Board Game Arena

I am a noobie and have been up against VERY experienced players for my first 15 games. I am being crushed every time, so there is no way to win and improve my rating!

Is there a way to play against players that are better matched experience-wise?

Martian27 wrote: ↑31 October 2024, 06:53 I am a noobie and have been up against VERY experienced players for my first 15 games. I am being crushed every time, so there is no way to win and improve my rating!

Is there a way to play against players that are better matched experience-wise?

Yes. If you manually create a game (i.e., starting a game from the Play Now page with the rightmost option set to "Manual"), you can adjust settings so that only beginners and apprentices are able to join by clicking the link labeled "Restrict table access." But it may seriously increase the time it takes for the game to fill.

Alternatively, under Automatic matching you can leave "I'm okay playing with: My level" set to the default (under Opponent's Level in Show advanced options) and set everything else to "I never want to play with." The filter options are found by clicking on the gear icon next to the game thumbnail image.

Those first two options are found on the Play Now page. From the single-game lobby, under the Start button to the right of the number of players you will see a green icon with people coming out of (or going into?) a door. Click on that to filter by Opponent's level.

There are also filters for karma when setting up a game. You can filter karma by >50%, 65%, 75%, or 85%.

Thank you very much for your help. I am still learning how to play & how to navigate the controls.