The Action card "Determine Policy" allows the user to browse through the entirety of the Politics deck (both undrawn and discard) in order to choose to play something. I could see this grinding the game to a complete halt. There's a ton of Politics cards, and they're usually complicated enough that you can't just skim over them to determine if it's good or not for you. Assuming that I'll be playing with players that aren't intimately (or even somewhat) familiar with the deck (but are definately competative and want to have their fair chance to win) I see a houserule needed here (and declared beforehand).

Setting a timer seems a bit crass. Anyone ever used any rules that they found worked? It's a rare card and should remain valuable, but also don't want it to kill the game's pace.

Thanks!

I can see it slowing the game down with a lot of newer people or those that do not play that often. If you get a group that plays more often and knows the cards better it does not take long at all. Usually I always go for Ancient Artifact myself so if I play it it takes less than a minute to find the card. The more you play the faster it will get as poeple start to know what PC they want to get out.

Well that's my exact situation, hence my nerviousness. Because of the long playtime, (part the game's fault, part our group's personality) TI3 isn't something we can ever play often: it's a rare treat. And next weekend my guests will include 2 infrequent players and 3 new players. We can't rely on people knowing what's in the deck.

I'm thinking of either
- draw the top 5 cards, place 1 on top, 3 on bottom, and resolve one immeadiately
- or remove this Action card from the deck and avoid the hassle altogether

Has anyone else ever fussed with this card before? What has worked or not worked?

Quick handouts can also be helpful although this list does not give the text it does narrow the topics down by type. You could print it out and then if they know at least what type of PC they are looking for then they can at least have it narrowed down and just look for those.

Assembly/Bureaucracy

* Council Elder
* Council's Censure
* Emperor
* Glory of the Empire
* Imperial Mandate
* Incentive Program
* Mutiny
* New Constitution
* Political Focus
* Recognize Accomplishments
* Repeal
* Revote
* Veto Power

Diplomacy/Leadership

* Fleet Regulations
* Imperial Academy
* Imperial Containment
* Minister of Peace
* Neutrality Pact
* Non-Aggression Pact
* Official Sanction
* Resource Management
* Short Term Truce
* Traffic Tariffs
* Vorhal Peace Prize
* War Funding

Production

* Arms Reduction
* Fighter Tax
* Fleet Restrictions
* Holy Planet of Ixth
* Humane Labor
* Interstellar Arms Dealers
* Labor Force Politics
* Mass Mobilization
* Regulated Conscription
* Subsidized Industry
* Warship Commission

Special

* Aggressive Strategy
* Checks and Balances
* Core Stability
* Defend the Jewel
* Limits to Individual Power
* Minister of Policy
* Public Execution
* Redefining War Crimes
* Seed of an Empire
* Unconventional Measures

System

* Ancient Artifact
* Closing the Wormholes
* Holder of MR
* Hope's End Training Ground
* Imperial Peace
* Investigate Spatial Anomalies
* Minister of Internal Security
* Wormhole Reconstruction
* Wormhole Research

Technology

* Forbidden Research
* Regressive Rhetoric
* Research Grant
* Science Community Speaker
* Sharing of Technology
* Subsidized Studies
* Technological Jihad
* Technology Buy-back
* Technology Investigation Committee
* Technology Tariffs

Trade

* Class Struggle
* Cost Overruns
* Diversified Income
* Economic Revitalization
* Forced Economic Independence
* Free Trade
* Intergalactic Commerce
* Minister of Commerce
* Open the Trade Routes
* Trade Embargo
* Trade War

Warfare

* Code of Honor
* Colonial Redistribution
* Colonization Licensing
* Compensated Disarmament
* Conventions of War
* Crown of Emphidia, The
* Crown of Thainos
* Dispute Resolution
* Enemy of the Throne
* Minister of Exploration
* Minister of War
* Planetary Conscription
* Planetary Security
* Prophecy of Ixth
* Unconventional Weapons

List put together by Bill Cook on the TI3 wiki

also if it mainly the time issue with newer players then you could just have them take a look at the top 10 or so and pick from those.

Kire Immortal said:

In a game with new players, I'd probably do something similar to the "draw the top 5 cards", except I wouldn't put 1 on top - let that be handled by whoever picked Political as normal after the vote.

Or just remove it.

I actually created a personal cheat-sheet of all the PCs that can be browsed over by players during the game. Once people know the game, it doesn't become too bad. For our games, Ancient Artifact seems to get picked a lot, especially if the picker has nothing near Mecatol Rex, and their rival DOES. It's a gamble, but it can pay off big if the vote swings their way and the roll is lucky.

I also tend to trim the Politics deck before the game and try to keep it at 50 cards or so.

4lterego said:

If playing with veterans, though, this could potentially make the process LONGER, as a veteran may know which PC they want, but then they'd have to go through the deck to see if it's there, and if not, decide amongst the ones that ARE there.

With the Assembly strategy card, this could still be an issue, though, because if someone has in their hand the PC you want revealed, you'd run into the same problem.