Board Game Arena

Hola todos (especially Corvus Mortis).

I am kinda newbee in this game (100 Games played) and I find myself somewhere around 350-400 ELO.
And...... I can't evolve more.... I am missing high level concepts of this game.
And because community here thinks that Corvus Mortis kinda best player here, this topic is for you to ask an advice, how I can go deeper in this game, to became more skilled and be able to play against 700 ELO players?
I am aon the edge of dropping TM:
In some games, I am developing engine from the start, have really good cards, but losing because opponent just rush terraform and win (also somehow taking all milestones). Without engine, without card draw, just how he did that?
OK, on the other game, I am trying to do so, and.... I have no money, ocean walking not enough... I cant terraform fast to win, opponent has card draw, engine... I lose.

I have tried to read some high ranked topics on BGG, which involves inflation, VP values etc.... but I kinda not understand them (maybe I need to invest more time there).

And what is important: I am enjoying TM when I am playing agains 100-200 ELO player. Because I know i will win despite opponent will receive erath catapult, AI central etc. And I can experiment. I can play relaxed, searching for combos, interesting plays... and there it is fun.
When I am playing arena starting 400 ELO+, it is stressful game. I need to "google" card values, think each move very precisely to try to find best possible outcome. And if opponent receives IMBA card (like Earth catapult, AI central ect.) it becoming very depressing, because if even before that moment it was more or less equal game, now i will lose in 99%.

So, question to you, are you now experienced and skilled in this game enough, so you enjoy all the games (even with high ranked players) as I am enjoying plays against 150 ELO ? If so, maybe you can give some advices, how to pass that 400 ELO limit and open the next level of understanding of this game?

Gracias.

Hey Dessp7,

I was in a similar boat you were about a year back. Felt like I wasn't improving and not sure how to get better. I would recommend studying and for me that takes a few forms. Watching others play, watching your own replays, and understanding the value of cards, corporations, and preludes.

Not sure if we allowed to link youtube videos here, but watch ThreadPacifist's Quantified guide to Terraforming Mars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXYuOnHwCNc. He goes into the value of everything in the game. Watch this a few times. If you have questions reach out. I also would recommend MarsExpert's video. He has two playlist: Base Game Card Evaluation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MdGJ26 ... zd3JnSqQNt and his tier lists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9PW7ZJ ... kO5tA-GGSs

Watch so game replays of Corvus and try to guess what they will draft or what their next move is. If you guessed wrong, ask yourself why? There is some subjectivity to this game, meaning not everything corvus or any top tier player does is always 100% right, but they are winning more games then the rest of us.

As for having fun, I have the mindset that I am going to lose, Im going to make mistakes, but its about making less over time and learning, not always winning. We learn more from the loses

Best of luck!

To the best of my knowledge, linking to YouTube is allowed. (Being that YouTube is not a gaming platform).
I have seen some high-level players link to YouTube tutorials, notably a top Azul player who has linked to a series of Azul videos on how to attain master rank.

CapitalDecay's advice is solid, you should watch every video by ThreadPacifist, basically. Dude is chill and makes great content, and you have some solid 20+ hours of stuff there to learn from

I'd say two things, even though I'm pretty bad/mediocre:

1) Don't get depressed by bad luck. It all evens out in the end, take it as a chance to learn and maybe see how close you can get. You might be surprised by how many games you can still win.

2) Don't assume a game is lost just because they played an "imba" card. Earth Cat, AI, whatever, all these cards don't necessarily win a game on their own. And if they come online rather late and you're terraforming very well, taking all the TR, then you can end the game before they have enough of an impact to swing it in their favour.

Recognising when to push the game along or when to stall the game out is really important. It's something I see Thoth/Corvus/Szybek/other top players do a lot in their replays, which I'm bad at personally.

The most efficient way is to join the discord channel, I'd also advise you to just forget everything you learned on BGG, relying on stuff like "card values" will only hamper your progress.

Btw. I am probably not qualified enough but if there is an audience willing to listen to a mediocre player explaining what they're doing I might upload some of the more interesting games from this arena season with commentary in English on yt

Kulikk wrote: ↑28 June 2025, 19:05 The most efficient way is to join the discord channel, I'd also advise you to just forget everything you learned on BGG, relying on stuff like "card values" will only hamper your progress.

Btw. I am probably not qualified enough but if there is an audience willing to listen to a mediocre player explaining what they're doing I might upload some of the more interesting games from this arena season with commentary in English on yt

I would love to see those videos, but if you are mediocre, then what does that make the rest of us

Kulikk wrote: ↑28 June 2025, 19:05 I'd also advise you to just forget everything you learned on BGG,

Offense taken.

I don’t even know where competitive theory would be at today if I hadn’t started posting an article series on basic fundamentals on BGG.

You're a beacon of light in the darkness

Kulikk wrote: ↑28 June 2025, 19:20 You're a beacon of light in the darkness

Flattery will get you anywhere you wanna go.

What is happening here? We have a 767-rated player self-identifying as "mediocre" and a 507-rated player self-identifying as "bad/mediocre".

Both of you are obviously excellent players.