Sometimes I love TFM. Other times...

[FrankJones]

other times I just want to go outside and yell at clouds.

https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=87790301;

Is there anything I could have done here? I basically gave up early on and just watched the slaughter unfold, since nothing happening in my own hand was remotely interesting.

I don't think I ever got a good card from my gen 1 inventor's guild. Nothing immediately useful from business contacts. there's 22 MC down the drain.

I tried the Credicor Ocean walk, but it's difficult without ocean cards and when my plants keep getting annihilated.

Any thoughts on how to approach this hand? I felt helpless; the drafts had nothing good, or when it did, I had to pass devastating cards.

I don't think I'll ever be any better than a maybe 500 Elo player at this game. If I haven't figured it out by now after this much experience, it just means I don't "get" the higher-level nuances of this game.

I love Terraforming Mars for personal reasons and it will always have a special place in my heart for those same reasons, but my skill level and results have been stagnant for a long time, which makes it not much fun for me to play anymore. Every so often I'll play a game or two because I'd like to be at 500 Elo, but getting back there seems like a chore.

I should have quit when I peaked at 535 last year.

[FrankJones]

Oh, I just realized I had aquifer pumping in my starting hand.
Should I have just done that? Certainly would have bene better than the several SP oceans I did.
Obviously, I had no semblance of a plan.

I feel as though the cards my opponent threw away were better than the ones I kept.
(Flooding, Kelp Farming, Local heat trapping, Trans-Neptune probe, Interstellar colony ship).

[landus]

Buy AquiferPumping and don’t buy LunarBeam. It looks like a very solid opening hand to me. SP greeneries gen3/4 above the ocean line and you’re set for success unless opponent draws nuts. At least that’s how I see it.

I tried the Credicor Ocean walk, but it's difficult without ocean cards and when my plants keep getting annihilated.

You had a perfectly good ocean card — AquiferPumping. I didn’t really watch the game but from opener alone I would say the end of gen3/start of gen4 is the right moment to get on the board with low risk of getting your plants taken away.

[jaymc1130]

Buy AquiferPumping and don’t buy LunarBeam. It looks like a very solid opening hand to me. SP greeneries gen3/4 above the ocean line and you’re set for success unless opponent draws nuts. At least that’s how I see it.

I tried the Credicor Ocean walk, but it's difficult without ocean cards and when my plants keep getting annihilated.

You had a perfectly good ocean card — AquiferPumping. I didn’t really watch the game but from opener alone I would say the end of gen3/start of gen4 is the right moment to get on the board with low risk of getting your plants taken away.

This is clear pumping, lunar beam, sabo, water splitting plant as Thorgate to me. The hand offers nothing else, feel pretty forced. It's some real 2/10 garbage, but it's gotta be pumping and beam and try to push o2 and oceans asap and find the heat prod to end quickly.

[FrankJones]

My brain is conditioned to disregard Aquifer Pumping, probably. But, yeah.. there's an ocean card. 5 oceans for 61 MC. and I'll pay for some of it with the steel after using that spot.

Landus, you wouldn't go Beam -> Water splitting plant? The idea being to end the game super fast while opponent is stockpiling every damn Jovian card in the deck.

[ft029]

I feel that, sometimes the game just offers you garbage cards and it feels helpless. Lots of other games can be like that too but it's worse for long games like TFM where you're miserable for longer. But sometimes you eke out a win from a hopeless setup and it feels great.

I was writing feedback but it all got lost-- my abridged thoughts:

• Starting hand: I agree with the choices. I think aquifer pumping is too committal with no ocean payoffs and no steel.
• Gen 1: I would play lunar beam immediately.
• Gens 2-4: Keep birds. The SP oceans are really really bad with no payoffs like algae or kelp. They're just extremely expensive for almost no gain. Just pass if you have nothing to do. I would also keep water import from europa as credicor with TG in hand, but it's borderline.
• Gens 5-7: Draft tech demo over capital, since you desperately need development cards (capital doesn't count). Keep electro cat and keep research outpost, as they are good development.

With a nothing hand don't commit to a rush, especially with 0 heat production; you're probably just going to end into a loss. Save your money so that you can take advantage of opportunities when they arise: in gen 5 if we had more money we could have used steelworks, which is very good development, but we were poor because of the inefficient SP oceans. The game looks pretty grim but SP oceans take away any slim chances that existed at all.

