Pax Ren for Beginners ! Episode 1: Imperial

[@greginfla_1]

Apostasy (Discussion 15:10), 1:01:53 Campaign 11:00, 34:30, 37:30 Comet 55:51 Conspiracy 23:25, 1:03:41 Emancipation example 46:35 Jihad 13:00, 15:45 King card discussion 0:50 Ops 26:30, 30:30, 34:16, 37:15 Repress 11:13, 34:22 Trade/Fair 9:17, 17:41, 28:45, 51:04 Vote 51:43

[@Pavel-pg7xi]

Hey, thanks for the excellent video! Really hope you’ll make another one in this series, covering one other victory condition!

[@DoppelgangerF02]

Dude this video is just literally a dream come true, thank you so much! Wish you did more for this and other pax games but honestly this video is a treasure on KZbin so ty

[@paxgamer3003]

Much appreciated!!

[@anfieldming]

Thanks for your video! One of the major difficulties in learning this game is how to understand each action and how they affect to achieve the winning condition, you video did help a lot.

[@franr9302]

This video is excellent. The how and why altogether. After reading the rules I tried to perform a first game and was quite slow and frustrating. Now I can see the dynamics and I guess it'll be much easy to progress. I also tried to simplify it with just one victory option. Good job and for sure I'll be coming back to check your videos!

[@Javaslinger7730]

This is a phenomenal guide. And even though you mentioned it not being a strategy guide, I'm glad you included a lot of it while explaining your choices! I very much look forward to the rest of the series!!

[@harisiadis]

This was really useful and very enjoyable. Thank you very much for your effort. I really hope that you will continue making videos for this amazing game!

[@jamielehn6926]

This is excellent! I played it yesterday and wish I had watched this first. Keep em coming

[@jaybear7272]

I just picked up Pax Ren, and thought this video was absolutely excellent. For a beginner like me it was really helpful that you explained your thought process at each step. Looking forward to the other videos in this series!

[@trixbunnyman]

Nice clear and we'll explained video. This has really helped me get my head around the rules!

[@matiaszanetti666]

Amazing playtrough, very insightful. Thanks!

[@davidc411]

Excellent video. Incredibly useful for learning this subtle and complex game. Great strategy tips including on how to “read” the market and what to look out for. Also really clarifies the trickier rules (I realized I had missed quite a few!).

[@paxgamer3003]

Thanks!! I plan to do one for each victory type. Do you have any suggestions to make them better for new players? What are some key areas to spend more time on?

[@davidc411]

@@paxgamer3003 I think this pace works well, and you also commented on which player’s position was the best & why at different stages (which was very interesting as it did go back and forth quite a bit). No additional requests from me, look forward to the next videos :)

[@DrMoe.Lester]

Great video. I've got pax ren delivering in a couple of days, hopefully you'll get the next tutorial video up by then :D

[@fedev80]

This was amazing! Thank you very much!

[@kornelije.h]

Instant subscribe! Thank you. Waiting for tutorial with other pax games! You are my last hope. :)

[@paxgamer3003]

If you're having trouble grokking the game, perhaps we can set up a play on TTS? This invite is open to anyone btw

[@dennisng5437]

THis is a great series. Can you do more, you explain this so well!!!

[@paxgamer3003]

I will try! Having babies has made making tutorial content for Pax Ren a lot more difficult, unfortunately. But I think there is enough on here to help get people up and running, hopefully.

[@MohamadSobh]

Such an incredible video, thank you for this!

[@CrapuleScred]

Thx. Watched it two times. I hope you will find time to do the 3 others victory conditions and the full set up for beginners :p.

[@Pizin]

Nice guide.

[@pavelx1007]

This is a great tutorial, please don't give up on this series! I also wonder if you played other PAX games, esp. Porfiriana, Pamir or Transhumanity, and if you could recommend any of those?

[@paxgamer3003]

I plan to :) And yes to your questions. They're all good. Pamir 2nd edition is a common entry point to the series. It's still a lot to take in, and very thinky, but it's the simplest of the paxes, barring perhaps Viking. I personally found Transhumanity very easy to learn, but I'm apparently an outlier. Transhumanity is also the *weirdest* of the series, but still satisfying in its own right. Porfiriana is a hoot, but definitely a little more complicated to learn than the others mentioned. I think it'll take me at least another year or two to say everything I have to say about Ren (juggling work and two babies), but to live up to the channel's name, I'll put some learning videos up for the other paxes eventually, too.

[@Thesussysuscat]

Tnx for this

[@Deeman8351]

Love the series, big Pax fan. Where have you been able to find other players on TS? I have a bunch of plays with the real game but haven't made the jump into online yet.

[@paxgamer3003]

Hey there, you can find players online in 2 places: making a post on boardgamegeek, and in the Ion discord server: discord.gg/8bDwrej Tabletop Simulator is awesome! Vassal is also popular for async games, but I prefer live play personally.

[@vinnieyang5422]

I keep reading that this game is great/amazing/etc and I really want to see the light but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it. I was able to understand until cards started being bought from the market and then all the symbols and actions on the cards just overwhelmed me. This version looks really nice and it seems like the card layouts have been cleaned up but as a whole, things still look disorganized and visually noisy. Not sure what I need to understand how to play this game but I want to reach that point.

