Board Game Arena - Contribucións do/a usuario/a [gl]

Tips lostcities

2019-02-14T06:48:23Z

Nandblock:

If you have handshake cards at the beginning and even one card in that suit, play the handshake and hope to draw more in the suit. To score well in this game you must invest substantially in a venture, without knowing in advance that you will draw the right cards in the right order. It is better to have some suits that take a loss (which you try to minimize) so that you can focus on making other suits pay off.

There is no need to attempt all 5 expeditions; usually 4 is sufficient (and it's likely one will score poorly or negatively).

'''Drawing from the deck is vital.''' Obviously, if a good card is available among the discards, or you need to delay the endgame, take a discarded card. But otherwise, take from the deck, because either it's a card that may benefit you, a card you can discard to buy time, or the card your opponent is waiting for.

It's often more constructive to hold on to a suit your opponent is trying to complete than to try completing it yourself!

Do not be afraid to lose a small amount of points in a suit if it allows you to stall and continue drawing from the deck. Effective stalling (while you wait for the cards you really need) is the heart of this game.

Keep in mind that if you leave a large gap in a suit, this helps your opponent: if you play Blue 7 after Blue 3, this means that your opponent may safely ditch Blue 4, 5, 6. Forcing them to hang on to cards for a long duration is important.

Tips madeira

2019-02-05T22:57:20Z

Nandblock: /* Crown Requests */

== Worker Placement ==
You need at least one worker in Regions 2 and 3 most of the time, as the building actions here are vital to winning; and in the forest. Whether you wish to keep one or more workers in Region 1 will depend in part on how heavily you plan to invest in colonists, since it has only one building to activate.

'''Region 1:'''
:''Alfândega (Customs)'': By having colonists, you save yourself having to take harvest actions; in addition, it is a steady source of PP if you have ships in the colonies. This strategy works well with the Expeditions Crown Request, but requires that you have fewer workers in the fields or cities, so try to pick up compensating guild favors (Engineer, Diplomat).

'''Region 2:'''
:''Moinho (Mill)'': A reliable end-of-round source of 5 bread, if you have 3 workers in this region.
:''Capitania (Captaincy)'': The main way to move workers into the city. If you have 3 workers in the region, you can earn an easy 15 points over 5 rounds.

'''Region 3:'''
:''Casa da Coroa (Guild Palace)'': Important once you have accumulated guild favours.
:''Fortaleza (Watch Tower)'': The most powerful building on the board; it is a rare round that you will not want to place a guild die here. Placing one or two workers in the City Watch accomplishes 3 things simultaneously: discarding pirates, enabling you to use pirate die, and scoring 4 VPs if you have a majority in the Honor phase.

== Getting and Losing Pirates ==
There are two main approaches to pirates: (1) try to avoid having any by game-end (thus handing your opponent a large point penalty if they did not discard their own pirates); (2) try to score so much without paying building/maintenance costs that the 16-point penalty for having most pirates is of little concern. (Try to avoid the extra penalty for having more than 20 pirates, in any case.)

It is quite possible to discard all pirates by game-end. To play optimally, however, you will need to take pirates in opening rounds in order to conserve money, bread or wood, then discard them later. It is rarely possible to achieve much in the game while paying everything as you go.

The main way of discarding pirates is placing workers in the City Watch, via Fortaleza or other means (Scout, the 3rd passing favour, the King's favour). All these actions discard 3 pirates (or 6 if you activate Fortaleza's stronger ability). Therefore, as you approach the endgame, make sure you have an even multiple of 3 pirates. (Constable allows you to discard half your pirates; it is the only exception to the rule of 3. If you are going for a pirate-heavy strategy, grab this favour.)

Putting a guild die on Fortaleza (if you have workers in Region 3) lets you skip paying for earlier building actions, then discard the resulting pirates at Fortaleza: an efficient way to conserve money if you don't need some earlier building actions.

== Picking Up Points Along the Way ==
It is important to pick up a few points every round, not just rounds 1/3/5. There are 3 buildings that potentially give you points, one per region: 4 points for majority in the watch; 1 point per ship for sending a worker to a colony; 1 or 3 points for the cities. Those points will stack up across 5 rounds, if you can consistently snag one or two of these per round. There are also a few guild favours that help, notably the Scout and Lady (plus passing areas II and III, plus some King's Favors).

== Wood and Bread ==
Never start a round without bread, as you need it to modify dice. Take a few pirates if necessary to hang on to some bread.

Never discard wood in the first few rounds of the game when maintaining your ships: take a few pirates instead. It is simply too precious to waste, as you need it for guild favors. Unlike bread, small quantities of wood may be purchased as long as you have access, so make sure you have enough reals on hand to make up the difference (or use the Windmill).

== The Windmill ==
Do not neglect to use the Windmill to trade goods, gain bread, etc. Whenever you can, especially early in the game, move up the Windmill to conserve bread. (The Miller guild favour is especially useful for this.)

