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Did you try draconian use of 'The Urgency of War' (p. 8)?
... with the exception of one incredibly indecisive player that I swear I will NEVER play it with again...
(Anybody have advice on how/whether to apply that when teaching in a convention environment? Every third game or so there is a new player who just takes a really long time.)
I haven't encountered too many overly indecisive players when teaching. When people do have a lot of trouble making a decision every turn, I will sometimes ask them what actions they are considering. Sometimes just trying to vocalize what they are thinking about helps them figure out what they want to do.
I will also occasionally suggest identifying the biggest threat they can see, making sure that threat is dealt with as best as possible, and not worrying too much everything else (play more cards and do more things, but as long as the worst stuff is dealt with, they're on the right track).
This particular player will just do what someone else tells him to if he has a time limit. He gets paralyzed trying to figure out the best move, we've tried breaking him of it, but had to just accept it.
I mean, he struggles to pick a gear to start in when playing lazer ryders.
Most of the time when a player is struggling to parse all the info I try to give them a simple goal, like; "I can handle this ravage, can you deal with a build?" Anything that limits the scope of possible action usually helps a lot.
I figured that this could be quite a useful discussion, so I moved it out here to the main Spirit Island board! I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on this, and ways people have overcome it!
“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” ~Obi-Wan Kenobi
I do something similar. I haven't taught the game to too many people, but whenever someone gets stuck, or asks me for advice, my first response is "Well, they are ravaging in X and building in Y, so..." and that usually is enough to refocus them on those 2-4 lands. I also caution against planning more than a turn in advance because you don't know what invader cards will be next, what powers you might get, or what your allies will be doing.
I sometimes urge people just to play something, and we'll figure out what happens when it happens. If nothing else play for elements so you can trigger an innate.
Of course that's not in any way optimal play, but it's certainly way more fun than waiting forever for that one player to come up with the perfect turn while everyone else gets bored and gets their phones out and forgets what their own plan was...
Just assume I'm always doing that.
Damn it, Ronway!
I haven't tried teaching anyone yet (that's tomorrow) but I could see myself saying "Don't look for the perfect plan, choose a plan and we'll make it work out in the end"
Especially since this is more of an issue when you are playing for the first time, and that means you are not in a situation where a single mistake early on spells the end of the game, like I imagine some of the more intense scenarios might.
As someone who is prone to getting upset when I don't have the understanding and/or time to make a move I'm happy with, the tactic I try to employ to help myself get past this point is acceptance. Let it go. You might lose. Try to focus on enjoying the experience separate from winning or losing.
Many of the above points help with that direclty or indirectly, limiting the scope of what I need to think about and/or getting some implicit or explicit buy-in from the other players that it's ok to do whatever now and figure it out later.
So perhaps my advice would be to do what seems appropriate to help a fellow player feel comfortable that it's ok if things aren't perfect.
Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel
The "perfect" turn is really very difficult in SI, simply because unexpected stuff WILL happen.
I find it way more frustrating if my carefully-thought-out tight plan gets ruined by randomness than if my vague let's-see-what-happens plan does. So there's that.
Just assume I'm always doing that.
Damn it, Ronway!
Yes, this. Even in the late game, when you have access to a number of different effects, it is generally correct to focus on "solving" one or two lands, and then playing any amount of useful other effects you have access to (ideally that give you some good icons), knowing that there is a good chance they will come up. For example, pushing explorers Slow is almost always going to be useful, because the Invaders will explore "somewhere", and pushing Explorers out of newly-explored lands during the Slow phase is one of the cheapest ways to prevent a Build.
“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” ~Obi-Wan Kenobi