Best and Worst Corps discussion

[RoyalRook]

Which corps are the best and worst for none corp era, what about corp era? How do you rank them? Discuss!

Season 19 Meta Data (11/26/24)

Overall conclusion
The introduction of preludes have smoothed both the pick rate and win rate of corps. I.e. the highest pick rate and win rate corps have been picked slightly less and have performed slightly worse. The lowest win rate and pick rate corps have been picked up more and performed better. This is expected behavior when you introduce more components to a system. However, it could also be argued that the early economy and terraforming options from preludes significantly enable certain below average corps (Inventrix and UNMI for example).

A little more detail
All corps have gotten lower pick rate because we have introduced new corps in the prelude setting. To identify corps that saw the highest increase in relative play, we can look for the corps where the pick rate decreased the least. This is UNMI, Inventrix, Thorgate, Helion, Phobolog and Ecoline. Of these, all rose in win rate, except Helion and Phobolog, which are currently performing worse in prelude format.

The most significant win rate changes are Helion performing much worse while UNMI and Inventrix are performing much better.

Here is a summary table. Remember the season is not over, so numbers will change by the end of the season.

| Corporation | Participation S18 | Participation S19 | Change in Participation (%) | Change in Win Rate (%) |
|---------------------------|----------------|----------------|-------------------------|--------------------|
| CrediCor | 33.9% | 21.0% | -12.9% | -1.7% |
| Interplanetary Cinematics | 27.1% | 14.8% | -12.3% | -1.8% |
| Saturn Systems | 30.5% | 21.5% | -9.0% | -0.5% |
| Ecoline | 24.1% | 18.9% | -5.2% | +0.4% |
| Tharsis Republic | 37.3% | 24.4% | -12.9% | +3.8% |
| Mining Guild | 28.8% | 18.6% | -10.2% | -1.8% |
| Teractor | 28.4% | 19.1% | -9.3% | +0.8% |
| PhoboLog | 20.8% | 17.8% | -3.0% | -3.0% |
| Helion | 21.4% | 13.1% | -8.3% | -7.3% |
| ThorGate | 14.5% | 7.1% | -7.4% | +1.3% |
| Inventrix | 20.4% | 15.3% | -5.1% | +4.3% |
| United Nations Mars Initiative | 12.9% | 9.9% | -3.0% | +4.5% |

Season 18 Meta Data (10 days before the end of the season 18)

https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraformingMa ... ames_base/

Achievements
I thought it would be fun to start with some achievements obtained by specific players.

**Go Big Or Go Home (Highest Score)**

The highest score achieved in the dataset belongs to BGA user "somemartian", who is the current rank 7. He scored a whopping 160 points in a 13 generation game as Credicor.

**Optimizer (Highest Score per Generation)**

The highest score per generation was achieved by BGA user "SuperPikasso" who is the current rank 16. He achieved 143 VP in an 11 generation game as Saturn Systems for a vp per generation of 13!

**Underdog (Biggest upset based on elo of opponents)**

The biggest upset was achieved by BGA user "puffsnow" (elo 233) as Mining Guild when they won against "leonstar79" (elo 548, rank 21) and "anotherstew" (elo 559, 18). The probability to win against each of these opponents computed by elo score was 14 % and 13 %.

Objective Corporation tier list for 3p basegame with Corporate Era based on winning percentage from a sample of 1,556 games of the just finished Arena Season 18. All games included at least one of the top ~ 35 players in the Arena Season (most of you guys posting here )

Corp winrate (wins/games)

Credicor..... 42.6 % (225/528)
IC............... 42.0 % (177/421)
Saturn........ 37.1 % (176/474)
Ecoline....... 36.8 % (138/375)
Tharsis....... 36.2 % (210/580)
MG............. 34.4 % (154/448)
Teractor..... 31.0 % (137/442)
PhoboLog... 29.1 % (94/323)
Helion........ 25.8 % (86/333)
ThorGate.... 25.7 % (58/226)
Inventrix ....24.0 % (76/317)
UNMI..........12.4 % (25/201)

My ranking:

None Corp Era:
1. Credicor : King of kings, bow down to your Mars overlord.
2. Tharsis: TM? Engine? I can do both.
3. Ecoline: Don't hit me on Gen2, so I can dominate. Please don't let me start as 1st player, I want to be 3rd.
4. Mining Guild: Umm, engine, free MS, or I can get all three and a cheap fund? Yes please.
5. Helion: I can do whatever I want.
6. Phobolog: Can we talk about none corp era me? I am a force.
7. IC: I can be good, I guess. Building tags? Yes please.
8. Thorgate: I am too fancy.
9. Inventrix: I am way too fancy.
10. UNMI:You choose me because you like to cheer for the underdog.

