[board] American Megafauna opponents wanted

[ulmont]

Can you play through a round or two on CB solo, annotate it, and send it around so I can watch how things go in practice?

[Tamas]

Can you play through a round or two on CB solo, annotate it, and send it around so I can watch how things go in practice?

Sure, will get around doing it today.

[Tamas]

Tutorial sent to you guys. Fire away with questions, or tell me we can start.

[Barrister]

I have the tutorial.  I'll have to set up cyberboard tonight on a thumb drive.

Who all is playing?

[Tamas]

I have the tutorial.  I'll have to set up cyberboard tonight on a thumb drive.

Who all is playing?

It's supposed to be you, me, Jaron and ulmont.

[Tamas]

I have been continuing the tutorial game on my own as a test run.

The dog-faced  creatures became huskers on the first turn which is a dramatic change: it was due to some acorn-crusher teeth DNA which maximized their size on 1 (minimal) but the husker is like the 3rd "eating zone" (beside herbi- and carnivores), so they got competition-free living on the biomes which do support acorn-eating.

Then came the digging claws DNA which gave a gene which could offer some advantage on some biomes (as a tie-decider on which herbivore survives) and Nocturnal ability.
This DNA having size limitations the other species already passed, I decided the dog-faces could win this bid on a medium price.

Of course I did not understand the implications fully: here was the status quo before that: the reptile race was less of a herbivore than the pig-reptile race (big picture), thus the pig-reptiles were more numerous so the predator reptile race made a living off of them mostly. As a sidenote, the pig-reptiles have evolved trunks which limited their size in 4 (max is 6) so the reptiles has had the hope of overtake them in size and thus often win competition for biomes.

Now, as the dogfaces started to multiply, I have come to the realization that they can overcompete the pig-reptiles. How? They are nocturnal, while the predators were not, so when you have a biome which can support two populations, and you have 2 each of dogfaces, pigreptiles, and predators, what happens first is the herbivore cull, and the pigreptiles lose that because they are getting eaten by the predators while the dogfaces are not.

So the pigreptiles getting reduced fast, I decided the predators would decide to starve themselves voluntarily to death in many cases in order to save the species they live off on. They even had to buy off some fast-ass legs DNA so the pigreptiles dont get them, rendering them uncatchable for the predators.

And right now, the pigreptiles won the auction for: wings. This will not allow them to get off from the predators (their speed is equal now), but in some cases can best the dogfaces for some certain biomes, and can travel most of the map in one turn.
Yes, they have trunks and wings.

[Tamas]

Okay, let's see what race Jaron plays. 1: "rrrr" (über reptile) 2: "mmrrr" (pig-reptile) 3: "rm" (predator reptile)
Request:  3-sided die x 1

2


Jaron gets the pig-reptile race! An easy one I think, until DNA cards start to appear you dominate everyone when it comes to eating plants.

ulmont receives either the reptiles (1) or predators (2)

Request:  2-sided die x 1

2

ulmont gets the "rm" species! Their strength is being far more suited for carnivore lifestyle than any other players (the less teeth you have the better carnivore you are)

This leaves BB with the "rrrr" über-reptiles. Far from being good predators, and only second best herbivores, they have a big advantage: having the most reptile teeth, they win almost all ties (except for some mammal-friendly DNAs) in the first half of the game, so with a good player they can dominate the field of buying newly appearing DNAs and species.

[Tamas]

My general observations from the flow of the game. Each game can be drastically different due to various catastrophes of course, but in general:

The early couple of turns are easy, obviously, as there is plenty of room to expand to.

Early mid-game is the thoughest: there will not be enough room for everyone, so you will have to try and optimize your placement. What cards appear and when decisively influence the flow so I can't give any detailed tips here.

The length of this phase also depends on the event flow. But at some point, the populations stabilize when some kind of specilaziation sets in. From this point onward, turns again will be over fast, unless some new DNA, or catastrophe upsets the status quo.

[Tamas]

Oh, and I planning of posting drawn epoch (event) cards here so we can get over bidding processes faster, and lurkers can also follow the general course of the game.

[Tamas]

Gamefile and replay of card-shuffling and my population placement is sent.

Let us agree in this general order of play:
1. me
2. Jaron
3. ulmont
4. BB

EDIT: BUT, there is no part of the game where there is a strict order needed, so by all means, send the replay with your initial placement if you can do it. That order is only for the extremely rare case of people sending stuff at the same time.

[Barrister]

This leaves BB with the "rrrr" über-reptiles. Far from being good predators, and only second best herbivores, they have a big advantage: having the most reptile teeth, they win almost all ties (except for some mammal-friendly DNAs) in the first half of the game, so with a good player they can dominate the field of buying newly appearing DNAs and species.

RRRR :

I won't be able to get a move in until tonight.

[Tamas]

This leaves BB with the "rrrr" über-reptiles. Far from being good predators, and only second best herbivores, they have a big advantage: having the most reptile teeth, they win almost all ties (except for some mammal-friendly DNAs) in the first half of the game, so with a good player they can dominate the field of buying newly appearing DNAs and species.

RRRR :

I won't be able to get a move in until tonight.

We are waiting

[Barrister]

Sorry all.   Last night was crazy, between curling, and new houseguests arriving shortly after I got back from curling.

Tonight. 

[Jaron]

Sorry all.   Last night was crazy, between curling, and new houseguests arriving shortly after I got back from curling.

Tonight. 

I'm getting echos of Rome here.

[ulmont]

Sorry all.   Last night was crazy, between curling, and new houseguests arriving shortly after I got back from curling.

Tonight. 

I'm getting echos of Rome here.

Better than echoes of Origins