|
The General posted:GG. I did better than I thought I was going to. Losing those swordsmen really messed me up. Good Game. I got too greedy with that low military war that you did a great job of turning around on me. I also miscalculated my ore to finish my wonder on the last turn. All in all a good game that was actually really close to the very last turn.
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2019 05:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 11:16 |
|
|
First league game is complete, GG to The General and Megasabin. Winner was: wizzardstaff e: Wow, great crossposts. Fun game all, I feel like everyone was in the lead at some point. wizzardstaff fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Oct 16, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2019 05:41
|
|
|
Nice, seems like it was pretty close! We've just entered Age 3 in our game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2019 13:44
|
|
|
Our game is complete as well! GG nimby! There was a lot of jockeying for relative strength, without a clear single warmonger - I think maybe two aggressions succeeded the whole game, and we never had a war. Nimby pulled off a risky Republic and managed to top deck defense twice to stave off attacks from me and StashAugustine when he was still low on MA. StashAugistine had a really unfortunate turn where he took a lot of techs speculatively and got screwed out of the science to play anything by Dark Ages. Instead of his Leonardo/Alchemy turn, he essentially had to concede a turn in Age 1 because his hand was full of unplayable cards - hard to come back from! A cautionary tale about hand size for sure. It was a funny situation where usually Bill has inevitability on his side, but in this game, nimby had no tier 2 or 3 theaters or libraries - so actually, if there had been another turn, the gap would have been closer (I had 27 CPT to his 10.) Another interesting thing to note is that I did Homer + Colosseum because I saw we had a ton of Theater based leaders (Bach, Shakespeare, Fleming, Dietrich), and figured I could use the double happy face as a start and then rely primarily on theaters. That kind of worked, but I neglected BOTH science and resources Age 1, which means I had to patch those up Age II instead of starting to go off. Still, it was a good example of how you should watch the leader pool as early as your Age A picks. I definitely feel like I made some misplays owing to the async (a big one was delaying military a turn to upgrade coal because I was worried about resource pinch - when I MYSELF had seeded a Foray and knew I could get it with a military upgrade). I feel like going forward, I need to be a bit more deliberate about "re-downloading" my understanding of the gamestate before taking my political action especially. EDIT: Another HUGE one I found is that it's a lot harder to remember what's in other people's hands, and you can really screw yourself if you forget to check. I ended up drafting Saladin at 2CA trying to deny him from Nimby...who had Gutenberg in his hand already. And of course it's really important to have a sense of their science burden when you're eyeing a 3CA tech and wondering if it'll make it to you next turn. I think going forward for async, I need to have a little mantra like "Check the deck, check their hands, check exclusive tactics" and do it every time I boot up the game. Still, it was a lot of fun, and faster than I thought - sometimes life gets in the way (when I'm on-premises at work, the wifi won't let me get in), but often you get into these nice rhythms where you take turns really quickly. I'm definitely down to run this a bit more formally for whoever's interested! hito fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Oct 17, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2019 06:25
|
|
|
I saved all the defence cards I could, I think I only needed a topdecked defence once to keep me safe from both of you. I definitely got lucky I kept drawing them to be secure enough to neglect my military, though I'm not sure I needed/wanted to win that Historic Territory 2. I like throwing in events so I know what's coming, that Dark Ages was mine and indeed excellently timed. I think if it went one round longer, I'd not have bid on the colonies to protect against a war and I wouldn't have had the dudes to push myself much ahead with buildings. Most games I'm continuously struggling for rocks, then there's a game like this where I manage coal/oil and the last few turns aren't a decision of what to build, but of how to most efficiently spend my hoard of rocks.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2019 06:39
|
|
|