July 1st 2024 updated ranking for None Corp Era:

1. Tharsis: The King is dead, long lives the King. All I do is win win win no matter what.
2.Credicor: I am a monster, just wait till you see me in corp era. I will be back.
3. Ecoline: Just terrifying when hit the right tempo, with GIA or Deimo the game is half finished.
4. IC: No building tags no problem, better ones will surely show up. I have a big event just for you. Builder, terraformer, mayor, I am just a celebrity.
5. Mining Guild: Umm, engine, free MS, or I can get all three and a cheap fund? Yes please.
6. Thorgate: I am actually really good, things just come cheaply to me. It's blackout time, no power for you.
7. Phobolog: I pity the fool who sit behind me, no greenery for you. Of course I have Deimo and GIA in hand, that's why I am here.
8. Helion: I can do whatever I want. But a spoiled child is a rotten child.
9. Inventrix: I am way too fancy. Luck could be on my side, but I would rather be Tharsis.
10. UNMI: Don't look at me.

[Feroker]

My list for the corporate era:
1. Teractor
2. Mining Guild
3. Tharsis
4. Ecoline
5. Inventrix
6. Credicor
7. Saturn systems
8. IC - very conditional
9. Phobolog - very conditional
10. Helion
11. Thorgate
12. UNMI

[Yahyra]

I politely suggest segregating the discussion to player counts. For example, Tharsis is much, in general, stronger in a 5 player game as opposed to a two player game.

Let the discussions be fruitful.


Best wishes.

[RoyalRook]

Yeah we don’t talk about 4-5 players, they are not real games. This is just for 2-3 players in general.

[Starwarrior1128]

Tharsis is so OP that I can't even believe it made it to the Official game. When any city tile is placed ON MARS, increase your MC production 1 step. No other Corp. gets a benefit when some other player does something. It would be like if Ecoline gets to increase plant production whenever someone places a Greenery.

[HighlanderKG]

Tharsis is so OP that I can't even believe it made it to the Official game. When any city tile is placed ON MARS, increase your MC production 1 step. No other Corp. gets a benefit when some other player does something. It would be like if Ecoline gets to increase plant production whenever someone places a Greenery.

Not sure if being sarcastic or serious

Tharsis is average, it gets better with higher player counts. If we talk about 2-3 player games - completely average corp.

Building cities early is a bad strategy even as Tharsis, because ROI on that is awful. As Tharsis, you will pay 22 MC to get 2 MC production. That means 11 generations should pass to give you back the money you gave! That's beyond inefficient. Three player game, especially with no-corp era, should end in gen 9-10 tops, so you won't even get the value you invested, and you gain 0 points as is. Only when you make a greenery next to a city you get 1 bonus point.

You can consistently win this game with 0 cities, if you have a great plant production you need 1-2 cities MOST. Mayor is the worst milestone in the game.

Corp that is benefiting from building cities the most is not even Tharsis. It is Mining Guild. When you get huge steel production, you will struggle to convert it to MC. Cities then become efficient, under assumption you have enough energy (also mostly building tags) to consume. Mining guild can amp MC production from cities faster than Tharsis, because it will spend truckloads of steel on it.

If you were serious, I would kindly suggest you to reconsider your take on this game

[RoyalRook]

Tharsis is so OP that I can't even believe it made it to the Official game. When any city tile is placed ON MARS, increase your MC production 1 step. No other Corp. gets a benefit when some other player does something. It would be like if Ecoline gets to increase plant production whenever someone places a Greenery.

Not sure if being sarcastic or serious

Tharsis is average, it gets better with higher player counts. If we talk about 2-3 player games - completely average corp.

Building cities early is a bad strategy even as Tharsis, because ROI on that is awful. As Tharsis, you will pay 22 MC to get 2 MC production. That means 11 generations should pass to give you back the money you gave! That's beyond inefficient. Three player game, especially with no-corp era, should end in gen 9-10 tops, so you won't even get the value you invested, and you gain 0 points as is. Only when you make a greenery next to a city you get 1 bonus point.

You can consistently win this game with 0 cities, if you have a great plant production you need 1-2 cities MOST. Mayor is the worst milestone in the game.

Corp that is benefiting from building cities the most is not even Tharsis. It is Mining Guild. When you get huge steel production, you will struggle to convert it to MC. Cities then become efficient, under assumption you have enough energy (also mostly building tags) to consume. Mining guild can amp MC production from cities faster than Tharsis, because it will spend truckloads of steel on it.

