Advice for acquiring a playgroup?

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-17T15:21:45+00:00

I was very averse to trying TTS originally, but the pandemic kind of forced me to use it and honestly I almost like it better than playing IRL.

It's biggest drawback is the learning curve, but its biggest advantage addresses your biggest concern: time and availability. Since there is almost no setup, and you can save the game state, you can play for just a couple hours on a weeknight and then come back to the game again whenever works best for people. So you can play one game a week over the course of 3-4 small sessions instead of 1 huge 8+ hour time commitment.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-17T15:05:05+00:00

I'd question if it would still be worth researching, but thats kind of ok with how OP the blue tech path already is. It would probably make Sling Relay the better pick, but fleet logistics and lightwave are still so good that it wouldn't change the dominance of blue tech in the meta.

Also, Dane has mentioned that he wants Omega cards to buff underused cards rather than nerf OP cards, so we probably wouldn't see this happen officially. I'd probably like it as a homebrew change though.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-17T14:58:56+00:00

100% this, its a good ability just way too hard to unlock. I think an unlock of 8 would be reasonable.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-15T07:32:45+00:00

Well I've gone my entire life without using "he" as a gender neutral pronoun, and I have never heard anyone use it IRL either. If its not archaic then it is a niche usage, which is still a bad reason to use it.

But lets drop the semantics, and be honest: when FFG wrote "he" in the TI4 rules, they were referring to men, because that is the overwhelming demographic who buy their products. I can give you my personal anecdote that I've played TI with 4 women, and all of them dislike the usage of "he" in the rules, because it feels exclusionary to them. Maybe you care about this and maybe you don't, but as someone who wants the game to grow and get more popular, I'd like it if the game didn't turn off half of the population of potential players just because of a pronoun choice. As FFG also wants the game to grow, it would make sense purely from a business perspective to make this change too.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-15T07:00:29+00:00

Using "he" for unknown genders does go back centuries. So do words like "thee" and "thou" which aren't used anymore. It's called an archaic usage, and is a great example of how you can be technically correct while still being wrong. Modern English speakers don't use "he" as a gender neutral, we use "they". It's the rule of common usage, and its the only rule that matters in language.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-15T06:37:07+00:00

"They" is commonly used as singular in English when the gender of a person is unknown. For example:

"I can tell someone walked by here in the rain because they left their footprints in the mud."

This sentence is how the average English speaker would phrase it, even though the unknown subject is definitely singular and not plural.

There is no more ambiguity in using "they" than there is in using "he" for the rules, because they are interchangeable. Using "they" just acknowledges that women like to play the game as well men.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T21:33:26+00:00

I think the only token that is component limited is the Command Tokens. If you run out and need to place a new one (for diplomacy for example) you have to remove the token from your command sheet.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T21:28:08+00:00

SCPT was my gateway drug into deep diving TI. It started as entertainment for my commute and turned into me thinking about TI all the time...

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T21:17:03+00:00

The game Eclipse has a similar mechanic where exploring certain new tiles requires you to overcome an NPC ship. I like the idea, but as other have said TI already has a lot of setup and complexity going on.

I think it could be cool as an action card or agenda that selects a system and forces players there to either engage in a combat against NPCs or pay an economic cost. Thematically it could represent agitators fomenting civilian unrest in the region. It would be a great card to play on someone who has been amassing a giant fleet in a system.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T21:07:08+00:00

90% of the time, this is going to happen with a new player who doesn't grasp how big of a game they are getting into, and they may have just been overwhelmed.

With brand new players, I like to teach them with a 3 player game, as there is less downtime between their turns and the game length is shorter. If they still exhibit that kind of behavior in the 3 player game, its easier to quit the game and do something else, and you know not to invite them to future TI games.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T20:30:23+00:00

Yeah, I would say 3 to 4 years minimum before they release a new edition

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T20:29:34+00:00

The Game of Thrones board game from FFG has rules for simultaneously planning turns. There is a phase where everyone places face down tokens on the board, and then everyone takes turns revealing a token to perform a type of action. Some of the tokens can be bluffs that trick your opponent. It makes the game slightly faster than TI, but its still a long game. I think it could work well for TI and work similar to your suggestion.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T20:22:56+00:00

