The Big 5 Mistakes

[ArchDevious]

Some common mistakes I see players make that I think would be helpful for more people to be aware of. These are generalities, obviously there are exemptions to everything.

Big 3 for Beginners:
1. Heat spam with Helion Corp. Heat production isn't that great. Also the Helion ability should be used sparingly only when you really need to play something important as heat is more valuable than cash. You still need to work towards the power cards, milestones, and taking up the TR tracks.

2. City Spam with Tharsis Corp. Cities have diminishing returns, getting some Mc prod is nice, but don't go overboard, cities are expensive even for Tharsis. You still need to work towards the power cards, milestones, and taking up the TR tracks.

3. Immigration City. Do not play this early. Minus 1 prod and energy for a mediocre ability. Play it mid/late as a cheap greenery surround. The ability is overrated don't think about it too much. Don't delay good cards like research outpost to play it first.

Two more for Intermediates:
4. Artificial Lake. This card is not good. Don't prioritize it. It is the same as SP ocean for 1 bonus point and placement flexibility. Yes, it can flip awards, but that is very rare and it usually doesn't work out. Yes, it can be a late game steel dump, but you can find better dumps usually and there's a good chance its dead before it can be played.

5. Farming. This card is not good. Don't prioritize it. When you can play it, 95% you have something better to do such as flip an award, fund an award, or ending the game with standard projects. Yes, there are exemptions. Every card has situations where it is good to be played, but in general I see those cards being overbought.

[Ariz0na]

This is a good list, but I believe the number one big mistake most new and intermediate players make is playing cards that they do not need to play right away. Save your money and resources, and keep those cards that only give you points, or have an irrelevant effect for later.

[landus]

I like the idea. I got some too.
1. AsteroidMiningConsortium is mediocre. SelfSufficientSettlement is awful — second worst prelude just after SocietySupport.
2. Overrated (in fact barely playable) project cards: SpaceStation/ImmigrationShuttles/ImmigrationCity/RadChemFactory/DeepWellHeating. The list goes on — that's all that comes to my mind at the moment.
3. Underrated project cards: CarbonateProcessing/AdaptedLichen/GhgBacteria/AquiferPumping/EquatorialMagnetizer.
4. Some cards are considered great yet are not being kept nearly as often as they should be — most notably LakeMarineris/Mangrove.
5. UNMI isn't bad — it's very competitive with the right preludes. Give it a chance.

5. Farming. This card is not good. (...)

Strong take. I would say it's considerably worse than Mangrove — that's for sure.

[FrankJones]

Why is Deep well heating so bad that it is nearly unplayable? If we need energy for something, it seems like a decent value to get the energy and a Terraform point/income for 13+3. And perhaps the building tag will be helpful.

Rad-chem played during end game is 2 points at a relatively cheap price, costing energy that won't matter, and possibly using extra steel. Ot can be played early to reach Terraformer faster than the other player.

Farming played on the second-to-last gen will result in a greenery and 2 points, right? Doesn't seem so bad. I mean, ideally we have better cards, but Farming is better than a SP greenery, I would think?

I can't agree on AMC, btu that's likely because I play base map without preludes, and the games go long. When hit with it on gen 1 (especially by Saturn when I am Phobos), that's brutal. 13 generations of a 7-8 MC swing worth of value in titanium.


I did have a rare use of Aquifer Pumping recently (with Ecoline and very few useful cards), so I started the ocean walk, but I stupidly put my first greenery in a bad spot and I was quickly boxed in by Tharsis. I had protected habitats too so I could have just waited.

Mangrove is great, I always try to keep it. Lake Mariners seems to often run into a situation in which the oceans are done by the time the card is playable. But I would certainly grab it mid-game if the temperature is rising fast and the oceans are dry. If playable with 2 oceans remaining, it's a great value.

[ArchDevious]

Yea sorry, I realized it was a bit of a clickbait title. More like 2 big mistakes and then some random cards that i think are overrated. The biggest mistakes are likely something general like playing point cards too early, engine cards too late, not playing towards win conditions, ending as engine player, extending as rush player, ignoring or overly forcing milestones/awards, and draft misprioritization.

Space station is definitely a good shout. Basically never play this unless you already have at least -4 space or excess titanium.

Faming can be OK if heat is pushed early, or if you have the green combo. However it usually only gets 1 gen of prod + 2 points and there will usually be something better to do like fund/flip awards or standard project to end. If you have nothing to do and 02 is maxed than yea its better than a greenery, but in my experience that typically isn't the situation.