nimby posted:I saved all the defence cards I could, I think I only needed a topdecked defence once to keep me safe from both of you. I definitely got lucky I kept drawing them to be secure enough to neglect my military, though I'm not sure I needed/wanted to win that Historic Territory 2. I found the run I was thinking of in the log and it was either two turns of topdecking or one turn of +2 draws - I guess the more accurate formulation was that you drew 2 defense cards in four draws. But it's true that the Revolt wouldn't have been a "risky" one if you had drawn the 2 defense cards already. From a hand of no military cards, you drew three cards, defended an aggression with a defense and a facedown discard, revolted with Robespierre and played Warfare to draw 1 card, and then defended another aggression with a defense card.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2019 06:49
|
|
|
I'd have to check on PC, because gently caress scrolling through the log on my phone, but I think I had the defence cards already in hand pre-revolt.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2019 07:09
|
|
|
Yeah GG all. I hosed up that one turn where I grabbed the tech- I should have developed alchemy not monarchy amd lost the actions in return for actually taking a turn next turn.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2019 21:58
|
|
|
Alright our game just finished let's see how it shook out--  Have a lot to say about this game. Let's just say that Age III was absolutely wild.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 21:28
|
|
|
 Incredibly close game. I was 3rd player and had the choice of ending Age 3 on my turn by taking several cards. However, Arcee and J-Man were in a culture war, and if the age advanced then Arcee (who had the least culture) would lose Napoleon and give culture to J-Man (who had the most). Also, my culture income was the highest, and I had Gandhi, so I figured it would be best to delay the game one more round. Of course this let both of them declare culture wars on me D: GG all!
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 21:38
|
|
|
Hard to say how the game would have turned out had you ended the game a round early. That would have been 18 extra culture for me and 1 turn less of your culture rate and I had the armed intervention in my hand anyway. Not sure if you had the cards to defend it on that turn but given that you didn't on the last turn I assume you didn't? Perhaps if the game had ended there I wouldn't have had the means to get to a 20 harmony score and yours would have been higher? I think the turning point for me in that Age III was a really clutch Cold War event near the end of the game that let me develop Fundamentalism, Rockets, and then Mil Theory (though that last one was replacing Strategy, so not a huge swing) within two turns which allowed me to minimize the damage from rchandra's first war against me and setup to then declare on Phel right afterwards. Wasn't expecting rc's war though, that ended up being sort of an unintentional kingmaking move on his part, though given how close we were to each other at that time that could be forgiven. Speaking of, I had a pretty shaky 16 culture lead going into the impacts and almost lost it there. The only thing that saved me there is that I was the one who seeded Harmony and I had both Strength and Competition in my hands so I knew I could spend my last turn sacrificing all the strength I needed to maximize my Harmony score (me and Phel matched at 20) and squeeze every bit of culture from my buildings I could, though I screwed even that one up by building a second arena instead of a third temple. The idea was to maximize happiness in case that impact showed up but I totally forgot I had the Basilica so even three temples would have been enough there 
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 22:02
|
|
|
Hah, I was the one who seeded that Cold War - figured that I'd have enough military strength to benefit when it showed up. Of course, it got revealed on Arcee's turn, and (iirc) we were all tied for military at that time. Since I was last in turn order, I lost that tiebreaker
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 22:09
|
|
|
Wow, that sounds like a real exciting finish. Hats off. With all the logging that the game does, I'd love to come up with some sort of infographic to summarize the state of the game over time. But I can't copy and paste the game log from my phone. Is it any more accessible in the Steam version?
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 22:36
|
|
|
Sounds like everyone had a good time. Everyone want a formal league/have any suggestions for how to run it? My first thought is something like: three games randomly assigned, without seeding or repeats (ABC DEF GHI, ADG BEH CFI, AEI BFG CDH), then cutting the top 3 to a league final game. And just repeating those bite-sized mini leagues whenever we feel like it? But I don't know the best scoring system to determine the "best three players" from the nine games.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 22:36
|
|
|
hito posted:Sounds like everyone had a good time. Yes, lots of fun. I still don't have notifications back, despite the buried steam setting page showing them on for TtA, so I just had to check back periodically when at the computer. It should definitely reward ordinals and not raw culture. Maybe even just firsts then seconds, breaking a 2-way tie after that with ranking in the match containing both players?
