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Author Topic: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?  (Read 3297 times)

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Jgoyes

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+5

Hi! I´m new to the forum and I searched for something like this but I couldn't find it.

I'm trying to improve my gameplay but sometimes I feel bad It takes me around 90 seconds to begin a game and I often miss obvious things (cards than have synergy together for example) so 90 seconds is not enough time for me to properly analyze a Kingdom. Other times, my opponents (who often play a lot faster than me) get angry because I took this time so, due to this, I often begin the game without a plan of what I'm going to do and that leads to very bad plays on my part. In order to satiate my curiosity and to not be rude in this way to my future opponents, I wanted to ask you:

- ¿How long it takes you to decide which cards to buy for your opening?
- ¿How much time is considered to be appropriate for deciding your strategy?
- ¿How much time is considered to be excessive and rude to an opponent?
- ¿How much time do I have before my opponent has the option to kick me out?

To be perfectly clear, this time I´m talking about is only at the beginning of the match, once I have decided my openings I no longer delay the game in any way, but I have had issues trying to better my game and doing it quick enough so I don´t bother my opponent, in short, I'm not currently able to quickly detect/analyze the better strategies and worst of all, as I cannot do this, my skills aren't improving.

Thank you so much for the help!
« Last Edit: July 07, 2018, 10:58:27 am by Jgoyes »
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Awaclus

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2018, 10:58:07 am »
+2

1) On a board with only one obviously strong card, or a few that go together well, without any obvious counters, it takes me a few seconds. It can take me up to a minute if it's one of those games where there isn't anything strong available and I have to figure out how to build the deck that sucks as little as possible.
2) Depends on your opponent.
3) Depends on your opponent.
4) IIRC it's 5 minutes.

Generally you can play as slowly as you want as long as you're not slowrolling (i.e. wasting as much time as possible at every step so your opponent has no other option but to resign if they don't want to deal with that). People who want to play faster can just put you on their blacklist if they want.
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werothegreat

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2018, 11:06:50 am »
+1

The questions I ask myself:
1) Can I engine?
2) Is there payload that makes engine worth it?
3) If no to either of these, what's the strongest card I can add to a slog or BM strat?

The more you play, the more you recognize significant cards, like Jack and Gear are good for BM, Goons is awesome payload, etc.
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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2018, 05:54:58 pm »
+3

You may do this already but try to always greet your opponent before you start to think. I only get annoyed by people thinking before the game if I'm not sure they are there at all. Say hi and maybe "I'd like to take a minut" and only the hatasses shold be irritated by you reading the board.

And oh, press "start the game", I want to see my starting hand please.
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samath

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2018, 06:21:38 pm »
+4

I think my two biggest suggestions regarding the beginning of the game are (a) to click "Start Game" so your opponent can start planning, too, and (b) to say something in chat like "interesting board," "give me a minute" or the classic "thinking..." (or, you know, something more specific) to let your opponent know you're actually there and planning to play, you just need some more time.

If you're curious how long I take to analyze a board, check out my Interesting Games of the Week series on YouTube. All of those games are just random automatch games, and you can see my thought process as I look at each board.
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Dingan

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2018, 06:41:44 pm »
+4

The questions I ask myself:
1) Can I engine?
2) Is there payload that makes engine worth it?
3) If no to either of these, what's the strongest card I can add to a slog or BM strat?

The more you play, the more you recognize significant cards, like Jack and Gear are good for BM, Goons is awesome payload, etc.
You just answered the OP's question with 3 questions.

For me, roughly anywhere between 20 seconds and 2 minutes, or so. I actually think the biggest factor for me isn't the kingdom itself but how competitive I've decided to be that game.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2018, 06:43:02 pm by Dingan »
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Cave-o-sapien

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2018, 12:36:30 am »
+4

Not long enough, usually.
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Chris is me

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2018, 10:22:52 am »
+4

I don’t really fully decide it by Turn 1, usually. I have a general sense of the best way or ways for a board to go and then I adjust it based on what I roll for early buys.

This is why I hate hate hate hate hate when people decide to think about strategy before hitting Start Game.

