My strategy needs to improve - whats out there?

[Mountain Goat]

Ok. This is a great online game, but I seem to be struggling to improve my results.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but the final 3rd of the game I just run out of steam.

A question to the more experienced players out there (or those that are simply winning a lot) but what am I missing from my strategy if I tend to fade in the last third?

Even when I am in contention and have reasonable production, the fade-out hurts.

Playing style tends to be Terraformer.
First few rounds (say up to 6) on trying to increase production.
Middle rounds building on what has been achieved. So maybe play a city or two, increase $$ production.
Final rounds playing a few more tiles, VP's. Whatever comes my way of benefit.

I'm not a big fan of playing event cards which let you increase your card-holdings but I think I'm starting to miss out on that. Especially on ai. I've seen others hoard a shed-load and then blitz the last two rounds for total destruction.

I'm wondering if I don't pay enough attention to an opponents strengths, and whether they are picking up too many good cards in the draft.
What is everyone else doing in the draft? Some cards you obviously need to take, but I suspect I'm too generous on the card passing.

Definitely a balancing act.
It would be good to hear what works, or doesn't, for you.

Also wondering if anyone has seen online stuff of use. Not a demo, but a strong player explaining why such choices were made.

Good to chat ....

Thanks.

[FrankJones]

look for good players and play them and see what they are doing, which cards then tend to keep and which ones they pass, when and how they play them. It's a game of efficiency and opportunity. The strategy also depends on player count. I play almost entirely 2p games. 4p games would be very different.

[Mountain Goat]

Thanks Frank,

Have you got any youtube stuff for an entire game?

I think your right on the card passing.
I also think I undervalue the bonus producing cards, like steel-to-money, plants-to-money, even card-producers. I now see these as very useful, maybe around the middle to later rounds

They can be so expensive to fit in. I think I will need to fit one or two in, dependent on circumstances.

I also tend to play 2P only, and if you are going to get found out anywhere it's in 2P.
3P seems to stop the runaway leader a bit more.

So many options and ways of playing this game.

[becephalus]

Hold fewer cards. Whenever someone is having a hard time this is always the answer. Only hold cards you can currently play, or maybe 1 turn out.

[Mountain Goat]

Originally posted by becephalus:

Hold fewer cards. Whenever someone is having a hard time this is always the answer. Only hold cards you can currently play, or maybe 1 turn out.

Yeah, another good point. I think I place too much emphasis on cards being great 5 or 6 rounds from now, maybe even more. Got to find that sweet spot i think.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by becephalus:

Hold fewer cards. Whenever someone is having a hard time this is always the answer. Only hold cards you can currently play, or maybe 1 turn out.

Well, my own opinion would be to disregard this advice completely. In a 2p game that's a sure-fire way to lose.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by Mountain Goat:

Thanks Frank,

Have you got any youtube stuff for an entire game?

Not exactly. I have various entire games against the AI, but that's not much help.

[becephalus]

Originally posted by FrankJones:

Originally posted by becephalus:

Hold fewer cards. Whenever someone is having a hard time this is always the answer. Only hold cards you can currently play, or maybe 1 turn out.

Well, my own opinion would be to disregard this advice completely. In a 2p game that's a sure-fire way to lose.

No way, we should pay sometime. I typically hold 3 or 4 to start at most. And maybe 1/2 a turn.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by becephalus:

Originally posted by FrankJones:

Well, my own opinion would be to disregard this advice completely. In a 2p game that's a sure-fire way to lose.

No way, we should pay sometime. I typically hold 3 or 4 to start at most. And maybe 1/2 a turn.

Well, I'm on the app quite often, especially under the current circumstances. Plenty of free time.

[lphingula]

I have thoughts on why people don't do well at this game. The below is long and you may start to read it and be like,"ok, fine I get it please stop typing."

The absolute best resource out there is the action/card cost breakdown that someone made on boardgamegeek called "A quantified guide to TM strategy." Let me explain how this is relevant to your issue.