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2019 23:39
|
|
|
What's the plan here?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 18:25
|
|
|
How about we award 3/2/1 match points for 1st/2nd/3rd place and take the total after three rounds?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 19:21
|
|
|
wizzardstaff posted:How about we award 3/2/1 match points for 1st/2nd/3rd place and take the total after three rounds? This seems reasonable, with first tiebreaker being number of 1st place games, and 2nd tiebreaker being average distance from 2nd in 1st place finishes? Also, something else to think about - would folks rather I just assume they're in for each successive mini-league unless they post to opt out? Or would you rather we get everyone to explicitly re-confirm interest each time? The latter is a little more professional, but I worry it'd make the thread kind of annoying to read.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2019 02:23
|
|
|
Anyone got thoughts on the new wonders? Any new combos to watch out for with the expansion?
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2019 02:38
|
|
|
Apocron posted:Anyone got thoughts on the new wonders? Any new combos to watch out for with the expansion? I'm starting to lean towards the conclusion that Himeji Castle is the best wonder in the game right now. It just does so much. It provides near-ironclad protection from any war or aggression until at worst Age III. It gives you an extra push of offense for that crucial aggression or that crucial WoC you need to win. And even if your opponent(s) try to whittle you down by forcing you to sacrifice units, each sacrifice provides +3 culture no matter what which blunts the cost of having to replace them. And on top of that the wonder just gives a flat +2 culture per turn, same as the other best wonder in the game (Basilica). For extra fun, pair Himeji with Marlene in Age III and laugh at your opponents' attempts to do anything to you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2019 17:41
|
|
|
I recently became a fan of Cleopatra + Stonehenge for a huge rush of science in the early game.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2019 19:50
|
|
|
Himeji is the best new wonder for the reasons Super Jay Mann said. I find Suez Canal can be insanely good if you have a Vast or Inhabited Territory in hand. Why yes, I would like to solve all my food & pop issues as well as increase my ore income. It's like Columbus on steroids and happens to also work really well when using in conjunction with Columbus.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2019 22:20
|
|
|
Yep, I'm on the Himeji train as well. Basilica can still be better in some scenarios, and actually I think I take Machu Picchu over either if I'm on Iron AND Irrigation, but the +2CPT makes Himeji good even when you don't need the sacrifice power, and the freedom to half-rear end military really opens up the kind of plays you can do. Also agree that Suez rules and you should try to keep a good colony in hand in games where it's going to be on the offer. Statue of Liberty can also be a life-saver depending on your food/happy face situation. I always FEEL like there's great potential with going for Harvard and Republic to just slam a million yellow cards, but my playthoughs with Harvard have actually been largely disappointing, especially in contrast to how strong the other new Age II wonders are. While this is bumped - reminder that I'm lookin for feedback on how we might want to do a recurrent goon league: hito posted:This seems reasonable, with first tiebreaker being number of 1st place games, and 2nd tiebreaker being average distance from 2nd in 1st place finishes? I'm mostly through my first season of Meeple League, and it's been a lot of fun.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2019 00:08
|
|
|
Guess I should say just for clarity's sake that I don't really care what the format of the league is since it's not a super serious thing to begin with, and it'd be much easier to let people opt out then to explicitly require opt-ins every time. Just my two cents.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2019 02:53
|
|
|
Has anyone taken Silk Road? It just seems bad... I've never been able to sell myself on it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2019 05:56
|
|
|
In my experience, having 3 science from 2 philosophies and Silk Road, plus the extra science on Breakthrough and Cultural Heritage is just enough that you don't need Alchemy or an Age I science leader. I've taken it for that reason before. It kinda sits in the same spot as Universitas Carolina; a little less consistent science now, but with more utility later in the game with +2 MA patriotism and maybe the odd food and rock here and there. Definitely on the weaker side but justified if you miss your other science options.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2019 06:16
|
|
|
