So far I only did the intro quest(tutorial match and one novice NPC), and even though I managed to win twice.... I have no friggin clue what I'm doing and what anything even is.

My experience with cardgames is 0, and I never looked up anything in advance! I had to forfeit the tutorialmatch twice, as the game told me to pick the card from the tavern, but never said how. There was nothing I could do, and not even a help function or way to leave the game. Only through looking up the tutorial video on the eso website, was it shown I need to activate the gold cards first, before I can pick one from the tavern.

Currently I am at the moment where I think: Wth are agents, wth are patrons, wth are the symbols on the cards, wth are the descriptions, oehw something went green for some reason, might as well click it. And yes, I read every card and every description very carefully, still no clue what is going on. Or what most of the terms are/mean.

The game is not intuitive at all, not even in the slightest! The tutorial is no help either. And so far I had 0 fun, nor interest in playing again. Will do a few more matches against novice NPC's today, but if it doesn't click with me, I'm done playing it at all.

PS: I probably won because I read the book on the counter in the gamblinghouse, so I flipped the patrons to me when I could. As I knew that was one of the win conditions.
PPS: Scrying/excavation clicked with me in one try.

Did the daily quest, to win a match in three cities. This took me five games in total, and I now seem to have a better understanding of how the game works(a bit).

The most important thing I learned was: Grab the cards you want, and improve your deck during the game. Once you understand the cards you grant yourself give you repeated benefits, it becomes much much easier. This insight allowed me to start thinking about how to gain points to win. Why this is never explained anywhere is strange, or it might have been so obvious I missed it.

The only complaint I have is the games taking so long.

Well, I've understood the game after trying it out for about half a dozen matches, but I agree that it's not really intuitive and the tutorial isn't very helpful either. You can't even see in detail what your opponent does and learn by watching, because the cards are laid down too fast and there is no mouse-over for your opponent's cards, so you can't read what effects and functions they have. Of course, after a while you have memorized them after using them yourself, then you understand what exactly your opponent is doing and why, but when you've just started, you don't have a clue at all what exactly is even happening. Even after playing the tutorial, which normally shouldn't leave you even more confused.

I'm really wondering why some simple and basic info isn't given. It wouldn't be hard to include in the tutorial that gold (yellow points) expire after each turn if unused, while power (red points) turn to prestige (blue points) at the end of the turn and when you've amassed 40 blue points, you've won. Also, a short description what you may do with those points would be helpful. Using gold (yellow points) to buy cards from the middle row seems logical, but there's no explanation in the tutorial what you can use the red points for (except for collecting them so they convert into blue points for your victory count, but I've found out later that they have more purposes). I know there are written tutorials on the internet now, mostly by official ESO partners, but the rules of a game should be explained in the game itself, you shouldn't be forced to search the internet for them.

Generally, the game doesn't seem that entertaining of exciting to me. It feels more like doing chores - checking the "wishlists" of the patrons and then "shopping" the right cards for them. Every match was the same so far: Paying one gold to turn the purple patron, then buying a card with a gold value to turn the yellow patron, next, buying an actor card to turn the red one, and at last waiting for the enemy to have an actor card to turn the blue patron. Or, alternatively, you try to buy cards that give you a lot of red points, so they change to blue points and you win by getting 40 of those. Of course you can get a bit more tactical, but so far it seems quite monotonous. I don't even really have to care for what the opponent does, as long as he's not getting blue points much faster than me. It may get a bit more complex on higher levels, I'll see, but at the moment it feels just bland.

It's not really motivating, especially if you keep in mind that a match takes at least 20 minutes (even longer in the beginning, I would say, because you still have to read what each single card does), and then you don't even get that interesting rewards. So, for the minimum reward for the daily quest you get from the Khajiit woman in Gonfalon, you have to win one match. Which takes 20-30 minutes minimum - if you win. If not, you may try again, and if you win the 2nd or 3rd match, you've spent between and hour or even one and a half hours to finish that single quest (you get 1 reward box for it, including crafting materials or a blue recipe or furniture plan - not neccessarily new ones, even). Then, you get an "extra reward" if you win not only one match, but 3. Which takes at minimum 1 to 1,5 hours, if you succeed in each one immediately... And that "extra reward" which sounded like something extremely rare and special was nothing more that you got 3 reward boxed instead of 1. The items inside the boxes were the usual ones, nothing special. It's not really rewarding if you consider how much time those matches take; in one hour, you can definitively get more materials, recipes and furniture plans (especially if you go treasure chest hunting with Mirri) by any other activity.

Lugaldu wrote: »

Oh, I've won a few "novice" games - but I have no idea why. This game is in no way self-explanatory, after the tutorial or even 10 rounds you are just as "clever" as before. And one round takes way too long imho.

I won ONCE with my second main toon, and like you I don't have a faint idea how. Since I won this with one character and finished the quest. I try the TT quest with my main character and so far I played 13 times (!!!!) and LOST ALL!

I tried to watch how the NPC's AI plays, and simply can't figure out how it can keep showing new cards without buying from the table.

It's very frustrating, convoluted, horribly explained. I play POKER way better than this card game.

I really want to like and play the game, but so far ZOS is making very difficult to me.

Reverb wrote: »

Someone on Reddit asked for a dumbed down explanation of the card game (ELI5) and the top response was las long as a detailed dungeon walkthrough.

While they initially asked about power itself, there was no easy way to explain it and not leave out too much details without going into the game mechanics. I tried to cover some of basic strategies there as well, which is why the post got so long.

Michae wrote: »

The matches with other players can be harder as some people apparently got the gist of it faster than me, but still I know what's going on and why I'm losing.

Definitely Though deck builders aren't a new concept, people (myself included) already had quite a bit of experience with how these type of games work.

Easiest strategy for winning against novice AI is to rush the 4 patrons. The AI only activates the Hlaalu patron and only in some very specific cases, so it's mostly up to you to setup a Pelin patron (buying an agent and having 2 power) and forcing the AI to buy an agent of their own so you can knock it out with the Psijic patron. Of course, some patron picks can make the whole thing a lot easier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRzkrwivSeI

I finally won an AI match, mainly because I managed to use several Youtube tutorials and other explanations and after lose so many games.

I won by "knock out". I was able to get all Patrons' favor. In fact, I was losing again -- shamefully - but I tried to use the combos to "gain" favors. Eventually I got lucky and made a combo for the last Patron in my favor.

I agree with @Hvíthákarl . ZOS must give us an optional, interactive and extended tutorial of all strategies and ways to won.

TT has a lot of potential and is rewarding but it need more work on straightforward support for new player. If ZOS don't do it, I again say that the number of ESO players interested in the game will be very low.

Reverb wrote: »

I meant no criticism of your explanation, which was fantastic. I meant only that the card game is far more complex and time consuming than I’m interested in as a mini game.

I guess that's the issue then - treating it like a mini game. Deck builders I've played before spent more time explaining the rules + some of the strategies (though ultimately still being 10-15 min read), but they're by no means a mini game.

It makes sense that for a Chapter, we would get something more than a "mini game", something more complex - but I agree that it's not presented well for newcomers and I am starting to feel like it is consuming a bit too much time to be just a "short, casual tavern game" that they seemed to want to go for. I fear that, after a while, there will be very few people who will enjoy 20-30 minute competitive matches, as part of their daily ESO routine.