Forum

Forum
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Ryan Laukat
Card text
+3 Cards +1 Action Discard 2 cards. When you gain this, +1 Buy.

Forum is an Action card from Empires. It is a sifter that maintains hand size.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2016)

• For example, with and only one Buy, you could buy a Forum, getting +1 Buy, then buy a Province.

Other rules clarifications

Since 2022, Forum's +Buy bonus' trigger is changing from "when you buy" to "when you gain".

• Getting +1 Buy happens when you buy or otherwise gain this.

Strategy

Forum is a handsize-neutral and non-terminal sifter that offers effective cycling through your deck towards the cards you most want to find. This means it offers a strong boost to your deck’s reliability, and makes it a very useful support card. However, at , it often has a significant opportunity cost, and so it’s common to want to add it after higher priority cards such as a trasher. Forum is particularly useful in Kingdoms in which other deck control tools (in the form of thinning and perhaps draw) are weak or lacking, or in the early midgame before you are able to attain deck control. The increased reliability it offers is particularly relevant if you need to find the right combination of cards each turn to get your engine going, such as a village and terminal draw, or Encampment and Plunder. Otherwise, it can also be a very strong tool for facilitating other specific card collisions (for example Tournament with Province).

Although it’s relatively expensive, Forum’s on-gain effect means that it has no opportunity cost in terms of gains. This has several implications:

1. It’s often worth purchasing on a turn on which you’ve generated more than you can make use of with the number of Buys available. For example, if you have and 1 Buy and need a Candlestick Maker, buying Forum first effectively allows you to acquire it for free.
2. Forums can be very easy to empty for a pileout or acquire in bulk: in particular, if you have significant cost reduction (e.g., via Quarry), this can be achieved cheaply and at net cost of zero Buys.
3. Using a gainer such as University to gain Forum functions as a one-time source of +Buy; this may be important if +Buy is otherwise difficult to come by, but the fact that it is not sustainable once the Forum pile runs out means that it is most commonly useful in the midgame as a way to pick up extra engine pieces. This can potentially also be used to buy multiple Victory cards per turn during greening, although it may be risky to plan around Forums remaining available in the pile late into the game.

Forum becomes significantly more powerful if you can also benefit from synergy with Reactions that trigger on discard: notably, Forum paired with Village Green or Trail can function as draw in addition to providing a village effect.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+3 Cards +1 Action Discard 2 cards. When you buy this, +1 Buy.	Empires	June 2016
		+3 Cards +1 Action Discard 2 cards. When you gain this, +1 Buy.		June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Forum
Finnish	Foorumi
French	Forum			+3 Cartes +1 Action Défaussez 2 cartes. Quand vous achetez cette carte, +1 Achat.
German	Forum			+3 Karten +1 Aktion Lege zwei deiner Handkarten ab. Wenn du diese Karte kaufst: +1 Kauf	2. Edition (2021)
	Forum			+3 Karten +1 Aktion Lege zwei deiner Handkarten ab. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst: +1 Kauf
Japanese	公共広場 (pron. kōkyō hiroba, lit. public square)			+3 カードを引く +1 アクション 2枚捨て札にする。 これを購入するとき、+1 購入。
Polish	Forum			+3 karty +1 akcja Odrzuć 2 karty. Kiedy kupujesz tę kartę, +1 zakup.	(2017)
Russian	Форум (pron. forum)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

This started at with +2 Cards instead of +3. There were several possible ways to do "when buy +buy" to try to not empty piles too quickly; the solution here was, a more powerful card costing .

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Empires Cards

Connection between top and bottom abilities

The card had to be worth picking up with the extra , and not too cheap.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Logic behind "special things"

Rewording

Some cards got to just change to when-gain: Port, Hovel, Plan, Charm, Forum, Basilica, Colonnade, Mint. Some of these are notably different; in each case that seemed worth it to me in order to get rid of the when-buy.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Why of the Errata