by Uncle G
verandi wrote:
tonksey wrote:
The Giants won in our first game & came 3rd last night (both 5-player).
Any ideas on why they've been successful in your group? Do you recall whether they focused more on area scoring or cult scoring?
I was the player who came third with giants in one of the games Matt is talking about, and I have some thoughts (I've only played once, though, so bear that in mind when listening to anything I say).
1st) I think i came third because 4 out of the 5 of us played badly.
2nd) I forget which scroll I chose, but I should probably have chosen one which provides a Priest, to improve my cubes per shovel.
3rd) I made a mistake with my initial placements (because the other players had all played before my first game did not involve the recommended starting positions for a first game). I placed in isolation, although Matt placed right next to me which saved my game a bit from my mistake, and allowed me to generate some power in mid game.
4th) My first move was truly awful. Because the two shovel thing was my special ability, I assumed it was an improvement and my first move was terraform and build. That used up all my worker cubes and a lot of money, and then I sat back while other players spent several actions upgrading. I then struggled for resources for the next few rounds.
A much better first move for Giants would have been upgrading dwellings into trading houses.
It's much too early to say the races aren't balanced. It looks to me like the strategic options vary a lot between races, and you can come badly unstuck playing like a Swarmling with the Giant board, if that makes any sense.