Game analysis from experts?

[FrankJones]

Greetings,

I'm ready to start trying rated games, but my most recent friendly mode game was a bit of a train wreck. If anyone is willing to help with some analysis, I would be grateful.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=914193810

Not a great opening hand, I don' think? And I loathe this map.

My own analysis:
Round 1: I used two turns to play Franchise Business. Maybe that's not a good use of two turns to play a mediocre (at best) sponsor, though I was trying to get my appeal and income up with pavilions and fill that top area.

Round 2: I spent all my money early and wasn't sure what to do. Maybe x-out Build and just play Farm cat and not be greedy trying to get the full 5 appeal? Should I be bothering with farm cat at all? By using sponsors for cash, I buried farm cat. I mean, I buried the sponsors card.
I was still trying to finish the top section.

Round 3: I x'ed out association just to get to animals? For the extra reputation? No, then I x'ed out cards. ok, I was trying to get my build card such that I could build the large aquarium. Was this too convoluted? Should I have just taken the sea animals project at the third slot and moved on?

Round 4: I'm trying to do too many things. A lot of "okay" sponsors, not great. Trying to set up projects. Dealing with the annoyance of not having enclosures because of this map's terrible project bonuses. Perhaps a Build upgrade was needed.

Also, opponent always had so many x tokens I Was always worried he would break if I tried to set something up that would require multiple turns.

then when I drew cards, I had even more options and was really getting myself mixed up, and then the break happened and I had to make some tough discard choices. Around or slightly after move 311.

I wanted to do Asia zoo -> Komodo Dragon -> Siberian Tiger. But this is a lot of actions and I do not have the large enclosure yet. Hydrologist is worth 6 points and probably 14 dollars so I want to play that. Spokesperson is helpful, I guess, but I have no guarantee of being able to get the 7th science icon. And playing Spokesperson after playing 5 science is a bit silly. I want to play the dingo so I can release it with Savannah, but I also want to target the Australia project. I want the rabbit because it's 6 appeal for 7 dollars and sets up a 3rd petting zoo animal for 9 appeal if I find one. So basically I want to keep 7 cards but can only keep 5.

Round 5: Ugh. Needing two expensive and time consuming build actions to set up the Asia animals is brutal. Also, I just covered 5 water adjacent spaces before playing hydrologist. What am I doing !??

Move 381 is where I start to get lucky. The eagle appears. Now I am shifting to releasing the tiger so I can play the eagle at some point. Lucky break for me.

But my opponent is at 72 and I'm getting nervous. I don't have enough time.

And I leave the eagle in the display, my opponent could grab it. Opponent does the Europe release project and could draw or snap the eagle. Probably not a good idea to leave it since I have an available large enclosure.

Okay, now, I am 3 dollars short of playing the tiger so I can release it. Bad planning. I settle for Australia and take the 12 money. Even the non-break-period project reward for the map is terrible. I don't need a new scoring card.

Now I get to play the tiger and grab the eagle. At this point, I figure whoever triggers break loses? Was I right in thinking I want to go first after the break?

I think move 426 is the miracle draw. I'll be playing the eagle after freeing up the enclosure (I hope), but I have no enclosure to play a second animal. Down to the last 2 of my 4 random card draws I get a petting zoo animal and landscape gardener. That's incredibly lucky.

Now I'm thinking my opponent should break here? Maybe not. I have no worker so I cannot do a project. Now I do a build action ( ? ).

I think my though process was that I had no useful determination acting after the eagle, so I didn't want to play landscape gardener yet, saving it for my turn after the eagle and petting zoo animal?

Now the break. Round 6.

I think my plan here is clear: Do the Savannah project, and play the eagle and The guinea pig, then sponsors for landscape gardener. My opponent manages to squeeze in an extra 5 point play, seems like a good idea.

Not a great spot for me. My opponent's final turn could be big with money and a large enclosure. Luckily the second animal wasn't a big scoring one, only 6 points. Though not many animals will do much better in a size 2, I suppose.

Okay, so, that was a messy game. 38 turns, including NINE build, five cards, and 3 x-action. Which means even with all that, I still needed 21 of the "good" actions (sponsors, animals, association.)

