by Mentat1231
loudwalrus wrote:
Ugh. It's hard to tell you what to do. Because of spoilers, of course, but also because it's hard to tell where things are going wrong for you because we don't have the details. Are you going wrong strategically? Tactically?
There are lots of tips in forums, but some that leap to mind:
1. Hang in there. I think that the spring can be some of the tougher months. I don't want to say why for spoiler reasons, but in general the earliest months you have a lot of supplies and few cities. The later months you have the advantages given to you via discovery and upgrades. But there can be an awkward adolecent phase where you don't yet have the advantages but are starting to get pressure from the expansion of cities. February was the only month we lost, pretty much for this reason.
2. Strategically it seems like you are planning ahead, but since you don't mention details: make sure you read the plot cards. Following the advice there is important, both to relieve pressure and also so don't find that you've painted yourself into an unwinnable state.
3. Efficiency is important. Especially early on. Dropping a single cube is almost always a bad idea. It's too inefficient.
4. Count cards. Know where the infection deck is likely to hit. Know when epidemics are going to hit.
5. Pick upgrades wisely. Again, it sounds like you may be doing this, but you NEED to recon and you NEED to build supply centers. Getting cards to people is expensive in terms of time, so anything you do to make supply centers and recon easier is worth it.
5. The clock is short, especially in early months. Be aware and plan accordingly. Although it is OK, and even advisable, to go for strategic improvements, you need to always have a plan to win and win quick.
Frankly, with the amount of rationed events you guys have, you should have the tools to be winning games. I'm not sure where you are struggling since there is nothing obviously wrong you are doing from what you've written.
There are lots of tips in forums, but some that leap to mind:
1. Hang in there. I think that the spring can be some of the tougher months. I don't want to say why for spoiler reasons, but in general the earliest months you have a lot of supplies and few cities. The later months you have the advantages given to you via discovery and upgrades. But there can be an awkward adolecent phase where you don't yet have the advantages but are starting to get pressure from the expansion of cities. February was the only month we lost, pretty much for this reason.
2. Strategically it seems like you are planning ahead, but since you don't mention details: make sure you read the plot cards. Following the advice there is important, both to relieve pressure and also so don't find that you've painted yourself into an unwinnable state.
3. Efficiency is important. Especially early on. Dropping a single cube is almost always a bad idea. It's too inefficient.
4. Count cards. Know where the infection deck is likely to hit. Know when epidemics are going to hit.
5. Pick upgrades wisely. Again, it sounds like you may be doing this, but you NEED to recon and you NEED to build supply centers. Getting cards to people is expensive in terms of time, so anything you do to make supply centers and recon easier is worth it.
5. The clock is short, especially in early months. Be aware and plan accordingly. Although it is OK, and even advisable, to go for strategic improvements, you need to always have a plan to win and win quick.
Frankly, with the amount of rationed events you guys have, you should have the tools to be winning games. I'm not sure where you are struggling since there is nothing obviously wrong you are doing from what you've written.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to share this advice. I really want to enjoy this, and to get my group excited about it; it just gets harder with each loss. Honestly, at the end of almost every game that we lost, we had two supply centers and all the cards needed to either get the last one and win, or at least Recon. And then we got killed by the cards. And we almost always start our and keep drawing in such a way that each person has just one of each color of city. We have to meet up and trade cards, and it kills the tempo.
Now...
[o]We've had the ability to put infection cards into Box 6 for a while, so we are thinning out the deck. I'm hoping next time we play we can just have someone focus on keeping the few remaining cities supplied, and the rest of us can work on cards.... That seems like it will give us the win. It kind of stinks that we now have 7 Epidemic cards, because we connected cities all crazy throughout North and South America. We are just trying to recon Asia and Europe, but we keep getting killed right before we can do it. We're hoping we can make it happen in May.[/o]
Anyway, I will try to apply some of your points here, and add them to our strategy. Hopefully we can get out of the woods and have some fun, interesting months in the future.
