I feel like this game was instructive and since it also hits on a number of talking points recently posted in the forums I figured I'd post it since it was a good learning experience for me and it might be for others too.
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=860707216
In this game I am facing an opponent with the absolute stone cold giga nuts set up for base plus prelude 2p format. Their opener is insane, just absurd. The quality of cards they play over the course of the game, the same. But my opponent doesn't manage their scoring well and is much lower rated so they make enough mistakes that despite the strength of their set up I'm able to come away with a win even in the face of my own mistakes (like outright blundering a milestone for a 10 point swing because I was hella tilted and not focusing on what I needed to do to win but rather was just malding about my "misfortune"). Yes, cards like Earth Catapult, Research Outpost, Restricted Area, and AI Central and all 4 jovian multipliers are strong. But these cards DO NOT SCORE WELL in and of themselves, the are very inefficient points as stand alone pieces. Winning consistently in tfm requires that a player understand the synergy of their set up and their opponents as it relates, primarily, to scoring rate potential and this is where highly skilled players perform much better than good and intermediate level players. I have no doubts I would get crushed by an opponent of my own strength in this game, but that's not who I happened to be playing so I have to make the best of things (and not mald about bad luck and throw points I desperately need down the drain with silly misplays, still mad af about that tbh). There's a reason I wrote an article on the fundamental importance of controlling the parameter scoring 6 years ago as a basic concept that must be mastered for competitive tfm play and this game highlights it excellently. It also shows the strength of the bio package from a scoring standpoint and why in base plus prelude the bio combo is a go to tent pole to lean on when piloting draws that aren't particularly "rich" (though I would not say I'm that poor either, I just don't have the same amount of capital resources as my opponent for quite some time). I'm fixing to head out for work but I'll try to check in on the discussion here when I can and I hope this helps to answer some of the questions from threads about "playing poor" or "what to do about AI Central".
I might ask Thread to review this game for his youtube channel too, seems like it could be fun to laugh at my blunders..
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=860707216
In this game I am facing an opponent with the absolute stone cold giga nuts set up for base plus prelude 2p format. Their opener is insane, just absurd. The quality of cards they play over the course of the game, the same. But my opponent doesn't manage their scoring well and is much lower rated so they make enough mistakes that despite the strength of their set up I'm able to come away with a win even in the face of my own mistakes (like outright blundering a milestone for a 10 point swing because I was hella tilted and not focusing on what I needed to do to win but rather was just malding about my "misfortune"). Yes, cards like Earth Catapult, Research Outpost, Restricted Area, and AI Central and all 4 jovian multipliers are strong. But these cards DO NOT SCORE WELL in and of themselves, the are very inefficient points as stand alone pieces. Winning consistently in tfm requires that a player understand the synergy of their set up and their opponents as it relates, primarily, to scoring rate potential and this is where highly skilled players perform much better than good and intermediate level players. I have no doubts I would get crushed by an opponent of my own strength in this game, but that's not who I happened to be playing so I have to make the best of things (and not mald about bad luck and throw points I desperately need down the drain with silly misplays, still mad af about that tbh). There's a reason I wrote an article on the fundamental importance of controlling the parameter scoring 6 years ago as a basic concept that must be mastered for competitive tfm play and this game highlights it excellently. It also shows the strength of the bio package from a scoring standpoint and why in base plus prelude the bio combo is a go to tent pole to lean on when piloting draws that aren't particularly "rich" (though I would not say I'm that poor either, I just don't have the same amount of capital resources as my opponent for quite some time). I'm fixing to head out for work but I'll try to check in on the discussion here when I can and I hope this helps to answer some of the questions from threads about "playing poor" or "what to do about AI Central".
I might ask Thread to review this game for his youtube channel too, seems like it could be fun to laugh at my blunders..