Very inefficient.

Feedback appreciated!

[FrankJones]

Oh, It just occurred to me that if my intent was to go for 4 marine animals, I should probably just build the large aquarium. Building both was a major waste. That also would have filled the top area much faster. I think Marine animals is a good approach here since this map makes it difficult to get enclosures without doing inefficient build actions. And with the large aquarium as my first building, I would be well positioned to play more marine animals instead of building new enclosures. Or maybe just one powerful marine animal after my initial two.

Also, as far as marine animals go, those first two I played were rather mediocre for the cost.

[yazavats]

This ended up being a play by play game review and a long write up. I hope you find it useful.
Okay, here we go.

Map is drawing board. Certainly a polarizing map. Players like it or don't. Not having an ongoing two size reward hurts tempo, and it usually means upgrading build is a necessity, but it's possible to play it with tempo without upgrading build. It's contextual of course, no build tempo would require having large releases for getting large enclosure space back, hitting good marine animals we can fit into aquariums, drawing into sponsors like expansion area or waza large, etc. I have to say the map grew on me even though my build upgrade percentage for all games is on 18%, so I'm mostly a no build upgrade player. I have played and won some games with tempo on this map without upgrading build, but I usually do upgrade it on this map.

Action card draft. Discard sponsors, hire worker assoc, plus one build. Usually the choice would be straight forward with discard sponsors being the best of the three by far. Hire worker is not a consideration on this map. It can be decent when upgraded but upgrading assoc is rarely good on this map. No reward for last worker, and only one cp for last partner zoo. And since upgrading build is common here, upgrading assoc usually means forgoing upgrading sponsors, when upgrading sponsors is generally stronger. Plus one build is bad on other maps, but a legitimate consideration here, cause upgrading build is common and it helps with filling the quadrants quicker. Overall, I would still say discard sponsors is stronger, so I agree with your choice. We're rewarded for the choice because oppo is inexperienced and passes pavilion build, which is a top tier card on any map, but especially here. We definitely fared better in the draft. Oppo could've had mark animals and discard card combo, or at least taken plus one build.

Opening hand isn't great but we can work with it. Mandrill/baboon rock is a small consideration to start with primate university, but without primates as a project, it's bait. Saltwater croc is also a pass even though it's project relevant. We don't wanna start with a partner zoo on this map without a breeding project, and our build is at two. I would've kept the rhea, it's a decent two size animal for the empty two size we have. Tambaqui is project relevant so it's an ok keep. Keeping snowy owl without keeping rhea doesn't make sense, we don't have the tags for it, so we'll probably discard it anyway. I think I would've kept tambaqui and rhea for sure, and either snowy owl plus a sponsor to discard for money, or both sponsors.

Round one

We're first player and we have assoc at four, so that's good. You grab sea animal uni, which is a viable play with sea animals as a project, it gives us an early project if we want it, and we deny it from the oppo. However, given our respective action orders there is another route to consider which is being a first player bully. We grab hand size, do cards at five, break five while discarding a sponsor for money. That puts oppo on the backfoot. Their assoc is starting at two, they cant't do cards at five because it will lead to a break and without hand size they'll have to discard a lot. They would have to start with a cards x back to have power to grab a uni. And they would still enter the next round with assoc being low if we break quickly.

You went with the sea animal uni, viable, as I've said. But it's worth noting prioritizing early projects on this map isn't as important. A double uni start and filling the bottom quadrant first for extra rep gives us two upgrades. With one of them likely being animals, it puts us close to the second worker at 8 rep so we can stay in rounds and start grabbing partner zoos. Just something to consider when you don't have a good early project on this map.

We got triggerfish from the uni, a decent reef animal. Oppo snaps stout, they likely have another europe tag, and are going for europe 4 or 5, so no early project for them. Bad snap IMO, better to draw from deck. We want to build a large aquarium covering two xs in the bottom quadrant. That's the meta. I say we still go with the bully plan, draw cards ourselves (or snap something we want to keep with the two fish) and break while discarding a sponsor for money. We discard a lot of cards, but so does the oppo. We start the next round with build at five, we build the large aquarium, and then either grab second uni and play both animals, or play both animals and do project. That's contextual.

