Hi all, I have an honest question here, so bear with me - and feel free to give me pointers/links I've never played many hardcore card games in the past. I bought Ascension a couple of months ago, but I only played it single player - and not much, to be honest, since I didn't quite get the grasp of the strategy. For me it was very much a game of reaction, and trying to see how things were going. :| I've always been curious about playing it multiplayer, but I fear that these long breaks between moves will even make things worse for me, because it will all boil down to a game of "what's the best move I can make in this particular scenario", but losing the notion of the entire game, what cards have already been played/are left to play, and what strategy am I going for. Is this a real issue? Or is it something I shouldn't worry about? For instance - and please bear with the comparison, even if it seems unsuited or wrong - I recently had the chance to play Words With Friends in the same asynchronous multiplayer mode, and I found out that it was indeed, for me, a game where I couldn't care less about what had been played before, and there was little to no strategy. It was always down to the board at hand, the tiles I had to play at that time, and the scores we had. I feel that's not the case with Ascension, though. Tips, suggestions, and comments are very welcome Cheers, Paulo
Yeah, I feel the same. Can't see the depth in the game. It feels a little shallow, more based on luck than anything else. I hope I'm missing something.
Well, my post was trying to ask LordGek, Camzy, FPE, crunc and the rest to please enlighten us I feel like Fox Mulder, as in "I want to believe".
I am not the best at describing things. When I started playing I had a similar feeling till I read a thread started by UlyZed at the ascension board game geek forum on how masting the game is about mastering the flow. Sure, that thread is now less accurate as the expansion changes the game considerably ... but you might want to head to BGG and have a look there.
Thanks for the heads up. It actually addresses both our concerns, one with the strategy and the other with asynchronous play. Since I don't know if linking to other forums is permitted, I'll just say that he's Alex Brown at Board Game Geek. One of the threads is called "Asynchronous play sucks", and the other is "Basic Strategy: Managing the Centre Row". should be easy to Google this way. If it's allowed, I'll post links. Any more tips, or feedback regarding the asynch nature of multiplayer? Cheers, and thanks. Paulo
I don't think there is any problem with linking to other sites as long it's not illegal OR XXX stuff. Anyway, since most likely I won't be able to access right now (most sites blocked at work), can you tell me if you were satisfied with what you read?
sorry guys, running late on those pending moves. my GC got hacked yesterday late evening and still waiting for Apple rep to help me to reset the password. sigh...
...guess what, I'm at work as well I skimmed through it, it gave me some hope. I added it to my Read it Later list, hopefully I'll pick it up this weekend. Sorry I didn't have time for in-depth reading. Also, there's another thread by him titled "Basic Strategy: Tempo", which I also added to my list. Let's see! Cheers, Paulo
WEIRD THING. BUG? It is in capital so that it is seen. I just did my move ina match vs emos and omething weird happened. He has no construct, but the moment I closed my turn and with emos "offline" his honor number increased of 1 .... Emos did you see it or is it a glitch on my side?
I have been on a losing spree since the expansion came out. Got trashed by celeric, cprloe, camzeee, kitkeat and FPEX.
That's how you play 90% of Ascension. A lot of it is just playing the hand as it comes. The more advanced tactics are subtle strategies you develop as you play more. Banishing tiles to control the center row in your favor. The order in which you play the cards. The expansion makes those tactical nuances in card playing order more obvious. Optimizing decks. This one is totally just practice with different kinds of strategies. I can weed out most inexperienced players by the fact they choose cards which don't work well together. Some players only play one way, and insist on playing that same way whether the tiles fall for them or not. Be adaptive. I like playing all different kinds of hands. Attack hands, construct hands, movement hands, and some fusion of them sometimes works really well. Learn every card, know how they work inside and out, and take advantage of that. Did you know when you have a Burrower and a Grand Design in your hand, you have to play the Burrower first or you don't draw an extra card? I see quite a number of mistakes even from some of the best players, and it's rare that I play a perfect game too.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. I've done many such mistakes in the past, and since I haven't yet gotten the hang of all the current cards, I haven't bought the expansion yet - I feel it might get even more complex at the moment. That being said, I believe you make some very good points in terms of practicing and seeing what works. At the moment I managed to win a couple of games, but I guess I didn't optimize my deck at all - just the opposite, I guess I balanced it (which in this case would mean "average" it ). Let's see what I can do with it this weekend. Cheers, and thank you very much. Paulo
I didn't notice it, is it our game currently in progress? We can check our logs to serif anything buggy happened...it would stink if I win by one point!
Black Hole is one of my favorite early game cards, the ability to banish an app or militia each turn instead of waiting for other banish ability cards to be drawn is very advantageous. It will become obsolete eventually once you have your deck trimmed down but it's also worth 4 honor. In one game I actually banished a Mystic to get that last power point to defeat Avatar of the Fallen and acquire Samulson! Good times
