The official 2-player rules that I found posted on the Geek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=1583 indicate that only one doubloon is placed per round. (There are 7 roles and 6 are chosen.) The original poster refers to placing doubloons (plural), so it sounds like he was using some other variant. I actually don't like the official variant due to the problem that is referred to obliquely by the last respondent quoted: if each player chooses 3 roles, and then the governor changes for the next round, it means the last player each round is also the first player in the next, so players get to choose two roles in a row. That just seems like it would make the craftsman too strong a choice for the end of the round, as the player choosing it would then to choose whether to ship or trade, and would get first crack at the ships/tradehouse. Sure, each player gets to do this, but chances are it's worth more to one of them. So there might still be too much money in the game, but it's not from the 1 doubloon added each round, but rather from the craftsman/trader combo. The variants I prefer involve an odd number of roles chosen each round. In Tom Lehmann's proposed 2-player version, there are 6 roles of which 3 are chosen per round (governor, other player, governor again), then the roles reset, doubloons paid, and the governor changes hands. The three doubloons added can still lead to a moderate amount of money in the game (Tom's rules had each player starting with only 1 doubloon), but at least it keeps the tension where the person who calls craftsman is giving the other player first crack at disposing of the new goods. I've tried slowing down the money by having players choose 5 of the 6 roles, but this leads to situations where players are forced to choose roles that help the other player more than themselves (or, at best, they may be able to choose a role that does nothing for either of them) Perhaps the right answer is to use 7 roles (as in the official variant) but choose only 5, thus adding 2 doubloons per round. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 8 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com