If you were serious, I would kindly suggest you to reconsider your take on this game

This, and if I may add, Tharsis feel strong in your games because most people do NOT know how this game works and staring a race to feed Tharsis for no reason. The other day I was in a game, the player literally told me he SP a city to take a good spot on gen 2 while Tharsis is in play with no intention to take mayor. Plays like this makes Tharsis feels OP b/c if you both spamming cities, of course Tharsis will win that game. If top players in a game, Tharsis can hardly win the match, because it's a below average corp. when two 400+ players in a 3p match with a 100 elo player, Tharsis shines. I am ranking Tharsis high in none corp era, because of the current meta, players still learning the game and feeding Tharsis in most matches.

[OwnerOfTheIronThrone]

Tharsis isn't a weak or avarage corp in base game 3p corp era at least. It is easily 3rd or 4th best imo. Just because experienced players don't SP city for no reasonn, doesn't mean, that your ability is useless. Tharsis has enough cash to afford most R1 plays you will have to do. The city helps you with both gardener and mayor. Builder also causes people to play cities. You can't sacrifice your chances for a milestone in a 3p game just to not give tharsis a free cash prod or you will fall behind compared to the 3rd player.

Also I am curious where did you get 9-10 gens tops from, because I highly doubt that 9 gens are much more likely then 11 even on 3p (without prelude). Is there a database behind it or was it just your experience? Maybe if you try to force the game to end quickly when you shouldn't, but players should pay attention to not bump the lacking parameter when they stand to gain more from an extra gen, then their opponents.

[Nekojin]

Ecoline is king when you're playing with new players, and ridiculously strong when you're not playing Corporate Era and/or expansions. It also loses power the more players you have in the game, but not a lot - in a 2-player game, Ecoline is unlikely to be challenged on a greenery production engine, but in a 5-player game, the greenery production will be challenged by at least 1-2 other players. As the player experience level goes up, Ecoline's strength goes down as people can hinder Ecoline's engine more freely than any other engine in the game. There's only a few cards that reduce other players' production for anything, but there's a lot of plant-killing cards and very few cards that kill or steal money, steel, titanium, energy, or heat. There's a good reason for that - Greenery is, absent any engine shenanigans, the most cost-efficient way to rack up TP and VP.

UNMI can do surprisingly well at all levels - both Corporate Era and not, against any number of players. Like with Credicor, the Corp with zero baked-in engine is a corp that can pick up any engine. As long as you remember to pump your TP at least once every generation and take your corporate ability, even dropping a SP can be worthwhile. Where people lose with UNMI is in thinking that this is an engine that can be relied on the whole game, and think that they can milk the UNMI ability for as many generations as possible, when that's not the case - it starts strong, and gets weaker over time as other corps' engines start to get up to speed. So the goal for UNMI isn't to do just one TP to activate their corp's ability, but rather to end the game as fast as possible. With this in mind, playing lots of SP can be powerful - two Temperature SPs plus UNMI's ability costs 31 MB, only 1 MB below "proper" cost, and most people play cost-inefficient combos as it is anyway, so that 1MB is not a big deal. Couple this with pacing strategies to capture the track bonuses, and you can soar to victory with UNMI.

I would agree that both Inventrix and UNMI are both bottom-rung corporations for players who do not know how to play them well, and are inexperienced with the game. Both can be powerhouses when played properly. When the game was still new, nobody jockeyed for the Planner Milestone, and it only got picked when everyone was too busy mucking about with their engines to get three others (like how Terraformer is now treated). It was only because of some early inventive plays by Inventrix players to capture Planner on Gen2 that people slowly started to realize that possibility, and now I see someone trying that gambit (without Inventrix, so even slower!) at least 10% of the time.

[RoyalRook]

Tharsis isn't a weak or avarage corp in base game 3p corp era at least. It is easily 3rd or 4th best imo. Just because experienced players don't SP city for no reasonn, doesn't mean, that your ability is useless. Tharsis has enough cash to afford most R1 plays you will have to do. The city helps you with both gardener and mayor. Builder also causes people to play cities. You can't sacrifice your chances for a milestone in a 3p game just to not give tharsis a free cash prod or you will fall behind compared to the 3rd player.

Also I am curious where did you get 9-10 gens tops from, because I highly doubt that 9 gens are much more likely then 11 even on 3p (without prelude). Is there a database behind it or was it just your experience? Maybe if you try to force the game to end quickly when you shouldn't, but players should pay attention to not bump the lacking parameter when they stand to gain more from an extra gen, then their opponents.

It’s a general accepted principle to evaluate the game on a gen 9 basis, when most of the 3p game finishes. There are many articles out there, but this one is my favorite, if you want to go down the rabbit hole with us, check this out: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/7241 ... the%20game.