Relatively Small (~100-tile) Games with 5 or 6 Players

[kothmann]

Over Thanksgiving, we played 3 games with 5 or 6 players and about 100 tiles, including one abbey per person.  For 2 of the games, we used only the 7 regular meeples, and in one game we played the variant where we each had 8 "special meeples" and no regular meeples.

Anyway, I realized pretty much right away that with only about 16 turns per player, a meeple shortage would be very unlikely, so I started placing farmers MUCH earlier than usual.  The other players didn't seem to realize what I was doing, so I shared the strategy about halfway into the first game.  I think they were a little slow to adjust, even in the second and third games, and I ended up winning all 3 games, I think primarily because I had a lot of small valuable farms.   

Of course, adjusting strategy to match the conditions is part of the game, but I think I prefer the "meeple tension" in a game with fewer players.  I wonder if it would be better to play with fewer meeples: maybe 5 per player in a 6-player game? Would be curious to know if anyone has ever tried this.


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