== Guild Favors ==
Obtaining these is crucial to your game: do not neglect to collect and use them. Let them shape your strategy--for instance, if you get Diplomat or Engineer, you can leave more workers in the colonies while still being able to take powerful building actions or make decent harvests. If you get Lord, you'll be able to save money on building actions, so Wealth of Nations becomes easy to fulfill.

== Passing ==
More actions is not necessarily better: try to pass early, once you've completed all actions you absolutely must do. Unless you urgently need an action lower on the passing column, grab as high a spot as possible. Consider taking the 2 reals to guarantee first pick of dice, request, and guild to unflip.

== Crown Requests ==
When selecting crown requests, consider whether they work well together, what round you will fulfill them in, and what requests will be left unclaimed for future rounds. In general, avoid ending up with multiple copies of the same request in Round 5, as the 2nd copy will usually score little or nothing; the exception is Wealth of Nations if you're rolling in cash.

: ''Urbanization'' (city workers) is the most useful request, in Round 1 especially, as you are guaranteed to score some points with no effort, and scoring 12 or 15 points is relatively easy.

: ''Wealth of the Nations'' (money) is the most flexible and easiest to fulfill. However, keep in mind that in Round 5 it effectively nets only 12 points maximum (since 15 reals = 3 points in final scoring). Nonetheless, it is handy in later rounds because unlike all other requests, duplicates are easy to fulfill for a full 15 points, as long as you have a good source of money.

: ''Influence of the Guilds'' can yield 15 or 20 points in Rounds 3 and 5, the highest potential return on a single request.

: ''Market Routes'' and ''Expeditions'' both score up to 18 points. Avoid having to fulfill them simultaneously in Rounds 3 and 5; the wood/money upkeep on 6 ships simultaneously in play is onerous, and in Round 5 scoring well on both of them will require enormous quantities of wine.

It is helpful to have complementary requests in hand: Market Routes + Wealth of the Nations (trade routes get you money); Influence of the Guilds + Urbanization (claiming Guild favours clears space for urbanization).

== Endgame ==
Keep in mind that you need to marshal your resources carefully in endgame--hopefully by this point you have an engine for making money while also discarding pirates. Depending on your setup, you want a max of 3 or 6 pirates by the time you reach Fortaleza. Keep in mind that if you don't have enough wood and bread on hand at game-end, you will take a lot of last-minute pirates: a small shortfall in wood is not fatal (as you can pay for it), but a shortfall in bread cannot be made up, so make sure your position on the windmill + available bread is sufficient. (Also: start moving workers off the board to conserve bread in the last round: use Watch dice, or obtain a Watch majority and remove a worker for 4 PP).

Tips madeira

2019-01-31T19:56:06Z

Nandblock: /* Crown Requests */

== Worker Placement ==
You need at least one worker in Regions 2 and 3 most of the time, as the building actions here are vital to winning; and in the forest. Whether you wish to keep one or more workers in Region 1 will depend in part on how heavily you plan to invest in colonists, since it has only one building to activate.

'''Region 1:'''
:''Alfândega (Customs)'': By having colonists, you save yourself having to take harvest actions; in addition, it is a steady source of PP if you have ships in the colonies. This strategy works well with the Expeditions Crown Request, but requires that you have fewer workers in the fields or cities, so try to pick up compensating guild favors (Engineer, Diplomat).

'''Region 2:'''
:''Moinho (Mill)'': A reliable end-of-round source of 5 bread, if you have 3 workers in this region.
:''Capitania (Captaincy)'': The main way to move workers into the city. If you have 3 workers in the region, you can earn an easy 15 points over 5 rounds.

'''Region 3:'''
:''Casa da Coroa (Guild Palace)'': Important once you have accumulated guild favours.
:''Fortaleza (Watch Tower)'': The most powerful building on the board; it is a rare round that you will not want to place a guild die here. Placing one or two workers in the City Watch accomplishes 3 things simultaneously: discarding pirates, enabling you to use pirate die, and scoring 4 VPs if you have a majority in the Honor phase.

== Getting and Losing Pirates ==
There are two main approaches to pirates: (1) try to avoid having any by game-end (thus handing your opponent a large point penalty if they did not discard their own pirates); (2) try to score so much without paying building/maintenance costs that the 16-point penalty for having most pirates is of little concern. (Try to avoid the extra penalty for having more than 20 pirates, in any case.)

It is quite possible to discard all pirates by game-end. To play optimally, however, you will need to take pirates in opening rounds in order to conserve money, bread or wood, then discard them later. It is rarely possible to achieve much in the game while paying everything as you go.

