2 year old video but still very helpful in 2024, thank you!

@JonGetsGames

3 ай бұрын

So great to hear :)

"The action ecomony Master Builders give up on the first round can be deceiving", so true and insightful, thanks! I finally played Maracaibo for the first time (on bga) a few days ago |:)

I'm glad I finally found this video. Thanks, guys!

This is the type of content I always looked for but could never find. Please more!!

This was really enjoyable to listen to. Not only from a content standpoint, but the two of you were well articulated with a good chemistry. Makes me interested for more content, including Uprising, GWT, or other games.

More of this content please. This was a really fun and breezy listen. In particular, I thought highlighting strong point conversation cards, action efficiency traps, and the overall tempo of the game were super helpful. I would suggest incorporating similar points into future strategy podcasts.

This video put your podcast on my radar! Big fan of strategy discussion, would love to see more content like this.

Great episode. Thanks for the strategy discussion. Very interesting and insightful. Will definitely listen to other episodes. I've played through the original Maracaibo campaign solo and played maybe 4 games multi-player and it was interesting to compare your thought processes as you go through the game versus my mental model I've developed during my plays.

Really enjoyed this; thanks for making the 'how to win' idea a reality, you two! 🙏

Nice job guys. Enjoyed listening on my commute. It's been a while since I played. Some tips that already may sense to me, a few new ideas. Thanks!

Love this, keep doing these. You guys are great.

This podcast is brilliant. Just started playing the game and there's a whole ton of very useful information in your podast. Many thanks for sharing and I'm now going to listen to other podcasts you've done. 😀👍🙏

@JonGetsGames

4 ай бұрын

So great to hear, thanks!

More of these please!

This is fantastic. I've just started playing Maracaibo on BGA and this has confirmed some of my initial thoughts, and given me tons to think about, especially regarding card strategy which I was struggling on!

@JonGetsGames

Ай бұрын

That's lovely to hear :)

(Listened via podcast, but coming here to show more support) - Really enjoyed this! I've never actually played Maracaibo, but I enjoy hearing the 2/3 of you talk about games. This actually made me very very interested in playing the game! Seems like a great format that has something for everyone, from those who don't know the game at all, to those who know it well and want to hear "shop talk"!

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback, it's wonderful to hear it was interesting to someone who wasn't as familiar with the game!

This is a really good episode. Thanks for putting it out. Tackling this subject is well worth it. Two suggestions: the audio levels between the Anastasia and Nick are a bit off. It's not bad but could use some tweaking. And it would be nice to include images of the things you are talking about in the video, especially the cards. I have not played Maracaibo in a while and was trying to remember the cards well enough to follow some of the discussion and images would have helped. Also, do you think that the campaign affects strategy much? I've played a handful of games into the campaign and didn't feel it made that much of an impact.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

I really enjoy the variability of the campaign and the different starting "difficulties". As pointed out by the other commentators, exploring gets a needed boost, but I also agree with you that it doesnt change a ton about the fundamental strategy.

I really enjoyed this. One thing I was hoping to have discussed more was the idea of "someone should be pushing the pace." How do you identify this? How can you tell if you are that person? There are going to be metas within groups, but it seems like that big picture concept of pace drives what is a good move or a good strategy to pursue. If you decide to push the pace, what does that mean to you as a strategy?

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

Howdy! One of the toughest questions because it requires you to have a feel for the course of the game. But roughly, if your plan involves taking a couple of "ok" actions, you're going to lose and should trim the fat so you're just taking good or great actions. Innkeeper and explorer strategies tend to prefer longer games, I'd say, because there are more chances to cash in. I'd say if you dont have a specific, strong gameplan then your job is probably to be the person who pushes.

I love Maracaibo AND strategy videos. Yay! Question: for a heavy Explore strategy, should you try to reach the end? Forgo the quests and longer paths?

@nickhenning247

2 жыл бұрын

Love that question. I think if you're heavy explore, reaching the end is a pretty big deal. It's certainly more the journey than the destination, but 10 points and an extra action for reaching the end of the track is great. In terms of quests and longer paths - I think the longer paths are very valid choices because the rewards are sometimes just so much better (particularly between the green and blue lightsabers) that you can greed and go for those. Quests are pretty great as a single action on the board is required to take a quest, so with an explore-quest you improved the efficiency of your turn quite a bit, so if you need quests, then I'd try to plan for grabbing them! What I care most about is moving my maximum exploration - choosing to only move 2 instead of 4 to grab a quest feels pretty gross to me.

@the_luggage

2 жыл бұрын

@@nickhenning247 Very insightful, thanks!

I always play it on "hard" mode, It makes exploration a little more important. It also gives you a minimum of 4 turns per round which is probably what what we do in almost every round.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

I do think "hard" mode is one of the better set ups as well.

