by Nanook » 01 Mar 2018, 15:47
PlayDip runs mentor games regularly--that's the best way to get the basics, in my opinion. Not just those specifically, but playing games with good players, either in a guided, learning environment, or out in the wild. The games I've learned the most from are the mentor game I played within the first three or four months of finding this site, two games with CharlieP (who no longer graces us with his presence around these parts, sadly), a FtF house game with Doc Binder, and then the first time I played FtF with DQ last May. Now, obviously, if I had started with the FtF game with DQ, I wouldn't have learned as much as I did with having the base to work from--mostly I probably would've learned "Huh, that guy's really good." But I had a base to work from, where I could go "Huh, OK, that's guy's really good, and I can kinda see what he's doing and where I can use pieces of that to improve my own game." Mentor games or guided learning games are the best place to start in my opinion, to get a grasp of "OK, this is what I can do piece-wise, and this is what I can do diplomacy-wise." Then it's pretty much practice, and playing against good players to see what kinds of things they do. I've always preferred to ally with a good player, even (especially) when I know they're better than I am, for several reasons but the salient one here being that you're going to get a better look at how they do things. Because while I'm never going to be DQ, I can still look at how he plays and say to myself "Hey, I can do that, but I don't--why don't I?" Take bits and pieces of stuff from good players that you can do but didn't think to do, and mold it into your own personal style, basically.
Those are the best ways to improve, to my thinking. Repetition and playing with good players. And always being willing to learn and improve, obviously, but that kinda goes without saying!
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