XaiJu
Raymond S Demere
Raymond S Demere

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Player Development Levels

My musings for thinking about player development.
Level 1: Understand basic game mechanics
Level 2: Understand your nation. Can play a nation to its strengths doing all the things that makes the nation strong
Level 3: Understand other nations. Know which nations are good vs others, anticipate other nations research timings and power curves.
Level 4: Huge bag of tricks and the dominions chess board.

Player Development Levels

Comments

I think I probably fall somewhere between Level 1 & Level 2, and I think all the players in recent tournament finals fell handily within the Level 3 category, but a few really stood out in the Level 4 (primarily the Ys player, Arco). I found his comments regarding specific (often unknown) mechanics super interesting -- like how Frost Weapons had the capability of knocking two sizes off of Air Elementals, and how Larger gave Morvarch Knights the ability to move two water provinces in a turn. That kind of knowledge is difficult to come by and reminds me of paperback strategy guides from the 90s, with tips & tricks that you couldn't find on a young internet at the time.


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