You build small aquarium starting in the upper quadrant. Meta is to fill the bottom quadrant first. We have pavilion built and discard sponsors, money shouldn't be an issue. Oppo copies you. I guess they want to play a small europe fish plus stout but we'll see. You do build at one and build a kiosk plus pavilion cause you want to play franchise buisness. It's not very efficient but it boosts your income. I would say you're faffing about too much in this round. Oppo grabs science two rep. You snap engineer. Not a bad snap. It's useful on this map both with upgraded build cause we have pavillion build, or to alleviate not upgrading build by building two of the same enclosures at once. Oppo exes back sponsors cause they want to play two animals. You x back animals instead of playing tambaqui. You want to finish filling up the upper quadrant. Okay, but it would've been more worth your while if you had filled the bottom quadrant first. Seahorse and surprise tarsier from oppo, which gives them a build upgrade, not bad. They mark wolf cause it's europe. They snap slow worm for the break. With the stout they have four europe in hand now.

Round two

You grab science two rep uni and upgrade animals. It gets us closer to the upgrade at five rep but not quite. It would've been good to consider denying the hand size uni from the oppo here. They grab double science anyway. What's that about? Science museum? We'll have to find out. You play engineer, they build, you play double fish. We constrict their sponsors at five. Bad timing to play both fish IMO. We're out of money, no workers, and break is at 0/9. They break for 3, you do cards, draw into digging reefer. That large aquarium would've been useful now. Alas, we have no money to build it this round. They fill upper quadrant. You break for 3. Better to x back and cause a break. They play slow worm, you fill upper quadrant. Mistake, you're wasting your build power to build pavilions when you need it to build the aquarium. They cause break.

Round 3

You start with double x back because you need to build that aquarium. Big loss of tempo. They start with cards and Europe partner zoo cause they want to support at five. Also loss of tempo. They can just build for wolf and support at 4 for 4 CP. You play farm cat for maxed out appeal. It's not that much of an appeal bomb. Farm cat is generally a bad sponsor. Better to keep sponsors high. They build for wolf. You finally build that aquarium in the bottom quadrant. They play stoat and wolf, they have Europe 5 now. No worker for project though. Likely to break seven. You play fourth fish. Upgrade sponsors, I guess with engineer in play it is not necessary to upgrade build. A good opponent would break our worker away before we do project. They don't, they play release of patents instead. That's what the double science uni was about. Not worth it. We get to do project. Snapping is a sensible first reward. Sometimes left worker is also a valid choice on this map. But both of you want to cause the break so snapping works out better. You snap horse, nothing on the display is that interesting. Although, we should be wary of the pilfer monkey that's about to fall off into their hand. They do cards, you cause break.