Silk Road is a nice wonder with a nice effect but that 5 step requirement is back-breaking. You pretty much need extra blues and an extra Age I CA (likely 2) for it to be worth the headache, unless you go hard early on production and just decide to eat the corruption.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2019 07:02
|
|
|
Got another LP up if people want to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akMn_EsXJvI Trying to do a bunch of Random Mix videos to show how your strategy should adapt to the leader pool. So would love any c.crits you have about presentation or whatever because I kind of want to snap off a lot of these.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 07:02
|
|
|
I kind of like Machu Picchu but it requires the cards to fall exactly in the right order to be effective. If you do manage to get it with Iron, you can supercharge your production and also fix any food issues, but you need to have iron and Machu Picchu to come up really early to make it worth it. My highest points game ever was early iron into Machu Picchu and then early Opera with Bach: since I had the food and ore from Machu Picchu it was incredibly easy to go up to 3 opera early and with 14 culture per turn just from Bach and the operas I built an incredible lead. But without getting lucky on card timings, Machu Picchu is incredibly lackluster.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 11:13
|
|
|
hito posted:Got another LP up if people want to watch: Don't frantically click the mouse! Nice game. At the end, around 52:00, isn't 2nd Air Force better than starting on a 3rd army? Needing one less unit for similar strength would probably let you build more of your urban buildings.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 15:13
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:I kind of like Machu Picchu but it requires the cards to fall exactly in the right order to be effective. If you do manage to get it with Iron, you can supercharge your production and also fix any food issues, but you need to have iron and Machu Picchu to come up really early to make it worth it. My highest points game ever was early iron into Machu Picchu and then early Opera with Bach: since I had the food and ore from Machu Picchu it was incredibly easy to go up to 3 opera early and with 14 culture per turn just from Bach and the operas I built an incredible lead. But without getting lucky on card timings, Machu Picchu is incredibly lackluster. I agree re: Machu Picchu being pretty situational, but you can kind of make your own luck by increasing Iron priority in games with MP in them. In my experience it's fine if Machu Picchu comes later in Age 1, as long as you get Iron online soon enough. rchandra posted:Don't frantically click the mouse! Aww nuts, I think you're right on the Air Force. Marlene makes me dumb sometimes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2019 03:53
|
|
|
starting to dip my toe in via playing on BGA: what're some real basic beginner tips and strategies (or even just some common noob pitfalls)?
|
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2019 19:13
|
|
|
Is it just me or is Scientific Cooperation a trap? I almost never see that pact proposed in a mutually beneficial manner; it looks like a balanced way for two low-science players to bolster their production but in practice it seems to end up with the first player siphoning off just enough of their partner's science that they can never research anything even with the discount.PopZeus posted:starting to dip my toe in via playing on BGA: what're some real basic beginner tips and strategies (or even just some common noob pitfalls)? Biggest noob pitfalls that I can think of are preparing events that end up hurting you (or helping others) more than expected. Don't seed the deck with really nice territories if someone is in better shape to colonize them and be very wary of preparing anything when you are the weakest in military. Maybe this advice is a little on the basic side but it feels really common for people to play a sub-par event card every turn because they think it's their only option. Passing is an option too. Also for early game strategy remember to keep 1-2 unassigned workers available when there are still Age A cards in the pile, in case Development of Warfare/Religion gets drawn.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2020 20:16
|
|
|
All treaties are a trap, but Scientific Cooperation is the biggest trap of them all.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 18:35
|
|
|
Treaties are pretty hilarious, because if you propose one that almost certainly means you have a really strong plan in mind that can be enabled at the expense of the putz who's accepting the deal, but by the same token if the opponent accepts the deal then you immediately worry whether you accidentally enabled an even stronger play by said opponent. Silly theoretical mind games aside, I find that Sci Coop is almost never worth proposing or taking, Open Borders is risky but still worth it if you need that crucial third military action early on, I'm more than happy to take the free blue tokens from Naval Trade if I have no colonization plans, and all the Age III pacts are useful in their own way, most hilarious being screwing over the military player by insulating their only useful target from war decs 
