by DieKrake
Steve496 wrote:
Past a certain point in one's TM development, an awful lot of improvement needs to come from within. There simply is no set of rubrics and guidelines that you can follow to be a 1400 player - at some point, you need to develop your own understanding of the game to the point where you can assess the tradeoffs of each new situation and come up with a reasonable approach.
This is not to say that there isn't value in reading strategy posts and getting your games reviewed by better players and so forth - there absolutely is - but such discussions tend to be more valuable if you focus on the "why" rather than the "what". That is: instead of trying to identify specific patterns to follow, try to understand the thought process that led to those decisions and use the understanding gained to help refine your own sense of what to do.
But what also helps a lot is thinking about the games you play, or games you watch others play, and think about/try to understand what's happening. Look at games you lost, and try to figure out what went wrong. Look at games you won, and think about what decisions your opponents could have made to stop you. Look at your opponent's moves - or at moves of top players in top games - and find moves that are different than the moves you would have made in their position. Do you understand why they made the decision they did? Did it work? Why or why not?
This is not to say that there isn't value in reading strategy posts and getting your games reviewed by better players and so forth - there absolutely is - but such discussions tend to be more valuable if you focus on the "why" rather than the "what". That is: instead of trying to identify specific patterns to follow, try to understand the thought process that led to those decisions and use the understanding gained to help refine your own sense of what to do.
But what also helps a lot is thinking about the games you play, or games you watch others play, and think about/try to understand what's happening. Look at games you lost, and try to figure out what went wrong. Look at games you won, and think about what decisions your opponents could have made to stop you. Look at your opponent's moves - or at moves of top players in top games - and find moves that are different than the moves you would have made in their position. Do you understand why they made the decision they did? Did it work? Why or why not?
This.
Something that helped me improve my game was to always look at your opponents last moves before you even consider to decide what to do next yourself. This is a specific necessity to be able to deal with the asynchronous nature of online gaming which can be handled via the recent moves button on snellman (and gets more helpful the more games you play at the same time).
Always have a look at that button first and see what your opponents have done and always think about why they did it. This takes some time but it is worth it, believe me. This game is all about trade-offs/priorities, timing and interaction.
If you have successfully analyzed your opponents last moves you might already be able to prioritize your own actions better than before. Think of this as a possibility to glimpse into the future (although it is the past:p).
But before you just do your "best move", always ask yourself if you have to do this specific move now or if it can be delayed and always consider possible alternatives.
If you have done this as well, do the move.
... No no no, not so simple. Always keep in mind that this game, like I (and not only I) have said, is all about tradeoffs and interaction (and more, snowballing like crazy for example).
You have to always keep your general gameplan in mind. I hope you have got one already? If not, it might not be too late, get one. The earlier the better.
Always because the gamestate changes a lot over the course of the game and so you might have to adapt your gameplan slightly. If you consider possible problems with your gameplan in advance it gets easier to prepare for alternative routes but you cannot anticipate everything of course (Btw, Im waiting for alphazero-like machines that are able to master TM although this is of course no two-player game and not so easy. But at least we could adjust VPs to perfection then:whistle: ...no we could not;)) ..
Timing all the rounds nicely contributes to such a gameplan and cannot be taken away from the equation due to your opponents actions in general, but the point i want to make is more general here.
You should always have a plan how you will score your points, simple as that ... at any given point of time in a game. Im not talking about calculating all points that will follow but rather that you build a strategy about which sources of VPs you are going to trigger because most of these sources are competitive and thus limited (Endgamescoring, VP-FAVs (not 3P), BONs, specific TW-tiles) and only a few are not competitive (Round scoring, Upgrade points, number of TWs sort of at least (you need space))and can thus be gained from "everyone" or a specific faction only (factionabilities).
It is up to you (and your skill!) how detailed your general gameplan is but take your passing action for example. I think that many quite good players do underestimate passing as an action, although it is one example about what makes TM so wonderful (Timing, Tradeoffs, Interaction,... you got it^^) and a huge factor in how to finish a game successfully especially in high-level play where the fight about the competitive VP-sources gets pretty intense (You just cannot have everything).
I for example always (at least in theory) have a look at everyones resources and the seats at the beginning of a round and try to guess how many actions the other players will take so that i am able to decide what BONs i am going or waiting for. It affects how i time my actions and if I might pass early or delay my actions.
If you decide to not take FAV11- have a gameplan how you will compensate the loss of those competitive points. If you are sitting at the 4th seat and expect everyone else to open with a TE and FAV 11 (which is quite usual among players around 1000-1200), already have a realisitic gameplan how you will play the complete first round before you even pick your faction.
Plan ahead, gameplanwise for the whole game. Another simple heuristic could be that you should have the average amount of endgame points in a 4p game, which is 23 VPs. Have a look at the competitive VPsources and adjust the parameters. Cultists and CMS are in the game? You probably cannot expect to score the average Cult-points. If you are bad in one section you have to outscore your opponents in other sources ...
And yeah the most important advise: Keep on playing. You will always find things that help you improve your game. Even after 300+ games