have it give +1 Action on play.
It's a gold with a +buy. The Catch? You must use the buy. This means using this to spike high points doesn't work as well (you can do it, it will just come with a copper).
It took a long time to get the wording right but here's what I got. I wanted only the buys from this and your orginal buy to be mandatory (or else worker's villages/ Market Sqaures would really mess with this). If anyone has a better way of saying it please feel free to say so.
Wording suggestion that changes the card a little but also streamlines it:
"If you have unused Buys at the start of Clean up, choose one: gain a Copper for each Bulk Order in play; gain a Copper for each unused Buy. (Do this once, rather than once per Bulk Order.)"
This changes its interaction with
• other +buy cards
• debt
• Counting House - maybe you want more coppers - you can elect to do that with this.
• removes ambiguity from "when is the end of your Buy phase?" with Villa.
• buys used where you didn't buy cards - you bought events, etc. Less tracking for paper players.