by Dark Son
I still haven't finished a game, but I remember that in one session we drew the Spring card that gives double-recruits first thing, and that really got things exciting quickly. I'd like to try that as house-rule/ variant with 5 stones to victory, no Road to Victory/revised win condition, include Rise of the Free cities but I haven't yet.The problem is that all of those little touches that one might eliminate for time --exploration tokens, for example--are also super cool things that make the game what it is.
I also think that there might be an opportunity somewhere to tighten up the Hero game, as that seems to have the most downtime for the non-active players and/or those who don't have as many heroes (or hilariously got theirs killed on the first turn).
My best solution is to go back in time to when I was in h.s./ college so I just have more time to game. I'm currently setting up my Vitamix to do this....
-kMs