[landus]

This is clear pumping, lunar beam, sabo, water splitting plant as Thorgate to me. The hand offers nothing else, feel pretty forced. It's some real 2/10 garbage (…)

What am I missing? Is it a no-preludes thing? I think it’s a 7.5/10 hand. AquiferPumping shines on Tharsis. Credicor (being one of the top corps) is fit for the strat. Card draw since gen1. What else can one want?

Landus, you wouldn't go Beam -> Water splitting plant? The idea being to end the game super fast while opponent is stockpiling every damn Jovian card in the deck.

I don’t see any reason for urgency or commitment to a specific strat — we establish card draw gen1 and our strat is dependent on next drafts/draws. My main line remains to be terraforming with SP greeneries above the ocean line so I don’t think it’s wise to push o2 with WaterSplittingPump. LunarBeam makes sense as heat is the only parameter that can’t easily be pushed but I think it’s a stretch. If I were to pick that card I’d let energy flow into heat — not kill it with a pump.

I feel that, sometimes the game just offers you garbage cards and it feels helpless. (…)
[*] Gen 1: I would play lunar beam immediately.

Interesting. I didn’t expect that much difference between mine and other players’ opinions. Personally I don’t get the idea of LunarBeam gen1 without AquiferPumping here.

[landus]

Landus, you wouldn't go Beam -> Water splitting plant? The idea being to end the game super fast while opponent is stockpiling every damn Jovian card in the deck.

Also — I’m not picking Thorgate in a million years here so that defeats the idea of WaterSplittingPump entirely.

I think it’s a 7.5/10 hand. AquiferPumping shines on Tharsis.

Let me retract that. I think it’s an 8/10 hand.

[jaymc1130]

This is clear pumping, lunar beam, sabo, water splitting plant as Thorgate to me. The hand offers nothing else, feel pretty forced. It's some real 2/10 garbage (…)

What am I missing? Is it a no-preludes thing? I think it’s a 7.5/10 hand. AquiferPumping shines on Tharsis. Credicor (being one of the top corps) is fit for the strat. Card draw since gen1. What else can one want?

Landus, you wouldn't go Beam -> Water splitting plant? The idea being to end the game super fast while opponent is stockpiling every damn Jovian card in the deck.

I don’t see any reason for urgency or commitment to a specific strat — we establish card draw gen1 and our strat is dependent on next drafts/draws. My main line remains to be terraforming with SP greeneries above the ocean line so I don’t think it’s wise to push o2 with WaterSplittingPump. LunarBeam makes sense as heat is the only parameter that can’t easily be pushed but I think it’s a stretch. If I were to pick that card I’d let energy flow into heat — not kill it with a pump.

I feel that, sometimes the game just offers you garbage cards and it feels helpless. (…)
[*] Gen 1: I would play lunar beam immediately.

Interesting. I didn’t expect that much difference between mine and other players’ opinions. Personally I don’t get the idea of LunarBeam gen1 without AquiferPumping here.

It is a no preludes thing to some degree, yes. Games are often much slower paced, but when you can move fast and shorten games it tends to be even stronger strategically than in base prelude 2p format. This hand can dominate two tracks right out of the gate (o2 and oceans) and this leaves just heat to handle. Credi can’t do that well (but it does do spg things well), so Thorgate to me seems like the pick since even some sp powers early can get that heat rolling. At best this hand looks like it only scores about 8 points per gen in a gen 9/10 game and probably less than 9 per gen in 11+. That scoring rate is atrocious, no matter how you slice it; so the best bet generally is to get out fast against the strength of opponent Frank had in this game. Going for card draw gen 1 with less than zero economy in base game is asking for a lot of trouble in a dragged out game and likely brings that scoring per gen rate down closer to 8 in 11+. Against strong opponents this hand is forfeitable before a single card is played in that format imho, but against an intermediate strength opponent the all in on bad rush still offers chances to win with some tactical cleverness and over thousands and thousands of games I’ve found that to be the most reliable method of extracting a win with bad openers like this against lower rated opponents.

[uo111]

Y'all keep saying he needs heat but Underground Detonations is RIGHT THERE!