[ArchDevious]

Yea I'm not sure on deep well. I really only play it if I need an energy and it gets me one of the heat bonuses at the same time, so pretty limited situations. If i only need energy there are some much other cheaper cards for that. Curious what others think

[Lytical]

Deep well and industrial microbes are too slow. They are bad because they both are too slow for their return on investment and no points. Worthless cards from beginning to end.

If you are helion, go for heat on top of heat. Flexibility is your true power, game will end on your term if the others have no heat prod. Spam those heat.

[landus]

The title isn’t really accurate, but I think dividing some advice into 5 concise points is a good idea. That short list of mine featured overrated cards — „barely playable” was probably a bit of a stretch and maybe not the right fit — there’s a ton of worse cards. Nevertheless:

DeepWell costs too much to develop, and its asteroid effect isn’t the same as tr — it’s actually worse in most situations you’d want to play it. You can easily compare this card to LightningHarvest — DWH costs 5mc more, yet LH is considered bad by most people notoriously playing the first.

RadChem and ImmigrantCity are somewhat decent (still overrated) — just frequently misused.

SpaceStation has some use on Vastitas and with some heavy-engine setups. It’s pretty bad otherwise.

Farming is a perfectly good card in my eyes. Situational? A bit. Great if so? Yes. You rarely want to keep it early though (contrary to Mangrove/Marineris/Fish).

I can imagine Amc being good in the no-prelude format, but it’s certainly the most overrated card otherwise. I can’t understand discussions on rebalancing the card too — it’s already mediocre. Hit-by-saturn-as-phobos-gen1-with-no-preludes is obviously brutal though — no doubt about that.

AquiferPumping is great if you need it. The eco-on-tharsis scenario you mentioned is a textbook one. It’s playable as late as gen5/6 too (although quite a few conditions have to be met for such a move to make sense).

[FrankJones]

What about science cards?

Suppose the scenario is: Invetrix with a useful energy card (peroxide power) and a weak science tag (Trans-Neptune probe). And I central. This is in the starting hand.

How hard do you go after that 3rd science tag? A bad science tag to me seems like paying for the bad science card, plus a basically useless trans-Neptune probe, plus paying for peroxide power, and paying for AI central, which means being extremely broke and having a lot of cards.

I passed on the first science tag (adaptation technology) and grabbed the next one (restricted area), though I had to pass a very dangerous card to keep restricted area, if I recall correctly.

It ended up working out, but that scenario is a bit daunting because valuing the science cards is not easy. Aside from the obviously good ones (Mars U and Olympus, and I suppose Solar Wind If you're trying to get AI central into play), a lot of the science cards seem mediocre, and perhaps often overvalued.

Restricted area and research outpost are good, but also costly early in that scenario, especially with no oceans to put restricted area next to.

I didn't see a lot of science cards mentioned in this thread so I figured this was a good scenario to present the question.

I didn't list Quantum Extractor, Mass converter, Anti-gravity. Obviously those are excellent cards, but my question pertains more to early science cards to get AI central into play.

[landus]

The general rule would be to draft better cards regardless of AI in hand. You only need three tags — something will come along. The cost of drafting considerably worse cards is usually not worth getting AI online a gen or two earlier (it really depends on the scenario though). I figured you’re referring to the last game you played so I looked up the first few gens. I like how you played it — both draft picks (ProtectedValley vs AdaptTech / RA vs NRA) look undeniably correct too. Regarding your question — there are plenty of good science tags out there you can play to reach 3 tags. It’s easier to list the bad ones — Regoliths/PhysicsComplex.

Personally I wouldn’t play Neptune into AI gen4 (in your game). I prefer StripMine — its value beats AI in that scenario. There’s a chance a better tag than Neptune will come along too.

On a more general note:
MarsU>RO >> AGT>RA>Mass>Viral >> Alloys>AI >> DevCenter >Olympus>Inventors’ >> Robo>Extractor>Preserve>STech >> SolarWindPower>Research>Ghg >> Lagrange>Microorganisms >> Neptune>Fusion >> Photo>AdaptTech >> MedicalLab>GeneRepair >> Physics>Filters >> Regoliths (in my humble opinion).

P.S. Your game reminded me of one of the most underrated cards — Herbivores. It’s a top10% card for sure.