Hello,
I don't know if this was brought up before, but I want to suggest a third option for the wingspan OP bird in the room set up. Right now, the dropdown menu has remove or include options. I want to suggest a third option, which is to forbid 4 OP birds in the first round.
I love playing OP birds, as it's fun to build strong engine and score high points. Also, when you have a bad starting hand and draw cards from the deck to hope for something good and you encounter one of the four OP birds gives you a good feeling and make a nice come back.
But, allowing 4 OP birds from the beginning makes the game one-sided and difficult for the opponent(s) to compete, unless they have a multiple counter birds (eg. cowbirds), which require extreme luck as well.
I play wingspan on the steam as well, and they have a discord community for competitive players, and they have a house rule that forbids 4 OP birds in the first round. This is because, when they ran the test, they found the players with OP birds in the first round had over 90% of winning rate. Amongst the high ELO players, it really becomes one-sided when only one player has OP bird early. The 4 OP birds are still powerful after the second round, but now the opponent(s) have an opportunity to counter and has a better chance of winning. It's sad when the better player loses only because the opponent had OP birds in the starting hand.
I really like the BGA interface. I think they did far better job in implementing the wingspan game than the steam version. But, the BGA does not have any expansion (the steam has European expansion). The European expansion adds a lot of good powerful birds, like White Stork or Snow Bunting, that helps players without the 4 OP birds to still produce a good engine and score high points. Plus, massive tucking birds, like Mute Swan or Common Chiffchaff, or OP Eagles give wetland engine a chance to compete against a traditional grassland engine playing. Plus, European expansion adds many interesting round goals that are not egg-heavy, so give non-traditional style playing has a good chance of winning round goals as well. But in the original only version in BGA, a grassland engine is the king (wood duck and woodpecker may create a strong forest engine, but not as strong as raven and gull/killdear combo) and hence 4 OP birds become the strongest birds.
I think it will give more fair chance for all players if the BGA creates a third option in the game set up and allow the 4 OP birds to be played only from the second round onward. The steam version doesn't need to add this option, because all ELO rankings are controlled in the discord community. So, if anyone cheats, they can give that player a loss in record. But, in the BGA, we have too many players from all over and you cannot enforce such a rule as a house rule. It only works if the system has it as an option in the game set up.
Adding this option will allow more competitive games like tournaments and arena more fun, as everyone will have a fair chance of winning. I don't know how difficult it is to implement something like this, but I really appreciate your consideration. Thanks for reading!
I don't know if this was brought up before, but I want to suggest a third option for the wingspan OP bird in the room set up. Right now, the dropdown menu has remove or include options. I want to suggest a third option, which is to forbid 4 OP birds in the first round.
I love playing OP birds, as it's fun to build strong engine and score high points. Also, when you have a bad starting hand and draw cards from the deck to hope for something good and you encounter one of the four OP birds gives you a good feeling and make a nice come back.
But, allowing 4 OP birds from the beginning makes the game one-sided and difficult for the opponent(s) to compete, unless they have a multiple counter birds (eg. cowbirds), which require extreme luck as well.
I play wingspan on the steam as well, and they have a discord community for competitive players, and they have a house rule that forbids 4 OP birds in the first round. This is because, when they ran the test, they found the players with OP birds in the first round had over 90% of winning rate. Amongst the high ELO players, it really becomes one-sided when only one player has OP bird early. The 4 OP birds are still powerful after the second round, but now the opponent(s) have an opportunity to counter and has a better chance of winning. It's sad when the better player loses only because the opponent had OP birds in the starting hand.
I really like the BGA interface. I think they did far better job in implementing the wingspan game than the steam version. But, the BGA does not have any expansion (the steam has European expansion). The European expansion adds a lot of good powerful birds, like White Stork or Snow Bunting, that helps players without the 4 OP birds to still produce a good engine and score high points. Plus, massive tucking birds, like Mute Swan or Common Chiffchaff, or OP Eagles give wetland engine a chance to compete against a traditional grassland engine playing. Plus, European expansion adds many interesting round goals that are not egg-heavy, so give non-traditional style playing has a good chance of winning round goals as well. But in the original only version in BGA, a grassland engine is the king (wood duck and woodpecker may create a strong forest engine, but not as strong as raven and gull/killdear combo) and hence 4 OP birds become the strongest birds.
I think it will give more fair chance for all players if the BGA creates a third option in the game set up and allow the 4 OP birds to be played only from the second round onward. The steam version doesn't need to add this option, because all ELO rankings are controlled in the discord community. So, if anyone cheats, they can give that player a loss in record. But, in the BGA, we have too many players from all over and you cannot enforce such a rule as a house rule. It only works if the system has it as an option in the game set up.
Adding this option will allow more competitive games like tournaments and arena more fun, as everyone will have a fair chance of winning. I don't know how difficult it is to implement something like this, but I really appreciate your consideration. Thanks for reading!
