Hi. I was your opponent in your last game (thanks for the game btw). So I thought it might help if I watch the replay from your perspective and give you some tips. I'm not a great player, but maybe you'll find it interesting.
Here is a link to the game:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=860917094
1. Learn which corps are inherently good. You had a choice of Valley Trust and Credicor and picked VT. But only 1 of them had a science tag and 3 were > 20MC. Credicor is considered one of the stronger corps in the game and you had some synergy there, so probably would have been a stronger choice.
2. in a 2p game you've got to get at least 1 milestone because it's a 10VP swing. But I don't know what you're going for here and there should be the elements of a plan to get at least 1 with your initial card selection.
3. In Gen 2 draft you have to pick between IoMI and NRA. These are 2 strategy-defining cards and you keep IOMI and pass me NRA. You've got some expensive space events in hand and Spacefarer is a milestone, so I can see the rationale, but we're playing on Vastitas which is a very rush-focussed map. You have GIA and DD so while the Ti prod is nice to pay for them, they are rushing cards and if you play them you are just reducing the length of the game, which means you can't really build your Jovo engine. So I thin IoMI was the wrong decision here. You don't know it, but I'm going for Agronomist (4 plant tag milestone) so NRA is a dream for me.
4. Gen 3 draft you pick Miranda Resort and pass me Nitrophilic Moss. NM is not a great card but it's OK and you've passed me NRA and just seen me play Adapted Lichen. You probably feel like you've got to pick Jovos as you've got IoMI but we both only have 1 Earth tag down and I don't know you've got IoMI yet. The same happens in Gen 4 draft - you get Asteroid Mining and Grass and take AM.
5. In Gen 4 I get NRA out with 3 plant tags down to go to 8 plant prod.
6. In Gen 5 draft you keep Domed Crater and pass me Kelp Farming. There are 3 oceans on the board at this point. Again, KF is one the strongest cards in the game. Domed Crater is a good card but you just can't afford to pass me KF here. So I think there's a theme developing - it's not just picking cards that are good for you, it's also knowing what cards you need to keep from your opponent.
7. I've got KF in my hand so I play Comet to get an ocean down and drive the terraforming. You play DC and now have 2 tiles for Geologist then convert 8 plants for the 3rd. You correctly decide you don't need to claim it now. I play SubRes for another ocean and claim Agronomist.
9. Gen 6 draft. You take WIFE for your Jovo strat and pass me Large Convoy and EcoZone. So the same pattern again - you have to take Jovos but end up passing me very nice cards.
10. In Gen 6 you claim Geologist so there's only 1 milestone left. You have 3 tags for Spacefarer. I play Ecozone (Farmer is a milestone on this board) but it's going to take a few card plays to get Ecozone to 5 resources, so I really think you will get Spacefarer (and you have 3 space tags in hand, including Miranda Res, MFT and WIFE). I play Grass and Protected Valley so am up to 4 animals...
11. It's Gen 7 and I play Ice Asteroid to raise the oceans to 7 so I can play Kelp. But I don't actually play it. You can play a space tag here and claim Spacefarer but you play Capital instead because there's a space by 3 greeneries (but no oceans). I think this is a mistake - you should have took the milestone. 3 greeneries for a city is nice but there are a couple of good spots for capital by this time. I play Kelp, that triggers Ecozone for a fifth animal and claim Farmer. You play MarsU (you have AGT in hand), play some science, get TG which is very nice for you).
12. I play Insects, which takes me to me to 21 plant prod. To be fair, that is a *crazy* amount of plant prod. Temp is at -14C so the game is moving at a decent clip.
13. Now that all 3 milestones are gone I'm looking at the Awards. There's Traveller (earth and jovo tags, which you are nailed on for) and some ones that care about tiles on the board, which I am good for with my plant prod.
14. You play GIA. I get hit for 6 plants, but I had 27 so I'm happy to pay them to see the oceans and temp go up. I know I can easily max out the O2 track with my plants, so my only worry in this game is being able to get the temp to 8C and you've just helped it along. So there's a lesson about timing here - if you're playing engine, don't touch the terraforming track that is lagging. You're only helping your opponent really because the engine player really needs to make the game last as long as possible so you can pick up all the Jovos, get AGT out etc.
15. At this point I'm just playing greeneries and you're just playing science tags to get AGT out. But time is on my side. We are on 61 points each now. I sponsor Landshaper, the first award.
16. Gen 9 you take Strip Mine. I guess if you take 2 O2 I can't get them with my plants, but you don't have any energy prod so you have to pay the cost of that as well as the card and the production won't really pay for itself. You draft but don't take Farming, which is much the better card I think. I fund Blacksmith, so maybe Strip Mine will turn out to be OK to swing that, but it's still expensive. At this point there is only 1 award left. You are miles ahead on Traveller and probably should have claimed it last Gen. You play Nuke Power and Strip Mine to give me a bit of a headache about funding Blacksmith, but I'm Mining Guild and am putting down 3 tiles/turn with my plant prod, so I know I can get back in front. I fund Promoter and that's all the awards gone, funded by me. In 2p there's no points for second place, so it's a 30VP swing if I win them (and I'm definitely winning 2/3 and confident I'll still come through on Blacksmith). In 2p even 20MC for a 10VP swing is super cheap points.
17. In Gen 10 draft you take Business Contacts instead of Underground City when UC gets you steel prod for Blacksmith and you could place it by 2 greeneries. You have 2 energy prod that you don't need for anything else, a couple of steel and no other building cards, so even though UC isn't the greatest card in the game, it's good value here.
18. Gen 10 begins... O2 and oceans are maxed out, temp is -2C and I have 13 heat prod so at this stage you know the game is ending this gen. My plants and awards have got me a 91-64 lead in VPs. Actually I can't end it and you rightly don't play your heat because then I could have.
19. Gen 11. I SP the last couple of heat. I know I can afford it and it leaves you with 18 heat and nothing to do with it. We both play the rest of our cards. You have WIFE and TG but 7 Jovos including 3 multipliers aren't enough.
20. Game ends 129-86. I have 19 greeneries, all the award and 2/3 milestones.
So in the end it was a big win and part of that was that I got the plant prod nuts (Insects with 8 plant tags, Kelp, NRA). I'm struck how much of this commentary is about the draft - it's a massive part of the game.
In summary:
* Be aware of the board you're on and how it affects the timing of the game.
* Don't keep good cards if it means passing your opponent great cards. Picking IoMI over NRA locks you into a Jovo strategy and it's very hard to refuse the Jovos in draft.
* Don't allow your opponent to get the 3rd milestone if you can get it cheaply
* If you've got a huge lead in an award, sponsor it for 8MC
* Learn the key cards like Kelp and be careful how you play around them - don't increase oceans to > 6 if you know your opponent has it.
* Learn the difference between rushing and engine building and if you're doing the latter don't help your opponent by playing rush cards (so know what the rush cards are - generally anything that moves terraforming parameters esp. heat).
* Generally watching the game I felt that you were not playing cards because if you played them a turn later you could get more benefit. Which can be sensible, but you could have played Miranda even though you only had 1 Earth tag out to get Spacefarer. But you didn't because you had Earth Office and wanted that out first. You can over-optimise in this game.
Hope this helps.
