Board Game Arena

There is a reason why WBC never on anyone's radar especially after the pandemic when board game just rocketed in popularity. It's a fantastic experience for board game lovers, but the competition and tournament setting, not just for Terraforming Mars are just waaaaay outdated. Something like Russian Railroad, why in the world they don't play German Railroad instead??????? Zero reason, besides being ignorant and giving in to inertia. For people who doesn't understand the Railroad series, German Railroad has more winning conditions and far superior game plays than Russian Railroads, which only has about 3 winning strategies that is time tested, no reason to keep going after all those years. Just play the superior version. Russian Railroad is just a dead horse, stop beating it.

In the same light, I can see Terraforming Mars tournament at WBC would never change till the end of time, people who organized it probably think Colony Venus 4p is the zenith of TM game play, because that's what they play online together all the time.

Those rules are just too much. They should’ve kept it simple and adapted the bga rules. I’m not a huge fan of banning this corp, that prelude, or changing the way cards work.

Also forcing 2 actions per turn is dumb. In a live setting, something like this can be nuanced many different ways, like adding a clock for ex.

Sounds like a noob-fest. At least tell me there were some prizes involved… live scoring at least?

No live scoring, no prizes besides plaque for 1st and 2nd. Banning corps is essential though, point luna is broken for colony.

I would never play a competitive T Mars game at anything but 2p player count; that said - if I would play, I would be 'a ok' with Point Luna being banned, perhaps also Manutech (I've actually never played or been in a game with Manutech, but it seems just as snowball and high roll as Point Luna).

As discussed to death in the 40 page forum posts... I am fine with one actioning especially in a competitive setting. I want everyone's best, most strategic game of T Mars. One action'ing is allowed by the rules, I do not see why it is necessary to house or social contract rule against it. Going first has an advantage, no need to nerf the second played even more by forcing two actions.

(Incoming spam of opinions on 1 and 2 actioning? hopefully not!?).

Thanks for sharing everyone.

I played in both heats this year. The schedule changed around to allow it. The first game was four players venus and colonies. The second one was a three player venus and colonies.

My normal TFM is usually two player with venus and colonies plus extra like prelude 2 and various promos against my friend. Getting to play against more players in person is a nice change. But it also has its negatives too.

In the first game I had an older gentleman who knew the game well enough to not have to explain everything. But he was shaky enough on little things that I had to burn a portion of my energy to make sure he was doing things legally. It gets old after awhile. The second game was me , a guy who wasn't that good, and the event GM. I would love to have known how many of the good cards the GM played came from the other guy's poor drafting.

Unfortunately, even though this event is considered an "A" event (experienced players only) they aren't pushing this classification. You need to understand that going in. And with the amount of players showing up that there are going to be a certain percentage of clunkers. Also, you have to run the game with the mandatory two actions per turn. If not, you will be adjudicating a lot of game at the end of the four hours.

You may think that's nuts but I would counter that you probably haven't been to a large convention game convention. And I would bet a lot of money you definitely haven't run one of these events. It's a thankless job. Do I think they are doing a good job with their format? No. I brought up something to GM during our game about the passing procedure and he said I was wrong. I then proceeded to show him the paragraph in the event preview where it agreed with me. He then scroll to the top where he had it written his way in a changes section. I said that's fine but you still need to edit the preview to get rid of incorrect information.

He's a young guy in his first year. And he's a volunteer. Does he know how to play? Yes. Does he know how to run an event? No. He took the previous format and went with it. Didn't really do the proper work of reviewing the information and making it air tight.

The really need to look at the idea of splitting it into two events. A four player fun fest and a two player streamlined tourney. The two player event is a possibility but would have to be presented by someone and then voted in by the membership.

In the end I have much more fun playing TFM in open gaming with my friends that I don't normally get to play with. I know they know the game and I don't end up being a hostage to a game with a couple of clueless gomers.

