For casual and unrated games, SCSN and I like to modify the frequency with which particular cards are chosen. We like to play games with Black Market or Tactician, but we're not so big on the sort of game that IGG or Cultist leads to. As for the cards that are either very weak or very strong and randomizing, it's nice to see them on occasion but maybe not as often as in full random.
Here's the formula that generates modified frequencies we like:
10 ( 9*(Black Market + Procession + Hermit + Inn + Watchtower + Mint + Tactician + Bishop + Prince)
+ 3*( ALL / (Black Market + Procession + Hermit + Inn + Watchtower + Mint + Tactician + Bishop + Prince)
/ (Pirate Ship + Thief + Transmute + Adventurer + Scout + Coppersmith + Harvest + Cache + Noble Brigand + Taxman + Rebuild + Minion + Tournament + Possession + Pearl Diver + Swindler)
/ (Ill-Gotten Gains + Cultist + Fool's Gold) )
+ 1*(Pirate Ship + Thief + Transmute + Adventurer + Scout + Coppersmith + Harvest + Cache + Noble Brigand + Taxman + Rebuild + Minion + Tournament + Possession + Pearl Diver + Swindler) )
This formula:
- excludes (IGG, Cultist, and FG) entirely
- chooses (Black Market, Procession, etc.) 3x as often as normal
- chooses (Pirate Ship, Thief, etc.) and (Rebuild, Tournament, etc) 1/3 as often as normal.
We find this tends to generate a wider range of strategies than full random. We often find ourselves saying "well that was a weird game."
The same technique can bias the kingdom towards engines (add villages to the 3x list) or away from attacks (add them to the 1/3x list). What's nice is that you don't have to completely force or eliminate those cards like "Village, 9 * (ALL / Attack)" would.
To emphasize different cards or change their frequencies, you can tweak the script that generates the formula:
#!/bin/bash
# Choose these cards 300% as often as normal
more="(Black Market + Procession + Hermit + Inn + Watchtower + Mint + Tactician + Bishop + Prince)"
# Choose these cards 33% as often as normal
less="(Pirate Ship + Thief + Transmute + Adventurer + Scout + Coppersmith + Harvest + Cache + Noble Brigand + Taxman + Rebuild + Minion + Tournament + Possession + Pearl Diver + Swindler)"
# Never choose these cards
never="(Ill-Gotten Gains + Cultist + Fool's Gold)"
# Choose all other cards at the normal rate
normal="( ALL / $more / $less / $never )"
# Note: The kingdom generator can't specify non-integer rates (e.g. 1/3 for the "less" cards).
# Instead, we can multiply all the rates by 3 so that they're all integers. The kingdom
# generator will effectively reverse the scaling. That is
#
# 300% --> 9x for the "more" cards
# 33% --> 1x for the "less" cards
# 0% --> 0x for the "never" cards
# 100% --> 3x for the "normal" cards (everything else)
#
echo "10 ( 9*$more + 3*$normal + 1*$less )"
If you don't have a POSIX shell, you can use a
site like this one to run it. Changing which cards that it draws more or less often is straightforward, but changing the frequencies is a little trickier. I've given very brief explanations in the script comments, but feel free to ask for help here or in PM.