A Tale of Two Meeples (@ataleoftwomeeples.bsky.social)

ataleoftwomeeples on Instagram: "Does player count change the experience? That's today's #topictuesday🎲 question and for us, the answer is that it depends heavily …" Does player count change the experience? That's today's #topictuesday🎲 question and for us, the answer is that it depends heavily on the game. We've played a lot of games with just the two of us and found that how they cater for lower player counts varies wildly. Some you set up exactly the same way, others get you to use reduced maps, fewer cards, or occasionally dummy players.Even then, you don't always get the same feel you do as with more players. We recently played Viticulture at 3p for the first time, and while we didn't expect it to be all that different, it actually was.At two players, you can only ever use the first space of an action, none of which have bonuses (at least in the base game). Even your special Grande worker can't claim them at two. At three get access to an extra space, along with a handy bonus if you're the one who takes it. This means that not only is there more competition for each space overall, there's a real incentive for being first. We also found an extra player made the game a lot tighter and more cutthroat, as often at 2p you can just do your own thing, knowing that if you miss out this round you'll likely get it the next, but that didn't seem to be the case at 3p. We had one game where the third player had barely started to score points when the game ended because of the way the other two fought for every point early.Does it mean it was a bad experience at a higher player count? Not at all, it was just different, and still fun. We've found that to be the case with most games when we do add in extra players, with only a few exceptions. For very big, long games we prefer to stick with just the two of us, but for others we enjoy seeing how both the game and extra players change the way a game feels.What have your experiences been with different player counts?***If you'd like to join in on the #topictuesday🎲 fun, please message us and we'll add you to the group chat where the topic for each week is announced. https://www.instagram.com/p/DW0f5K3mLqN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==