Board Game Arena

I just had a miserable game experience (https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=306478815) with a player who blocked just for the sake of blocking. - Not because they had a genuine need for the track. At one point red made a circle around my track, cutting off my final area of track in all directions! - Just "to get their jollies" (their words).

IRL it's generally agreed upon that this is a jerk move, as most people prefer to win by getting longer trains and more tickets completed. Blocking someone and sabotaging their entire hour of play and all the long effort they put into collecting the necessary train cards, just because you anticipate their direction, is something that CAN be done. Sure. But it's mean and a lot of us don't enjoy playing with people who play that way!

If there's any way of having blocking as an option for those who play aggressive games and also games where everyone agrees to just mind their own tracks and only block when they fairly need a track to reach a destination or longer train, that would be great! Otherwise, I may just wait for Europe and stations to hit BGA! It's hard enough playing 4 players without stations to escape an accidental block when we all need the same tracks.

But having players blocking people on purpose just kills all the fun as far as I'm concerned.

How would you that program that, without false positives?

Just redthumb such players, and you won't have to play with them again.

That's part of the game, we can't block it. Play with friends who don't block to be sure there is no "competitive play" like this.

Open up a group of non-blocking players and play only with group members.

The goal of playing a game is to win. Blocking (especially in a 2 player game) is a very good strategy towards winning. I don't see the issue with it.

Blocking is part of the strategy. If you telegraph where you are going and leave an easily claimed routine vacant right in the middle its more your fault than the other players.

Winning TTR is not just about making long trains and claiming lots of routes. It's stopping your opponents from getting more points than you.

This game shares a trait with Carcassonne, it's deceptively combative.

lioness65 wrote: ↑08 October 2022, 15:24 Open up a group of non-blocking players and play only with group members.

This is probably the best option. I believe you can limit games to just members of certain groups.

Who's to say what a blocking move is? Quite often it's just the track I want to play that just happens to also block you. Maybe I'm just playing the track for points. It will be harder to consider what everyone considers 'fair play' as, how can you define that?

If you play with people that moan and groan a lot, then it seems like every other track played will effect someone. I like to join in and groan and point to a train that is mine and ask who put that down?

There are enough double tracks and greys that you can adapt your route. Try not to telegraph your intentions, stay flexible - any purely blocking player will ultimately lose.

On "old DOW site" it was possible to write a title to the game, and players who don't like to play with block called their games "no blocking game".

Perhaps it is possible to write it here on "presentation" for these players ?

You can,. I believe they call it the Presentation?