The main way of discarding pirates is placing workers in the City Watch, via Fortaleza or other means (Scout, the 3rd passing favour, the King's favour). All these actions discard 3 pirates (or 6 if you activate Fortaleza's stronger ability). Therefore, as you approach the endgame, make sure you have an even multiple of 3 pirates. (Constable allows you to discard half your pirates; it is the only exception to the rule of 3. If you are going for a pirate-heavy strategy, grab this favour.)

Putting a guild die on Fortaleza (if you have workers in Region 3) lets you skip paying for earlier building actions, then discard the resulting pirates at Fortaleza: an efficient way to conserve money if you don't need some earlier building actions.

== Picking Up Points Along the Way ==
It is important to pick up a few points every round, not just rounds 1/3/5. There are 3 buildings that potentially give you points, one per region: 4 points for majority in the watch; 1 point per ship for sending a worker to a colony; 1 or 3 points for the cities. Those points will stack up across 5 rounds, if you can consistently snag one or two of these per round. There are also a few guild favours that help, notably the Scout and Lady (plus passing areas II and III, plus some King's Favors).

== Wood and Bread ==
Never start a round without bread, as you need it to modify dice. Take a few pirates if necessary to hang on to some bread.

Never discard wood in the first few rounds of the game when maintaining your ships: take a few pirates instead. It is simply too precious to waste, as you need it for guild favors. Unlike bread, small quantities of wood may be purchased as long as you have access, so make sure you have enough reals on hand to make up the difference (or use the Windmill).

== The Windmill ==
Do not neglect to use the Windmill to trade goods, gain bread, etc. Whenever you can, especially early in the game, move up the Windmill to conserve bread. (The Miller guild favour is especially useful for this.)

== Guild Favors ==
Obtaining these is crucial to your game: do not neglect to collect and use them. Let them shape your strategy--for instance, if you get Diplomat or Engineer, you can leave more workers in the colonies while still being able to take powerful building actions or make decent harvests. If you get Lord, you'll be able to save money on building actions, so Wealth of Nations becomes easy to fulfill.

== Passing ==
More actions is not necessarily better: try to pass early, once you've completed all actions you absolutely must do. Unless you urgently need an action lower on the passing column, grab as high a spot as possible. Consider taking the 2 reals to guarantee first pick of dice, request, and guild to unflip.

== Crown Requests ==
When selecting crown requests, consider whether they work well together, what round you will fulfill them in, and what requests will be left unclaimed for future rounds. In general, avoid ending up with multiple copies of the same request in Round 5, as the 2nd copy will usually score little or nothing; the exception is Wealth of Nations if you're rolling in cash.

: ''Urbanization'' (city workers) is the most useful request, in Round 1 especially, as you are guaranteed to score some points with no effort, and scoring 12 or 15 points is relatively easy.

: ''Wealth of the Nations'' (money) is easy to fulfill, but keep in mind in Round 5 it effectively nets only 12 points maximum (since 15 reals = 3 points in final scoring). However, it is handy in later rounds because unlike all other requests, duplicates are easy to fulfill for a full 15 points, as long as you have a good source of money.

: ''Influence of the Guilds'' can yield 15 or 20 points in Rounds 3 and 5, the highest potential return on a single request.

: ''Market Routes'' and ''Expeditions'' both score up to 18 points. Avoid having to fulfill them simultaneously in Rounds 3 and 5; the wood/money upkeep on 6 ships simultaneously in play is onerous, and in Round 5 scoring well on both of them will require enormous quantities of wine.

It is helpful to have complementary requests in hand: Market Routes + Wealth of the Nations (trade routes get you money); Influence of the Guilds + Urbanization (claiming Guild favours clears space for urbanization).

== Endgame ==
Keep in mind that you need to marshal your resources carefully in endgame--hopefully by this point you have an engine for making money while also discarding pirates. Depending on your setup, you want a max of 3 or 6 pirates by the time you reach Fortaleza. Keep in mind that if you don't have enough wood and bread on hand at game-end, you will take a lot of last-minute pirates: a small shortfall in wood is not fatal (as you can pay for it), but a shortfall in bread cannot be made up, so make sure your position on the windmill + available bread is sufficient. (Also: start moving workers off the board to conserve bread in the last round: use Watch dice, or obtain a Watch majority and remove a worker for 4 PP).

2017-06-09T18:04:02Z

Nandblock: /* Getting and Losing Pirates */

Tips madeira

2017-06-09T18:01:34Z

Nandblock: /* Worker Placement */

Tips madeira

2017-03-15T17:37:26Z

Nandblock: /* Getting and Losing Pirates */

== Worker Placement ==
You need at least one worker in Regions 2 and 3 most of the time, as the building actions here are vital to winning; and in the forest. Region 1 is less useful, since it has only one building to activate, unless your strategy depends heavily on colonists--in which case, move them there as soon as possible to maximize the number of rounds they can produce.

