If you follow boardgamegeek, you might have noticed I've started a youtube video series targetted at intermediate/advanced players who want to sharpen their play skills and learn how to analyze complex board states. Three videos are up so far (1hr, 1hr, and 30 mins) that feature 10 edited games, with commentary and analysis. I thought I would cross-post the link to this video series here. The goal is to have a new video every few weeks. Each video focuses on discussing some aspect of A:NR. The first two videos focus on getting value out of ambush assets in the mid/early game. The third video focuses on playing Gabriel Santiago in the late game.

The audio/video quality of the first video is a little poor; still learning the ropes of video editing. Quality gets better in the second video. If you find the quality of the first video offensive, skip to the second one.

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/RnDAccessGranted

Love the match video, would like to see more of that. Its always nice to see how others play and what they are thinking keep it up.

Love it so far, would love to see commentary on more conventional build type decks. It's always fun to see how other people try to puzzle through situations.

Keep up the good work!

This is good stuff. Looking forward to more.

LifeKnight said:

Keep an eye out over christmas then. I have a few excellent games recorded that highlight some of the finer points of running aggressively in the early game, and how to navigate some of the trickier situations you get into early as an aggressive runner. It's just a matter of doing the commentary now. The next video, though, will be with two fairly unorthodox decks. However, it is a great context for discussing what is meant by a bluff in A:NR, and how it is different from a bluff in poker (which A:NR Is commonly compared to in terms of its "human element"). This is a topic that has been on my mind since A:NR came out, and I finally have a great video captured to use as a backdrop for discussing this topic. I am really excited to get words to video. Should be up in the next couple days.

hollis said:

Sweet!

I'm loving this series. I like how you analyze situations, but also mistakes and why they are mistakes. Great material, looking forward to more.

Agreed. I watched a video last night and was impressed both with the level of play and the intelligent commentary. Keep up the good work.

Really good series! I like your commentary, really analytic and you have calm voice witch makes the listening a lot easier.

Looking forward for more videos!

hollis said:

signoftheserpent said:

My target audience is intermediate/advanced players with a full playset of each card (x3 copies).

hollis said:

Kind of a shame you focus on having 3 of each card - me and a friend saw the game when we went on vacation to an event near Chicago and bought it together - I doubt either one of us would have bought it individually. Not for lack of funds (on my part), but for lack of competition. At least this way we would play each other often.

Not that I don't get the decision, of course. And I watched one earlier today - definitely awesome stuff, and I think I can really improve my game with these.

TheRedArmy said:

I suspect the 3-card assumption is more of a theoretical issue than a practical issue. You may see decks in the videos running x3 copies of consoles, SanSan, Corporate Troubleshooter, Scorched Earth. However, aside from those cards, the core set card distribution simply doesn't affect available deck archetypes all that much. All datapacks contain 3 copies of all cards, so as the cardpool grows my possible viewership becomes less and less constrained. It is also worth pointing out that this is not a series about deck construction. I am interested in talking about how to play the game well. Presumably, that is (mostly) detached from the specifics of card accessibility.

My suspicion is that the majority of my target audience will have access to 2 or 3 copies of the core set cards. I am basing this on the purchasing habits of myself and my friends who also play. I have no intention to please everyone. But, the way I am doing it, I suspect I will please the majority. And, most importantly, I am doing this as a hobby interest, and my foremost goal is to get pleasure out of my time. Working with x3 copies of each card is certainly going to be the way that I will get the most pleasure.

hollis said:

That all makes sense - and like I said, I understood the decision. I don't even disagree with it, it makes perfect sense. Anyway, I…mostly agree with you about how card distribution doesn't affect playing the game well, though a superior deck can make up for poor play, and vice versa - to an extent.

The videos are awesome, and I wouldn't ever consider asking you to consider continuing if you didn't enjoy doing it. All the best, man.

While the decks in hollis's videos may contain three cards of core set singles, I find the actual concepts that he talks about apply to all Netrunner games regardless of card count. If you're not learning stuff from his videos while you have one core set, you're not going to learn more if you have three.

TheRedArmy said:

I find that is a lot less true in this game than others. This game requires some skill to pilot the deck.

Great vids, would love to see more soon.

Toqtamish said:

I did say to an extent. At any rate, I'm not saying I'll beat a superstar just because my deck is superior. But if one player is only slightly inferior to his opponent, but his decks are masterfully constructed, it may be that he can win through simply having better cards. This is far less likely and less of a problem in a LCG as opposed to a CCG.

Just found your videos and watched the Aggressive Kate one - very well done. Keep up the good work!

Figured I would bump this thread. We have had a couple new videos since the last post. The newest ones have been focused on how to play an effective, early aggressive game with each of the three core set runner identities.

Aaaand… with nicer links, now that I am not on my iPad. The three most recent videos are part of a series. Links to them below:

The Running Agressively series was very interessting and I´m tempted to run a lot more agressive. But a lot of my opponents run jinteki decks and I´m wondering if its a good idea to run agressive against jinteki with all their traps. Would love to see a video about that some time in the future. Running into an early game neutral katana pretty much stoped me from running aggressively the whole game. Getting snared early game wasn´t a factor I was worried too much, but I think jinteki is built to punish a aggressive runner with all its traps and mind games.

sharoth said:

Jinteki certainly requires a more tempered approach to running -- don't run with fewer than 3 cards in hand, and preferrably you want at least 4. Decent decks will have redundancy; losing a couple cards from hand won't hamstring you. However, just be aware of what is in your hand, what is in your deck, and whether your should play key cards before or after running. There are are perhaps more opportunities to make mistakes against Jinteki than the other factions.

Indiscriminately fearing neural katana makes it that much stronger of a card. One of the pieces of advice I give to players I've taught is "run on everything, if for no other reason than to get an idea of how often various threats surface. You'll be able to make more informed decisions from this in the long run." Doing this, you might be surprised at how rarely neural katana actually surfaces in the early game.

As to their other traps … data mine you're going to hit eventually. Wall of thorns, you're often ok trading 2 cards for 8 credits. You'd rather see project junebug in R&D/HQ than in a remote server. And like you've already identified, early Snare! is a periphary concern.

Some Jinteki videos are on my bucket list, but I have a couple other interesting games on my HD I want to post first.

This is a really well done series. Thanks for posting it here.