2000 Arena Points: Stats and Observations Getting There

[Corbz]

I've recently reached 2000 ELO in this season's Arena and thought I'd share some stats from along the way, and my observations for those looking to rise up the Arena charts this Season.

TLDR: This arena mode plays very similar to 5-player corp era. Tharsis and Credicor are the strongest corps. Focus on claiming Gardner and then possibly Terraformer.

A few notes:
- This Arena format based on non-Corporate Era is not the standard format that most competitive players play.
- It is heavily terraforming focussed, and tends to be a shorter game than Corporate era.
- Prior to this Season I'd rarely played this format, but thought I'd try the challenge.
- The stats below are based on 100 turn-based games - I was at a mid-1800 score from Live games, prior to trying turn-based play.

Summary:
- From 100 games, I came first in 90, second in 9 and third in 1.

- Credicor was my most played corp.

- Tharsis and Thorgate were my undefeated corps (although I played 4x more Tharsis games than Thorgate).

- Ecoline and MG the only corporations that were defeated more than once.

- The vast majority of games completed in 8 gens (c80%). One game finished in 6 gens and one finished in 10 gens. The others completed in 7 or 9 gens. The only times we went to 9 or 10 were when the game was too close for me to finish in 8 and win.

- Planner milestone was never claimed in any of these games, which is very different to most corporate era games.

Corp----Wins----Losses----Win %
Thar-------17----------0-----100%
Thor--------4----------0------100%
Cred-------19----------1-------95%
IC----------11----------1-------92%
Hel--------10-----------1-------91%
Eco--------11-----------2-------85%
MG--------10-----------2-------83%
UNMI-------3-----------1-------75%
Inv----------3-----------1-------75%
Phobo------2-----------1-------67%
Total------90----------10-------90%


Observations:
- The non-corporate era format plays very similar to 5 player corporate era, i.e. I'm very happy if I have one of Credicor or Tharsis as my corp choices. I'd rate these as the two strongest in the non-Corporate Era format.

- I was also happy with Ecoline and MG, but given my two defeats I may have over-rated these.

- Thorgate surprised me with 100% win rate, but I actually think it's ok as a corp in this format. Cities are much better in this format than in corporate era, so having cheap power to play them in good.

- UNMI is an acceptable pick if you have ways to use it's ability in the first 2 to 3 gens. After that, generally cards and development give you multiple TR each gen so you can use your ability easily. The only game I lost, was due to a very dubious move by my opponent that put them third and me second, bumping the other player from third to first (first place for multiple awards changing).

- The only corp I think is vastly underpowered in this format is Inventrix. I'd only play them if I had multiple good heat/ocean locked plant cards in hand (e.g. kelp, trees, bushes). Their advantages in corporate era (science tag for a science strat, more starting cards for planner) aren't relevant in this format. You can't afford to save up 16 cards, claim planner and play them all. And there are no science payoff cards, so the only bonus is a slight advantage in claiming Scientist).

- Claiming Gardener sets you up for a very strong game, so anything to help achieve this are priority picks, e.g. Most space events (either get you plants) or kill plants, Standard Project Greenery is fine especially along oceans.

- If you claim Gardner with the help of space events, you have a great chance of also claiming Terraformer. If you have two milestones and finish by Gen 8, you've probably won.

- Unless the game is close, I let the other players fund awards and try to ensure I'm competitive for second on those.

[RoyalRook]

Wonderfully stated. I, too found Inventrix is vastly under rated in this format. Unless you are Tharsis, I agree that you should do everything in your power to go for gardener, since it rewards what you truly want to do in this format, which is terraforming Mars, and often much easier and safe than Terraformer because other awards will be taken before it. That's what makes Gardener so great: if your opponent lose on gardener, they lost alot of their investment AND if they then pivot for other milestones they lower their effeciency, especially if they hard push for Mayor. Piggy back to why Tharsis doesn't care for gardener: yes the game will be closer, but you are so strong and dominant why bother? You can win in other ways, take the natural mayor or bait other to chase you off it. You win either way. Perfect example: https://boardgamearena.com/14/terraform ... =521943292 I had some incredible games with Inventrix and many many many easy wins with credicor and Tharsis.