It's very very easy to have a "style." You like to play titanium production, you like to terraform, you like plants on the board. Something. The best method to play is to have no style I think. The most important factor in victory comes down to 3 parameters, luck, flexibility and efficiency. Of those, flexibility is the one that is most important to work on improving.

Luck is immutable. You get the cards you get and if you get bad cards or misjudge what you will get or play a strategy like plants and then get no cities, well, tough luck.

Flexibility comes down to how many options you have. This isn't mathematical. Well it kind of is, if you happen to memorize You will see people value cards at 2 mc per card. They say that basically because a useless card is worth 1 mc, you can sell it for that much, and a useful one is kind of like 3 mc, because that's what you would have paid during the draft to get it. Whatever, it's fine to estimate, it doesn't "really" work, since if I have 2 "give me 3 energy production cards" and some steel sitting in my bank and then happen to be able to draft the science complex, that's a super valuable card, and I might even pay more than 3 for it if that option existed. Bottom line, the more cards you have, the more likely you are to have these types of "oh, that's exactly the card I needed situation." So AI Central, and other cards like that that help you draw cards consistently, I think are often undervalued cards. Except for Restricted Area, that card sucks. Almost always.

This is the paragraph where efficiency comes in, sorry this was long-winded. But let's get back to our example of science complex with 6 energy production. You think, "2 victory points per turn if I just play these 3 cards? Obviously that's the best thing since sliced bread I'm totally going to win and this is awesome." But are you going to win? How much did this cost you? Those "give me 3 energy production cards" are not cheap, they are usually about 17 mc per card. Science Complex is 12. You paid 9 credits to draw those cards. That's a total of 17+17+12+9=54 mc. That's a lot! If you only got to play science complex one time, you'd get two victory points for 54 mc. That's terribly inefficient. You would never do this as the last two turns of the game. You would be better off putting down greenery and cities, especially if there are some on the board you can capitalize on. But let's say it's turn one of the game and you get these three cards as an option. Let's say your other option is to buy Earth Catapult, at 23 mc it gives you 2 victory points and -2 cost to each card. Which would you choose? Let's say that for other reasons you only can choose either those three cards that lead to science complex being played or earth catapult.

You choose Earth Catapult silly. Obviously, there can be other mitigating circumstances and things in your hand could change that, but it's hard to imagine what. "But Science complex played early will be 2 victory points per turn," you say, "Earth catapult is only 2 victory points, although it does give that discount." That discount is better than victory points on turn one. You're going to play perhaps 25-100 cards in this game. A discount of 2 for every single card you play is basically the most efficient thing you can do on turn one of the game. It is essentially saving you 50-200 cash for the game. And cash is the ultimate flexibility.

It's super easy to get caught up in, "I really want that card and I want to buy it even though it doesn't work with my current corporation. I will buy it." Don't do it! Think about what is most efficient for you. Think about how synergy between cards increases efficiency. How to determine this? It's almost always a question of arithmetic. Do the math of what card combinations are most efficient. What will cost you the least for the most victory points in the long term.

Ok I can't type any more.

[Messenger]

Originally posted by lphingula:

So AI Central, and other cards like that that help you draw cards consistently, I think are often undervalued cards. Except for Restricted Area, that card sucks. Almost always.

These two statements undercut your entire message, card draw is 99% better than anything else in a 2p game and very strong with more players.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by Messenger:

Originally posted by lphingula:

So AI Central, and other cards like that that help you draw cards consistently, I think are often undervalued cards. Except for Restricted Area, that card sucks. Almost always.

These two statements undercut your entire message, card draw is 99% better than anything else in a 2p game and very strong with more players.

yeah no offense to iphingula, but there were two ludicrous statements in that post: "So AI Central, and other cards like that that help you draw cards consistently, I think are often undervalued cards. "

WHAT. is there a player in existence who undervalues AI central !? the card most often mentioned as the best card in the game?

and "Except for Restricted Area, that card sucks. Almost always."

WHAT. By all means, pass me that card whenever you want.

[chaney]

Opportunity cost.

Present value.

Don't panic.