[Caretaker's Guest]

As of late I am counting the games that "going first" decided the outcome.
Niall. Went first, won by one turn.
Paddy. Went second, lost by one turn.
MVB, went first, won by one turn.
EnsignQ, went second, lost by one turn.
That is currently 50% of my recent games that going first mattered.
I will keep counting,
Cause I think going second in 1E needs love.

[Boffo97]

Isn't 50% the optimal result? That means half the time, the player who went second won, which is what it should be all other things being equal.

[AllenGould]

Isn't 50% the optimal result? That means half the time, the player who went second won, which is what it should be all other things being equal.

If I'm reading that right, he won by a turn when he went first, lost by a turn when he went second.

Not terribly surprised, since going second no longer gets you last seed for dilemmas, so it's now just objectively worse.

[BCSWowbagger]

((whispers))

((someone should run a trial event with a chess clock))

[jadziadax8]

[Ensign Q]

which game did i lose?

[Armus]

As of late I am counting the games that "going first" decided the outcome.
Niall. Went first, won by one turn.
Paddy. Went second, lost by one turn.
MVB, went first, won by one turn.
EnsignQ, went second, lost by one turn.
That is currently 50% of my recent games that going first mattered.
I will keep counting,
Cause I think going second in 1E needs love.

Ok maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it looks to me like all 4 of those games were "coin toss games"

If that's indicative of a larger trend then 1e needs to tread VERY carefully. The early years of 2e were in many cases full of "coin toss games" unless there was a substantial difference in player skill.

That version of 2e sucked. It took Decipher 4 sets to really start squaring it up. Better to avoid going in the ditch in the first place IMO.

[OrionSyndicate]

Have there been any suggestion on how to balance going 2nd yet?

One of either:
. 2nd player starts with an extra card in hand (or 2?)
. 2nd player has two normal card plays on their first turn (probably swings advantage too far)
. 1st player draws no card at end of their first turn
. ???

[Armus]

How about winner of the coin toss chooses first in seed phase or first in play phase? Would that make it better or worse?

[Caretaker's Guest]

which game did i lose?

Actually you did not, you won. I cut the I. So I lost by one turn .

Isn't 50% the optimal result?

These are the last six games. I remember more from the recent past but named cases are clearly oficial. Iwill continue counting. And I woukd love to see others counting that as well, to clarify if I am hunting a ghost here or make a point. To clarify: The other games were not that close, I lost by far or won by far. When it got close, first turn player won.

If that's indicative of a larger trend then 1e needs to tread VERY carefully.

[KazonPADD]

Isn’t this just an indication that the 1E playscene is currently well balanced?

Also, I went second in my match against Commdecker yesterday and won. Can’t recall for earlier matches.

[Ensign Q]

first turn of the game cards could enter the game stopped or even in stasis.

OR both get equal turns then higher score wins

OR 2nd player gets an extra seedcard

[geraldkw]

Going second could give you 5 (non-bonus) points. Whoever wins the coin flip to see who goes first can choose to go first or second.

[Iron Prime]

In some games the first player gets one less card draw for the opening hand, or is allowed to play few cards on the first turn...

[JeBuS]

That's all just over complicating things. Make the players play by the same rules. That means the same number of turns for both.