Will arena ever not be 2 player?

[relaxed-llama112]

It's less a problem with more players because there's more turnover in the market. The strategy is less "well, this is the crappy market we have, I hope I don't give my only opponent the win by buying this card I saved up 3 turns for" and more be prepared to adapt to the more frequent market changes. When a 2 player market is bad, the strategy becomes "try not to be the one that buys from the bad market, try to be the one that does nothing for endless turns".

In a 4-player game, there are 3 opponents who might get a lucky card that comes up. And you still might be stuck with no good card to acquire.

Market turnover makes it at least not stagnant. I'd rather have new cards I can't buy than the same ones sitting there taunting me.

Often, average players struggle to acquire the cards they desire in two-player games, sometimes even getting completely blocked. There are several fundamental reasons for this:

1. At the start, when taking gems, you fail to calculate what gems you need and what cards your opponent will likely purchase.

2. You're unfamiliar with the gem colors required to purchase each card. Consequently, you struggle to acquire the necessary gems to adapt to the ever-changing market—even when a desired card appears, you might not be able to buy it immediately.

3. When the market lacks your desired cards, you rush to buy others, causing market shifts that may benefit opponents (who can immediately purchase newly available cards after your turn). In such cases, holding valuable cards is often wiser.

4. Lacking basic tactical awareness. With foundational strategy—knowing what cards you need, which higher-level cards you aim to acquire later, or pursuing noble cards—you can typically secure three or four high-value cards even with poor luck. This means even if you lose, the margin is usually only 5-6 points.

Of course, as I mentioned in another post, luck plays a significant role in Splendor: 2/5 = 40%. But in three- or four-player games, luck's influence grows even larger, since you essentially have no control over market fluctuations.

[G00dy]

Yes, it will be 4p very soon, because WSBG is played in 4p format. And since bga is just an instrument for training for World Cup in those 16 Ring games, therefore all these games will switch to tournament settings in Arena Mode as well.

[Andrei3009]

Yes, it will be 4p very soon, because WSBG is played in 4p format. And since bga is just an instrument for training for World Cup in those 16 Ring games, therefore all these games will switch to tournament settings in Arena Mode as well.

BGA is great for competitive learning of new games, but it is not only used for this, and certainly not only for preparing for the wsbg.

I would say that many bga players outperform the participants and possibly the winners of the wsbg ring games.

[The Recogniser]

2 seasons ago, it was 3 players with Cities and Trading Post, I don't like it as much as the 2-player base game.

[dreamy-hamster806]

Would love to play 2 or 3 or 4 whatever