Board Game Arena

Greetings,

I'm ready to start trying rated games, but my most recent friendly mode game was a bit of a train wreck. If anyone is willing to help with some analysis, I would be grateful.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=914193810

Not a great opening hand, I don' think? And I loathe this map.

My own analysis:
Round 1: I used two turns to play Franchise Business. Maybe that's not a good use of two turns to play a mediocre (at best) sponsor, though I was trying to get my appeal and income up with pavilions and fill that top area.

Round 2: I spent all my money early and wasn't sure what to do. Maybe x-out Build and just play Farm cat and not be greedy trying to get the full 5 appeal? Should I be bothering with farm cat at all? By using sponsors for cash, I buried farm cat. I mean, I buried the sponsors card.
I was still trying to finish the top section.

Round 3: I x'ed out association just to get to animals? For the extra reputation? No, then I x'ed out cards. ok, I was trying to get my build card such that I could build the large aquarium. Was this too convoluted? Should I have just taken the sea animals project at the third slot and moved on?

Round 4: I'm trying to do too many things. A lot of "okay" sponsors, not great. Trying to set up projects. Dealing with the annoyance of not having enclosures because of this map's terrible project bonuses. Perhaps a Build upgrade was needed.

Also, opponent always had so many x tokens I Was always worried he would break if I tried to set something up that would require multiple turns.

then when I drew cards, I had even more options and was really getting myself mixed up, and then the break happened and I had to make some tough discard choices. Around or slightly after move 311.

I wanted to do Asia zoo -> Komodo Dragon -> Siberian Tiger. But this is a lot of actions and I do not have the large enclosure yet. Hydrologist is worth 6 points and probably 14 dollars so I want to play that. Spokesperson is helpful, I guess, but I have no guarantee of being able to get the 7th science icon. And playing Spokesperson after playing 5 science is a bit silly. I want to play the dingo so I can release it with Savannah, but I also want to target the Australia project. I want the rabbit because it's 6 appeal for 7 dollars and sets up a 3rd petting zoo animal for 9 appeal if I find one. So basically I want to keep 7 cards but can only keep 5.

Round 5: Ugh. Needing two expensive and time consuming build actions to set up the Asia animals is brutal. Also, I just covered 5 water adjacent spaces before playing hydrologist. What am I doing !??

Move 381 is where I start to get lucky. The eagle appears. Now I am shifting to releasing the tiger so I can play the eagle at some point. Lucky break for me.

But my opponent is at 72 and I'm getting nervous. I don't have enough time.

And I leave the eagle in the display, my opponent could grab it. Opponent does the Europe release project and could draw or snap the eagle. Probably not a good idea to leave it since I have an available large enclosure.

Okay, now, I am 3 dollars short of playing the tiger so I can release it. Bad planning. I settle for Australia and take the 12 money. Even the non-break-period project reward for the map is terrible. I don't need a new scoring card.

Now I get to play the tiger and grab the eagle. At this point, I figure whoever triggers break loses? Was I right in thinking I want to go first after the break?

I think move 426 is the miracle draw. I'll be playing the eagle after freeing up the enclosure (I hope), but I have no enclosure to play a second animal. Down to the last 2 of my 4 random card draws I get a petting zoo animal and landscape gardener. That's incredibly lucky.

Now I'm thinking my opponent should break here? Maybe not. I have no worker so I cannot do a project. Now I do a build action ( ? ).

I think my though process was that I had no useful determination acting after the eagle, so I didn't want to play landscape gardener yet, saving it for my turn after the eagle and petting zoo animal?

Now the break. Round 6.

I think my plan here is clear: Do the Savannah project, and play the eagle and The guinea pig, then sponsors for landscape gardener. My opponent manages to squeeze in an extra 5 point play, seems like a good idea.

Not a great spot for me. My opponent's final turn could be big with money and a large enclosure. Luckily the second animal wasn't a big scoring one, only 6 points. Though not many animals will do much better in a size 2, I suppose.

Okay, so, that was a messy game. 38 turns, including NINE build, five cards, and 3 x-action. Which means even with all that, I still needed 21 of the "good" actions (sponsors, animals, association.)

Very inefficient.

Feedback appreciated!

Oh, It just occurred to me that if my intent was to go for 4 marine animals, I should probably just build the large aquarium. Building both was a major waste. That also would have filled the top area much faster. I think Marine animals is a good approach here since this map makes it difficult to get enclosures without doing inefficient build actions. And with the large aquarium as my first building, I would be well positioned to play more marine animals instead of building new enclosures. Or maybe just one powerful marine animal after my initial two.

Also, as far as marine animals go, those first two I played were rather mediocre for the cost.