I learnt to never take UNMI, the risk is just too high, even with incredible hand and help from others, it's a tough ask to beat Tharsis with it. And that's what the game has come to me now: can I beat Tharsis? Yes? Then go for it, no? Then this line is no good. Since our ranking is so high, 2nd is not an option. But...never say never, UNMI win is a treat.

I have never played this much none corp era game before, this arena season is a treat for all TM fans. I am so grateful for BGA making this possible. I would have missed this part of TM meta completely if the format wasn't so. Would love for BGA to run it back in the future, perhap 2p none corp era in the coming seasons.

I understand your stat does not reflect this my final point, but can we talk more about none corp era Phobolog? With build in 1 titanium prod, and huge initial resource with the format focusing on TR. Phobolog is a huge threat in any game. I even saw Planner works for Phobolog, since all the player did is to build up his deck and dump out space cards funding science to take the game away from me in the end no less.

With large variance and king making during a 3p game, while carrying your ranking with a 90% win rate is really something, but hey I am coming for yeah I am winning way more turn based game than live game. I always thought live game give us experienced players more advantage, but our win rates doesn't reflect that, what do you think it's the reason? I think it's because during a turn based game, players are much lesss emotional, therefore the game progress more logically, and hence put us in more advantagous situations and less throw and king making happens.

P.S. Please give us a list of game that you found interesting and talk a little about them if you found something innovative or surprising during your play.

[Corbz]

I understand your stat does not reflect this my final point, but can we talk more about none corp era Phobolog? With build in 1 titanium prod, and huge initial resource with the format focusing on TR. Phobolog is a huge threat in any game. I even saw Planner works for Phobolog, since all the player did is to build up his deck and dump out space cards funding science to take the game away from me in the end no less.

I think Phobolog can be good because there is a relatively high proportion of space events, and you want to play them all. So I would say that if you have space events in your opening hand they can be very strong, with more opening money than Credicor. But if you don't have them in opening hand, other players can easily cut them from you in the draft if they are thinking about that. Especially given space events should be priorities to take for all players.

[Corbz]

With large variance and king making during a 3p game, while carrying your ranking with a 90% win rate is really something, but hey I am coming for yeah I am winning way more turn based game than live game. I always thought live game give us experienced players more advantage, but our win rates doesn't reflect that, what do you think it's the reason? I think it's because during a turn based game, players are much less emotional, therefore the game progress more logically, and hence put us in more advantageous situations and less throw and king making happens.

I personally think the main advantage for me from turn based play is more time to plan key parts of the game (such as the likely last gen). I can plan out my actions, and the likely moves of my opponent. This would look like AP in Live games, but doesn't impact the flow for other players in Turn-based. The only downside is forgetting what you take in the draft, and have passed to other players particularly if playing large numbers of turn based games at the same time. But if you need to you can take notes to keep track.

[HappyMeaI]

Wonderfully stated. I, too found Inventrix is vastly under rated in this format. Unless you are Tharsis, I agree that you should do everything in your power to go for gardener, since it rewards what you truly want to do in this format, which is terraforming Mars, and often much easier and safe than Terraformer because other awards will be taken before it. That's what makes Gardener so great: if your opponent lose on gardener, they lost alot of their investment AND if they then pivot for other milestones they lower their effeciency, especially if they hard push for Mayor. Piggy back to why Tharsis doesn't care for gardener: yes the game will be closer, but you are so strong and dominant why bother? You can win in other ways, take the natural mayor or bait other to chase you off it. You win either way. Perfect example: https://boardgamearena.com/14/terraform ... =521943292 I had some incredible games with Inventrix and many many many easy wins with credicor and Tharsis.

I learnt to never take UNMI, the risk is just too high, even with incredible hand and help from others, it's a tough ask to beat Tharsis with it. And that's what the game has come to me now: can I beat Tharsis? Yes? Then go for it, no? Then this line is no good. Since our ranking is so high, 2nd is not an option. But...never say never, UNMI win is a treat.

I have never played this much none corp era game before, this arena season is a treat for all TM fans. I am so grateful for BGA making this possible. I would have missed this part of TM meta completely if the format wasn't so. Would love for BGA to run it back in the future, perhap 2p none corp era in the coming seasons.