Round 4

You snap clownfish. Solid snap, project relevant, we have the aquarium for it, but a mistake. Savanna is on display and in oppo's rep range. We should be denying it. They have wolf played. Second best release after secretary bird. They can either do Europe 5, and take snapping for it. Or release the wolf immediately and still have Europe 4 to do. If they take worker as reward, they will also get another one on 8 rep, so they can do two big projects this round. And they have assoc upgraded, so cheap donations. They do Europe 5 and take worker, neither here nor there. They don't even draw the project with the card draw reward. Pavilions is a better reward, but a big fumble for not doing the release or snapping it. They also take adapt as a track reward instead of times two. Times two is strictly better. And on this map, they can always take adapt as a project reward if their endgame is bad. You do cards and do a no no. You drew all the cards at once. Always draw one by one so you can react to what you get with what is on display. E.g. you could've drawn Yosemite or Sea Cave, in which case you would've wanted to draw up the alligator because it is a good release. Oppo fills bottom quadrant They get the rep and another worker so wolf release is still an option. They build a three size. We should be wary of that pilfer monkey they got. You grab last uni, ok, no time for partner zoos and fourth upgrade this game. And no pressing need for another project reward. But you also don't take the times two reward and just take five money. Why? Just take the times two and put it on sponsors by default if you don't have a better idea for it. Instead of doing the release, oppo takes partner zoo for the last upgrade, which is cards, and donates. Not enough money for pilfer monkey now. The amount of disrespect the wolf release is getting from both of you is triggering me. You build petting zoo for horse and double pavillion to fill out the bottom quadrant. Another waste of the build power. With engineer, you can build double speculative five sizes. You're strapped for enclosures on this map. You already have an aquarium and an empty two size to play clownfish and dingo. Spending your build action for a horse only and some rep is not worth it. Oppo plays cassowary. I guess they have plans for Australia two, but they can't do it this round. You play horse and clown fish. There's no rush for the horse. We can play clownfish and dingo and support Australia two this round. We still get the reef bonuses of draw and dig. You finally take Savanna, although I suspect not because you were denying it but for the plan of releasing the dingo. If you release the dingo though you're still putting the release out there for them to release wolf. You dig from your hand and get Yosemite. What's on display? A juicy 5 CP alligator release which would give you a five size back. Instead you plan to release tambaqui which would only give you one aquarium space back and is a +4 point trade off instead of the alligators +8. Oppo plays conference on Europe. It's one endgame cp, but it gives them money to stay in this round and build. You play sponsors for your endgame. They fill the right quadrant and get the appeal bonus. Not many breaks left, but extra appeal is extra appeal. You do cards. Again, all at once instead of one by one. Alligator is neglected, but you get the caiman anyway. They snap the large animals project. They're running out of projects to do, outside of Australia two if you don't block it, but large animals for 2 CP is not worth it. They should draw from deck. You do the tambaqui release, caiman sheds a tear. You take the hydrologist from the display. It's one endgame CP, and some extra money if you play it soon enough, so okay. From the draw reward you get spokesperson, rabbit, komodo. Oppo causes the break. You have discarding decisions to make. You discard the rabbit when you don't have enclosures built. You decide to go with the komodo into Siberian tiger point bomb, but that requires you to take the Asia partner zoo.

Round 5

Oppo draws pelican. Do they have a way to Australia 5? They should just do Australia 2 and draw the alligator to release it. You snap jungle. It's a denial for tarsier release or potentially snub nose release. Europe release appears, oppo still has a wolf to release. You build a five size and double pavilion instead of double five size. You're not utilizing the engineer to alleviate not having build upgraded. It's a tempo loss. You don't deny the alligator with the map card draw, but that would put europe release into their rep range so fair enough. Oppo takes last uni, and third partner zoo for last worker. They should be doing Australia 2 and take snapping for Europe release. You take Asia partner zoo cause your plan needs it. They x back build. You play hydrologist. Should've been played before building double five size. They play African tortoise and python from the display. Europe release falls into their rep range. Eagle appears. They could still release the wolf from range and take snapping to deny the eagle. You build three size for komodo. They draw Europe release instead of just doing the project from range. Eagle is not in range so you can get it with the next action. You play komodo and dingo, instead of komodo and tiger so you don't draw the eagle and now you don't have enough money for the tiger. They do their wolf release but draw from deck and snap the fox, when they could take the eagle with either action. You do Australia 2 and take money for the tiger. They should be breaking here instead of playing expert on Africa. It would deny you the eagle and they have too big of a point lead on you if they get the eagle instead of you. Now you have time to play the tiger and take the eagle. Both of you are close to ending but neither can end without the break. It's a break chicken situation, you are correct in identifying it. They draw the sea lion, they should also be drawing the aquarium. It gives them a sponsor to play if they don't already have one. And it's extra 6 appeal. You draw one at a time. Make that a habit. You draw into a petting zoo and landscape gardener. Even a second project. Good draw. Only thing you could've asked for is a large sea animal to play in tandem with the eagle. They take 2 rep. Delay move. They still can't end cause they don't get extra shift from 16 rep. You build three pavilions. Also a delay, but it contributes to the landscape gardener point bomb. If they don't break, you can play landscape gardener next move, which puts you at 99 points and you would discard a card for money. At which point they would have to break. But landscape gardener is not public info, so they shouldn't break yet. They do, so you get three actions after the break.