'''Region 1:'''
:''Alfândega (Customs)'': If you have workers in Region 1 this building action can be used to earn an extra PP for each of the player's ships in a particular colony, in addition to the resources gained during Phase D for each colonist. This strategy works well with the Expeditions Crown Request.

'''Region 2:'''
:''Moinho (Mill)'': A reliable end-of-round source of 5 bread, if you have 3 workers in this region.
:''Capitania (Captaincy)'': The main way to move workers into the city. If you have 3 workers in the region, you can earn an easy 15 points over 5 rounds.

'''Region 3:'''
:''Casa da Coroa (Guild Palace)'': Important once you have accumulated guild favours.
:''Fortaleza (Watch Tower)'': The most powerful building on the board; it is a rare round that you will not want to place a guild die here. Placing one or two workers in the City Watch accomplishes 3 things simultaneously: discarding pirates, enabling you to use pirate die, and scoring 4 VPs if you have a majority in the Honor phase.

== Getting and Losing Pirates ==

There are two main approaches to pirates: (1) try to avoid having any by game-end (thus handing your opponent a potential 16 or 8 point penalty if they did not discard their pirates); (2) try to score so much without paying building/maintenance costs that the 16-point penalty for having most pirates is of little concern. (Try to avoid the extra penalty for having more than 20 pirates, in any case.)

It is quite possible to discard all pirates by game-end. To play optimally, however, you will need to take pirates in opening rounds in order to conserve money, bread or wood, then discard them later.

The main way of discarding pirates is placing workers in the City Watch, via Fortaleza or other means (Scout, the 3rd passing favour, the King's favour). All these actions discard 3 pirates (or 6 if you activate Fortaleza's stronger ability). Therefore, especially as you approach the endgame, make sure you have an even multiple of 3 pirates. (Constable allows you to discard half your pirates; it is the only exception to the rule of 3. If you are going for a pirate-heavy strategy, grab this favour.)

Putting a guild die on Fortaleza (if you have workers in Region 3) lets you skip paying for earlier building actions, then discard the resulting pirates at Fortaleza: a very efficient way to conserve money if you don't need the earlier building actions.

== Bread ==
Never start a round without bread, as you need it to modify dice. Take a few pirates if necessary to hang on to some bread.

== The Windmill ==
Do not neglect to use the Windmill to trade goods, gain bread, etc. Whenever you can, especially early in the game, move up the Windmill to conserve bread. (The Miller guild favour is especially useful for this.)

== Passing ==
More actions is not necessarily better: try to pass early, once you've completed all actions you absolutely must do. Unless you urgently need an action lower on the passing column, grab as high a spot as possible. Consider taking the 2 reals to guarantee first pick of dice, request, and guild to unflip.

== Crown Requests ==
When selecting crown requests, consider whether they work well together, what round you will fulfill them in, and what requests will be left unclaimed for future rounds. In general you want to avoid ending up with multiple copies of the same request in Round 5, as the 2nd copy will usually score little or nothing.

: ''Urbanization'' (city workers) is the most useful request, in Round 1 especially, as you are guaranteed to score some points with no effort, and scoring 12 or 15 is relatively easy.

: ''Wealth of the Nations'' (money) is poor in Rounds 1 and 3, but better in Round 5; money is too useful before then to waste on it. At game end it effectively nets only 12 points maximum (since 15 reals = 3 points), the lowest maximum of all the requests.

: ''Influence of the Guilds'' can yield 15 or 20 points in Rounds 3 and 5, the highest potential return on a single request.

: ''Market Routes'' and ''Expeditions'' both score up to 18 points. But avoid having to fulfill them simultaneously in Round 3 or 5; the wood/money upkeep on 6 ships simultaneously in play is onerous.

It is helpful to have complementary requests in hand: Market Routes + Wealth of the Nations (trade routes get you money); Influence of the Guilds + Urbanization (claiming Guild favours clears space for urbanization).

Tips madeira

2017-03-15T17:27:52Z

Nandblock: /* Worker Placement */

== Worker Placement ==
You need at least one worker in Regions 2 and 3 most of the time, as the building actions here are vital to winning; and in the forest. Region 1 is less useful, since it has only one building to activate, unless your strategy depends heavily on colonists--in which case, move them there as soon as possible to maximize the number of rounds they can produce.

'''Region 1:'''
:''Alfândega (Customs)'': If you have workers in Region 1 this building action can be used to earn an extra PP for each of the player's ships in a particular colony, in addition to the resources gained during Phase D for each colonist. This strategy works well with the Expeditions Crown Request.

'''Region 2:'''
:''Moinho (Mill)'': A reliable end-of-round source of 5 bread, if you have 3 workers in this region.
:''Capitania (Captaincy)'': The main way to move workers into the city. If you have 3 workers in the region, you can earn an easy 15 points over 5 rounds.

