Cribbage

## Overview

Ah, Britain. Crib of the scones, the breakfast tea, and of course, the most gentlemanly game ever, that's right lad, it's cribbage! Cribbage has stood the test of time as one of the best games- …What? Smash Up? What's that? It… plays like cribbage, right? Alright then, fancy a game?

**Cribbage** is one of the 12 factions featured in the Board Game Bonanza custom expansion.

The Cribbage faction brings the feeling of the classic game to Smash Up. Score VP by making cleverly calculated moves, advancing on the Cribbage board for every well-done play. Time your minion plays and manipulate the power on a base to get the extra benefits provided by your cards. Bury cards from your hand to save them for the right time and keep pressure on your opponent, as this will not be your typical game of Smash Up.

Other factions from the same set include: 7 Wonders, Battleships, Clue, Conquerors (Risk), Dominion, Guess Who?, Monopoly, Settlers of Smashville (Settlers of Catan), Ticket to Ride, Twilight Struggle and Wingspan.

### Details

#### General

* Name: Cribbage
* Author: CaptainCosmic
* Complexity: 3/5
* Version: 1.5
* Last updated: November 4th, 2023

#### Mechanics

* Burying
* Titan-like Cards

### Breakdown

Cribbage has the standard 10 minions and 10 actions. Their total minion power is 30, or an average power of 3 per minion. Among their actions, there are:

* 0 play-on-minion actions
* 0 play-on-base actions
* 10 standard actions (5 that affect one or more minions, in **bold**): 29 Hand, Crib, **2x Fifteen For Two**, Muggins, Nineteen!, **2x Run**, **Skunk**, Thirty-one For Two
* 4 actions that directly increase a minion's power: 2x Fifteen For Two, 2x Run.

### Minions (10)

* **1x Nibs (5):** Special: On your turn, if the total power on a base is exactly 10, you may play this Minion there as an extra Minion. Ongoing: If this Minion would go to the discard pile from play, you may shuffle it into your deck instead.
* **2x Nobs (4):** If there is an odd number of counters on The Cribbage Board, place a counter on it. Special: After this minion leaves play, if there is an odd number of counters on The Cribbage Board, place a counter on it.
* **3x Raggedy Ann (3):** Talent: Give a Minion here either +1 or -1 power until the end of the turn.
* **4x Raggedy Andy (2):** If there are two or more Minions of power 2 here, place a counter on The Cribbage Board.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Fifteen for two:** If there's exactly 15 total power on a base, place a counter on The Cribbage Board. Place a +1 power counter on up to two of your Minions.
* **2x Run:** Choose a base and three Minions there. If the printed power on those Minions represent three consecutive numbers, place a counter on The Cribbage Board. Draw a card and place a +1 power counter on one of your Minions.
* **1x 29 Hand:** Choose two bases where you have at least 4 power. If your power on both bases is exactly the same, place two counters on The Cribbage Board.
* **1x Crib:** Bury a card from your hand. Play an extra Action.
* **1x Muggins:** Choose another player. If they didn't play a Minion on their last turn, play an extra Minion. If they didn't play an Action on their last turn, play an extra Action. Play an extra Action.
* **1x Nineteen!:** Place up to three cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck, then draw that many cards. Place a counter on The Cribbage Board.
* **1x Skunk:** Special: After a base scores, if you won that base and you had at least 5 more power there than the runner-up, either place two counters on The Cribbage Board or shuffle one of your Minions there into your deck.
* **1x Thirty-one for two:** Special: before a base scores, if you have a Minion there and the total power there equals that base's breakpoint, gain 1VP.

### Titan

The Cribbage faction uses a titan that remains out of play, however, its abilities can be used by the Cribbage player on their turn.

* **1x The Cribbage Board:** Special: This Titan remains out of play during the game. Special: After a base scores, if you were the winner, place a counter on this Titan. Special: Once per turn, you may remove five counters on this Titan to gain 1VP.

### Bases

* **(16) First Street (3 2 1):** The winner may bury one of their cards here on another base.
* **(21) Skunk Line (4 2 1):** If you have the most power here at the end of your turn, draw a card.

## Clarifications

* **Fifteen For Two:** This action only places one counter on The Cribbage Board, even if there's more than one base with exactly 15 power.
* **Run:** its ability refers to the printed power itself of the minions chosen. The order in which the minions were played or chosen isn't relevant for this card to resolve. The three numbers must be consecutive, with none of the three being equal to other, e.g. if the chosen minions have 2, 3 and 2 power respectively, no counter is placed on The Cribbage Board. For this card's purpose, 0 is considered consecutive to 1.
* **29 Hand:** The buried card is discarded with no effect other than the one dictated by this card.
* **Muggins:** "On their last turn" refers to their previous Play Cards phase. If this card is played when the chosen player hasn't had a previous turn, it only grants you one extra action.
* **The Cribbage Board:** You can only exchange counters on this card for VP on the phases 2 and/or 3 of your turn. Any counters remaining on it at the end of the game do not add to your total final score.