Round 6

You do the tiger release. Not a very good release point wise, but contextually it is good, it gives you a five size back for the eagle. You take adapt and miss but only favorite zoo would've been a better endgame than your current one which is 3 CP. They do a delaying move of taking last partner zoo and two rep for five points. Taking a partner zoo and donating would've been one point better. They don't take Asia so no sun bear. This delay gives you an additional turn if you want it. They could have the bold eagle. But if they don't they could do a cards action and luck into it. Judgement call whether to end or delay yourself by playing lorikeet from display with animals at 4 (no +1 rep so you don't cross). This would put you at 99 and guinea pig would be worth 9 when played in tandem with the eagle. You decide to end. So eagle plus guinea pig and determination for landscape gardener. You also play side entrance but that doesn't contribute to any points since you don't get map fill. You probably did it for style points to fill the left quadrant, but it was risky cause it could've revealed the bold eagle on the display. They play sea lion, which we knew about, and hornbill. So no eagle, and no pygmy hippo with which they could've played a sponsor (we know they snapped foreign institute, but that would've only netted 2 more points since they would lose 3 tokens for expert on Africa endgame). We go into final scoring. You both have 5 cp in endgames but they also have plus 4 appeal from expert on Africa, so it ends up a close game with you winning by 4.

I've pointed out many misplays both from you and the opponent which cost you both tempo. Don't let that discourage you from getting into rated games though.

[FrankJones]

Excellent and thorough analysis. Much appreciated.

1) I’m with you on Build; though I have thus far taken it to the extreme and pretty much never upgrade it at all. I’ve seen the 18-20% figure for several top players, so I’m likely tunnel-visioning myself into never upgrading it and missing opportunities when I should.

2) Draft was indeed lucky. Build-1, Sponsors-4, and sponsors-2 seem to be my preferred action cards, and I’m usually happy to have nay of the specialized sponsor cards since sponsors is a good action.

3) I didn’t even see the baboon combo, probably because I saw the marine animals project and didn’t examine anything further. Also, “multiplier cards” seems like a bizarre ability for a 28-dollar animal. How often is that actually useful? I suppose the best part of the baboon combo is the 2
CP and early upgrade?

4) Great sequence of 5-card uni, break 5. I never even saw that as a possibility. I love it. That would be ruinous to the opponent’s plan and might even result in a stranded worker.

5) No idea why I kept the Snowy owl without the Rhea. I agree with you 100%, with my sponsors card, I should just keep two sponsors.

6) My round 1 was an absolute fiasco. Here is what happened. It’s my first time playing this map. I had a major brain cramp and misread the top section bonuses as +2 rep, which is preposterous on every level. I do know the maps from studying videos and watching replays, and I know there are no +2 rep bonuses on anything except the beginner maps, let alone TWO of them within 2 hexes. Ridiculous careless error. And I should have caught it as I was doing my first build action, and restarted the move.

7) Likewise building the small aquarium. Just a major brain fart. No idea what I was thinking. I realized it almost immediately but not before I had confirmed the move of playing the small one. Just a terrible opening.

8) Engineer. Wow, yeah, I completely spaced out on the strength of that card. I was completely tunnel visioned into “Oh, I can build 3 pavilions per turn”, overlooking it’s much more important (on this map anyway) ability! I need to just slow down and THINK. I’m not playing real-time. There’s no rush. THINK, PLAN, EXECUTE. Watch the display. Pay attention to what opponent is drawing (I often don’t).

9) Agreed on your general assessment of round 1. I am faffing about, wasting time and tempo.
Round 2

10) Agreed on all counts, and as soon as I played my animals I realized, “WTF did I just do, I have no money and we’re very early in the round.” Not a good situation. And as you noted, I was spamming pavilions instead of getting the large aquarium.

Round 3:

11) Yeah, that double x was brutal. An illustration of how a major early game error snowballed into a total mess. Agreed on denying Savannah.

12) Yeah, a round 3 Farm cat is rather mediocre. It’ such a lame sponsor, almost impossible to score any end game points, and sent my sponsors card back to the 1-slot. Bad plan.
Round 4:

13) No idea why I drew all cards at once (and did it again later as you noted). I always (until that game) draw one at a time. Not sure what was going on in my brain.