'''Region 3:'''
:''Casa da Coroa (Guild Palace)'': Important once you have accumulated guild favours.
:''Fortaleza (Watch Tower)'': The most powerful building on the board; it is a rare round that you will not want to place a guild die here. Placing one or two workers in the City Watch accomplishes 3 things simultaneously: discarding pirates, enabling you to use pirate die, and scoring 4 VPs if you have a majority in the Honor phase.

== Getting and Losing Pirates ==
Plan to have no pirates at game end: otherwise, the potential 16-VP swing may cost you the game. To play optimally, however, you will need to take pirates in order to conserve money, bread or wood, then discard them later. That said, try not to leave yourself with more than 6 pirates at the end of a round.

The main way of discarding pirates is placing workers in the City Watch, via Fortaleza or other means (Scout, the 3rd passing favour, the King's favour). All these actions discard 3 pirates (or 6 if you activate Fortaleza's stronger ability). Therefore, especially as you approach the endgame, make sure you have an even multiple of 3 pirates. (Constable allows you to discard half your pirates; it is the only exception to the rule of 3.)

Putting a guild die on Fortaleza (if you have workers in Region 3) lets you skip paying for an earlier building action, then discard the resulting pirates at Fortaleza: a very efficient way to conserve money.

== Bread ==
Never start a round without bread, as you need it to modify dice. Take a few pirates if necessary to hang on to some bread.

== The Windmill ==
Do not neglect to use the Windmill to trade goods, gain bread, etc. Whenever you can, especially early in the game, move up the Windmill to conserve bread. (The Miller guild favour is especially useful for this.)

== Passing ==
More actions is not necessarily better: try to pass early, once you've completed all actions you absolutely must do. Unless you urgently need an action lower on the passing column, grab as high a spot as possible. Consider taking the 2 reals to guarantee first pick of dice, request, and guild to unflip.

== Crown Requests ==
When selecting crown requests, consider whether they work well together, what round you will fulfill them in, and what requests will be left unclaimed for future rounds. In general you want to avoid ending up with multiple copies of the same request in Round 5, as the 2nd copy will usually score little or nothing.

: ''Urbanization'' (city workers) is the most useful request, in Round 1 especially, as you are guaranteed to score some points with no effort, and scoring 12 or 15 is relatively easy.

: ''Wealth of the Nations'' (money) is poor in Rounds 1 and 3, but better in Round 5; money is too useful before then to waste on it. At game end it effectively nets only 12 points maximum (since 15 reals = 3 points), the lowest maximum of all the requests.

: ''Influence of the Guilds'' can yield 15 or 20 points in Rounds 3 and 5, the highest potential return on a single request.

: ''Market Routes'' and ''Expeditions'' both score up to 18 points. But avoid having to fulfill them simultaneously in Round 3 or 5; the wood/money upkeep on 6 ships simultaneously in play is onerous.

It is helpful to have complementary requests in hand: Market Routes + Wealth of the Nations (trade routes get you money); Influence of the Guilds + Urbanization (claiming Guild favours clears space for urbanization).

Tips tashkalar

2017-02-18T00:37:42Z

Nandblock: /* High Form Strategy */

== High Form Strategy ==

'''1) Board Management'''

''Keep your piece-count down.'' If a piece of your own is not helping your position and you have a chance to destroy it, do so rather than destroying an enemy piece--this puts you rather than them closer to a flare. If you're ahead in the game and your piece count is high, consider discarding cards or summoning a being on top of your own piece (oversummoning) to avoid placing another piece on the board.

''Keep your pieces together.'' If your position is dispersed, those pieces will add to your piece-count, making it impossible to get a life-saving flare while being useless for summoning or claiming tasks.

''Place pieces on or around coloured squares by preference.'' Even if there's no coloured summoning/conquest task on the board, one will eventually pop up. (Caveat: do not casually leave pieces on red squares if you are playing against Highland and they haven't yet played Blood Shaman.)

''Do not let your opponent set up camp far away from you.'' Make sure you are always able to destroy a piece or two of theirs.

'''2) Hand Management'''

''Play or discard cards rather than letting them go stale.'' Don't grow too attached to a card unless you're absolutely sure you need to use it soon to accomplish a task. If it's not helping you, get rid of it by summoning it, even if you can't trigger its effects, or discarding it. The smaller your deck, the more precise your endgame play will be, as you will know with certainty what you will draw; and if you cannot score 9 points, you want to be the person who triggers the endgame by running out of cards. -- By discarding you can also get rid of a flare that is hard to trigger, or Legends that are not useful.

''Anticipate key cards in your deck.'' Don't just set up existing patterns in your hand (though do that too!); if you know a useful card is in your deck, try to keep a few pieces on the board that will help you achieve that pattern. It might be the next card you draw. (E.g. if you have the Highland deck, try to maintain a few pieces at the corners of a green square in anticipation of Ritual Master, or a bow-shape for Warlord / Eagle Lord.) When you're just starting out, it is impossible to remember all the cards, but be aware of the most powerful and disruptive ones: Hypnotist and Bomb (North/South Empire); Everfrost Sentinel; Blood Shaman and Ritual Master (Highland); Forest Ancient (Sylvan); and Leviathan and Time Elemental (Legends).