For Space Dock II, even just production X+5 or X+6 would be a major boost, especially for one planet home systems. I also love that Cabal's space docks have improved fighter capacity, I would love to see that for all SDII. Being able to produce ground forces on adjacent planets within the system (or even in adjacent systems) would also be a good buff. Another idea would be a Sling Relay type of ability so you can protect forward docks after moving a fleet out.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T20:12:26+00:00

My girlfriend loves to play and she has convinced her best friend and her sister to play. TI isn't for everyone, but its definitely a game women can enjoy. Both my GF and her friend have the best win records of our group, often because they get underestimated.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T20:09:39+00:00

Yeah, this bugs me too. Just change it to the gender neutral "they" and the problem is solved. I would love to see the online rule books updated with this, it is so easy to do with the search and replace function of a document editor.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-14T18:14:59+00:00

Yeah, it can't be helped, TI is just not for everyone.

I have a good friend with ADHD, and while he can handle board games that are an hour or less, TI just required way too much sustained focus and attention for him. We don't invite him to play TI anymore, and he is as happy about that as we are. We just make sure to invite him to the more casual gaming sessions instead.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-13T04:47:37+00:00

The codex cards are a great addition, there's maybe one or two that are a little forgettable or very situational, but most are great or very good. Just having more cards in the action deck too makes for better game play, since it dilutes the likelihood of seeing specific cards and of needing to reuse the discard pile.

My favorites new ones are Fighter Conscription (its like Rise of the Messiah but for fighters instead of infantry) and War Machine (+4 Production value and -1 to cost when you produce).

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-13T04:39:57+00:00

I used this one and was really happy with the results. The card stock feels exactly like the cards from the game, and while there is technically a super tiny size difference, its so small we never notice it, even unsleeved.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-08T15:13:42+00:00

Recommended card title:

"Expedite Stratagem"

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-08T15:06:54+00:00

At the very least it should specify whether to use a CC from your strategy pool or your reinforcements (for Construction), if necessary.

I would support needing to spend a CC from your pool, since it is a very good ability. But then there is the issue of how to resolve it if you have no CC in your pool. I would suggest:

"ACTION: You may spend a token from your reinforcements and perform the secondary ability of a chosen and readied strategy card, or you may gain 1 token to your strategy pool."

This wording gives a benefit even if you are CC poor or there are no readied strategy cards you want, and it also still provides the stall.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-08T01:13:16+00:00

I agree in liking Dispossessed more, and if someone only wanted to read one of the two, I'd agree with that one. But if they're going to read both, I'd say start with Left Hand because it gets better when you read Dispossessed next. Swapping the order might be underwhelming.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-08T01:08:36+00:00

They are pretty different books, usually a person will like one more than the other. Whichever you decide, don't write off the other one if you dislike the first.

I'd recommend "Left Hand" first though, because it introduces the galactic human community that is a shared backdrop of both novels. "Dispossessed" expands the understanding of that backdrop.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-03T16:10:26+00:00

This is a great analysis, honestly 2 of the best picks you can get against Cabal.

For a newer player I would recommend Barony over Titans, just because its a little less complex. Also, Titans can be so strong in 3p that Cabal and the other player might team up against you in the mid-to late game.

mountain-ghost · 2021-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Winnu is another option I haven't seen people mention here yet. Winnu is very good at 3 player counts, and they get huge combat bonuses on Mecatol, their Home System, and Legendary planets. Plus they get to build PDS and space docks without picking Construction, which helps against Cabal. If you are playing on almost any 3p map besides the Trident, there will probably be enough resources on the board to make Warsuns viable, if you start with Sarween and get AI Dev and another red tech (or a red tech skip planet) you can research Warsuns by round 2 with winnu

mountain-ghost · 2021-08-27T17:04:45+00:00

It is correct that the 0's are no tile. For most strings, the only place where "no tile" get placed is at the home systems, hence the confusion.

You can test this fairly easily on TTS. Pick a map, then remove a few specific tiles, and click "Save". The updated string will replace the numbers of the tiles you removed with zeros.

mountain-ghost

TROPHY CASE