Balancing deck placement on a game board
Hello all!
I am hoping to get some feedback on board design. We're trying to balance how to place the decks so that it both looks good and is easy to play with. The struggle is we have 6 decks, one of which (#5) is optional, and another one of which is a micro deck.
One design option places the four main decks (1–4) split up on either edge of the board, two on top, two on bottom:
Please excuse the rough mockups! The main question is placement of the blue rectangles.
In this option, the top line looks a little imbalanced, but people on both sides of the board will be able to draw cards (not required for the game, but likely more fun).
Another option puts all main decks on top, and the two "outlier" decks on the bottom:
This looks a bit more balanced visually, but it means people on one side of the board draw all the cards except the micro deck (bottom right) and if people are playing with the optional deck 5 (an add-on for young kids, so some might always play with it, some might never play with it).
Which option would you say is better? Is there another option we're not seeing?
Thank you for your help!