''Track the cards.'' If you are playing a turn-based game, use the Notes feature of BGA to keep track of both your cards and your opponent's.

''Learn the decks and Legendary Beings.'' To reiterate: as a beginner, ''do not worry about memorizing every single card!'' But eventually you will need to be able to recognize patterns that your opponent is trying to form, and know what's coming up in your own deck that might be useful.

'''3) Flares'''

''Be wary of flares.'' A typical beginner's mistake iis to assume that accumulating more pieces than your opponent, and destroying many of your opponent's pieces, is a good idea. But '''this approach will usually lose the game,''' because it gives an opponent the opportunity to flare every turn. Extra actions are extremely valuable in Tash-Kalar--often they are the deciding factor in claiming a task or totally reshaping the board--so don't let your opponent get flares easily. If you are ahead in piece-count, try to stay ahead by a maximum of 2 heroic pieces and 3 pieces in total--this guarantees that only one flare (the 2/5 one) is playable. If you must exceed that limit, avoid triggering top and bottom flares at once. (The upper number on flares ranges from 2 to 5; the lower number from 4 to 6.)

''Play your flare!'' If you can play it, the vast majority of the time you should. This is true even if it does nothing helpful--in that case, play it simply to discard it and get a more useful one in return.

'''4) Tasks'''

''Prioritize 1- and 2-point tasks, not 3-pointers and Legends.'' In particular, Side Chain and Corner Chain are very difficult to achieve without an exorbitant cost. Legends are good but since the 1 point they give is no better than an easily achievable 1-point task, and can be taken away from you, they should not be a major priority unless they help accomplish a task. You need to claim very easy tasks before your opponent does, as they stack up quickly--in particular, never leave End of Legends, Heroic Destruction or Rainbow Domination unclaimed for long, as they are the easiest 2-point tasks to claim.

'''5) Opening Moves'''

In general (though this advice is dependent on your initial draw and the first tasks available), place your first pieces near the centre but somewhat off-centre, and in the vicinity of coloured squares. This maximizes control of the board, positional flexibility, and ability to engage in direct conflict or move away from it. If your hand is full of 2- and 3-piece patterns, being right next to your opponent's pieces is good, as you will be able to destroy their pieces easily. If it's full of 4- and 5-piece patterns, keep more distance at first.

'''6) Patience'''

Tash-Kalar games tend to have a dramatic mid-game "bounce": it is very hard to hang on to an early lead, because the player in the lead will have typically grabbed all the tasks they can easily grab, used their best cards, and be on the verge of giving up flares. If you are behind, even by a substantial number of points, do not give in easily, especially since you will have a more precise sense of what's in your deck and your opponent's and can plan accordingly. If you are ahead, be wary: start reducing your piece-count, and if you have a strong lead, summon (or discard) Beings as much as possible to hasten the endgame.

== Cards ==

Here is a full list of all cards in Tash-Kalar's BGA implementation (numbers denote the pieces in the pattern):

'''IMPERIAL'''
* 2: Messenger, Swordmaster, Bomb
* 3: Chronicler, Herald, High Priestess, Summoner, Cannon, Assassin
* 4: Gryphon Rider, Knight, Master of Intrigue, Cavalry Captain, Infantry Captain, Champion, Time Mage, Gun Tower, Hypnotist

'''SYLVAN'''
* 2: Sapling, Kiskin Farseeders, Forest Wardens
* 3: Naiad, Charging Buck, Kiskin Spirit, Dryad, Forest Mystic, Sylvan Princess, Woodland Druid
* 4: Unicorn, Kiskin Boughrunner, Kiskin Leafsplitter, Centaur Spearman, Forest Ancient, Centaur Chieftain, Sylvan Queen, Tree Shepherd

'''HIGHLAND'''
* 2: Ritual Keeper, Wild Eagle, Clan Axeman
* 3: Dire Wolf, Clan Healer, Clan Guardian, Ritual Master, Hungry Bear
* 4: Wolf Rider, Mountain Troll, Hill Giant, Eagle Lord, War Summoner, War Drummer, Legend Slayer, Blood Shaman, Werewolf
* 5: Warlord

'''EVERFROST'''
* 2: Snow Fox, Crystal Mirror, Crystal Grower
* 3: Ice Princess, Royal Reindeer, Frostweave Illusionist, Frostweave Summoner, Frost Imp, Frozen Chest
* 4: Winter Whisperer, Glacier Giant, Ice Queen, Ice Wyvern, Everfrost Sentinel, Deathbringer, War Sled, Polar Bear, Snow Monster