30 seconds to maybe 2 minutes in the longest cases.
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Commodore Chuckles

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2018, 01:08:09 pm »
+2

I don’t really fully decide it by Turn 1, usually. I have a general sense of the best way or ways for a board to go and then I adjust it based on what I roll for early buys.

This is why I hate hate hate hate hate when people decide to think about strategy before hitting Start Game.

30 seconds to maybe 2 minutes in the longest cases.

Agreed. There are a lot of cards (particularly cheap trashers) that are good to open with 95% of the time regardless of what your overall strategy ends up being. Usually you just need to glance over the board to see if there's some reason you wouldn't want these cards.

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Jgoyes

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2018, 02:27:59 pm »
0

You may do this already but try to always greet your opponent before you start to think. I only get annoyed by people thinking before the game if I'm not sure they are there at all. Say hi and maybe "I'd like to take a minut" and only the hatasses shold be irritated by you reading the board.

And oh, press "start the game", I want to see my starting hand please.

Ahh I always greet my opponents! But this is a great suggestion, I will tell my opponent I´m thinking and I will start the game quickly!

Thank you!
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Jgoyes

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2018, 02:28:42 pm »
0

I think my two biggest suggestions regarding the beginning of the game are (a) to click "Start Game" so your opponent can start planning, too, and (b) to say something in chat like "interesting board," "give me a minute" or the classic "thinking..." (or, you know, something more specific) to let your opponent know you're actually there and planning to play, you just need some more time.

If you're curious how long I take to analyze a board, check out my Interesting Games of the Week series on YouTube. All of those games are just random automatch games, and you can see my thought process as I look at each board.

Thank you!!! I will see the videos soon!
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DG

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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2018, 04:21:55 pm »
+2

I could look at an opening forever really, if it wasn't polite not to. I can think about the long term strategy and scoring, what the final deck looks like, then go back to the opening, and how the buys are sequenced after that, and what the mid game looks like, and whether 3 piles will be running out, and whether a lead in the game is important or worthelss, and if nothing is conclusive I could go back to square 1 and try again. I dunno but it's part of Dominion that I quite like. I don't play enough to make automatic choices and some of the most enjoyable decks go beyond the obvious and do something else cool instead.

What I don't like doing is thinking a long time about turn 1 then stopping to think again on turn 3 or 4. It's an admission that all your long thinking wasn't good enough to last a few turns.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2018, 04:23:06 pm by DG »
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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2018, 08:39:48 am »
+1

Thinking about strategy before opening is one of my favourite aspects of Dominion, but I generally take my first turn in a minute or less because I assume my opponent probably wants to get on with it.

Following the discussion here, I think in future I'll be open to opportunities to take a bit longer over my first turn. I'll copy-paste something in chat, like "do you mind if I take a few minutes thinking about this board?" Then if I'm up against a like-minded opponent I can enjoy maybe 3-5 minutes of pre-game analysis. If not then I'll just get on with it.

Even on boards where I can choose a good strategy quickly, it may be interesting to look a little longer. Is there a way to get a small edge if (when) my opponent plays the same strategy? Or, if I'm feeling less competitive and more experimental, is there something new here I could try out?
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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2018, 08:47:26 am »
+4

There are a hundred answers to this, each of them perfectly valid for different reasons, but let me tell you this:

Do not let ANYONE but yourself try to dictate the pace of your decision making. If you, in good faith, are doing your best to make valid considerations, you are justified in taking as long as you need. If someone doesn't have time to play a game with you they shouldn't queue in in the first place.


Obviously the "in good faith" part is important and if you're taking a bit longer than normal to think or read the cards it may be curtious to give your opponent a little pulse check in chat, and intentional slow-play is douchey.

If someone can play faster than you, great for them. But that's their concern, not yours.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2018, 12:47:00 am by Screwyioux »
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Re: How long it takes you to decide your strategy when playing online?
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2018, 12:01:12 am »
+2

If someone can play faster than you, great for them. But that's their concern, not yours.

I'm happy to wait as long as my opponent wants if they're staring at the board at the beginning, or if they're trying to calculate a pileout. But it kind of annoys me when they play a Hero and take 30 seconds to decide that they want a Gold when there's no alt-treasure (edit- or Platinum) :P
« Last Edit: July 12, 2018, 12:07:23 am by teamlyle »
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