I think opportunity cost is one of the most important things to learn as a new player, and it can really go a long way towards evaluating cards and lines. SP power vs power plant is a great example - buying the card and playing is a net savings of 4 mc, but when up against a better card in the draft, you can think of Power Plant as a card that functionally costs 4 less, or the other card as functionally costing 4 more. Likewise it helps you evaluate production vs points, and it's why Sec Fleet is a beginners trap. Sure, the exchange rate is good on paper, 10 titanium for 10 points, but if that titanium was used on production throughout the game it might have been worth even more by the end - when you factor in that opportunity cost, the cost of Sec Fleet realistically ends up being nearly double what it seems - and that's greatly at odds with the goal of an engine strategy since it kneecaps your engine!
2:20 the last Hellas game I played, my buddy chose Saturn Systems & his preludes were Io Research Outpost & Research Network. he didn't just claim Rim Settler in Gen 1, he claimed it TURN 1. but hey, he won the game.
Awesome tips, thanks for making this vid! I learned lots, I’m fairly inexperienced and really need to improve on cities / ocean walking, and saving money. Btw I agree with the other comment about the Hellas & Elysium milestones in Tip 1 being unrelatable. It may help with viewer retention (even if it’s just 0.1% haha) if you focused on examples from base game, particularly because that’s the first tip in the video. I’m sure there’s plenty of players like myself that have never played H&E!
Glad you're enjoyed the video and found it helpful :) And about those milestones: it just didn't cross my mind at all that people might not know them, but of course, most people clicking on a Terraforming Mars tips video would have only played base game so far...
There's no combo between these two. I just meant that you should never play pure point cards ahead of the last gen unless you need their tag, like Breathing Filters for AGT, a plant tag like Advanced Ecosystems for NRA or a building tag like Colonizer Training Camp for Builder.
If I were to offer one more tip, it's to not focus on awards too fast. I made this mistake a lot, and I see it made a ton by new and experienced players. It's not difficult for an opponent, especially an engine player, to flip certain awards if you are giving them 5-6 rounds to plan for it. And since mc is tighter for the teriforming player, so it's even more devastating. Conversely, make plans early to attempt a potential flip. Even if you can't win it, you may force your opponent to make sub optimal plays to keep it.
Yes, Awards are complicated - sometimes you really can fund one super early, but it's risky. And having all of them in mind all of the time is usually a good idea.
How do I avoid game freezing gen 1, and locking me out of the game? Is this something I just have to take into account, when trying to skill up and improve my Elo?
I actually have not experienced any freezes or game-breaking bugs for a while, so I cannot give you any tips regarding that. Are you sure it's not just your opponents going AFK (which also sucks of course)?
Unfortunately, it's a matter of playing faster if you are on BGA. Only helpful advice I can offer is to pick your plan in your head before pressing buttons, then make double check you have selected your preludes and starting Corp prior to clicking confirm. And didn't even think about doing the math ahead of time on your starting action. BGA really should double start time on the initial hand
@@nothingface0798 I agree, BGA should grant an extended turn timer for the initial research phase! the turn timers afterwards can stay how they are. I mostly play turn-based (asynchronous) games though, so it's not a problem for me anyways.
I would also say take a mental note of how much the card will actually cost you. E.g acquired company at 10 cost will actually cost 13 if you buy it. that means it goes from taking 3 turns to pay off to 4. Agree with all the tips
Absolutely - your evaluation needs to differ for cards you are considering to buy in the draft and cards that you drew for free and might want to play. The 3MC can make all the difference!
I have the base version of the game and none of the milestones are the same (except the builder one) even though the video is not posted that old. I feel like it is not very relatable from the get go. But still will finish.
Well, some of the milestones I show in this video are from the expansion maps Hellas & Elysium, but the general advice I give about milestones holds true for all of the base game milestones (Builder, Terraformer, Mayor, Gardener, Planner) as well.
I can reference Episode #34 of my Rating Base Game Cards series where I talk about Security Fleet extensively and explain why it is indeed one of the worst cards of the base game deck.
@@marsexpert4276 i agree, its a noob trap, in the last 3 turns or so of the game if you have excess titantium it could be good. if you do it early, lets say it yields you 6 victory points. youve paid 12 + 6*3, 30 for 6 victory points, thats break even level at end game (5mc per VP is a good measure), thats not even factoring in the resource engine losses throughout the game.
@@dumpsterplayer2700 If you find absolutely no targets then of course it's better than nothing. But if you're swimming in titanium and have nothing to do with it, something already went really badly.
It's so bad that I know I'll win the game if the opponent plays it in the first 4 rounds. If you're an engine player, it's better spent on an engine, and if you're a teriformer, it's money not spent on tempo.
