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New Bedford is a great worker placement game that unfortately has a lot of errata and rules confusion that can turn players away. When played with confidence, the AI captains are great, but the thing that makes them great–the rondel–also leads to situations where the player is unsure how to proceed. Playing a full AI game, with four captains, can potentially lead to a lot of upkeep and decision-making. I wanted to streamline this experience.
Building Tile Selection
Building tile selection is easily automated, you just need to know the player count, whether the expansion is in play, and if the ship’s log module is being used.
Captains Orders
I decided to map out the AI actions to flowcharts and see how far I could narrow the decision space. Those are on itch.io as well.
I made a point of not tracking the boardstate. I like drawing whale tiles from the bag, and so on.