We’ve been listening to those of you who’ve been telling us that you want and need to see more specific information about the content of the games on our P500 Reprint list. What has changed? Why is it better? Can I get an upgrade kit? And so on…. So this year we’re making a concerted effort over time to give you guys lots more info about the reprints so that you can make more informed decisions about your purchases. We intend to both update information or links on each game’s P500 page as well as give you more detailed information here in InsideGMT. Your feedback to our recent article on Mark Simonitch’s Normandy ’44 has been terrific, and we’ve had quite a number of new orders placed already, so we’re hopeful that we’re on the right track here and that you guys find this information helpful.

In this article, designer Kevin McPartland is giving you a detailed look into the “new cards and counters” aspect of the 2nd Edition of Conquest of Paradise. We’ve already told you guys that it’ll include a mounted map, but we realized there just wasn’t a lot ELSE out there about the new edition. We hope Kevin’s article will help to fill that void. Enjoy! – Gene

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Note that all card and counter art below is playtest art.

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Aloha! The upgraded 2^nd Edition of Conquest of Paradise, now on GMT’s P-500 list, will have many improvements from the first edition, most notably including a mounted map. Of the many improvements, this article will focus on just one: the Random Event cards.

These cards were included in C3i #22, as a set of three cardstock inserts with nine event cards on each sheet, for a total of 27 Random Events. The cards had to be carefully cut out, and placed in card sleeves (unless you were really carful cutting them out). In the new edition of Conquest of Paradise, these cards will be included in the game (as an optional Advanced rule) and printed as regular playing cards, with the full GMT-quality treatment!

When we first published the Random Events for CoP in C3i, we thought we’d use a chit pull for the events; this later changed to cards. What’s even better? Cards and chits, like the reprint will have! There will be 14 new markers in the game, dedicated to specific Random Event cards. For the C3i cards, we had to use markers that were already in the game, like placing an Improved Agriculture marker at a 45° angle to mark Invasive Weeds. Now we will have a dedicated marker for Invasive Weeds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another example of a card that changed just to incorporate the use of the new markers is the Successful Deep Sea Fishing card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, all of the new markers will have the name of the card that it is used with, along with the card’s number, on the back.

One card needed to change because of another improvement to the 2^nd Edition: we will now have wood bits for the Villages. The Improved Agriculture markers will still be in the game, for indicating when you have paid the resources to change marginal land into a place that can support a village. But the Drought card needed to change, to be clear about what to do with the marker under the Village.

The new markers gave us the flexibility to modify some of the events into what they were originally meant to be. Take, for example, one of my favorite events, the Warrior Leader card. With the reprint, the added markers allow us to provide a specific Warrior Leader chit to go with the card. As you can see, this chit can move around the board after it is placed. So we’ve added leadership to CoP! The event now plays as it was originally intended, with leaders moving about the board, at the front of their victorious warriors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A similar changed was done for the Shaman event. The Shaman is now another kind of leader, which can be moved around the board after being placed. But unlike a Warrior Leader, who rises during the heat of battle, the Shaman is a leader who rises through the ranks of the village hierarchy. He is placed during the Turn Order Step, and must be moved into Battle – or be in the right place when attacked by another player. This is a change from the old cards, which had the Shaman as a saved card that could be played at any one time. But now the Shaman can last for more than one Battle- unless he’s in a Battle where his side loses, which means his connection with the gods is not as good as he claimed- and he must be removed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Taniwha, or sea monster, card also benefited from the additional pieces available in the reprint. We plan to use new, punched-up artwork for the card, with a marker to match. The graphic is from a New Zealand postage stamp that celebrates Maori legends. It will be nice to have a colorful chit to place on the map when the Taniwha strikes terror in the hearts of Polynesian navigators!

 

 

 

After some years of experience with the C3i cards, the text will be clarified or modified on some cards.  The Taniwha event is also one of the events that will be changed, based on additional experience playing the game with the Event cards. The original card said to “remove all Canoes in the hex” effected. In rare cases, this could be incredibly powerful. The Random Event cards were never meant to be game-changers; they are meant to be game-tweakers. There shouldn’t be too much incentive to manipulate the turn order to get to draw one of these cards- that’s why there is one card in the deck (Maui Is Pleased) that literally does nothing, and several cards that will often have no effect, depending on the situation on the board. The Random Event cards cost nothing- they are simply drawn by the player currently in last place- and should thus be of limited value. So now the Taniwha card will only sink one canoe when it strikes. This change is (unfortunately) wordier than the original, but I think it prevents creating a “super monster” that was never intended.

Another card that proved to sometimes be too powerful is the Fijian Raid event. With lucky die rolls, it could completely destroy a player’s home islands. Ironically enough, this event would often completely fail, having no effect. But this card was supposed to be one of the strong events! So we re-wrote the event, returning to the original intent of the Raid card. The idea was to hit lightly defended outer islands of the victim, not try to take over the center of a player’s empire. This change encourages that. It penalizes a player who does not defend his possessions, and can hit players where they thought they were safe. Also, by allowing the second raid to hit a spot two hexes from the original (instead of just an adjacent hex), it extends the Fijian raiders’ range.

Other cards can be a nasty surprise for players, and, well, they’re still going to be nasty. The Typhoon card is always fun in a four-player game, where each player gets to move the storm into an adjacent hex. And at least now, with the Second Edition, it will have its own spiffy marker!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that you have enjoyed this insider look at how the Random Event cards for the Second Edition of Conquest of Paradise have changed. One card has not changed a bit from the original C3i card; let’s end on that one. Aloha!