Hi there! Just got the game a few days ago and had some questions/thoughts.

The Efficient Killer card seems really unbalancing to me. We've been playing on the lowest difficulty (the others were a total carnage for the marines) and even without the "double ammo" rule (where each ammo token gives you two pieces of ammo) the marines didn't really have to care about ammo anymore. And I mean all of them- cause even though just one marine gets this card, they all benefit from it. Do you guys have any idea on balancing the card a bit?

Another thing: many marines complained that they have too little to do- their turns are too short compared to the whole game turn. So I was thinking about modifying the rules somewhat: each marine gets two figures played consequently. There are no respawns. If a marine loses both his figures and one of the other players still has two, he gets one of the other player's figures (of the other player's choice). Once there are only three marines left, a frag equals the invader's victory.

Now how would one go about modifying the amount of items/invaders/health to balance the game is probably a matter of quite some testing.

(I included the no-respawn rule because I don't like the way respawning works and I have no ideas of improving it. What I don't like about it is that a marine is actually in a better position when he dies, being able to teleport 8-16 fields away immediately).

Efficient Killer: I agree, the card is really powerful. Generally, some of the marine cards are much better than others, and some (like Medic, or Lithe) aren't really that useful at all in standard situations. What I do in the campaign I'm running right now is, after having used that mod where every marine gets three cards and chooses two of them: I hand out less shells/bullets ammo tokens than the floor plan tells me to

Marines complained have too little to do: Hm, that wasn't a problem for me in the games I played so far. My marines always had lots of arguing and planning and took up the majority of the game turn's time - each one less than the invader of course, but combined, they'd take longer. Having more marines per player means that everybody gets to play a bit longer, but it also means that the game round overall gets longer - so I'm not sure the relation would change in a good way, considering the absolute waiting times would then get longer as well. Try to encourage teamwork between the marines, get the discussion and planning going - marine turns are no isolated thing really.

No-respawn rule: I think the fact that the marines can only die a very limited number of times is fair to offset the bonus they get from respawning in a usually much better position. The game overall is (or at least, can be) somewhat rough on the marines. And even when it isn't, personally I usually play the invader but actually prefer it when the marines are winning - leaves them better-spirited for the next level

Sorry to be of little help - myself, I pretty much love the game despite its flaws - and if you want the same mechanics better executed (with an entirely different theme), Descent is the way to go.