## Strategy

The Cribbage faction innately changes the focus of their combos, due to the alternate way of earning VP it provides.

For the Cribbage player to be successful, they need to plan their plays two or three turns in advance, working around and/or taking advantage of what opponent players do with their plays.

Advancing on The Cribbage Board can be done naturally by winning bases, though this sometimes won't be enough to earn more than 1VP from it, as it requires 5 counters on it, and the game can take only three bases to end because there's too many 5 VP bases on the system.

The main means of earning counters on the Titan-like Card with this faction are very similar to the way you can score points on "the play" of the actual game of Cribbage. This means, playing a card with the same "face value" than another (Raggedy Andy), bringing the total sum of power to 15 (Fifteen For Two) and building a "straight" of consecutive numbers (Run). For the latter two, this faction provides ways to ensure you can successfully make those plays, such as power manipulation (Raggedy Ann) and deferred plays in the form of burying cards (Crib, Nobs). There are ways to add more than one counters to the Titan-like Card on this faction, such as 29 Hand and Skunk, there's also a card that grants a full 1VP if the breakpoint on a base is met without exceeding it, regardless of who the winner is.

The Leader of this Faction (Nibs) can be played for free if a base reaches 10 power on your turn. This would also make the base a valid choice for Fifteen For Two, thus adding an easy counter to The Cribbage Board. The built-in recursion of this card make this play easily repeatable.

The opponent of this faction should also be aware of the kind of plays the Cribbage player wants to make, as they will often not be optimal plays towards scoring bases, however, if the opponent player does not pay attention to the Cribbage player, the latter can score up to 5VP (on two-player games) with optimal play, which requires opponent cards to help meet the conditions for their plays.

### Partner suggestions

Cribbage does better with partners that double down on power manipulation (direct power increase/reduction or manipulation through movement/destruction). They can also choose a partner that makes a certain play more repeatable.

### Published

* **Wizards:** Wizards have seven 2-power minions, which make Raggedy Andy's plays to guarantee a counter on The Cribbage Board. The extra action plays make the addition of counters faster, such as being able to play both Runs on a single turn, or having an easily disposable buried card for 29 Hand's extra counter. Wizards' heavy draw helps getting to Nibs faster.
* **Giant Ants:** Playing with Ants means playing with a deck of minions from printed power 0 to 5, widening the range for Run plays. Cribbage provides Ants with four cards that add +1 power counters. Death on Six Legs is easy to play with this combo, and the extra action it grants every turn works wonders for both factions' plans.
* **Changerbots:** Their talent-sourced self-power manipulation makes it very easy to maximize Fifteen and Thirty-one plays, Leader One provides an extra option for Run by being a 6-power minion. Mergacon is the kind of phase 1 play Cribbage appreciates. Their ability to burst on phase 2 works well as a plan B for the Cribbage player.
* **Astroknights:** Astroknights don't care much about the creeping power Cribbage usually leaves lingering on a base, as they can easily steal the first place in phase 3. Their deck foresight/manipulation helps the Cribbage player plan further turns way in advance. Annoying Alien can help both Raggedy Ann and Andy. The extra VP granted by Cribbage plays makes it easier to spend some VP with Pupoks' Power Plays.

## Author Notes

* The art for this faction was made using the "Cribbage Board (high resolution)" mod for Tabletop Simulator.
* The font used for the card names of this faction was Carbon Type.
* All the names of the cards on this faction are common terms used in traditional games of Cribbage.
* Feedback for this faction was provided by ludichrisness and Berryl, many thanks!

When the Board Game Bonanza custom expansion was on baby steps, I was invited to collaborate by making a faction for it. The idea of having a traditional board game representative in the expansion was (for some reason) exciting to me, and thus the Cribbage faction was born.

Cribbage is my favorite two-player game of all time, so it felt natural to design this faction as a love letter to it. The task was not easy, as Cribbage has very little similarities to Smash Up and my experience in custom-crafting is very limited (this is one of my first custom factions ever developed).

The premise of this faction was to give the player a feeling of playing a whole different game by focusing on meeting other requirements than just breaking bases. "Theme wins games". Well, what if it does? After all, it's Customland. I hope you enjoy playing with this faction, I think it translates well that traditional cribbage experience.