Category: Deep Dives

Deep Dives

Oath Stats – More Games, More Stats

Lily Gould

A while back I did a post about the stats from our first 17 games of Oath. And it recently dawned on me that we have since almost doubled the number of games we've played yet I haven't given an update! So we got more games and we got more stats. Our group has made it through 34 games of Oath. We have accomplished all but one paths to victory (having a successor with the scepter is a hard goal. Or maybe it's just not inciting given the way we play). There were some very interesting stats and graphs that came out of 32 games. It makes me want more!

Deep Dives

Lizard Cult Guide

Lily Gould

Ah, my dear lizard cult. These little weirdos are a beloved faction with a lot of losses under their belts. The lizard cult has an opaque scoring system which tends to have them behind on victory point track. We have seen a lot more flexibility for the lizard cult with the introduction of Advanced Setup or AdSet (the new setup cards that were included in the Marauders Expansion). This flexibility gives the lizards a lot more room to operate and become the true cult they were destined to be.

Deep Dives, Game, Tournaments

2021 Root Winter Tournament: Semi-Finals

Lily Gould

We have made it through the Semi-Finals!! That was a heck of a weekend! Five games in three days! And one day consisted of eight and a half of streaming!! I am quite excited to make it to the finals but first let's look back at the semi finals and the journey of some of our finalists.

Deep Dives

Root Faction Scoring Models

Lily Gould

Recently, I started keeping track of the round-by-round points for each factions after Rk9 showed interest. It was a stat that I hadn’t really tracked before and I’m not sure why I didn’t because it’s so fascinating. Looking back of all the tournaments, I found that there were two sets of data: the scoring paths from AdSet and the scoring paths from the Plus One Pool Draft. These get delved into by faction in the sections below. All data on the AdSet faction includes only the first two rounds of the 2021 Winter Tournament.

Deep Dives, Game, Tournaments

2021 Root Winter Tournament – Round Three

Lily Gould

Welcome to round three of the winter tournament!! And this round is going to be a doozy. We have skilled players. We have five player games. This has been chaos but I highly recommend all of the games. Each game has offered a new amount of craziness in every different direction. Just like before, I wanted to make graphs of of the scores at the end of each players turn. It's awesome to see each faction climbing up the graph, reaching hard for that 30 points.

Deep Dives, Game

Keepers in Iron Guide

Luke Bridwell

The Keepers in Iron (nicknamed badgers through the rest of this guide) are a tough but fun faction to learn and master. This faction is a continuous learning process. The more practice you have, the better you understand the faction and adapt to the board state. Badgers have a lot of flexibility, and this guide will help you learn which options you should consider when making strategic decisions. They are very rewarding when you have gained an understanding of how badgers play.

Deep Dives

The Vagabond Quest Deck

Lily Gould

Over the course of the tournament, I have taken an interest in the vagabond quest deck. Every quest requires two items from the potential available eight. And I was really curious to see what that make up was like. Especially in relationship to the suits of the decks. This is important since you need to be in a matching clearing to complete the quest. My question turned into: which clearing has the easiest quests to complete? Also, which vagabonds are best for completing quests? The answers... probably won't surprised you.

Deep Dives, Tournaments

2021 Root Winter Tournament – Round Two

Lily Gould

Welcome to round two of the winter tournament!! We got off to a shaky start this year but now that everything is back on track, let's do some stats! Check out the 2021 Root Winter Tournament post for the complete tournament overview! The 2021 Root Winter Tournament uses the modified AdSet draft so it cannot be directly compared to the previous tournament stats. It's the beginning of the round but we are already seeing some interesting things happen; including the longest game by round in any tournament! I am also now tracking scores round by round and these graph are looking gorgeous 😍

Deep Dives, Game, Tournaments

2021 Root Winter Tournament – Round One

Lily Gould

Welcome to round one of the winter tournament!! This post will be updating after around 10 games, 20 games, and then once more at the end of the round. Check out the 2021 Root Winter Tournament Post for the complete tournament overview! The 2021 Root Winter Tournament uses the AdSet draft so it cannot be directly compared to the previous tournament stats.

Deep Dives, Game, Tournaments

2021 Root Winter Tournament

Lily Gould

The Root Winter Tournament is upon us! The Root Winter Tournament is being streamed live on Guerric Samples Games Twitch Channel. They will also be available on Guerric Samples Game YouTube Channel about a week after each game is streamed. And since I am obsessive, I will be keep track of stats and other information! Stats will be updated in the middle and end of each round and will be updated as the tournament goes! To everyone completing, good luck and have fun!

Deep Dives, Game

18xx: A History [Part 2]

Lily Gould

I adore the 18xx series of games, I might have a slight addiction because of 18xx.games. Access to all of these fun game titles got me thinking. What commonalities do games with in the series have? Differences? Which games inspired others? While I tried to be as comprehensive as possible, I know I didn't get all of the details. Leave a comment if you see anything that needs to be changed! Many of the statements below are generalizations about the genre of games and do not apply to all circumstances. The stats listed do not include data points from every game. I love the 18xx series because you get to see all the exceptions. Continue Reading →

Deep Dives, Game

18xx: A History

Lily Gould

adore the 18xx series of games, I might have a slight addiction because of 18xx.games. Access to all of these fun game titles got me thinking. What commonalities do games with in the series have? Differences? Which games inspired others? As you can see above, the core of this series is 1829 - the very first 18xx game by Francis Tresham. While I tried to be as comprehensive as possible, I know I didn't get all of the details. Leave a comment if you see anything that needs to be changed!