Errata Earth Catapult

[Yahyra]

I am aware that my sample of played games is minuscule; the card I often find decides most games ( I am involved in) is NRA. The stats seem to show that: base + prelude (and I mostly play on Tharsis), a tempo balanced strategy is favored (if I read the website /saw the videos and understood all of it); a three plant tag NRA is such a huge discount for the production / TR found. If you asked me to play a match vs Death for my existence (again, in base + prelude (and Tharsis)); I'd be hoping for Ecoline, NRA and two good early playable plant tags. Then again... maybe I should be hoping for Point Luna, Earth Cat, Earth Office, Acquired Company, Cartel? .

[landus]

I'd be hoping for Ecoline, NRA and two good early playable plant tags. Then again... maybe I should be hoping for Point Luna, Earth Cat, Earth Office, Acquired Company, Cartel? .

I don’t think these are easily comparable since the first setup has two fixed cards and the second has five. Either way, tempo tends to outperform across all maps. It also doesn’t depend as heavily on the best cards — that’s why you brought up one card for Eco, and four for Luna. For tempo, some unconventional strategies utilising objectively worse cards can be just as effective. A textbook example: https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=803694980. In this Hellas game, my opponent (PointLuna 570elo) starts their gen2 with EarthOffice into EarthCat, followed by OlympusConference/BusinessNetwork/Psychrophiles. Next gen, they play NuclearZone/StandardTech/Sabotage/Raiders, holding MassConv/KelpFarming/ViralEnhancers — only to get overrun by a PowerGrid start and lose by 23vps in gen10.

[FrankJones]

Wow. That something I have not seen before. A gen 2 massive Power grid engine. Opponent had Arctic algae at 0 oceans too. And eventually anti-gravity.

[GameConqueror]

I played dozens of rebalanced mars where earth catapult costs 28MC and gave 1VP, instead of 23MC/2VP. Even then this card worth more than enough for starting hand. Of course this card is not an auto-win card, but it is quite near if you see it on the starting hand.

[Lytical]

I played dozens of rebalanced mars where earth catapult costs 28MC and gave 1VP, instead of 23MC/2VP. Even then this card worth more than enough for starting hand. Of course this card is not an auto-win card, but it is quite near if you see it on the starting hand.

Yean bc it's pure math, also people forget that if you have it they dont. Earth cat is just death in a good player's hand, you are just rich on gen 8, game over. Moneytality, Perfect.

Earth cat get you to infinite money faster, you get to squeeze in more developments every gen. You may not even want to fund a milestone or award bc of earth cat, since often you are already home. Earth cat is home or alpha, and it’s 98.9% pure, you can't choose anything over alpha. You know why players lose with earth cat sometimes? Sometimes you are just going to lose, OR mostly because they don't understand draft against a good player, and they played earth cat either too early or too late, but you can be sure that they also bought too many cards. Earth cat is about get super rich on gen 8 or 9 then just crush it down. It's not about playing bunch of useless cards for cheap and grind it out on gen 12.

[Powderburned]

I see many people pointing out that the card is only overpowered early which is why I requested an errata of a requirement to play of a few earth tags. The problem with it is in the opening hand in a match against equally skilled players it is to good.

[FrankJones]

To me, a lot of the cards with VP seem random. Mars U, Olympus, Earth catapult, AI central, etc. Thee cards do not need VP. They're already strong cards.

[Corvus Mortis]

To me, a lot of the cards with VP seem random. Mars U, Olympus, Earth catapult, AI central, etc. Thee cards do not need VP. They're already strong cards.

Adding VP is a good mechanic to make powerful effect cards more expensive to play early.

[Lytical]

You know what I realized about earth cat? You want to play it even on the last gen, why you ask? B/c you pay 23 for 2vp just like a greenery, but the difference is that after you drop this "greenery," the rest of your hand became -2. It pays even on the last gen, that's how amazing earth cat is. And what Corvus said, it's so good you have to put VP on it to nerf it. Yeah, it's pure alpha.

[rambling_coherently]

You know what I realized about earth cat? You want to play it even on the last gen, why you ask? B/c you pay 23 for 2vp just like a greenery, but the difference is that after you drop this "greenery," the rest of your hand became -2. It pays even on the last gen, that's how amazing earth cat is. And what Corvus said, it's so good you have to put VP on it to nerf it. Yeah, it's pure alpha.

You're paying 26 for it unless it's drawn free/discounted. There are also a lot of instances where you don't even want to play it (be it last gen or even multiple gens before end).

While it's amazing, don't fall in to the trap of overvaluing it in the endgame. Consider your cards and calculate your scoring.