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 20:48
|
|
|
Especially in 4p, pacts can just be "help us both gain on the others". The +food/+rock and food->rock/rock->food come to mind, and even in 3p it's fine to offer / accept without GRAND PLANS. Open borders and scientific cooperation, you had better think carefully about from both sides.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 22:17
|
|
|
Yeah, I think there's a pretty big scale between different pacts. Naval Trade I agree is one I'm usually pretty happy to take the cubes for if the person offering doesn't have colonization modifier already and a different player in the game does. And like rchandra said, +food/+rock and food->rock/rock->food are both usually safe to take, after a quick sanity check you're not taking away a huge limiter from your opponent (don't give Daddy Barb food! He's eaten enough). Scientific Cooperation I think can make sense in exactly the situation "I'm offering this to an opponent who benefits from it more generally (more civils, science, Newton, etc.) BUT it takes me over the edge this turn specifically for a tech I really want." I think it's pretty easy to imagine that getting a double skip government/production upgrade one turn sooner, or a tactic-enabling military unit in response to a war declaration, is worth so much for the asker that they'll offer it to someone who can kind of milk them on it generally. Supremacy might actually be my leader for biggest trap; I've had so many games where I accepted Supremacy because I was still on 3 rocks, then ballooned my military and had to waste a precious Era III political action canceling it. It's often worth it when it's offered and you don't have aggressions in hand, but it just sticks around into the stage when you really need the ability to threaten everyone. Super Jay Mann posted:all the Age III pacts are useful in their own way, most hilarious being screwing over the military player by insulating their only useful target from war decs One of the only thing that tilts me in this game is when this happens while the insulated player is on course to win and the game ends with the insulated player in first, me in second, and the offerer in third/forth. Before denying the bully, make sure that the person they plan on bullying doesn't deserve it!
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 22:34
|
|
|
Scenario: I'm in the lead with just a few points over yellow. Blue has half my score but just declared a culture war on red; expected outcome should put them both a fair bit below us. I want to pick up that Internet wonder for 27 points. But I also really want to avoid getting hit with a second culture war from blue. If I can force the start of Age IV by yellow's turn then the worst that can happen to me is an aggression. There are seven cards left in the deck. I have enough actions to pull five cards from the row, plus two that will be removed at the end of my turn and red's turn. But if I pull that many, I can't grab the wonder. I can grab the wonder and four cards, then hope that red will also pick up enough to complete the age. But can I rely on them to do it? I waffled about it for a while and eventually decided to go with the sure thing and take as many cards as possible. This puts Internet out of reach as it will disappear by my next turn. But there's still a United Nations in the deck, maybe I'll get that.  How would you handle it?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2020 20:32
|
|
|
That's rough. I would have needed to know how many actions Kzdum had. If still a despot you made the right choice, if constitutional or above I probably would have gambled on them taking a card.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2020 21:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 11:16 |
|
|
That's a frustrating picture - you're three science short of just taking Infantry and Tanks and saying "loving try me buddy". I prioritize Age II military techs really highly for that reason. Yeah, if you're way ahead of Blue I think you have to force end because I think Red has a huge incentive to do the extra turn and hope Blue hits you. Even if they have a lot of civils, I think as Red here I just throw my civils away if needed to ensure that Blue has a chance to kneecap you, assuming that would have the effect of lowering the top non-Red score. Incidentially, I think in your shoes I would play Agriculture on your last turn and build two Selective Breedings by dismantling one Alchemy (unless a frontrunner has insane agriculture obviously). Building up food production right now ALSO helps for Balance and Harmony, so it's really efficient.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2020 02:14
|
|