Awesome vid Sam, thanks for explaining things so clearly! I’ve only played two games (2p) and managed to fall into two noob-traps already, game one I covered my whole board, game two I stacked my red arrow sector instead of the adjacent one 😅
I know this video is a bit older but was super helpful as someone who is trying to win more Space Base IRL and on BGA! Following these tips, I immediately started winning 3p/4p games by large margins so thanks for this. With that said, is there a chance you could quickly make a follow-up video touching on other advanced concepts? You are super high rated so nice to hear your insight. Things like deciding what to buy early/mid/late, how you build your engines, other types of cards you like/dislike (cards using charges?), when to buy colony cards, winning without arrow cards, etc.? If you don't play anymore then disregard 😊 thank you!
I don't think I have too much more to add! It's been a while since I played Space Base and actually tried to climb. I guess the main thing would be always have an idea of how long the game will have left until it ends. You have to guess at the start and constantly readjust your expectations depending on how the table is rolling. 2 player games last roughly 20-24 turns, 5 player games roughly 12-13 turns and the other player counts in between. If you're expecting the game to last another 20 rounds then nearly anything you buy will give you good value (but like I said in the video, I do tend to like the rocket cards - especially flipped over on the red side for 4-5p games). Target cards that have the least amount of overlap (stacking a number is usually good) and pray you get good early dice rolls so you can get those tier 2 and 3 cards!
Nice video Sam - I think a lot of the ideas on cards don't really translate well to 4-player and 5-player, but this video should really help anyone who plays lower player count and longer games in general (i.e. no light-speed start)
I agree for the low player count. The best configuration is 1v1 for me because it is less random. However, some of his advices like spamming just a few sectors between 5 and 9 for example also work with the light-speed start 😉
I hope you're not referring to claim cards! I've noticed the current arena season is 4P with light-speed and you're doing very well! What is the #1 tip you would give for that format?
@@NoWondersTV dear god no claim cards are still trash 😂😂 Getting an income, buy-a-card, or level 3 card in sectors 1-7 flipped by round 2 or 3 is the most reliable way to go. This can often involve buying 0-2 lightspeed cards in order to buy a level 3 card on turn 1, and a level 1 card in the corresponding sector in round 2.
It depends on how early you can get it. If it's early enough and you roll it once or twice then yes it can be game-winning. There's a bit more risk attached to it than other cards because it's essentially a useless card in the last 3-4 rounds (unlike a card that gives rockets which you are always happy to roll).
The diagram includes both double and single odds. Only the double dice rolls are shown as images. Underneath in “results” all the numbers from 1-6 are boosted by 12, which is their single dice odds. E.g. you’ll roll a 6 in 17/36 rolls with both double and single, but only 5/36 with double
@@NoWondersTV If you hit double 1 then you're not going to take the sum of 2. And if you hit a double 6 then you are going to take the sum of 12. That's the extreme example but it still holds for 6-4,6-5, and 1-2, 1-3 and 1-anything. The 1 reward is perhaps close to double that of 6. If you hit 2 and 4 then you don't really want to take the sum of 6 - instead you can get 2 rewards from the 2 and 4.
@@ricardorix73 This is true for maybe the first ~5 rounds when you don't have many cards yet. 2 rewards will often outweigh 1. But it works both ways, you can use the power of 6 to your advantage. Get a nice tier 3 card for your 6 and take the reward the 47% of the time it will roll. Instead of getting tier 2/3 cards for your sector 1, and 2, and 3, and 12.
@@NoWondersTV OK I just mapped out all the rolls 11 to 66. There are only 5 out of 36 times where the 6 reward will come up more than the 1 reward. And this also accounts for taking the 6 rather than the sum (10,11,12). If you say sum 10,11,12 would be instead be taken then this reduces the extra reward down to just 1 out of 36 times, and you're also taking the sum of 6 each time rather than the 2 and 4. This is the only way the 6 out ways the 1, if the tier 3 sector 6 card is not there then you're going to have to significantly lean into the sector 6 cards to make this work.
dice probability games always are tough. Can you discuss alternate strategies like only gabbing 1-6 cards and forgetting about 7-12. Is that an optimal strategy?
