Board Game Arena

Yes, It makes no sense to always freeze highest score player. There are multiple factors to choose who to freeze.

If everyone is at 0 score freezing high elo makes little sense but compare win rate percentage of all the players on table even before freezing high elo because a person reach to 200 plus elo just by winning 2 games with a large group of good elo players.

When all the players are with non zero scores why most of the players freeze only high score players even if others players are with few points difference away? That’s where you need to make a smart decision.

If you’re second or 3rd highest freezing highest is ok in a larger group of 4 plus players

If not see what cards each player hold and determine who can easily get busted with a draw and chose a person who has less chances to get busted and freeze them so that you’re not locking the busting chances of high score players and you can eventually raise your score . Prefer a player who is higher than your score to freeze who is tough to get busted so you cross their score and highest score players may still stay at same score by getting bust.

Note: Feezing a player holding Second Chance card is always a priority based on their current runtime score and x2 card also

What makes no sense is freezing player without any card, lol

Stops their round. They can't beat ya with a 0.

Yea you have a decent round and all the sudden you’re a target! It’s fun though I guess, usually if someone freezes me early I’ll freeze them back. I guess you could consider who’s closest to 7 cards at the moment might make sense. What’s the other strat?

If there's a clear leader, you probably should freeze them. Are you suggesting playing for 2nd or 3rd if you can't catch the leader? I guess that's a valid strategy, but it's better to play to win unless it's hopeless.

If it's close, then you should freeze someone with the 2x or second chance, OR freeze someone with the lowest total.

I also won't freeze someone if I think it would be a mistake for them to hit. I.e., if someone has 12-11-8, they're probably making a mistake if they hit, so I wouldn't freeze them.

Dexterclassic wrote: ↑22 March 2025, 08:56 Yes, It makes no sense to always freeze highest score player. There are multiple factors to choose who to freeze.

If everyone is at 0 score freezing high elo makes little sense but compare win rate percentage of all the players on table even before freezing high elo because a person reach to 200 plus elo just by winning 2 games with a large group of good elo players.

In regular play, deciding whether to Freeze a player based on ELO—when all other factors are apparently equal or a more obvious probability is apparent within the game—is playing "meta" somewhat akin to "angle-shooting", i.e., not in the spirit of play or the spirit of the game, especially a game where so much luck is involved. I would avoid anyone who plays like this. I might consider this differently in a tournament format.

For what it is worth, I think it is important to have a logically defensible reason to give someone a Freeze card. These are the things that I consider:

1. Your score will not be locked in at 200 or better if I freeze you. I want a chance to win and making sure you don't bust is not in my best interest.
2. You have the times two card (X2).
3. You currently have the best score in the game.
4. If everyone is at zero, you have the best ELO.

If I didn't follow those criteria, I may have mistakenly clicked on your button. It's easy to do if you are moving the mouse and clicking at the same time.

If you are sure that I didn't make a mistake and I didn't follow my criteria it is probably because I mistook you for someone I played in Ticket to Ride several months ago and think that you took Atlanta to Nashville just because you have seen other players do it and you never, ever came close to using it by connecting with anything else. God may forgive you but I think you are a deviant who is not worthy of mercy or consideration.

I hope you will see that I follow a very rigidly logical process when determining who I give the Freeze card to.

Thanks for reading!

Can't agree more.
Every time I do a good action to my Elo scores (e.g. freezing the 3rd place player as the 4th place player), they send "???" to me.
I guess many players don't know how the Elo system works at all. Why do I have to help the 2nd place player in this situation? It does nothing good to me.

nccc wrote: ↑07 May 2025, 04:14 What makes no sense is freezing player without any card, lol

its actually good beacuse they cant have more points, tho if somebody is at like 150, its better to freeze him

I don't understand freezing based on ELO if all things equal?

Depending on my position, I freeze for different reasons.

I'll freeze the player with a second chance. If two players have it, the one with the most cards so they don't flip 7 without bust.
If I'm in lead, I'll freeze the highest real time score player
If I'm not in lead, I freeze the highest scored player not accounting for real-time.

Where I struggle is round one deal one is me and it's a freeze. At that point, we have no cards at 0 score so I freeze my least favorite colour

If its round one and everyone has a card, I freeze the lowest card or player with the most number of low cards.

Sometimes I just get Karma on someone who froze me... Like when I was last and had 0 cards, my next round deal was a freeze so I froze em right back