How are you enjoying Hellas?

[Bartissimo]

With the new Arena season moving to the Hellas map, two things have happened. One: my Elo has taken a huge dive and my game doesn't work well and consistently on Hellas. And two: I notice I am not enjoying Arena games at the moment. That may sound obvious for lost games, but even the Hellas games I win, I don't enjoy much. By way of comparison, I could still enjoy playing a close match on Tharsis where I took second.

Now, I've had a think of course about what the game on Hellas asks for, and what engine development and play styles work well. But somehow I find the dynamics that the milestones in particular bring, and the overall play with different dynamics arising from different ocean adjacencies and placement bonuses just much less enjoyable than on Tharsis (or Elysium/Vastitas Borealis).

In opening this as a post topic, I appreciate the thread can go multiple directions. Maybe a first one to open this up: what does everyone enjoy about the Hellas map, and how do you play this both for competitive results and enjoyment in 2p games?
One side effect of this Arena change is in any case that I'm enjoying tournament games on Tharsis better, and there my game still holds up well.
(By way of background: previously I had played only a few 3p games on Hellas for variety, and somehow I did enjoy 3p games on this and other maps.)

[rambling_coherently]

Personally, I don't mind Hellas, but I haven't played much and I'm on a lucky streak lately, so don't listen to me

The milestones are fairly interesting, because there's a lot to be gained by not overextending to get them. In the same vein, you can really lose a lot of momentum/development if you play mediocre cards just to claim milestones. Getting tripled on Hellas feels less decisive than it does on Tharsis

For the most part, I'm just excited for when we'll have random map next arena season

My guess would be that there are fewer people playing Arena during this season than last season (which was the most active arena season ever for TFM)

[Agbisweird]

I'll chime in to say that different maps (and milestones and awards) do heavily change the 'game'. Like some posters (I am avoiding naming names and content creators here; hit me up with some $$ if you want some advertising ), on Tharsis there are three milestones that clearly match a strategy (planner for engine builders, terraformer and gardener for terraformers). Hellas is much more a midrange strategy map I think. Enjoyment is always subjective but of course to each their own. Psychophiles (spelled it right?) is a really good card on Tharsis, but it is soooo good on Hellas. Hilarious stuff.

[CapitalDecay]

Different map / milestones / awards definitely changes the game and value of certain cards. I think hellas fits my strategy better because Im not the best at rush and am scared to go full engine at times. I also find myself over buying in draft on this map (more than usually for my bad habit), but I think it's from inexperience and trying to do everything at once. Overall, I like the map and think the change is making me a better player.

[StrandedKnight]

I love Hellas. I think the milestones and awards are better designed than on Tharsis and I think there are more ways to outplay your opponents when fighting for them.

I have personally performed better this season, probably because many players are inexperienced at this map.

Can't wait for random maps next season!

[RoyalRook]

It's nice, but I feel like it's far heavier emphasizing on engine, up against AI and earth cat, you could be just straight up dead, while on Tharsis you can over come it far easier. I think it's a less creative map comparing to Tharsis.

[RoyalRook]

Oh yes, milestones and awards are much less important on Hellas. I have won and lost multiple games when me or my opponent claimed all 3 milestones and two cheapest awards. Maybe that's why you are losing more, you need to favor much more on engine in early game on Hellas.

[RoyalRook]

There is this guy mark who managed the TM league created this tier list that was super dry, it carries no elo adjustment nor meta, its not nearly the best tier list out there, but ironically it's perfect for Hellas, since you can't be too cute here. What I mean is this: dont be cute, take that mars u, mass Converter, and advanced alloy, since engine rules here. Never ignore jov, bc you will need the points. I have been experimenting, and found out you just have to be boring here. Top corps? Vitor, Cedicor, Ecoline, Luna, Saturn, CSM, Valley in that order?

Person take: i love going south for polar more than pretty much anyone in the community from the log, but unless you are ecoline, go north forget about the milestone, it's usually not worth it, since the synergy is wide open and your opponent can easily sneak in the other two. It will hurt you more in the long run and you dont need milestone to win here anyway.

[ft029]

I find Hellas pretty fun, especially the milestones. They all incentivize going at least a little bit out of the way, and every strategy is able to compete on them to some extent.

Although the rebates are weaker, I find terraforming strategies to still be powerful. I've had several recent games (e.g. https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=751595768 ) against 400-600 elo players who come out swinging with big engine pieces such as AI, research outpost, earth catapult; however, they end up in poverty/are too inflexible to compete on milestones or the board, and cannot score enough before the game ends.

[Bogeyun]

Yah 2p games are still effectively the same just you have to evaluate and tweak how you play a ltitle cause of the MS/awards.

You need to play cards to get MS/Awards for the most part (although some really strong terraforming setup can still do fine w/ Polar+Cultivator and no other ms/awards), but terraforming strats still work just fine.

Ecoline was my most picked corp until a few days ago when somehow I ended up with PL in like 5 out of 6 games. Terraforming with this corp (with a bit more mid-range focus) works just fine, managed to beat lots of strong engine setups with it.

I think something a lot of people struggle with is assuming they have to blast terraforming because opponent gets a few big engine pieces like EC/AI. If you have good scoring/scaling that can come in many forms (Plants, Bio trio, ms/awards, joves) this will just better than clicking the SP Asteroid button on Hellas.