Facts

Yo I am so sorry, I don't know what you are all about, but normally I am dealing with killas on a daily bases and things have to be air tight. I don't do well with incompetence. Can you imagine how I felt when I was there in person? No joke, I am about let's Darwin this, aarrggg. I see money to be made, they ruins a beautiful thing that has traditions and legacies going on. I was Dana White observing UFC before Fertittas' take over. I wrote a business plan in my condo there, I listed out marketing, partnership with influencers, board game podcasters, salty suit events(2p invitationals), streaming events, new game show case, sponsorships. Guys, there were none of that, it was dinosaur, not even elephants, just dinosaur grave yard of incompetence that way behind in time. It was OG UFC, instead of fighters fight for BBQ sandwiches, it was board game fighters fighting for $2 plaques, I may as well as just hand out local bingo coupons for awards.

I have not attended these events but... they do seem like a thankless job for those volunteers running it. And isn't there a fee to play? Who is getting that money?

The way TCG's and their organized play make money is first a huge profit from selling the sealed product then having tournaments with hefty buy ins. There you need to spend your energy policing your 2p opponent not to cheat you out of the game / win.

Are there other more casual board game conventions? No tournaments just open play ? Perhaps one of those I could and would attend with my kids to just have a nice weekend of board games. Of course it could be a long way to drive and money to spend to do what we could do at home...

Yahyra wrote: ↑07 August 2026, 19:00 Are there other more casual board game conventions? No tournaments just open play ? Perhaps one of those I could and would attend with my kids to just have a nice weekend of board games. Of course it could be a long way to drive and money to spend to do what we could do at home...

Sure, there are tons of them. BGG has a listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Game_Conventions

Now, it should be noted that a lot of the cons on that list are not only board-game cons... like some instances of Comic Con have a substantial board game room (including the one in Puerto Rico), as does Dragon Con. And the ones that are primarily tabletop games usually have a substantial RPG presence. If you don't mind that, then there are a ton of options. But take a look at the list; you should be able to find one that isn't such a long trip.

Yahyra wrote: ↑07 August 2026, 19:00 I have not attended these events but... they do seem like a thankless job for those volunteers running it. And isn't there a fee to play? Who is getting that money?

The way TCG's and their organized play make money is first a huge profit from selling the sealed product then having tournaments with hefty buy ins. There you need to spend your energy policing your 2p opponent not to cheat you out of the game / win.

Are there other more casual board game conventions? No tournaments just open play ? Perhaps one of those I could and would attend with my kids to just have a nice weekend of board games. Of course it could be a long way to drive and money to spend to do what we could do at home...

If you are east coast Congress of Gamers host fantastic open gaming conventions. You can participate in tournament games, but they are all one off and you get points accumulatively from various games you participates. But the star of the show is its open play, huge libraries and amazing auction and board game exchange program. Intimate environment, which is perfect for family with kids. Board game designers would bring their new creation for play testing; for example you can ran into the designer for Wingspans there. Check it out and mark your calendar for the fall session: http://emsps.com/cog/fall/index.html

It's not about what you normally deal with. It's about what you walked into.

WBC is like any other niche part of the gaming universe. And it operates under its own set of rules. You showed up with a certain set of preconceived notions. Those don't fly there. That's not on WBC, that's on you.

Does that make the WBC TFM event right? No. That just makes it its own separate entity. You can either be an agent of change or an agent of disdain. You can work to give constructive criticism to the GM about your various concerns or you can just come on here and spew your hate.

Nothing is stopping you from setting up an event that fulfills your every fantasy about how a ftf TFM tournament should be run. Or you can just hide here and play games however you want. None of that addresses what you think is wrong with the event.

I love WBC. But even saying that I still have plenty of issues with how it is evolving. And I believe that there is always room for improvement. So you can sit there and sling your complaints until you are blue in the face. Or you can step up and work for change. The former is lazy. The latter is hard.

In the end you can bitch all you want. It didn't go the way you thought it would go. Life has a way of humbling us all. Take that as a lesson to be learned. Either come back with different expectations or just don't come back. I think we will survive either way.