First IRL TM Tournament

[Tajic]

Thank you all for your replies!

I dont know your skill level, but if you are not so confident, in extreme side of my point, if you draw credicor, buy no cards sp greenery and cities for 2 quick MS on tharsis can win you an easy 5p games. It works.

The Credicor strategy sounds quite extreme, but also very interesting as an example of how the winning approach is rush rush rush. I also get the feeling that it is much harder to develop in several directions at once than it is in 2-player games. In particular, a science tag strategy.

As for the irl part, do you think I should bringing a notebook to keep track of things like points or tag?

2 hour limit?? what happens after 2 hours when the game is still in progress?

According to the rules : "the game ends when the two-hour round time limit is reached. One important detail, though: the generation ends immediately, but the active player is allowed to finish their turn. Final scoring is then performed." I still have no idea if games usually end before the 2 hours limit.

[xspuipuke]

I'm pretty sure the organizers won't allow you to keep notes during games. This is not something supported by the rule book so it should not be allowed.

2 hours are, indeed, a little harsh. I played a real-life TfM tournament once and I think we had a 2.5 hour time limit, but maybe it was 2 hours as well. If the limit was hit, we'd end the current generation normally and not abruptly stop it like you say they will do in yours. Anyway, no table ever had to resort to this measure as we all finished our games in the alloted time. People were playing quite quickly and not taking ages on their turns, even the less experienced players.

[Ingoschi]

I dont know your skill level, but if you are not so confident, in extreme side of my point, if you draw credicor, buy no cards sp greenery and cities for 2 quick MS on tharsis can win you an easy 5p games. It works.

Would you do an exception to buy Standard Technology? Or any other card?

[FrankJones]

I dont know your skill level, but if you are not so confident, in extreme side of my point, if you draw credicor, buy no cards sp greenery and cities for 2 quick MS on tharsis can win you an easy 5p games. It works.

Would you do an exception to buy Standard Technology? Or any other card?

Std. tech goes well with a "no card" strategy, especially with Credicor which can rack up quick points with std project cities and greeneries. The combined discount would be 7 MC on each and get you 2 quick milestones, which is strong in a 5-player game that will likely end in, what, 7 generations at most, with very low overall scores.

So, yes, if trying that technique, of course you would buy and play std. technology.

[Lytical]

Absolutely!!!!! Never everrrrr pass standard tech to Credicor NEVER!!!!

[Lytical]

I dont know your skill level, but if you are not so confident, in extreme side of my point, if you draw credicor, buy no cards sp greenery and cities for 2 quick MS on tharsis can win you an easy 5p games. It works.

Would you do an exception to buy Standard Technology? Or any other card?

Giant iced asteroid, deimo, earth cat, ice asteroid, Towing, big asteroid, Viral Enhancers, Mars U, restricted, basically all the top cards and if you got them in your hand you do that instead of rushing milestones with standard projects of course.

Be super disciplined, if the card is not top of the top don't take them. Cards like comercial district has no business to be part of the credicor club. It's a very exclusive club, credicor need no cards.

[charliec247]

I'd suggest you ask the tournament organizers about the following:

1. How are resources tracked to ensure that no one is cheating, whether intentionally or not. For example, are people doing production phase together or one at a time?

2. What happens when something goes wrong? Is the game state reversible to a correct state? What happens when someone draws an extra card? Is there a person (judge/tournament organizer) that can help with rules clarification?

3. To what extent do you allow takebacks? Is the move locked in as soon as I announce the play, as soon as the card is revealed, resources paid...etc?

4. Penalty guidelines for rules violations

5. What happens when the 2hr time limit is up? (my take is that no game will finish within 2 hrs, especially when people get competitive, and someone is definitely going to want to pause the game to count the current score)

6. Is note-taking allowed? Many games at the competitive level allow and encourage it even though the rules don't say so.


Generally speaking I'm much more interested in how tournament organizers will protect players from mismanaged game states or other practices that would just get a pass in casual play. When things get competitive, all parties want to ensure that the rules are carefully enforced so that everyone is treated fairly and everyone walks away happy. Some tournament organizers have no foresight for this and just end up making up solutions on the spot which can leave a bitter taste and opens up opportunities for savage cheaters who know how to get away with a bit here and there.

[Yoperbig1]

3 and 4 player games are fine. Five is a nightmare.

2 hours is a pipe dream. Even for four experienced players. Clearly the person running the event is not very knowledgeable about how such tournaments are done. It seems like they are more concerned about it being done within a reasonable time frame than having a legitimate event. Or even an enjoyable one.

You can give it a try but you should go into it with limited expectations. There will most likely be moments of friction that will end up not being resolved to your (or others) satisfaction. As someone else has stated, if the rules of the tournament haven't been clearly laid out then there will be a lot of room for disagreement to happen. Those who haven't run tournaments like this will think they have everything covered until they don't. And having it stated before hand will help with then covering their butts. If they don't have it stated up front how they will cover certain issues shows they haven't thought about it.