Board Game Arena

Any feedback on this game? It was a hard one, perhaps near impossible, against Point Luna with a somewhat slow economy but a good lategame engine. I was Teractor and tried to push for terraforming quickly (with decent starting preludes) but eventually ran short and conceded at gen 8. I think I played decently well but there were probably at least a few decisions to improve. Let me know what you guys think.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=870718484

I'm not much good at this, but I'll try. Good practice for me:

I'm wondering about keeping space mirrors, Commercial district, and Callisto Penal mines. Those seem iffy at best. Callisto Penal is a lot of cash to burn on gen 1. It will take 9 production cycles just to break even on the money.

That's a crazy gen 2 draft. I never know what to do with that many good cards. Pick one such that you'll get back 2 that are equally good, or something like that? I want all 4 of those cards and I don't want to pass any. Being low on funds means delaying the 2 income and 1 heat production from Nuclear Zone.

And now 2 space cards have been played before space station.

Gen 3 I might keep only Acquired Company. You have cash issues and a lot of cards you likely want to play now or soon.

Passing Research backfired quickly, that's a fast Mass Converter. Maybe gen 2 keep research since you have Mars U, and be happy with whatever you get back?

I'm not sure about the placement spot. 3 dangling plants against an opponent with a lot of cards, titanium, and a space discount. I thought you would go for a card spot or maybe some metals.

Gen 5 draft is rough. Strip Mine, investment loan, optimal aero. I'm not sure which one to keep there.

Sure enough, the plants got zapped, and now another space card is played without Space station being played. Seems odd.

Gen 6: I always end up regretting passing decomposers. If he wants to spend a lot of money on Asteroid Mining, so be it.

Gen 7, you have decent cash and two more space cards. Why not Space Station ?

I'm not sure about playing Commercial district. Why buy Dev Center and not use it?

Gen 8: Funding benefactor feels like paying 8 MC to give your opponent 8 points. He has steelworks, plant production, discounts, and cards. I don't see the plan for winning benefactor. (Terraforming Ganymede was in an earlier draft.)

Gen 8 I am surprised you did not get insects into play. Maybe that and save large convoy for the next gen, and get space station going?

Regarding your opener: Callisto/SpaceMirrors/SpaceStation are generally bad and they don’t fit your hand at all — I don’t see a reason to keep them here. My preferred line would be: Teractor | Biofuels/Polar | Raiders/Lichen/Plantation/MarsU/Viral/CommercialDistrict + one card to burn with marsU (it really doesn’t matter which one — my line opens with marsU no matter what the opponent does). My gameplan would be: gen1 — ocean bottom-left; MarsU->Viral->Plantation(3x card); gen2 — CommercialDistrict(2x plant center) followed by greenery conversion just below. This establishes control over the two crucial parts of the map. If 3x card spot gets taken (which it was) I play Plantation on the 3x plant spot & convert to the left. Taking Mohole over Biofuels and placing Polar on the card spot looks valid too.

In short: take Biofuels/Mohole over MoholeExcavation. Cut Callisto/SpaceMirrors/SpaceStation from the opening pick and take Lichen instead.

For me it's pretty simple, we see no earth tags so Terractor is out Phobolog is in. We take Raider, Space Station, Calisto, Mars U, Viral Enhancers, Commercial with prelude Biofuels and Molhole Excavation. We go for generalist and specialist transition to jovs and celebrity. We want to be rich on gen6, so none of the other trash. Space mirror is trash there is no spacefarer here, we have access to power from prelude.

See? You immediately got punished imagine how nice it would be to have Phobolog fresh from Space station and Calisto transition to space elevator on gen2. No we don't take nuke over kelp, you already dropped an ocean, he has huge titanium reserve that's Comet GIA Iced asteroid waiting to happen. You are not going to lose the game over Nuke Zone Luna but you will be in big trouble if early kelp is dropped on Elysium. You got benefactor estate and desert to compete. Kelp is huge here.

You bought way too many cards, played Calisto before space station. I understand optimal sounds nice on paper but you have no space events in hand and jay just shown you advanced alloy...you can't pass that. That infinite money econ and celebrity. We keep strip mine and play that for insects and Combustor combo.

You can't give away freebies when play a player like Jay. I feel like you could have crushed him with double milestone cash board control and celebrity not to mention Mars U and Olympus we draw all day every day.

I am stop watching after you took space hotel on gen5 over TG. That's backdoor bene, clean jov path, celebrity all roll in one. And you passed it over for 4 income on gen5. No we can dont that. Especially he has card draws wild tag good titanium supply and a jov tag and we have seen none jov mults.

Not sure why you say youre going terraforming strat and then dont take plant prod cards. You kept some expensive engine cards too. I think you should have committed harder to the idea rather than spread yourself thin. Every gen counts when your racing and your slowing yourself down.