2 players is not terrible as there is always some luck involved due to the order of your cards , even at 3 or 4 , but they should definitely include the proposed tie-breaker that the player that goes first wins in a tie (though i feel a first tie-breaker before that should be amount of covering dots, it would be even better because it would make the strategy of covering your own dots even more viable)
But it's true that i'm happy with the fact i reached Elite last season , don't think i'll play Arena Tacta much this season , or at least until the tiebreaker becomes implemented in BGA (and i even suffered from double pain in a Tacta tournament i played because not only i started the game, but then i tied with highest amount of covering dots, and then i didn't qualify to the next round of the multi elimination tournament because i have the newest account haha)
I definitely want to play more of the other modes though, the variants are fun, specially sabotage and free play (didn't get to play both of those modes combined yet :p), the later definitely fix the issue of last player advantage (though it does so by advantaging people that make the quickest decisions lol (and IRL, also the most accurate ones as illegal plays are allowed there (the cards are simply removed if they turn out to have been placed illegally lol, while on BGA the illegal plays stay illegal (though i guess the lost time is already a punishment so it's a different way to punish illegal plays in free play :p))
I even feel Free play is actually what "real" Tacta is like, though it's a format that makes way more sense IRL due to the point i mentioned , while sabotage is the "in-between format" (still fixes the first player advantage a bit due to some of your deck being your opponent cards (and i'll go as far as saying one of those 2 modes (or even both combined) should be the basic way of playing the game (and people that aren't as fast can just play "only" sabotage if they want (as "free play Tacta" is basically worse than "Blitz chess" in terms of favouring certain types of players , but i really like sabotage (never tried in free play , it's maybe even more chaos to play sabotage free play ))
EDIT:
Ok i've just tried free play sabotage at 2 players...and it's actually awesome
- Free play is usually fast, but at 2 players because you cannot place cards on your own cards, it reduces the options and make the game slower and not just a "faster clicker" mess
-Sabotage slows down the game even more because you cannot place your opponent cards on their own cards, adding stategy and sometimes forcing you to wait to avoid having to cover the dots of your own cards with your opponent cards if that's the only cards you have left
Also there are less cards in sabotage mode so it's slightly less random as well (though in real life you get to choose your suit and which one to pass to the other player, not sure how it works on BGA (probably random selections of suits but i don't know))
Officially the best way to play Tacta for me, (i only tried it once but i enjoyed it so much that i already feel that "Free play Sabotage" will be my default play to play the game at any player count, but specially at 2 players, i'm glad i could give it a go (of course it messier at higher player counts but we're talking about 2 players here :p)
And i feel it's a fun way both on BGA and IRL (on BGA you cannot make illegal moves but you lose time if you try them, and IRL those illegal placed cards are removed at the end of the game, 2 different ways to play it but i feel both are very fun (i hope the gurus vote for "Free play sabotage" for next season, i feel it has enough slow moments to not be too chaotic, specially at 2 players where only 2 players are allowed to place down cards , reducing the chaos a lot compared to higher player counts... and of course it solves the last player advantage entirely because there isn't a last player at the start of the game lol; and actually the player that decides to go first can quickly play another card on that starting card, basically fixing the issue (though i wonder what would happen if both players don't play (though there is an incentive to end the game first as in theory you get more points for doing that, so i guess the game would never really stall (and if it does stall a bit that's just more time to think so it's definitely not a bad thing (and most of the time a free play game won't last more than 5 minutes lol), and stalling becomes a risk because your opponents become then free to chain their own cards lol))
An issue i came accross however is that i often need to refresh the page at the start of the game due to the game not loading properly sadly (so to make it fair i often wait for another player to make their move after playing 3 cards to make sure the game is working for them before continuing with the free play lol)
EDIT 2 : i played a 3 player game with free play (but without sabotage), and it's definitely worse because it's possible to just spam cards at the end when you're losing and finish the game as fast as possible (and with more players, it means more options to be able to do that because 66% of the cards are potentially eligible for you to place cards on (instead of 50% at 2 players)).
So yes , free play (with or without sabotage) is only great at 2 players , at least on BGA , at 3 players or more it becomes a spamming fest (and i don't think it's interesting at 4 players with 75% of potential targets, rewarding clicking skills way too much), it is still fun of course but spamming at the end becomes the viable strategy a bit too often at higher player counts (though i feel sabotage fixes the "end of game spamming of cards" issue, basically at 2 players free play without sabotage is ok, but at 3 it definitely needs to be combined with sabotage to be interesting (because you can only spam a few cards at the end unless you're very lucky and all of your last cards are your own cards lol... sabotage maybe adds a requirement for memory skills to know when you can spam your last cards or not (still more interesting of a concept than the "regular" way to play Tacta at 2 players lol, and the 2 player format with sabotage with players not able to place cards on their own cards vastly limit the possibilities of a spam fest (the rulebook says that Free play is recommanded at higher player counts, i highly disagree lol, it's already a spam fest at 3 players lol (albeit maybe fun IRL, it becomes a clicking fest on BGA XD (but it's much better at 2 players because if you spam your own cards you cannot do that forever as you're limited in options, eventually you get stuck and your opponent now have a path for spamming cards themselves thanks to the cards you've just placed lol (with sabotage however you can place one of your opponent cards first to then play yours on top of it and it becomes spamming again, but still risky because it also means you give points to your opponent (while without sabotage you can simply spam knowing you're the only one going to score points no matter what lol))
EDIT 3 : ok 2 player is also a spamming fest at 2 without sabotage (meaning sabotage is the only fair way to have free play in arena xd), meaning the balanced ways to play free play are only with sabotage , 3 players is a bit worse but adds the fun of another opponent able to mess with you for the same plays (but the fact there is only one other player that can do that make it less of a fast click fest) ) , with still only 66% of eligible cards to be placed on, so it's still managable and fair compared to 4 players or more which is only a spamming fest and not really "turn based Tacta" anymore (while at 2 and 3 players with sabotage, a lot of thinking and pauses happen, sure it can still be a spam fest for the last 3 cards, but only for those last 3 or so lol (while without sabotage you can start the spamming with 7 cards left even at 2 players it's a bit ridiculous xd))
Maybe a variant where you cannot spam your last 2 cards Would be much fairer (meaning that when you reach your last 2 cards, you announce it and then you have to wait until all other players play a card to play 1 card (or 2 cards at 2 players to make things fair (and add potential backfiring)), and again for your last one. This would of course apply to other players when they themselves reach 2 cards (if they ever do that is).
Keeping a little bit of "spamming" advantage without favouring the quick thinkers too much .
But free play is so fun (specially with sabotage) at 2 or 3 players , that innocent feeling of playing the way some people have always dreamed to play games (taking turns in a row without waiting for the others to play) just feel so good :3
. Furthermore, the second player can always save a high-point card for the end move to secure free points. As a suggestion, in a two-player game, I think it might be more balanced for the first player to start with a 2/3 points advantage.