'''LEGENDS'''
* Time Elemental, Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, Storm Elemental, Leviathan, Hell Bull, Angel of Death, Two-Headed Dragon, Fire Dragon, Titan, Bone Catapult

Conversa:Gamehelpincangold

2017-02-15T20:09:44Z

Nandblock: Created page with "Is Incan Gold / Diamant even on BGA? Or is this a help page for a game in the process of adaptation for BGA? --nandblock"

Is Incan Gold / Diamant even on BGA? Or is this a help page for a game in the process of adaptation for BGA? --nandblock

Conversa:Tips nippon

2017-02-15T20:08:54Z

Nandblock: Created page with "I felt the original version of the page missed out on a lot of important things (it just said it was an area control game and you should place all your tiles) so I scrapped it..."

I felt the original version of the page missed out on a lot of important things (it just said it was an area control game and you should place all your tiles) so I scrapped it and started fresh. --nandblock

Tips nippon

2017-02-15T19:38:06Z

Nandblock:

This is a game about efficiency, area control, and timing. Some key points:

In the long run it is more important to score in as many regions as possible, during as many of the 3 scoring rounds as possible, than it is to come in first in scoring any given region. Pay close attention to the advance of the scoring marker, and try to make sure that scoring triggers at a moment of advantage to you (i.e. after you have placed tiles down but before your opponents can do so).

When taking actions in the early game, concentrate on two worker colours to keep your post-consolidation costs down. Once you have risen on the money track (by filling contracts, typically), you are freer to take a third or fourth colour.

Do not concentrate on the knowledge track; it is useful to increase it to 2, but otherwise use blueprints to make up shortfalls. Every effort should be taken to increase the coal track and money track, however.

Several factories are highly desirable and should be acquired whenever possible:

* The silk factory immediately giving 5000 yen. If you're the first player, a standard opening is to buy this, and use the resulting money for a double machinery upgrade on the next turn.
* The paper factory yielding 2 blueprints: this will speed your acquisition of a second factory
* The factories immediately giving 2 ships, 2 trains, 2 steps on the coal track, and especially 2 machinery upgrades.

In general, avoid acquiring two factories of the same level until the endgame: it's more important to focus on exploiting the ones you've got. Tailor your acquisitions to the strengths of each region--if a particular region has two cities with the same need, that is a strong reason to focus on that type of factory. Upgrade your factories as rapidly and efficiently as possible.

When placing tiles in a local market, give some thought to whether to use all your resources: it is sometimes good to place a lower value tile if it allows you to hang on to one or two cubes for a more powerful export action, or for later placement in another region. Placing lower-valued tiles also allows you more flexibility, as you can replace them later and gain the region bonus repeatedly in the process. You ultimately want to place your high-valued tiles to gain a stranglehold on multiple regions, of course, but don't discount the power of flooding a region with multiple smaller values which your opponents will have to waste time and resources on to dislodge.

When gaining bonuses, both a rushing strategy (going 3 or 4 turns before consolidation) and a long-term strategy (5-6 turns) can work. Make sure you drop a 5x bonus on the spot for regional coverage--since you will want to have a toehold in all 4 regions, this is a guaranteed 20 points.

Tips nippon

2017-02-15T19:36:28Z

Nandblock:

This is a game about efficiency, area control, and timing. Some key points:

In the long run it is more important to score in as many regions as possible, during as many of the 3 scoring rounds as possible, than it is to come in first in scoring any given region. Pay close attention to the advance of the scoring marker, and try to make sure that scoring triggers at a moment of advantage to you (i.e. after you have placed tiles down but before your opponents can do so).

When taking actions in the early game, concentrate on two worker colours to keep your post-consolidation costs down. Once you have risen on the money track (by filling contracts, typically), you are freer to take a third or fourth colour.

Do not concentrate on the knowledge track; it is useful to increase it to 2, but otherwise use blueprints to make up shortfalls. Every effort should be taken to increase the coal track and money track, however.

Several factories are highly desirable and should be acquired whenever possible:

- The silk factory immediately giving 5000 yen. If you're the first player, a standard opening is to buy this, and use the resulting money for a double machinery upgrade on the next turn.
- The paper factory yielding 2 blueprints: this will speed your acquisition of a second factory
- The factories immediately giving 2 ships, 2 trains, 2 steps on the coal track, and especially 2 machinery upgrades.

In general, avoid acquiring two factories of the same level until the endgame: it's more important to focus on exploiting the ones you've got. Tailor your acquisitions to the strengths of each region--if a particular region has two cities with the same need, that is a strong reason to focus on that type of factory. Upgrade your factories as rapidly and efficiently as possible.

