I like how the game is played only by holding the cards. Sometimes it's not easy, although it's never really a problem…

The way resources are produced, the higher cards have much better chances of producing than the lower ones, but the lower ones are much easier to place on the board, so our game saw many turns where nothing was produced. I can see how placing deeds for high cards can be useful because you at least get one resource for the card. Also, it's better to have your resources as cards on the board where they're not affected by taxation (Twice in the game I had to pay 4+ resources to the taxman just when I was about to use them to play a higher card!). In this game I was the only one to place a deed, but I think it was worth it in the end, as it won me the district at the end of the game.

Also, it seems that it's easy to score the same number of VPs, as there are just four districts. Our game was decided by the total ranks of the cards as my gf managed to steal a district from me on the last turn. But in the end I totaled 40 vs. her 37. It was pretty close though.

So we both liked the game and will be playing it again. I'm not sure, but maybe I'd like to see cards on the table producing more, as it seems most of the resources (especially at the beginning and middle of the game) come from lucky 10 rolls and selling cards. I'm thinking different ways to do that, maybe if the highest dice doesn't produce anything, let the other die produce, or maybe just rolling one die (did you try this? if so, how did it go?). Of course, if the cards on the table produce more, players will play more cards and sell less cards, so the game will probably end up being shorter…

Anyway, I think it's a good game and these are just random thoughts :D we'll try the game as it is some more times before trying any changes…

At Spielbany, the upstate New York playtesting event, I got Chicane out on the table for several hands.

Chicane is a trick-taking game. In a given hand, each number card is treated as having only one suit: either the top or bottom suit on the card. Players bid for the right to decide whether the hand will be top or bottom.

We played several four-player hands, and feedback led us to try out two small changes to the rules.

First, a player must announce whether they want cards to be their top suit or bottom suit when they bid (rather than waiting to announce only if they win the bidding). Top bids are one step higher than a bottom bid at the same number of tricks. For example, '3 top' can be bid over '3 bottom.'

With two bids possible for each number of tricks, there was more space to inch up. This loosened up bidding.

Second, the high bidder must make their bid exactly in order to score points. (If they make their bid, the high bidder scores their bid plus 3 bonus points. Other players just score 1 per trick they won.)

This discourages a player with a power hand to bid just the number of tricks they can definitely take but then to plow ahead and take a bunch more. A player who wants control over top or bottom, wants to lead the first trick, and wants a shot at the 3 bonus points needs to play more carefully. If they bid and take their guaranteed tricks, they then need to wriggle out of taking any more.

Alternately, a player with a power hand can let somebody else win the bid and then try to take as many tricks as possible. But they don't get first lead and don't get bonus points. (This fits in with the first change. The player who decides not to go after the bid will do so knowing in advance whether the hand will be 'top' or 'bottom'.)

This means there are two viable approaches, depending on your cards and your temperament: Bid precisely and go after the bonus. Let someone else bid but try to win a lot of tricks.

These small changes are going to be incorporated into the game.

We played about half a dozen four-player hands. Then I sat out and watched several three-player hands. It was satisfying that people were ready to continue playing. But it was Spielbany, so we moved on to playtesting something else.

I only have one remaining concern about the game: With more tricks in the three-player game, the trick-winning strategy may be stronger than the bid-and-duck-tricks strategy. Perhaps the bonus for making a bid should be 4 points rather than 3. This has some numerical sense, since +3 with 9 tricks in four-player would change to +4 with 12 tricks in three-player. I need to play more before deciding. Maybe it's OK if the three-player game has a slightly different feel to it.

We did play with the Counter Spell rule, and the spell came up once. It may be too hard to cast… will have to play some more and see.

I've added the Excuse so that when it comes up the discard pile and the draw deck are shuffled into a new draw deck. I did this to reduce the possibility of running out of one or more suits during play.

Overall we did enjoy the game. I like the fact that the spell sequence slowly changes over time, giving a player at a moment in time a specific potential that keeps changing. This way, you usually have time to react to their potential (casting resist heat if they have many suns, etc…).