14) My concern with the x2 reward was that my opponent by this point was sitting (permanently, it seemed) on a pile of 5 x-tokens and I feared he could break if I took the x2, and I would end up with nothing to show for the CP track bonus. That’s the only time I have ever passed on taking the x2. I should have just taken it, you’re right.

15) I’m not sure what was going on with the Wolf. I just wasn’t paying attention.

16) Agreed on building the petting zoo and double pavilion. I think I was just fumbling around in frustration at that point instead of focusing on how to salvage the situation.

17) Correct, I think I was planning to release the dingo and then stumbled into the Eagle situation and pivoted to releasing the large animal.

18) The Tambaqi release when I have the Caiman in my hand, brutal. I Don’t think I even noticed I could have played the Caiman and released it. Perhaps precipitated by my prior blunders of not building large enclosures.
Round 5)

19) Correct in your analysis, I was trying to set up the Komodo – Tiger play, but that’s slow.

20) Yep, again I overlook that I can build two 5s. Not sure how I missed it since after building the first one, the interface would show me I can build another one.

21) Hydrologist after blocking water spaces – bad planning on my part. Careless and sloppy.

22) Yeah, I majorly botched the eagle. I must ensure I get that card. I cannot fathom why I basically gave it to my opponent. Though I got lucky to end up with it anyway, but major blunder on my part to ever risk it.

23) End of round 5, I remember hoping my opponent would break, that worked out.

Round 6:

24) Correct on Side entrance – Being my first time playing that map, I just wanted to see how it works when completing that quadrant. Didn’t even stop to think that I would be putting out a new card.


Okay, that was immensely helpful, and given my result from my friendly mode game last night (a 30-turn win by 90-ish points with what I thought was a terribly messy starting hand), I am ready to start playing rated games for Elo.


One last thought / question: What do you think about drawing a university animal -specific with the intent of doing a round 2 base project? I’ve seen it done a lot in replays, but maybe Herbivores isn’t a good one, given how weak/expensive/unplayable a lot of herbivores are? As played, I did draw an unplayable Herbivore (with an also unplayable meerkat Den), and found myself quickly flustered.

So, I need to identify when an early R2 project isn’t “in the cards”, so to speak.

[yazavats]

One last thought / question: What do you think about drawing a university animal -specific with the intent of doing a round 2 base project? I’ve seen it done a lot in replays, but maybe Herbivores isn’t a good one, given how weak/expensive/unplayable a lot of herbivores are? As played, I did draw an unplayable Herbivore (with an also unplayable meerkat Den), and found myself quickly flustered.

So, I need to identify when an early R2 project isn’t “in the cards”, so to speak.

If you don't already have a playable tag in your hand, getting a second one from an animal uni is rolling the dice. I don't think I've done it that often. Usually when I get an animal uni to support a project at two cp round 2 I already have one playable tag in hand. The card from the uni could then be a bonus or a dud. Sometimes though when you don't have clear direction and nothing good to snap you just gotta draw from deck and hope. Early project reward and upgrade or an occasional two cp worker is good for tempo. But if you just don't hit anything project wise, you could still get good sponsor and animal combos. Sometimes there's nothing better to do than go double uni, get one or two upgrades that way. And then stay in rounds if you've got good sponsors to play, or push the break to get the worker back. There are games where the opponent hits all the right cards and there was nothing more optimal for you to do. But considering how high the elo ceiling is in this game, consistency is what matters.

There is a novelty player called Boom Baboon who made it their objective to hit master rank while always grabbing the primate uni first whenever available. They've succeeded.

[FrankJones]

Okay, that all makes sense. I was jammed up because I had an herbivore in hand, but noy playable unless a university with rep, which can't happen if I draw the herbivore University, so I gambled big on drawing a playable herbivore, setting up either a round 2 project at the third slot (or maybe even a higher slot if I had that crazy Okapi - Expert in Herbovires - Meerkat-etc. sequence that I saw in one video. Or something similar to that.

That's a funny strategy with the primate university. Very impressive to have succeeded. I'm glad there are others out there trying goofy things.


Thanks again for the in-depth analysis and advice.