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tional category working for him gets a bonus at the end.
I Revitalizing witches However, there is also a plan B: The
number of different professions in a play- er’s realm is also well rewarded at the final scoring. In addition, there are note- worthy correlations between some profes- sions. Millers distribute money as soon as somebody hires a brewer. And brewers
distribute money as soon as some- body hires an innkeeper. With this knowledge, suddenly everybody wants to have millers and brewers,justtopassivelygen-
erate income.
Besides these, you will also
want guards. They are neces-
sary because the world is evil. Each knight that somebody hires not only gives him money but also attacks all rival realms. Players who don’t have at least as many guards as the attacker has knights have to put one of their character cards in the infirmary. There, this character can no longer do anything for his state; to the contrary, he lives off the state’s money. Such wel- fare cases require witches: They bring discarded cards
back into the work process. Even though a game of Majesty consists only of choosing one of the dis- played cards twelve times and, in between, repeat-
edly converting small change into larger units, this is enough to create a perceptible arc of sus- pense. Some decisions are obvi- ous, but most aren’t. It is easy to figure out which card would give you the most money straight away, but in the long run this isn’t necessarily the best choice. Especially if it costs too many meeples and restricts your
freedom of choice.
Shades of gray make life interesting,
but they unfortunately complicate gov- erning. In a clearly divided world of good and evil, any oaf might be able to control a country’s fate. In Majesty, however, there is more than just one truth. In one game, the princess is the greatest finan- cial donor; in the next, it might be the witch. It all depends on what cards are in circulation, how soon they come up, and in what order. And unexpectedly many characters don’t fit in pigeonholes. Almost half of all Majesty cards represent double jobbers. The knight-innkeeper, for example, can do both: kill
or fill (glasses). Where should he go: bar- racks or inn? The decision is up to the recruiter.
Strikingly often,
one of the two alterna-
tives that these cards provide is the career as a knight. Whether this is considered the better or the worse half is an ideolog- ical matter. Nice players don’t like to hurt each other and thus choose the peaceful variant. But even if all players are equally kind, there will be only one winner in the end. So maybe try something different occasionally?
A wolf in a herd of sheep makes himself kind of unpopular, but ensures a higher bed occupancy rate in the infirmary and a
more dramatic course for
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