There's no optimal strategy unless you know what the dice rolls will be in the future of your game :) But as I said, the centre of your board will usually give you the best reward/roll ratio. It's very rare that picking 11s and 12s is a good idea. I don't think you should tie yourself down to "only" picking cards because they fit a certain sector plan you are going for. It's more about picking good cards that will pay for themselves before the game ends. And that calculation will depend on many things, like what cards you already have, how much they overlap, how much longer you think the game will last. If you already have many cards between 1-6 then it probably will make sense to continue there, as per the example in the video. If you've already stacked 6 then don't go for a 12, go for a 5 or 4.
@@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer Ah, I see the replay. I think for a low sector strategy to work you really need to have the rocket cards on either blue or red side. Starting with a sector 12 card is always rough, and there were so many high rolls early that helped your opponents. You'll get 'em next time!
You're not alone! The more I play the more I realise it's about the quality of cards you get over the quantity of cards you get. A single nice tier 3 card can be enough to win you the game.
@@thehumanvocoder3079 what do you mean? If you’re playing in real life the rockets on the dice = 1. So it’s just like rolling double 1s. If you mean a situation where you’ve bought the Colony cards on like 2 and 4 then roll double 2s you get nothing that turn
This video is enough to get me to give this game another shot; I've been frustrated many times, but I'm willing to admit I may simply be poor at the game.
I believe the very best players have something close to an 80% win rate. There's always going to be that % of games that are unwinnable, and you may just annoyingly get many of them in a row. Space Base has frustrated me many a time!
2:59 I’m guilty about this 😢😅 But thanks Sam for pointing, I won’t make you cry 😂. Thanks for this video in general!
It's the Pokemon strategy! Gotta collect them all!
Awesome vid Sam, thanks for explaining things so clearly! I’ve only played two games (2p) and managed to fall into two noob-traps already, game one I covered my whole board, game two I stacked my red arrow sector instead of the adjacent one 😅
I know this video is a bit older but was super helpful as someone who is trying to win more Space Base IRL and on BGA! Following these tips, I immediately started winning 3p/4p games by large margins so thanks for this.
With that said, is there a chance you could quickly make a follow-up video touching on other advanced concepts? You are super high rated so nice to hear your insight. Things like deciding what to buy early/mid/late, how you build your engines, other types of cards you like/dislike (cards using charges?), when to buy colony cards, winning without arrow cards, etc.?
If you don't play anymore then disregard 😊 thank you!
I don't think I have too much more to add! It's been a while since I played Space Base and actually tried to climb. I guess the main thing would be always have an idea of how long the game will have left until it ends. You have to guess at the start and constantly readjust your expectations depending on how the table is rolling. 2 player games last roughly 20-24 turns, 5 player games roughly 12-13 turns and the other player counts in between. If you're expecting the game to last another 20 rounds then nearly anything you buy will give you good value (but like I said in the video, I do tend to like the rocket cards - especially flipped over on the red side for 4-5p games).
Target cards that have the least amount of overlap (stacking a number is usually good) and pray you get good early dice rolls so you can get those tier 2 and 3 cards!
Just started playing, I wish there was an 80 point variant game, as I love the engine building aspect
Enjoy discovering the game!!
Nice video Sam - I think a lot of the ideas on cards don't really translate well to 4-player and 5-player, but this video should really help anyone who plays lower player count and longer games in general (i.e. no light-speed start)
I agree for the low player count. The best configuration is 1v1 for me because it is less random. However, some of his advices like spamming just a few sectors between 5 and 9 for example also work with the light-speed start 😉
I hope you're not referring to claim cards!
I've noticed the current arena season is 4P with light-speed and you're doing very well! What is the #1 tip you would give for that format?
@@NoWondersTV dear god no claim cards are still trash 😂😂 Getting an income, buy-a-card, or level 3 card in sectors 1-7 flipped by round 2 or 3 is the most reliable way to go. This can often involve buying 0-2 lightspeed cards in order to buy a level 3 card on turn 1, and a level 1 card in the corresponding sector in round 2.
Great vid! Confirmed many of my suspicions about good/useless cards. What about the sector 7 13 cost income card in 2p?
