Thread: Alpenglow:: Variants:: Revised Terminal Swap & Setup

by seanwittmeyer

Some of Alpenglow's cards and actions can be a little more aggressive than some players may care for. This variant removes some run cards, revises setup, and changes the Terminal Swap (Joker) rule so that it allows players to replace a terminal they are connected to via their chairlift network with an available terminal in the supply. This allows for less destructive gameplay that maintains balanced outcomes allowing for the general improvement of the mountain throughout the game.

Setup - When setting up the game, separate the terminal tiles with blue flags and white run tile icons on the back. Place these on the board at random. The small board (2-3 players) will have 7 unused terminals and the large board (3-5 players) will have 3, return these to the box. For the remaining terminals with no icons on back, randomly choose 2 x the player count and place them in the supply, returning the rest to the box.

Component Changes - Remove the following run cards from the deck:
• 3 x Wrong Resort (Pickpocket)
• 4 x Avalanche Danger (Mapuche's Tail)
• 6 x Terminal Swap (Confused Carl)

Rule Changes - The following rules are revised:
• Terminal Swap (Joker) - Place an orange run then replace any terminal on the mountain you are connected to with an available terminal in the supply.
• Replace Run (Gerrymander) - Place a run then replace a run tile you are connected to with a run of your choice. Alternatively, replace a run tile you are connected to with one of your huts of matching color, and pay the regular fee (5 coins).

Notes - We've played this a dozen times and noticed that gameplay doesn't change if players didn't rely on more aggressive actions to slow down dominant players. Compared to our base game play-test records, scores tended to be a little higher however there was a small increase in spread between the low and high scores. We are thinking this is due to the terminal swap action becoming more valuable as it can give players more lucrative delivery options (similar to what happens when you have more than one Village Square in setup).

This has no impact on the Quick Start guides and all required components are included in the base game. I'll have the team prepare a simple rules sheet that can be printed and included in the box for clarifications during gameplay. We'll likely include this in the rulebook as well (the rulebook is a living document specifically for moments like this!). Any files will be posted here on BGG.

I'm excited to hear feedback on this, I generally placed less value on some of the removed cards and treated terminal swap as a temporary way to boost my engine for a while until someone else swapped high value terminals again. This variant changes this but thematically follows what happens in the real world - ski areas and mountains generally grow and improve over time.