I understand your stat does not reflect this my final point, but can we talk more about none corp era Phobolog? With build in 1 titanium prod, and huge initial resource with the format focusing on TR. Phobolog is a huge threat in any game. I even saw Planner works for Phobolog, since all the player did is to build up his deck and dump out space cards funding science to take the game away from me in the end no less.

With large variance and king making during a 3p game, while carrying your ranking with a 90% win rate is really something, but hey I am coming for yeah I am winning way more turn based game than live game. I always thought live game give us experienced players more advantage, but our win rates doesn't reflect that, what do you think it's the reason? I think it's because during a turn based game, players are much lesss emotional, therefore the game progress more logically, and hence put us in more advantagous situations and less throw and king making happens.

P.S. Please give us a list of game that you found interesting and talk a little about them if you found something innovative or surprising during your play.

This is an interesting take. Live with 2 minutes makes it a different game. You have to play under pressure and make quicker decisions so the ones you do make will generally not be the most optimal. I feel live is the purest form as you don’t get all day to math out your plays and the quicker mind will prevail on average. Turn-based is nice however since you can basically play your version of a perfect game every time. Albeit having to to take notes and forgetting which cards came up during draft kinda takes the fun out of it when you’re playing 10+ games at once.

[RoyalRook]

I prefer to play live game, but turn based games are just superior. There are so many nuances in a game you would simply miss without the turn based setting. My schedule is hectic, so even though I want to play live games, I had to play turn based instead. Contrary to popular belief, and my own stated points above, I spent less attention to my turn based game since I am playing like 40 of them at the same time. I play by pure instinct and memory, that's just how I like it. I often playing a turn or two during a shopping trip, spend like 2 or 3 second on a move to compensate for time and my busy schedule.

I tried to play live games, but I often had to abandon them, I lost like 400 arena points from abandon games. But hey, love is love and I love TM, this is best I can do, I am having a blast, truly blessed to have a chance to do this. First time BGA premium member just for this experience and exclusively playing TM.

[HappyMeaI]

This game is wildly addicting despite seeing the same cards , engines and game runouts over and over. When they add prelude to ranked / arena (hopefully next season) it’s gonna get infinitely more interesting.

[Dnxdieu]

Very interesting data !
Considering these insane stats, pretty happy to be part of 2 wins (first place) against a player like you in arena
Even if the game are very quick in this specific format, It's interesting though because the timings become really important for the objectives, I imagine that it forces players who initially didn't focus on them enough to look at them.

Which game format do you think can takeover this one in Arena ?
2 or 3 players ? (or more, but a bit random)
If prelude is avaiable in arena, do you think it's a great addition to era corp and make the start more reliable ?

[Corbz]

Very interesting data !
Considering these insane stats, pretty happy to be part of 2 wins (first place) against a player like you in arena
Even if the game are very quick in this specific format, It's interesting though because the timings become really important for the objectives, I imagine that it forces players who initially didn't focus on them enough to look at them.

Indeed, you gave me quite a double thrashing early on. In fact, I think it was losing to you twice that made me start tracking my stats to determine whether playing turn-based was a good idea or not (I thought my win rate could be worse than Live). You were game 1 and game 11 of the dataset, and it wasn't until I reached game 14 that my ELO per game went positive. You definitely impacted my view of Inventrix, as that was one of the corps I lost to you with. The other was Helion which I've subsequently found pretty flexible for this format.

[Corbz]

Which game format do you think can takeover this one in Arena ?
2 or 3 players ? (or more, but a bit random)
If prelude is available in arena, do you think it's a great addition to era corp and make the start more reliable ?

You've hit on a sore spot there, as I'm not a Guru despite having played 220 games since launch. I guess some of the community are even more hyper-active!

My view would be not to introduce Preludes to Arena straight away.

If choosing, I'd go for 2-player corporate era setting. In 3-player, until the community gets stronger at the game in general, it's too easy for one player to king-make without even realising it. Even with my small number of losses, it's definitely frustrated me on a number of occasions.

I'd probably then introduce Preludes for the season afterwards. What Preludes does is swing the game from engine being the strongest strategy on average, to terraform rush being the strongest strategy. This will be quite a change for many players on BGA, as playing cities early is still quite a dominant, although weak, strategy. Bringing in Preludes adds a further level of skill, which may make it harder for newer (but good gamers) to compete with people who've played on Steam for a while.