Buddy/Ignore List
09-01-2023, 10:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-25-2023, 12:56 AM by Maximus Dominus.)
GrimFinger's Tips for Newcomers to Alamaze (An Unfinished Work In Progress)
1. When you first begin to try your hand at playing Alamaze, my personal advice is to skip the Tutorial games and the Duel games and to avoid trying to read the entire 4th Cycle Rulebook in one fell swoop. The best way that I found to learn how to transition smoothly into Alamaze, and begin getting a grip on how to play, as well as to really begin to have fun in earnest playing Alamaze, was with a two-step approach:
ONE - Just play with the game interface, the thing where you enter turn orders for your kingdom. The game interface is what you need to quickly begin to familiarize yourself with, and not the rulebook. When you first start playing Alamaze, you do not need to know or memorize every last rule of the game. Some rules are kingdom-specific, and won't apply to your kingdom for that very reason. Also, some of the other rules in the rulebook only come into actual player later in the game, so why confuse yourself unnecessarily by trying to read and memorize an almost three hundred page rulebook when you are just starting out? It's unnecessary, and it can be counter-productive, by making it harder to learn and memorize what I call the starting basics.
TWO - Sign up for at least two different games of Alamaze, rather than just one. Why? Because this approach will allow and facilitate a quicker familiarization with the Alamaze game interface. The faster that you gain familiarity with the game interface, the quicker you will likely begin to advance in your learning of the rules, and more importantly, the quicker that things will make sense, and you will begin to actually have fun while playing. The more that you become familiar with the game interface, the sooner that you will begin getting comfortable with the issuing of turn orders. By playing more than one game of Alamaze, simultaneously, it enables you to spend more time with the game interface in the full game experience, and what you learn in one of your games of Alamaze, you will be able to then immediately apply what you learned in another game of Alamaze, faster than you would if you were only playing in a single game of Alamaze. Learning is about more than just reading, as in the reading of the rulebook for the game. The acquisition of actual, first-hand experience with the rules-in-action by using them in the game interface is of vastly greater importance than just the rules standing alone being read. Reading the rulebook is no proper substitute for actually applying the rules in-game.
You can learn the rules of the game that is Alamaze as you go along. Rome wasn't built in a day, and likewise, the 4th Cycle Rulebook for Alamaze doesn't have to be read in its entirety - either in a single sitting, or before you begin to try your hand at playing. The grand objective is to have fun, not to memorize a big, thick rulebook. The rulebook isn't the game. Rather, the rulebook exists to facilitate learning about the game - not to become an obstacle to learning and playing the game. Worrying yourself to death about how hard it will be to read - and memorize - all of the rules associated with playing Alamaze can act as a deterrent to actually learning how to play the game. The rulebook can be consumed in bite sizes, at a casual pace. I haven't read the whole rulebook, yet, and I'm currently in multiple games of Alamaze, right now - and I'm having a ton of fun in the process! And the moral of this story is that I encourage you, each and every last newcomer to Alamaze, to remember that the grand object is to have fun playing Alamaze. Everything else - including reading and memorizing all of the rules - associated with playing Alamaze, is secondary to that!
2. On your turn orders for Turn #1, go ahead and issue the #993 - Kingdom Customization order. Kingdom customization is only allowed during turns 1-3, but the sooner that you issue #993, the sooner your kingdom will reap the multiple benefits that it will afford you. Why wait additional turns to obtain the exact same benefits? Waiting to issue order #993 translates into diminishment of advantages that kingdom customization conveys.
3. The #991 – Set ESO Conditions order can be issued by the player on turns 1-3. However, you won't actually reap the rewards of meeting your ESO conditions until Turn #10, at the earliest. So, wait until Turn #3 to issue order #991, because the earliest turns of the game are when players tend to have the least order slots available to them, since their kings/queens (Rulers) won't have had time to increase their influence. You want to be efficient in the use of all of your order slots, and putting off issuing order #991 until Turn #3 isn't going to cause your kingdom any harm. After all, the game rules specifically allow you to wait until Turn #3 to issue this order.
4. Grow your economy. You need Gold and you need Food, in order to issue a number of orders. At the beginning of the game, all of the Alamaze kingdoms that I have played have needed gold more than they've needed food. Continually look for ways to increase your gold and food production. Stay focused upon improving your kingdom's economy, especially in the early turns of the game. There are different ways to accomplish this. The ways available to you to increase your kingdom's gold and food output may vary, depending upon which kingdom that you are playing.
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