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olympia = auto loss

Posted: 11 October 2023, 04:15
by GoNoles
Are they ever going to remove this * blight from the game? I just disconnect and quit any game where i get dealt it. Not worth the effort just to lose.

*moderator edit: please use family-friendly language on BGA.

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 17 October 2023, 17:55
by ElThoesen
* moderated for insults

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 25 October 2023, 19:40
by Tens0r
Olympia are certainly the weakest civilization in the game, but I do not think they are destitute. If you play them well you can certainly pilot them to victory.

At any given point there will always be a weakest faction; if we keep removing whichever faction is weakest we'll just be left with one to play with. I think that weak factions in the pool are a bit of a necessary evil, and that Olympia is not weak enough to warrant any drastic changes.

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 26 October 2023, 20:44
by ElThoesen
It's all just Hali B from here on out.

Sorry I was so glib in my first response. The issue with Olympia is that it simply cannot win by just executing its own plan. It ALSO has to significantly disrupt its opponents plans. That requires a little luck for card order and intelligent neighbors. With that said, there's a few ways you can approach it.

Side A: A lot of people hate side A, but I'm not completely against it. In 3P, the current Arena configuration, you can wreak havoc by discarding resources. Both Gizah and Rhodes are easy targets for this, but a science-heavy Babylon playing side B will also be vulnerable. If you toss the double resource in age 2 that they need, life gets extremely difficult. For general play, if you can completely negate one of the brown resources, you'll be likely to get more value from your wonder stages.

Side B: Play all of the brown, yellow, and red, get your high value blue and purple for free in age 3. This one is a bit spottier, but it is at least fun to completely disrupt the normal economics.

In either side, your goal with Olympia should be pure disruption of your opponents normal tactics, AND you must dominate war. The second part isn't super hard since Olympia resources (clay and ore) lend themselves well, but if you face Rhodes you should also try to take out their wonder stages. If you nab two of the three red's in age 2, you'll almost certainly be ahead in war going to age 3. Then you simply add one red in age 3 and have a solid 8 shields, netting you 10 more points for one card purchase most of the time.

Olympia hitting full war and wonder stages nets 28 points already. You can get 30 more points with blues, yellows, and purples, and 58 will be competitive in a lot of games.

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 12 November 2023, 05:14
by ExaltedAngel

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 12 November 2023, 21:23
by TomInBC
Olympia in 3 player isn't so bad. Brown resources are in short supply so the 'free' plays (of either variety, but I prefer side B) have some value to them. Disrupting enemies is very valuable to it as the 'free' plays means it is less vulnerable to disruption itself.

Side B has good synergy for military victories: it starts with a military resource and the natural desire to get ore for the first wonder stage gets another. Wood is great for age 2 military and for getting Caravansary BUT if Olympia gets locked out of wood in age 1 it still has options: if it got the 'free' first play it can pick up either Cara despite lacking resources or it can buy one of the otherwise inaccessible militaries (walls and archery range might be out of reach otherwise). If I have wood I will often save the first wonder play until age 2 so I can bury an age 2 science (unless I could bury an age 1 science instead, but that doesn't always work with military order).

The start of age 2 is where Olympia wins or loses in 3p. Good play and good luck here can secure full military victory and kill opponents. Or with bad luck/play everything falls apart.

The final stage of B is undervalued: it should be a 7 instead of a 5. I do NOT go for this stage on purpose/part of the plan, but will take it as a "bonus" if I happen to have access for cheap thanks to card order, or if it would otherwise be a "dead" age 3 card (even buying 3 greys for 6 coins still nets 3 points vs 1 for throwing a card). DO NOT play grays in age 1/2 intending to build this stage. If there's no other better play, fine, play a grey it will save a few coins and maybe make some money from opponents buying them, but almost everything else has better value.

Olympia in 4 player is much worse, as is Alexandria, as all resources are so plentiful that it is very difficult to disrupt at all and the 'free' plays are only worth a few coins.

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 20 November 2023, 22:32
by Oxmeister
I don't think Olympia is autoloss at all, and I actually really like the B side having actually won the past 3 games I've had it in (not arena games, but all 4p). It's a super flexible wonder and I think works well when played as such.

The A side I've more trouble with, as already mentioned it probably needs resource scarcity to make it's strength count, which it won't have in some counts, but will keep trying wit this.

I agree with the good comments already made, and it does indeed have some worthwhile military advantages.

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 16 December 2023, 00:27
by ARBilton
I just got into elite and 10 of my last 21 games I've had olympia...

can you not BGA, please...

Re: olympia = auto loss

Posted: 05 January 2024, 21:05
by laggercat
Here are statistics from over 18,000 results from BGA games.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/269712 ... unbalanced

Olympia B is the worst wonder at every player count.

Hali B is by far the best wonder at every player count.