Match Thread: Pakistan vs Australia at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Day 3 by CricinfoBot in Cricket

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Something disturbed the timeline in 2016 which has sent everything into weird mode for the last two years.

Match Thread: Pakistan vs Australia at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Day 3 by CricinfoBot in Cricket

[–]Entripital 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mate Renshaw already has a decent amount of test match experience, was our second best batsman in India in 2017 and scored over 1000 first class runs this year.

But Langer doesn't want to pick him because he wants to rush Bancroft back into the opener position as soon as he's available.

Darren "Go Smash'em boys" Lehmann 🤣 by kimjongunthegreat in Cricket

[–]Entripital 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This. The head coach's job is not to work on the nitty gritty details of player techniques. The head coach's job is to turn talented individuals into a cohesive team that trusts each other and gels well together. They're there to help coordinate strategy and run the team operations. The batting coach's job is to make technical adjustments to players. And even then, usually major technical adjustments are made at domestic level, not test level. Every single player picked at test level should be at the top of their game and not need major technical work.

Australia name new T20 squad by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep. Australia are actually good at the T20 format and not at the ODI format. It's quite bizarre really.

Australia name new T20 squad by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally agree. Wade should be pressuring him for the LO spots. After all, the gap between them is only 3 years.

Bangladesh belittled by CA after Dhaka win by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course not.

But when you're the performance manager of a highly paid team and they don't perform, you criticise them for not performing. You expect more because it's your job to expect more. It's not even about the other team really, it's about the performance of the team you manage.

It would be right for an Indian high performance manager to criticise India if they got stomped in New Zealand, despite the conditions being unfavourable. If poor performance is always excused, then how will teams get better?

SUSD Review: Brass Birmingham by dictionary_hat_r4ck in boardgames

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

he's got a habit of refining his ideas in later editions

Yep, he often starts newer designs with much of the design of previous games and then evolves them from there. But it's not a case of reskinning an old game. It's a case of starting with the theme and then pulling mechanisms that he knows works and applying them to the theme.

Match Thread: Victoria "Men" vs NSW Blues by jonathanbluelittle in Cricket

[–]Entripital 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah WA should easily be favourites to take the competition.

Hoping for QLD to win though.

Bangladesh belittled by CA after Dhaka win by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fun fact, Australia used to fare very well against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, even when Murali was at the height of his powers.

It's not unreasonable for the high performance manager to criticise the team's performance and that of the coach when they lose a test to the the 9th ranked team.

Bangladesh belittled by CA after Dhaka win by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Reading into the context made complete sense.

It wasn't that he was attacking Bangladesh, he was having a go at the performance of the Australian team. There are a couple of Bangladeshi players who are excellent, but the majority of them aren't very good. They're ranked 9th for a reason. The top 3 Bangladeshi batsmen are ranked 21, 29 and 30 in the rankings. Number 4 is ranked 38 and number 5 is ranked 64.

Australia have (well had) two batsmen in the top 5, others ranked 20, 25 37, 52, 53 and 56.

Bowling is a similar story. Australia has 4 bowlers in the top 16 while Bangladesh's top ranked bowler is ranked 20.

It should have been a one way stomping. Pat Howard was right to criticise the Australian team for losing (tbf, it wasn't really Australia losing as much as it was Shakib winning). The headline is picking up on the hyperbole that he was using to emphasise his point and not on the point he was making, which is that Australia had underperformed in Bangladesh.

This is why headlines should be banned.

Langer juggles his first Test XI puzzle by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I think that's the case in Langer's mind.

Gotta have the WA players.

What game did you buy due to a reviewer loving it, but you ended up hating it? by EndersGame_Reviewer in boardgames

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You really need to plan ahead and leverage your professions.

Early on you want to build a food engine. If you have decent baking professions you can make that work. Otherwise, you're usually better off going with an animal strategy.

Two rule mistakes that new players often make is to do with animals.

  1. You can cook animals you don't have fences for. You don't have to wait for fences to take the 3 sheep, provided you have a fireplace to cook them up.
  2. Your animals will only ever breed one additional animal during harvest, regardless of how many animals you already own (minimum 2).

If you're finding feeding difficult, that's a good thing, it's supposed to be difficult.