I would really add to tip number 2 that if you play online and you do 1 actions to stall, that is considered bad manner. In most cases other players can just action parity you, so you are wasting everyone's time.
Outstanding video, and I would say currently the best strategy video out on UA-cam. I've been playing the game for years now and had to learn these lessons the hard way, but can confirm everything is spot on!
I agree with these lessons. The most important take away for me that I observe constantly with bad players is they overplay cities. It’s especially crazy when Tharsis is in the game. I would personally add as a tip, don’t feed Jovian multipliers to one player in a slow game wherever possible. Particularly TG, which I will deny wherever possible (because I generally don’t play Jovian myself). I also agree with the comment above that constantly one action stalling can be obnoxious. It’s fine for occasional strategic reasons. But constantly one actioning while everyone is playing two actions will probably get you blocked in a few cases (and doesn’t fly on my tabletop games).
if your playing a casual game sure 2Action all the time but as soon as it turns competitive I dont care about bad manners your doing your best to win...
Most of the time i play a lot of draw(if i can get it). And i got cards in draf. So i am not sure what action i realy want to do. So not to block the turn i do one action and have full turn cycle to figure out what exactly i want to do. I know i should know what i will do while drafting. But i dont want to block draft too. 🤣
I only ever one-action if I have to for a very specific reason and the game is very competitive. The thing is: as soon as I start to one action, my opponent will usually do it as well and vice versa.
Very bad advice to build cities at the last minute and to focus on forests, in 5 minutes someone takes the strategic place to put his own city, then you don't have the freedom to build the forest where you want, you are forced to put it next to a tile of yours, so you continue to favor someone who took your place or you make sub-optimal choices.
Obviously, having cards that let you freely place tiles to teleport away from opponent's cities is preferable, but believe me: paying 25MC for a city just to score two points off someone's greenies is not a good play. If someone blocks my ocean walk, I'm way more annoyed than if he had just placed the city next to my greeneries to score points.
I think opportunity cost is one of the most important things to learn as a new player, and it can really go a long way towards evaluating cards and lines.
SP power vs power plant is a great example - buying the card and playing is a net savings of 4 mc, but when up against a better card in the draft, you can think of Power Plant as a card that functionally costs 4 less, or the other card as functionally costing 4 more.
Likewise it helps you evaluate production vs points, and it's why Sec Fleet is a beginners trap. Sure, the exchange rate is good on paper, 10 titanium for 10 points, but if that titanium was used on production throughout the game it might have been worth even more by the end - when you factor in that opportunity cost, the cost of Sec Fleet realistically ends up being nearly double what it seems - and that's greatly at odds with the goal of an engine strategy since it kneecaps your engine!
Good day! Can't find the link on Excel in description 25:50
Thanks for letting me know, I have now updated the description, so you'll find the link there :)
2:20 the last Hellas game I played, my buddy chose Saturn Systems & his preludes were Io Research Outpost & Research Network. he didn't just claim Rim Settler in Gen 1, he claimed it TURN 1. but hey, he won the game.
I mean he still gets a milestone for free...it's just that he could've improved that play by a bit by just claiming it 2 gens later or so.
@@marsexpert4276 absolutely. he was losing in every gen after that until the final one, where he pulled two Jovian multipliers 🙃
Awesome tips, thanks for making this vid! I learned lots, I’m fairly inexperienced and really need to improve on cities / ocean walking, and saving money.
Btw I agree with the other comment about the Hellas & Elysium milestones in Tip 1 being unrelatable. It may help with viewer retention (even if it’s just 0.1% haha) if you focused on examples from base game, particularly because that’s the first tip in the video. I’m sure there’s plenty of players like myself that have never played H&E!
Glad you're enjoyed the video and found it helpful :)
And about those milestones: it just didn't cross my mind at all that people might not know them, but of course, most people clicking on a Terraforming Mars tips video would have only played base game so far...
That is a great vid
19:25: what's the combo between breathing filters and NRA?
There's no combo between these two. I just meant that you should never play pure point cards ahead of the last gen unless you need their tag, like Breathing Filters for AGT, a plant tag like Advanced Ecosystems for NRA or a building tag like Colonizer Training Camp for Builder.
@@marsexpert4276 yeah, clear.
If I were to offer one more tip, it's to not focus on awards too fast. I made this mistake a lot, and I see it made a ton by new and experienced players. It's not difficult for an opponent, especially an engine player, to flip certain awards if you are giving them 5-6 rounds to plan for it. And since mc is tighter for the teriforming player, so it's even more devastating.
