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How to get better at strategic decisions?

#1

Tactical problems (“Can I run that server?”; “In which order do i spend my clicks?”) often have only one right answer which is relatively easy to find (either you have the money and the breakers or you dont; drawing a card on the last click is always a mistake). If I make a mistake at those, I will often get punished directly. It is clear how to become better at those as I can identify my mistakes and try to do it better next time.

But with strategic problems (“Should i focus on hammering R&D or HQ now?”; “Should i facecheck that ICE?”; “Schould i fast advance now or wait another move until I have the money to rez all my ICE thereafter?”), the right answer isnt obvious. Often, they involve multiple different factors (“risk vs. reward”; “How likely is it that he included that card and drew it?”) which have to be weighted against each other. I find it hard to get better at those as I cant directly see if my decision was right. Even if my play got rewarded, I could just have been lucky.

So how can I try to improve my strategic game?
How can I see if the assessments I made in a game were right?

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

#2

its all about what deck u play against imo. knowing the deck and its goal makes it easy to figure out what to do.

#3

Try to record your games. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now but haven’t had the money for a good camera. This way you can make your mistakes and the review them later. See what worked and what clues you could gleen from things like Cards in Hand and Credits in Pool. These recordings are best shared with your opponent as well so that you can both become better through the experience.

Something that has served me well is always pay attention to how many credits the corp has. I know this may sound obvious but I kept getting surprised by big ice like Tollbooths. Keeping track of the Corp’s Credits has defiantly helped me in that regard.

Another big thing is remember what is in the corp’s hand! If you have been hitting R and D and finding nothing but ICE, remember what those pieces are. You will be served well by simply asking “What would I do if I drew this card as corp?” People are always trying to make the most optimal play. If you can figure out what that is, their big surprise turned into a big liability. (This also runs in reverse, I usually turn the cards the opponent has seen upside down in my hand to remind myself that the runner knows I have this)

The last thing is…sometimes you just gotta take a chance. Unless you Expose, All the info in the world wont tell you what that ICE is, sometimes you just gotta flip the coin.

#4

It sounds like a good idea to record OCTGN games, but I would not want to bring a camera to a game irl :smiley:
Keeping track of what cards the runner saw sounds pretty obvious, but I honestly never considered it as corp; I should really incorporate this.

#5

Calculate the probabilities.

#6

aa[quote=“flaw, post:1, topic:406, full:true”]
Tactical problems (“Can I run that server?”; “In which order do i spend my clicks?”) often have only one right answer which is relatively easy to find (either you have the money and the breakers or you dont; drawing a card on the last click is always a mistake).
Any tips are greatly appreciated.
[/quote]

Let me disagree, drawing card with last click is not mistake all the time.

There are several sources of hidden information. Not only your topdeck.
For example if you’re afraid of heavy bioroids it’ s ok to run with your first click, facecheck for example heimdall2.0, spend 2 click on breaking some subroutines and draw with last click.

Or another example: run on naked RnD with first click - trashing ambush, run with second - steal agenda agenda, 3rd run - look at ice/operation. 4th click for draw.

But yes, if the gamestate leaves for you unknown only the top card of your deck and you don’t know what you will do with your 4 clicks - you should draw first.

The general rule for me is to maximize my options only after minimization of risk.