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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 11, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Regarding board games: I'm still fairly new to a lot of the more interesting ones. Is there a good guide/rule of thumb for identifying "This is X type of game" and therefore "Y is a good basic mindset to use when learning the rules and playing well?"

For most modern board games, pursue anything that gets you extra actions. Often it’s not a question of who plays best, but of who plays most IN a game. So get the extra worker in worker placement games, get the free actions in roll-and-writes, etc. If it’s an engine builder, don’t stall your engine (ex: don’t run out of money in Roll for the Galaxy). Seems obvious, but people get trapped by the idea of a big, strategic, knock-out turn and make decisions that are suboptimal for victory, but also for fun, since that knockout turn might only come around once every three games, and the rest of the time you’re just sitting there frustrated.