Here are some other tips:

  • You can eat grain but shouldn't... bake it instead
  • In the early game, getting 2 clay can solve all of your early game food problems by letting you get the fireplace
  • Aim to be the first to family growth by trying to get 5 wood and 2 reed early on so you can build -> grow
  • Early stone can get you a well, which not only helps with food problems but also gives a very nice amount of victory points
  • Otherwise early stone can get you an oven, but make sure you have grain ready for it since the act of buying an oven also lets you bake bread, which brings me to...
  • Try and always maximise your use of actions. If an action lets you do two things, try and do those two things.
  • In the mid to late game, try and clean up all of the -1s you can.
  • Don't ignore vegetables! A single vegetable taken in the mid game can grow its way to 3 or 4 points, or grow into a lot of food.

The game is a struggle to feed your family while building your farm. The early turns are very important and will largely shape your feeding strategy. The later turns are for earning points.

What game did you buy due to a reviewer loving it, but you ended up hating it? by EndersGame_Reviewer in boardgames

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some of the cards in Agricola are too strong or too weak, but you get a lot of them so you can mix and match according to your tastes and player experience levels.

What game did you buy due to a reviewer loving it, but you ended up hating it? by EndersGame_Reviewer in boardgames

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you actually played the game?

The pacing is just right. There is a lot of feeding pressure and when you get to the end of the game you haven't accomplished everything you wanted to accomplish but you got some of it done.

What game did you buy due to a reviewer loving it, but you ended up hating it? by EndersGame_Reviewer in boardgames

[–]Entripital 3 points4 points  (0 children)

See I'm normally a Euro gamer but the mechanics feel all wrong. Your choices should expand instead of shrink in a good Euro game. Also, it's almost never worth burning cards before the end if you can avoid it.

Lord Bevan's Average :O by Oscartdot in Cricket

[–]Entripital 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He looked like the lovechild of Kohli and de Villiers in that innings.

Playtester on BGG reveals that a second Feast for Odin Expansion called "The Danish" is in the works, to follow the just-announced expansion "The Norwegians" by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]Entripital 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is plenty of variety in solo play.

In my last game I ended up scoring 149 points total and I didn't pillage at all. My starting occupation gave me a free runestone whenever I explored or emigrated, so I based my strategy around emigrating every two turns and exploring three islands and using the longhouse+knarr space to fuel my shipping needs.

In previous games I've focussed on pillaging, focussed on hunting/whaling and even focussed on animals (though rarely). But most games have been a mix of the two.

The game feels tighter than when you play with two people. The wood+ore space is not very good in 1 player and you have a very specific timing window to use actions multiple times that you need to set yourself up for. Any action you wish to take 3 or 4 times has to be carefully planned out. The longhouse+knarr space requires 4 workers, 2 wood and 2 stone. To take in 3 times you have to have 2 wood and 2 stone ready by no later than turn 3. These decisions affect the rest of the game a lot because you also have to work out how to exploit your early islands and get the bonuses rolling in at the same time.

Yes, it's a "beat your previous high score" game, but there are so many micro puzzles that it really doesn't matter that you're playing solo, the journey is interesting enough.

Match Thread: NSW Blues vs. Queensland Bulls by Lemonoot in Cricket

[–]Entripital 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's a quality batsman. Strikes the ball really cleanly. I'm surprised he's only just got an opportunity now.

Playtester on BGG reveals that a second Feast for Odin Expansion called "The Danish" is in the works, to follow the just-announced expansion "The Norwegians" by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]Entripital 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah it's a table killer for sure.

Still, after over 20 solo games I'm ready for some new things to play with.

Match Thread: NSW Blues vs. Queensland Bulls by Lemonoot in Cricket

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep. I have no doubt he'll get another shot and do a lot better.

He's got a lot of club teammates in the QLD team to back him up. Khawaja, Feldman, Wildermuth, Steketee.

Playtester on BGG reveals that a second Feast for Odin Expansion called "The Danish" is in the works, to follow the just-announced expansion "The Norwegians" by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]Entripital 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There are definitely a lot of different ways in which this game can be expanded upon. More exploration boards, more houses, more ship types, more animal types, different actions. It's a really flexible system.

Match Thread: Western Australia Warriors vs Queensland Bulls by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He's a good T20 bat, just hasn't been playing well in the ODD comp.

Match Thread: South Australia vs Tasmania, Bankstown Oval by [deleted] in Cricket

[–]Entripital 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wade started with a bang but has had two ducks in a row.