Conversely, make plans early to attempt a potential flip. Even if you can't win it, you may force your opponent to make sub optimal plays to keep it.
Yes, Awards are complicated - sometimes you really can fund one super early, but it's risky. And having all of them in mind all of the time is usually a good idea.
How do I avoid game freezing gen 1, and locking me out of the game? Is this something I just have to take into account, when trying to skill up and improve my Elo?
I actually have not experienced any freezes or game-breaking bugs for a while, so I cannot give you any tips regarding that. Are you sure it's not just your opponents going AFK (which also sucks of course)?
Unfortunately, it's a matter of playing faster if you are on BGA. Only helpful advice I can offer is to pick your plan in your head before pressing buttons, then make double check you have selected your preludes and starting Corp prior to clicking confirm. And didn't even think about doing the math ahead of time on your starting action.
BGA really should double start time on the initial hand
@@nothingface0798 I agree, BGA should grant an extended turn timer for the initial research phase! the turn timers afterwards can stay how they are. I mostly play turn-based (asynchronous) games though, so it's not a problem for me anyways.
I would also say take a mental note of how much the card will actually cost you. E.g acquired company at 10 cost will actually cost 13 if you buy it.
that means it goes from taking 3 turns to pay off to 4.
Agree with all the tips
Absolutely - your evaluation needs to differ for cards you are considering to buy in the draft and cards that you drew for free and might want to play. The 3MC can make all the difference!
I have the base version of the game and none of the milestones are the same (except the builder one) even though the video is not posted that old. I feel like it is not very relatable from the get go. But still will finish.
Well, some of the milestones I show in this video are from the expansion maps Hellas & Elysium, but the general advice I give about milestones holds true for all of the base game milestones (Builder, Terraformer, Mayor, Gardener, Planner) as well.
Security fleet is an easy 6-12 point card for our games. No idea how you call that F tier.
I can reference Episode #34 of my Rating Base Game Cards series where I talk about Security Fleet extensively and explain why it is indeed one of the worst cards of the base game deck.
@@marsexpert4276 i agree, its a noob trap, in the last 3 turns or so of the game if you have excess titantium it could be good.
if you do it early, lets say it yields you 6 victory points.
youve paid 12 + 6*3, 30 for 6 victory points, thats break even level at end game (5mc per VP is a good measure), thats not even factoring in the resource engine losses throughout the game.
@@dumpsterplayer2700 If you find absolutely no targets then of course it's better than nothing. But if you're swimming in titanium and have nothing to do with it, something already went really badly.
It's so bad that I know I'll win the game if the opponent plays it in the first 4 rounds. If you're an engine player, it's better spent on an engine, and if you're a teriformer, it's money not spent on tempo.
I would really add to tip number 2 that if you play online and you do 1 actions to stall, that is considered bad manner. In most cases other players can just action parity you, so you are wasting everyone's time.
Outstanding video, and I would say currently the best strategy video out on UA-cam. I've been playing the game for years now and had to learn these lessons the hard way, but can confirm everything is spot on!
I agree with these lessons. The most important take away for me that I observe constantly with bad players is they overplay cities. It’s especially crazy when Tharsis is in the game. I would personally add as a tip, don’t feed Jovian multipliers to one player in a slow game wherever possible. Particularly TG, which I will deny wherever possible (because I generally don’t play Jovian myself).
I also agree with the comment above that constantly one action stalling can be obnoxious. It’s fine for occasional strategic reasons. But constantly one actioning while everyone is playing two actions will probably get you blocked in a few cases (and doesn’t fly on my tabletop games).
if your playing a casual game sure 2Action all the time but as soon as it turns competitive I dont care about bad manners your doing your best to win...
Most of the time i play a lot of draw(if i can get it). And i got cards in draf.
So i am not sure what action i realy want to do. So not to block the turn i do one action and have full turn cycle to figure out what exactly i want to do.
I know i should know what i will do while drafting. But i dont want to block draft too. 🤣
I only ever one-action if I have to for a very specific reason and the game is very competitive. The thing is: as soon as I start to one action, my opponent will usually do it as well and vice versa.
Very bad advice to build cities at the last minute and to focus on forests, in 5 minutes someone takes the strategic place to put his own city, then you don't have the freedom to build the forest where you want, you are forced to put it next to a tile of yours, so you continue to favor someone who took your place or you make sub-optimal choices.
Obviously, having cards that let you freely place tiles to teleport away from opponent's cities is preferable, but believe me: paying 25MC for a city just to score two points off someone's greenies is not a good play. If someone blocks my ocean walk, I'm way more annoyed than if he had just placed the city next to my greeneries to score points.