[@paxgamer3003]

Hi Vinnie, there is definitely a lot to wrap your head around and 2e's presentation missed some opportunities to be a home run, in my opinion. Your feedback (and any other feedback from you and other people new to the game) will help me with future beginner videos. I'll be sure to go over card anatomy and visually point to the one-shot/ops/prestige I am referencing. Please do give me any other feedback on this one so I can make the next one better. A suggestion: pull out the handy player aids the game came with (that I point to at the beginning) to keep as a reference point for the graphical elements. When I am doing something with a card, pause the video and refer to the aid to get more context for what is happening. In the next video, I'll go through this process with the viewer.

[@dalembertian]

@@paxgamer3003 Like many others, I also found this video EXCELLENT - but only after I internalized the rules, played it two-handed once, then solo once, than read the manual again... :-) I tried to watch it before, but as Vinnie, I found it overwhelming (for a newcomer, watching a playthrough of PaxRen feels like "Calvin Ball": like if rules were being invented on the fly!). So I think the only thing missing is a disclaimer that this is not exactly for "total beginners" - you need some foundations to get it. And, of course, looking forward to a video from you explaining the basics from scratch! :-) The rulebook is hard to digest, precise but hard to follow. I didn't find any video that did a good job at that, yet. Maybe it's not possible, not sure... But if someone can do it, I feel that's you!

[@gordo6908]

@@paxgamer3003 have you detailed your thoughts on the missed opportunities of 2nd editions ui anywhere? ive been reading your bgg posts and following your videos to learn my 1st ed copy and am always interested in the perspectives of accomplished players

[@paxgamer3003]

@@gordo6908 hi Gordo, not publicly. But Phil was gracious enough to include me in 2e's development. I helped check for errors, weighed in on balance (several cards were changed and new ones added), and offered my opinion on virtually everything. Indeed, I brought up the graphic design on a weekly basis. But unfortunately, we got what we got. Pretty much every complaint you've ever read about the graphic design was brought before the art department during development, and was summarily ignored. I haven't harped on the issue on bgg because it is what it is...and ultimately, you get used to it. I can say though that the graphic design decisions were not up to Phil, nor even the artist Josefin. Ion has an art director who made all the final decisions.

[@arashgrgsson3841]

at min 28 ... u did both east n west op in two sep actions ... but in rules it says u can only do one of three actions available to u on the right side of ur character ... ?

[@paxgamer3003]

You may be misunderstanding the rules... These are the actions you can take once per turn: east ops, west ops, east trade fair, west trade fair, claim victory. The following actions may be done multiple times per turn: sell card, buy card, play card.

[@andreagrp9048]

excellent thank you....what about Emancipation... :P

[@paxgamer3003]

You're welcome! Are you talking about emancipation the game mechanic, or Pax Em? I have much less experience with that one - and I've yet to beat it, lol

[@andreagrp9048]

@@paxgamer3003 yep Pax Emancipation, it is actually a beast to handle!

[@LoThePictogram]

Amazing video, looking forward the next ones!

[@0Magician00]

Great video looking forward to part two. Quick question though, on the trade fair should you not be adding 1 extra florin for 1-2player and 2 extra for 3-4 player as per rules G1a.

[@Pizin]

You can use my video with rules and gameplay of PaxEm.

[@warlord76i]

Saint Stefan Cel Mare was the king of Moldavia. Why is the card under Hungarian flag?

[@paxgamer3003]

The designers had to abstract Europe into 10 regions. They couldn't put a Moldavia region into the game :) so it got folded into Hungary.

[@warlord76i]

@@paxgamer3003 Well...this is really a big mistake...

[@dalembertian]

Why do you say, at 24:50, that the "Brotherhood of St. Mark" card can "behead any card in the West"? As far as I can see the card has the Holy Roman Empire as a location, and no particular symbols on the Behead op...

[@paxgamer3003]

You are correct and I misspoke. I meant to say any card with The West designation.

[@dalembertian]

@@paxgamer3003 Thanks! Thought it could be yet another small detail I was missing… 😀 Thanks again for the video - it is by far the best resource for learning how to think this game, I watched it over and over.

[@dalembertian]

@@paxgamer3003 Ah wait, re-reading your answer, I still didn't get it: the Brotherhood card has a Behad op, but its location is the Holy Roman Empire. How can it behad any card with the west denomination?!

[@dalembertian]

Never mind, I got it now... 🤦🏻‍♂An op/one-shot in a given empire can also apply to any card with the corresponding E/W denomination...

[@paxgamer3003]

@@dalembertian yes, any capital W West card (example: Michaelangelo) is considered to share a location with England, France, HRE, Portugal, Spain, and Papal States; and vice-versa. The same is true with capital E East cards (example: Jizya Tax Revolt) with Hungary, Byzantium, Ottoman, Mamluk. This is why Brotherhood of St. Mark can behead any Holy Roman card and any card with capital W West location.

[@vulpine81]

I apologize for my ignorance, but where do your play this game online??

[@Thesussysuscat]

You never placed your Islam bishop

[@paxgamer3003]

I aaaaaalways forget to do that. Because technically it's the last step of the religious war one-shot. But lately I've been bringing the bishop out first thing so I don't forget.