It depends on how early you can get it. If it's early enough and you roll it once or twice then yes it can be game-winning. There's a bit more risk attached to it than other cards because it's essentially a useless card in the last 3-4 rounds (unlike a card that gives rockets which you are always happy to roll).
Phenomenal video! Tx
Something about this doesn't make sense though, because you don't have the single-dice odds included here.
The diagram includes both double and single odds. Only the double dice rolls are shown as images. Underneath in “results” all the numbers from 1-6 are boosted by 12, which is their single dice odds. E.g. you’ll roll a 6 in 17/36 rolls with both double and single, but only 5/36 with double
@@NoWondersTV If you hit double 1 then you're not going to take the sum of 2. And if you hit a double 6 then you are going to take the sum of 12. That's the extreme example but it still holds for 6-4,6-5, and 1-2, 1-3 and 1-anything. The 1 reward is perhaps close to double that of 6. If you hit 2 and 4 then you don't really want to take the sum of 6 - instead you can get 2 rewards from the 2 and 4.
@@ricardorix73 This is true for maybe the first ~5 rounds when you don't have many cards yet. 2 rewards will often outweigh 1. But it works both ways, you can use the power of 6 to your advantage. Get a nice tier 3 card for your 6 and take the reward the 47% of the time it will roll. Instead of getting tier 2/3 cards for your sector 1, and 2, and 3, and 12.
@@NoWondersTV OK I just mapped out all the rolls 11 to 66. There are only 5 out of 36 times where the 6 reward will come up more than the 1 reward. And this also accounts for taking the 6 rather than the sum (10,11,12). If you say sum 10,11,12 would be instead be taken then this reduces the extra reward down to just 1 out of 36 times, and you're also taking the sum of 6 each time rather than the 2 and 4. This is the only way the 6 out ways the 1, if the tier 3 sector 6 card is not there then you're going to have to significantly lean into the sector 6 cards to make this work.
The chart is bogus, you're not going to take the sum of 2, rather than the double 1.
dice probability games always are tough. Can you discuss alternate strategies like only gabbing 1-6 cards and forgetting about 7-12. Is that an optimal strategy?
There's no optimal strategy unless you know what the dice rolls will be in the future of your game :)
But as I said, the centre of your board will usually give you the best reward/roll ratio. It's very rare that picking 11s and 12s is a good idea.
I don't think you should tie yourself down to "only" picking cards because they fit a certain sector plan you are going for. It's more about picking good cards that will pay for themselves before the game ends. And that calculation will depend on many things, like what cards you already have, how much they overlap, how much longer you think the game will last. If you already have many cards between 1-6 then it probably will make sense to continue there, as per the example in the video. If you've already stacked 6 then don't go for a 12, go for a 5 or 4.
Attempted my strategy...
@@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer The suspense is absolutely killing me, Michael. Well??
@@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer Ah, I see the replay. I think for a low sector strategy to work you really need to have the rocket cards on either blue or red side. Starting with a sector 12 card is always rough, and there were so many high rolls early that helped your opponents. You'll get 'em next time!
@@NoWondersTV 1 trial failed miserably. I'll keep trying my 1-6 strategy and see if it ever works. Can't drop below 100 ELO right!
It's hard for me to decide when to start transitioning and racing for the end. I build too big of an engine, or my engine sucks.
You're not alone! The more I play the more I realise it's about the quality of cards you get over the quantity of cards you get. A single nice tier 3 card can be enough to win you the game.
Do you know what happens when you roll two Rocket Ships?
@@thehumanvocoder3079 what do you mean? If you’re playing in real life the rockets on the dice = 1. So it’s just like rolling double 1s.
If you mean a situation where you’ve bought the Colony cards on like 2 and 4 then roll double 2s you get nothing that turn
@@NoWondersTVwtf? I never commented on this shit. I never even watched this. What kinda Twilight Zone bullshit is this?
This video is enough to get me to give this game another shot; I've been frustrated many times, but I'm willing to admit I may simply be poor at the game.
I believe the very best players have something close to an 80% win rate. There's always going to be that % of games that are unwinnable, and you may just annoyingly get many of them in a row. Space Base has frustrated me many a time!