When placing tiles in a local market, give some thought to whether to use all your resources: it is sometimes good to place a lower value tile if it allows you to hang on to one or two cubes for a more powerful export action, or for later placement in another region. Placing lower-valued tiles also allows you more flexibility, as you can replace them later and gain the region bonus repeatedly in the process. You ultimately want to place your high-valued tiles to gain a stranglehold on multiple regions, of course, but don't discount the power of flooding a region with multiple smaller values which your opponents will have to waste time and resources on to dislodge.

When gaining bonuses, both a rushing strategy (going 3 or 4 turns before consolidation) and a long-term strategy (5-6 turns) can work. Make sure you drop a 5x bonus on the spot for regional coverage--since you will want to have a toehold in all 4 regions, this is a guaranteed 20 points.

Tips tashkalar

2017-01-31T03:20:46Z

Nandblock:

Tips tashkalar

2017-01-23T06:37:15Z

Nandblock: /* High Form Strategy */

2016-12-27T23:08:51Z

Nandblock: /* Passing */

== Worker Placement ==
You will need at least one worker in Regions 2 and 3 most of the time, as the building actions here are vital to winning. And you will of course also need a worker in the forest. Ideally you want one worker in every region, so that all character, harvest and building actions can be effectively triggered, but Region 1 is less important, given that it has only one building to activate, unless your strategy depends heavily on workers in the colonies (in which case, move them there as soon as possible to maximize the number of turns they will produce).

Region 2:
:''Moinho'': If you have 3 workers in this region you get 5 bread, just before you need to feed your workers.
:''Capitania'': The main way to move workers into the city. If you have 3 workers in the region over 5 turns you can earn an easy 15 points, also (3 points bonus x 5 turns).

Region 3:
:''Casa da Coroa'': Important once you have accumulated guild favours.
:''Fortaleza'': Places one or two workers in the City Watch: this accomplishes 3 things simultaneously so is the most powerful spot on the board (discards 3 or 6 pirates, gives you the potential to earn 4 points or block someone else from earning 4 points in the Honor phase, and sets you up next turn to use pirate dice for extra actions).

== Getting and Losing Pirates ==
Try to avoid having any pirates at game end: in a 2-player game in particular, the 8- or 16-point swing may cost you the game. To play optimally, however, you frequently need to take pirates in order to conserve money, bread or wood, then discard them later. That said, try not to leave yourself with more than 6 pirates at the end of a round.

The main way of discarding pirates is placing workers in the City Watch, via the Fortaleza building action or other means (Scout, the 3rd passing favour, the King's favour). All of these actions will discard 3 pirates (or 6 if you activate Fortaleza's stronger ability). And when you acquire pirates from not paying for building actions, on average you will receive 3 (1 + the result of rolling one die). Therefore, as you approach the endgame, make sure you have an even multiple of 3 pirates.

(Constable allows you to discard half your pirates; it is the only exception to the rule of 3.)

If you have a worker in Region 3, putting a guild die on Fortaleza means you can skip paying for earlier building actions, and then discard the resulting pirates at Fortaleza. This is a good way to conserve money if there is a building action you don't wish to use.

== Bread ==
Never start a round with no bread, as you will need it to modify dice. It is usually preferable to take a few pirates and hang on to a little bread.

== The Windmill ==
Do not neglect to use it to trade goods, gain bread, etc., if this allows you to accomplish an optimal move. Whenever you have a chance, especially early in the game, move up the windmill to save on bread later. (The Miller guild favour is especially useful for this.)

== Passing ==
More actions is not necessarily better: try to pass early, once you've completed all actions you absolutely ''have'' to do, and unless you urgently need an action lower on the passing column, grab a spot as high up as possible. Consider taking the 2 reals to guarantee first pick of dice, favour, and guild to unflip.

== Crown Requests ==
When selecting crown requests, consider whether they work well together, what round you will fulfill them in, and what requests will be left unclaimed for future rounds.

It is vital to avoid getting stuck with multiple copies of the same request in Round 5, as the 2nd copy will score little or nothing.

: ''Urbanization'' (city workers) is the most useful request, in Round 1 especially, as you are guaranteed to score some points from it with no effort, and scoring 12 or 15 points is relatively easy against unwary opponents.

: ''Wealth of the Nations'' (money) request is poor in Rounds 1 and 3, but better in Round 5; money is too useful before then to waste on it. At game end it effectively scores only a maximum 12 points (as 15 coins would be worth 3 VP at game end).

: ''Influence of the Guilds'' is least valuable in Round 1, but can yield 15 or 20 points in Rounds 3 and 5, the highest potential return on a single request.

: ''Market Routes'' and ''Expeditions'' both score up to 18 VPs, but avoid having to fulfill them simultaneously, especially in Round 3, as the upkeep in wood/money on 6 ships is high, and ships cannot be sent Home.

It is helpful to have complementary requests in hand: Market Routes + Wealth of the Nations (trade routes get you money); Influence of the Guilds + Urbanization (claiming Guild favours clears space for urbanization).