quartex wrote:
1. In Appendix C you say "NOTE: A Player can never have two Blend Markers on the same Blend and abilities that may cause this can never be used". I assume this means you can't invest in a Blend you are already contributing to. But in the picture next to this rule, it shows someone using an investment marker to place a balck marker in a Slate, despite the fact that a black marker has already been placed on the bottom of the blend slate. Is the picture in error, or am I understanding the rule wrong?
Hold the rule-book up to the light a bit, the investing color is actually blue, but it's a little hard to see being so small :) But, you have the rule correct; a player cannot have two markers on a single blend (ever).
quartex wrote:
2. If both players in a 2 person team have maxed out their Invest research track, can I assume the tiebreaker abilities cancel each other out?
That is correct.
quartex wrote:
3. How do variant blend slates work? I'm confused what you mean in the variant rules by "do not exclude country tokens when they are placed above the world map".
The Ciao Bella and Chemical Reaction Slates are the variant Blend Slates for 5 & 6 player games, which I recommend using every time when playing 5 & 6 player games (were not put into actual game for ease of play). They are not part of the regular game and should be kept in the box when playing with 3,4,7, or 8 players.
The only difference is that these slates do not have the symbol to make a country unavailable. This is what the "do not exclude country tokens" quote means. It's easy to understand once you see it in action and makes for some interesting decisions in a 6-player game.
quartex wrote:
The component to this game are VERY good, I especially like getting a ton of ziplock bags for everything. But the dark green and black colors are almost identical, and it's very hard to tell the Blend Markers apart.
I was noticing this little hiccup when I played at my friend's house with some overhead lighting. I'm probably going to put a little dot on the black ones, but in play, I find players are usually watching my every move like a hawk when I score them, so I still haven't added the dot after about 6 or 7 plays. Hope you get it to the table soon!