Man, the Inis endgame is a nightmare. I love it, if the group is nice and casual, but a hyper-competitive group kills it. (There’s also something to be said about an endgame that’s all about ripping the rug out from under someone.) Part of it might also be my chess background, the culture of winning openly instead of by trickery.

That is, I was taught that you should assume your opponent will always see your trap, and play the best move given that assumption. This leads to me being “that guy” about the endgame — “you realize I’m just about at six territories, right?” Inis is almost entirely about the trap at the end, though.

Perhaps if the deeds were cards, and only counted towards a specific condition. Then the “VP” count would be secret, and it’d be harder to evaluate positions.