New Cards

[ATOEtalGeek]

We really like playing with all the cards because it adds so many twists and turns to the game. The qty of cards nagged at me a little though as I was concerned about breaking the base pillage rule. What we do now is multiply those Zombie cards by 3 as our total number of cards is 171 (or roughly 3 times the starting base deck).

But that didn't really solve what I felt was an issue with finding Scenario Search Items. We had played a Burn It To The Ground! scenario and I felt the game really suffered because the number of Gas cards was really watered down. It seemed it was getting kind of monotonous with the Heroes just doing search after search trying to get through this triple sized deck. And then after the Heroes discarded the Gas card there were less cards by percentage allowing the players to pull it back out.

So I did a little study to see what the math showed as far as the percentage of certain cards as they are in the base deck, compared to what they are with all cards added. I looked mainly at the Scenario Search Items and coupled each of them with the four Just What I Needed cards:
Gas + JWIN = is 10% of base deck
Dynamite + JWIN = is 13.3% of base deck
Fire + JWIN = is 13.3% of base deck
Keys + JWIN = is 10% of base deck
First Aid + JWIN = is 13.3% of base deck

With all cards added in these numbers fall as follows (now there are 10 JWIN, or similar, cards), and a total of 166 cards:
Gas + JWIN = is 9% vs 10% (base game)
Dynamite + JWIN = is 9.6% vs 13.3% (base game)
Fire + JWIN = is 11.4% vs 13.3% (base game)
Keys + JWIN = is 7.8% vs 10% (base game)
First Aid + JWIN = is 10.8% vs 13.3% (base game)

By setting up a quick table I was able to determine mathematically how many JWIN cards were needed to bring the percentages back to what they were in the base game. The magic number is 5. So I added 5 JWIN cards making our total deck 171 cards. The percentages now look like this:
Gas + JWIN = is 11.7% vs 10% (base game)
Dynamite + JWIN = is 12.3% vs 13.3% (base game)
Fire + JWIN = is 14% vs 13.3% (base game)
Keys + JWIN = is 10.5% vs 10% (base game)
First Aid + JWIN = is 13.5% vs 13.3% (base game)

I tried it with just 4 JWIN cards but the Dynamite really fell off - to 11.8%. So it seems 5 is the best number.

Now the JWIN card I added is not actually the JWIN card - it's a homemade card that is very close to the I Know Where It Is! card from Hero Pack I. I like the mechanic of that card requiring the Heroes to get to a particular building in order to get the card. It's not just a freebie. My card just adds a clause for the scenario search item. I called it The Last Place You Look!