That's very nice of you not to be ashamed of loses and still posting here
First things first (others have already talked about it though), check out No Wonders on YouTube and I'm glad to see you learnt something from Sam's videos. I hit top 20 thanks to his videos and streams and it shows how useful they are! I will be giving advice for the three games you lost, and hope it helps.
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=725928365
I feel like you are not that familiar towards marine world action cards yet, or at the very least not knowing the power levels on each action cards. You might want to watch the "Marine World Tier List" video:
https://www.youtube.com/live/XTZOxc6tiH ... lljn4kOaav . Pavilion build is the first pick for me as it helps with building placements a lot and a pavilion just worths one point at the very minimum.
At the beginning it's correct to rush for habitats as the first project, so I will prioritise getting habitats tags out (Expert on Aus/Europe) instead of hydrologist, so you have an easy project to start at the beginning of round 2. Selling both Europe tags is probably a miss as you are left with three tags only while you already have all the tags needed to lock up Habitats 4. Excavation Site is another sponsor that you need to look at placements -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ2efUKM3Tg . Having said that, I like your start much better than your opponents, until small things happened, like x-ing back association when the opponent can cause the break in one move (ideally you want association high for next round so you can do your project first move), and playing animals which kills the game's momentum. Building a 3 size to play reindeer is very low cost-efficient as it doesn't flock with anything, kills big enclosure space, and you already have a release for your Gould's monitor so you can play that in the emptied 3 size if you really wanted to. (Also the American Bison just for 1 herbivore tag isn't worth it) The awkward placements and tempo killers are really what lose you the game.
It is also probably not wise to go for 2 base project at once, unless they harmonise with each other (American primates/European reptiles etc.), often times when you finish one there are other opportunities that arise (releases) which makes the game flow much better.
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=725953072
Here I will pick discounted animals first knowing that I will get a decent sponsor action back no matter what, though snapping sponsors is also a very game-changing card on its own. But now with snapping sponsors, you can discard a card to snap marine biologist that way, so you can save one cards actions to see more cards in the deck. Even though the opponent has a pretty busted start with aquarium played and 2 unis round one, it hurts even more if you are playing a monkey which does not help any base projects while you have already taken Australia partner zoo for 2Aus round 2, even though funnily enough it works out with Conference on Aus being drawn last minute.
Here you should also prioritise Penguin Pool with birds as a project, as Orcas only help with getting an upgrade in the short term, and with science 2-rep uni instead, reputation will be at 4 anyways which you only need 1 more reputation for another upgrade. Taking worker reward also seems a bit of another tempo killer, you might as well upgrade animals to get a reputation to play Penguin Pool. After the first two rounds I would say the game is almost lost so it's better to keep it simple by focusing on the early game strategies for now.
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=725997393
It is almost impossible to go for a round 1 project given the action orders as you can see, so I would grab a partner zoo first instead of my worker being broken away which just hurts too much. Keeping it simple, never x-back association round 1 when you have a worker to use.
Just a general note: I would take snapping and 2-size rewards for project in 90% games - it saves a snapping action and a build action which makes the game more efficient. Don't worry about not having a worker, just cause another break and you will have 1. For more advanced players, you can take the worker reward at 2cp but for now I recommend you taking the upgrade and not worry about the 2cp worker hassle, as it takes quite a lot of practice and experience to let it work out. So, try to rush for 2 easy project (releases are also possible) and get these rewards early, and bear in mind if you are doing early releases do keep in mind of the income, if you don't have money you can't quite do anything.
Hope this helps!