Excellent discussion! Agree with many of Nick's thoughts here. I actually find the ship upgrade that gives you more village actions for less movement very valuable in a slower moving game -- which is generally how my wife likes to play. Having this upgrade always allows me to play at least 3 cards in a given round as well as flush my hand for money. Speaking of money, I don't find Master Builders useful at all -- except for good/objects. I get the value in end points, but I'd much rather play a card that bumps up my income track. The extra VP I get for high position on this track almost always offsets the points I would have gotten with Master builders. I think I agree with Anastasia on the available card row -- pretty much useless -- so I almost never go for that ship upgrade, unless I've uncovered most others. I find that the repetition of cards in this game is so pronounced that I almost always find the card or goods I need by flushing my hand -- plus I gain money for doing so.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

I do love pitching my whole hand. And I agree with you on the income peeps - but having enough meeples can get to be a real challenge!

I've played a bit more recently and I feel like Santiago is a trap. Going there means you're very likely to miss on city actions + delivery in some cases, and playing an early card feels less important than upgrading your ship and staying ahead of the other players in order to take your pick of city actions.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

I can definitely be convinced of this. Ultimately, you might need some extra way to get meeples, but there are several ways.

I would suggest at least three cards down by the end of round one is essential.

Great conversation! Allow me a bit of criticism about the “house terms”. I think the conversation would greatly benefit from going over the game manual and review the actual game terms and using those instead of your “house terms”. I would also like to hear anything about the career cards. Do you ever take the careers into account when planning?

@JonGetsGames

2 жыл бұрын

By career cards do you mean the Appointed Admiral cards that you put 3 workers on at the start of the game? If so, then this was discussed in the episode. If not, then I'm not sure what you mean by career cards.

@RamonMercadoReyes

2 жыл бұрын

@@JonGetsGames yes… interesting that you call them Admiral cards in the version I have they’re called career cards (I wonder if they changed names on other printings, or country)… and if they were discussed I must to have missed it… guess I’m going to have to listen again.

@JonGetsGames

2 жыл бұрын

I finally figured it out! They are indeed called "career cards" in the rulebook, but when you flip them over the flat says "Appointed Admiral" on it, so that's the term we all used for them. This was confusing for sure, sorry about that.

@RamonMercadoReyes

2 жыл бұрын

@@JonGetsGames I most say I’ve never noticed those cars said anything on the back. I did re-listened to the pod and noticed that you actually start the conversation talking about the career cards. I most to have skipped those first few minutes the first time. Great conversation either way.

Combat track!! I do recommend playing hard mode!! It puts more value on the exploration track.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

It does both, right? Extra city options for exploring but also better rewards for military. I do enjoy hard mode, but it's a bit of a shame for quests.

I honestly hard disagree with a lot of the things said in the video. I've been playing and studying Maracaibo a lot, I'm over 50 plays, and I think I have a very solid grasp on Pfister's games in general. Don't get me wrong, I think there are a lot of good takes from the video, and a lot of interesting thoughts. But I think that the broad strokes aren't depicting the game I know so well. To name a few: 1. 12-16 cards played are a lot, and definitely not the average. In games with good opponents it is quite common to end the game with 6-7 cards played in total. I've won games with 4 cards + 1 building. 2. The single most important upgrade early on is the one that lets you take cards for free from the offer. Why that one rewards 3 points on top of the bonus is a mistery, but it is the best unlock. I've played many games without ever unlocking the 5 coins: the game can be so fast that they won't matter enough 3. On the Basic and Intermediate setup Santiago is a very big trap. It's way better to go to the other cities and be able to reach Maracaibo. Unlocks are king early on. We do a starting auction, since being the 3rd-4th player with no early assistant can be pretty bad. I really appreciate the friendly ties series and I've been following you guys from the start. I'm also pretty much always sharing Nick's perspective and approaches to the games he plays. But Maracaibo, as GWT, is a very different game than most euros, and I can't help but think that you guys just scratched its surface as of now. The fact that you're naming 200 as a reasonable amount of points in a game means that in your playgroup nobody has found the way to rush the game properly yet. I hope you guys won't take it as a personal criticism; it's just that I know this game pretty well and I think a lot of things are way different than what emerges from this video. Anyway, I appreciate strategy content in general; keep it up.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

First and foremost, sounds like we should play a game together! I can definitely be convinced that Santiago is a trap, what do you start instead? As to the rushing component, you could be right as you have the greater experience but I also think speaks deeply to group metas and why board gaming is so wonderful

@UpUrPlay

2 жыл бұрын

@@squidandwhale3395 I'd be very happy to play against you and your group! I agree that without a proper online implementation group meta is a thing; I'm just a bit more confident on my view since it is shared by quite a few GWT experts I know. Board gaming is wonderful for many reasons, but the strongest board games can still survive and evolve even when a digital meta has emerged, like in Terra Mystica. On the basic and intermediate setup, it is pretty much always better for the first 2 players at least to jump to the other 2 early cities, Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo, to be able to hit Maracaibo immediately after.

aka big fish in a small pond

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

"Morpheus is fighting Neo"

I'm sad to hear that Military is the main way to win. I found that to be the least interesting parts of the game and wished it was removed or changed. I much prefer BoonLake over this one.

@squidandwhale3395

2 жыл бұрын

Less the main way to win and more "can't be ignored." It's pretty important to the game - if you're looking for it to be changed you actually might want to try out the expansion which does a new spin on the military mechanic.

Strangely one of the few games I actively dislike.