Governor
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* German: Gouverneur | * German: Gouverneur | ||
* Japanese: 総督 (pron. ''sōtoku'') | * Japanese: 総督 (pron. ''sōtoku'') | ||
+ | * Norwegian: Guvernør | ||
* Polish: Gubernator | * Polish: Gubernator | ||
* Spanish: Gobernador (''Unreleased'') | * Spanish: Gobernador (''Unreleased'') |
Revision as of 12:40, 5 February 2015
Governor | |
---|---|
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Promo |
Illustrator(s) | Harald Lieske |
Card text | |
+1 Action Choose one; you get the version in parentheses: +1 (+3) Cards; or each player gains a Silver (Gold); or each player may trash a card from his hand and gain a card costing exactly () more. |
Governor is a promotional Action card. It can be a remodeler, a gainer, or a Laboratory variant—it gives you three options, each of which gives you an extremely powerful benefit and gives your opponent a smaller version of the benefit.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- You always get +1 Action.
- Then you either
- Go in turn order, starting with yourself; this may matter if piles are low.
- The gained cards come from the Supply and are put into discard piles; if there are none left, those cards are not gained. For example if you choose the second option and there is only one Silver in the Supply, the player to your left gets it and no-one else gets one.
- For the third option, you only gain a card if you trashed a card, and only if there is a card available in the Supply with the exact cost required.
- If you do trash a card, you must gain a card if you can.
- You cannot trash a Governor you played to itself, as it is no longer in your hand when you play it (though you can trash another copy of Governor from your hand).
Other Rules clarifications
Strategy Article
There is no strategy article for Governor.
Governor is one of the more powerful cost cards, and is often worth building a strategy around. Its +Action enables you to buy a lot of governors without other action cards. Due to giving both you and the opponent benefits, Governor leads to a very fast game.
It is difficult to use correctly, since you need to gauge the value of the benefit to yourself against the benefit to your opponent. For example, +3 cards might lead to a double-Province turn, but the +1 Card you give your opponent will usually enable them to buy at least one Province. Governor also produces situations where there are high stakes with an uncertain draw, such as the choice of remodeling a gold into a Province, vs. gambling for a double Province turn on +3 cards.
Governor has self-synergy, since you can use it to gain Gold and then trash Gold for Provinces. Its +Action also makes it form its own sort of engine, without the need for any supporting cards.
The remodeling power of Governor is more beneficial in the late game, where it can be used to pick up Provinces. The upgrade of for the opponent is usually poor for grabbing VP since cost cards are rare, and since Governor games fill up both decks with Governors, Gold, and Silver, leading to few cards that can be upgraded into Duchies. Earlier in the game, however, the trashing power can benefit your opponent more: it enables the thinning of the deck (removing Coppers or Estates) and the acquirement of beneficial cards that are likely to be played multiple times.
Often, the Gold-gaining choice provides the least value to the opponent, as it can even harm the opponent. Silvers cannot be remodeled into VP without using one's own Governor. If the opponent has already gained a lot of Gold and/or trashed their Copper and Estates, Silver may even decrease the average value of their deck. Adding Silvers to an opponent's deck also decreases the frequency with which their Governors are drawn. This choice is also a crippling choice against an opponent who is trying to building an engine, and this is one reason why engines based on cards other than Governor are less likely to succeed when Governor is on the board.
Synergies/Combos
- Possession lets you give an opponent a huge hand and then use it yourself.
- Border Village Can be used to gain a Governor when you draw , and can be later remodeled into a Province.
- Explorer gives you a Silver or Gold that can be immediately remodeled into a Governor or Province
- Handsize attacks (Ghost Ship, Militia, Margrave...) let you cancel out the handsize benefit to the opponent
- Trashing (Chapel, Steward) can make you draw your Governors and Gold more often.
Antisynergies
- Engines based around other cards (deck drawing,Minion, etc.). Governor's ability to feed Silver into the opponent's deck makes construction of engines difficult.
- If your opponent has a lot of -cost cards they can trash them and gain Duchies when you trash Gold for Provinces.
- If there is Alt-VP (Silk Road, Gardens, Island), then your opponent can trash Silver for points in the endgame!
- If there are -cost cards (Bank, Forge, King's Court), then your opponent might trash those cards for Provinces!
- Colony games make Gold much less critical.
Trivia
In other languages
- French: Gouverneur
- Finnish: Kuvernööri
- German: Gouverneur
- Japanese: 総督 (pron. sōtoku)
- Norwegian: Guvernør
- Polish: Gubernator
- Spanish: Gobernador (Unreleased)
Card Art
Secret History
Jay initially thought, well, Power Grid was coming on its 10th anniversary too, or at least the original German version was (Funkenschlag), so how about something that tied in with Power Grid. He wanted it to be a green card of course. And we sat down and talked with Friedemann Friese about what could possibly be done. It wasn't sounding great. The flavor for Power Grid is not medieval, and then there wasn't an obvious mechanical thing to do that connected the games.
I said, are there any other games with anniversaries coming up? And Jay said, as a matter of fact. Puerto Rico was also having an anniversary. And well simulating Puerto Rico on a Dominion card was easy; the only issue was making the text fit, which I cleverly managed via "you get the version in parentheses." So while the previous promos were expansion outtakes, this one is a new card.
The first version of the card had +1 Card +1 Action, with the first option only giving you +2 Cards, i.e. it worked out the same as now if you wanted the cards, but gave you an extra card if you picked one of the other two things. The idea had been, that the bonus the other players get does not involve them spending a card or using an action, so it would be easier to balance the card if it also didn't cost you a card or an action. But the three options were not sufficiently balanced; the Remodel was especially crazy. So now you still get the same total number of cards if you pick cards, but you don't get a free card with your Gold or Remodel.
Retrospective