Let me preface this by saying that I'm bad at this game. I love playing it, but lose a lot (I think I'm at about 14% win ratio in Arena). Recently I've been trying out new strategies, watching replays, taking notes, and generally trying to learn from my mistakes.
In my latest loss, I wanted to understand how the opponent did so well. I'm not looking for comments on my moves (I know where I went wrong, and I also tried out some things that didn't pan out) in this game. In this one, the opponent makes a couple moves that I don't understand how they could predict, or they're incredibly lucky. The series of moves starts at 191, here: https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... ;&goto=191#. (Sidenote that from the initial 8-card draw, up to this point, they have gotten extremely fortunate with the cards drawn from the deck.)
At move 191, the opponent selects build at 5 power. They build a Kiosk and 3-enclosure - these both make clear sense to me - but then end by building a 1-enclosure. The placement wasn't on a bonus space, and I thought at best, it set them up to maybe get the +$5 space on a future build? They don't have 1-space animal in hand, and there's none on the board. Not terribly weird, but not necessarily a move I would make. But then on their next turn (move 205), they play the Animals action at 5 power - with only one card in hand that they'll be able to play (Jaguar, with the Hunter ability: draw 4, take 1). In the Hunter ability draw, they draw three(!) 1-enclosure animals - two of which they can afford, go towards the base conversation project they were already pursuing, and have the exact maximum number of appeal points they can take in order to play one of the sponsor cards they have in hand (Release of Patents).
Is this sheer luck? Could they have predicted this? Their play makes me think they knew they would have those cards as options. Any thoughts and advice are appreciated!
PS. The opponent maxes out conversation points at 41, with one of the wildest ending moves I've seen (2x multiplier on Animals at 5, with two animal abilities to move Assoc. to 5 and play it)
In my latest loss, I wanted to understand how the opponent did so well. I'm not looking for comments on my moves (I know where I went wrong, and I also tried out some things that didn't pan out) in this game. In this one, the opponent makes a couple moves that I don't understand how they could predict, or they're incredibly lucky. The series of moves starts at 191, here: https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... ;&goto=191#. (Sidenote that from the initial 8-card draw, up to this point, they have gotten extremely fortunate with the cards drawn from the deck.)
At move 191, the opponent selects build at 5 power. They build a Kiosk and 3-enclosure - these both make clear sense to me - but then end by building a 1-enclosure. The placement wasn't on a bonus space, and I thought at best, it set them up to maybe get the +$5 space on a future build? They don't have 1-space animal in hand, and there's none on the board. Not terribly weird, but not necessarily a move I would make. But then on their next turn (move 205), they play the Animals action at 5 power - with only one card in hand that they'll be able to play (Jaguar, with the Hunter ability: draw 4, take 1). In the Hunter ability draw, they draw three(!) 1-enclosure animals - two of which they can afford, go towards the base conversation project they were already pursuing, and have the exact maximum number of appeal points they can take in order to play one of the sponsor cards they have in hand (Release of Patents).
Is this sheer luck? Could they have predicted this? Their play makes me think they knew they would have those cards as options. Any thoughts and advice are appreciated!
PS. The opponent maxes out conversation points at 41, with one of the wildest ending moves I've seen (2x multiplier on Animals at 5, with two animal abilities to move Assoc. to 5 and play it)
