Board Game Arena

When it is the first time playing, they get a notice you're a new player.

You also get double time (as given by game options) on the first time you play for each game on BGA. Later on you could choose "slow play" (or something similar) in game options when you open up a table or enter in games with "slow play", if you need some more practise before playing in regular tempo.

The time given per turn as slow / regular / fast (plus a bonus time for the whole game) changes for each different game. You can see it in the details of game options. In Kingdom Builder I prefer "slow" games, but in Splendor "fast" is not fast enough for me

Others have covered the important aspects of your question.

So the only reason I'm here is to tell you to absolutely try new games. There's so many gems to be discovered !! Set the ELO, indicate that you are new to the game, open the game as a practice game, ... plenty of options to get across that you are new to the game and plenty of options for others to notice and adjust.

I would say that as long as you made an attempt to learn the rules by either watching a video or reading the rules book, that you are fine. I wouldn't mind at all if a person did horribly suboptimal things as long as it looks like they made a little effort before hand.

The system won't let you play in the arena mode for games you haven't played a few times. While every game is important, I tend to think of the arena games as the more series ones.

I sometimes use the "Discover and play all games" group to find other people who want to learn a game. It has a very laid-back philosophy of knowing a little bit of everything instead of mastering one. It's mostly turn-based, but ocasionally someone sets up a schedule for real-time play.

https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=7553079

T72on1 wrote: ↑07 September 2021, 18:15
...There's so many gems to be discovered !!

What are your three coolest recently discovered gems ?

(What I'm particularly looking for are gems that are flying under the radar screen that I wouldn't have thought to try otherwise)

vigorousRoll wrote: ↑07 September 2021, 22:55

T72on1 wrote: ↑07 September 2021, 18:15
...There's so many gems to be discovered !!

What are your three coolest recently discovered gems ?

(What I'm particularly looking for are gems that are flying under the radar screen that I wouldn't have thought to try otherwise)

My two favourites, and games I never would have discovered without BGA, are definitely Dungeon Twister and Battle of Lits. The first one is a very tactical game with a cool theme and almost infinite replay value, due to the sheer combination of characters, objects and rooms and the fact that the playing board is always different to begin with and changes throughout the game. Battle of Lits is a short 1vs1 abstract game that has simple rules but a lot of depth to it if you really want to master it.

Recently I have discovered a few other 1vs1 abstract games, which seems to be a style of game that don't get to be played a lot here on BGA, and one doesn't see very often in board game stores either, even the more specialized ones. Squadro, Gygès, Herooy, they are all very fine games but don't get a lot of attention, probably because they don't have an appealing theme or looks. At least not compared to the more shiny games you see in the stores most of the time.

Thanks !

Glancing at some of these, Herooj obviously reminds one of chess or checkers but may be obscure enough compared to this famous duo that one could have the confidence to join a game vs an online opponent with the confidence that your foe wouldn't be making moves with the aid of an engine.