Two actions mostly all the time please

[thulcandrian22]

I just taught two people to play Terraforming Mars IRL yesterday. Both are experienced board gamers. They quickly realized why the game allows you to take either one or two actions on your turn--without me explaining it to them. That said, they generally defaulted to playing two actions unless there was a compelling reason not to (many of those reasons have already been described in this thread).

As for your reference to Threadpacifist, are you certain that he ALWAYS takes two actions? Or takes two actions when there's no tactical advantage to playing one and skipping the second action (which is most of the time)?

I went and replayed one of Threadpacifist's games. Granted, one game is not a representative sample. However, from that game I would say that it is false to assume that his games go fast because he always takes two actions. He regularly took one action and passed on the second--even in the first generation, when he could have played two right away. I couldn't even identify any reason why he would do this; he didn't seem to be trying to position himself for bonus. However, I am not nearly as good of a player as he is, so perhaps I missed something...

If you go to his profile here on BGA, he has a link to his YouTube channel where he discusses Terraforming Mars strategy. He even has a video about how he became the top ranked player on BGA.

Part of the fun of board games for me is that people do play with a wide variety of strategies--and many games are designed so that those different strategies are at least reasonably competitive. Having to adjust/adapt to an opponent's strategy is part of what makes games interesting and fun, at least for me.

[RoyalRook]

if everyone do two actions per turn it’s the same, you can either sell a card to buffer the turn, or one action this turn knowing your opponent will one action back at you. But it’s the same if everyone preserves two actions per turn. While I am here on the arena side, thread is not having any real competitions right now because top players haven’t migrating over. Once they all do you will see the two action per turn be more prominently. Right now most of the corp era matches are free because the meta is so behind here, they are not even proper matches. Thread, Highlander, me and couple others are the only one who are on meta, 2p corp era is just free, unless we run into gen 2 AI or something just pure nuts.

[nanospy]

Obviously there are many tactical cases where one action is necessary. That is not under debate. Royal Rook has said (iiuc) that, under his proposed agreement, you do one action when you need to, then others will copy that, then everyone resumes two actions.

Usually this will work and be the same. One problem is that under this system, taking one action alerts opponents to when you are up to something, and they may be able to react. Even if this is uncommon, if it is more than zero it is a gameplay loss.

Interestingly, doing it the other way (one action default, two when needed) has the same issue. My regular opponents figured this out and would watch me: "oh two actions he has a plan!" So I started taking two actions randomly once in a while to bait them. If playing two actions by default, I would occasionally do the same with one action.

[Yahyra]

It is interesting that such a simple situation has generated six pages of responses. The game allows for one or two actions; each player will decide how to play. If Rook person wants a social contract to play in another way, that's a conversation he can have with the people he chooses to play with, or not. I guess this thread is part of the conversation? And we are pacifists, even if ThreadP isn't here? Ha. Best wishes everyone.

[cranesflyhigh]

Just leaving a post here to agree with the OP, cause it is a giant pet peeve of mine. It is really aggravating how it slows the game down when people keep 1-actioning. I feel like it is a Dunning-Kruger when they inevitably come with 'it is a strategic element'. Yeah, so is action parity. People can match you. Meanwhile you slow the game down for everyone, wasting time. Games lasting 15-20 or sometimes even more longer cause people keep it up (even more annoying in higher player counts) is unnecessary. When this happens even I add to this problem, cause when people do this I tend to get bored, tune out and start watching videos, cook, or something along those lines. So mostly 2 actions please, yes, thank you very much.

[RoyalRook]

If just 10% of players think about it, and have some form of realization; I am happy, it's a numbers' game, can't save them all.

[MallorquinFoz]

I agree with you but...

Playing 2 actions all time is an unspoken rule that the majority of high elo players do and once someone plays only one the other tend to do the same.

For sure there are some cases in which you just want to play one action, like not leaving that energy prod floating and get tapped.

Also its more for mid game that players tend to play one action to try to get bonuses.

Or in the late game to see if the game is ending.. so you know which actions/cards you are doing that final 1 or 2 gens.

[efidiaf]

This is a mistake from the designer's part.

Shoudn't have allowed selling cards as an action.

The two action mandatory rule, which I prefer, may be arguable.

[Yahyra]

This is a mistake from the designer's part.

Shoudn't have allowed selling cards as an action.

The two action mandatory rule, which I prefer, may be arguable.

You call it a mistake but... many of us would simply call it another game (not T Mars) if the standard project of 'sell patents' did not incur an action cost. Many, many, many times would I have wished I could simply discard a few cards for credits to claim a critical milestone, bonus. etc. .

[RoyalRook]

Selling a card as an action is so crucial in TM, it's a tempo that has decided EVERY SINGLE GAMES of mine. It's the most incredible part of high level play.