strategy guide?

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zefs
Posts: 1
Joined: 03 November 2022, 07:40

strategy guide?

Post by zefs »

Anyone here know of a good article or guide written about strategies for this game?
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FastMahina
Posts: 11
Joined: 10 December 2020, 19:39

Re: strategy guide?

Post by FastMahina »

This advice is for the 4 player game:

Not that I'm an expert (well I guess I am), but my strategy is to look at the number of coins it takes to get a point. For example, the cards with 7 coins of the same color for 4 pts = 1.75 coins/pt, the 7,3 for 5 pts. and 6 for 3 pts. are both 2 coins/pt. Reserving these cards early is key. Getting supportive cards is great, but not essential. Try to make your supportive cards point cards too. the 5 coin 2 pts. cards, the 4 coin 1 pt. cards, and the 4,2,1 for 2 pts. are good support cards.
Never reserve 3 difficult cards unless you can play 1 of them with the gold coin you receive (or you can insure on your next coin take, i.e. 5 in the coin stack where you need an additional coin. A 2,1,1 draw by your opponents means there is still the one you need) at least one of your in hand cards are playable. Otherwise you can get stuck having no playable card.
Nobles almost never come into play. The exception is when the top row has 5,3,3,3 cards and there are only 1 pt. cards in the second row. I will blind draw the level 3 deck before taking any of those cards.
Stay aware of what your opponents need in the way of coins, and try to build supportive cards if you are in conflict. When your opponent completes his card, the coins in contention may become abundant.
Count to 15 with you victory points. if you are at 11 and there is a great 3 point card, be sure you can get it and another point faster than a 4 point card. Usually you can get 1 card faster than 2, given that you are a turn behind because you have to play 2 cards.
I try to play between 5-7 cards, in 19-22 turns. Each turn you play a card, is a turn you are not gathering coins, and if the key is spending the fewest coins, getting them faster is important. The minimal card played strategy means you win ties.
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Fletcheese
Posts: 157
Joined: 21 March 2022, 03:16

Re: strategy guide?

Post by Fletcheese »

There are some very good players that record their Splendor games and upload to Youtube with commentary. I find those very helpful for learning, maybe you would too.

I play almost exclusively Arena which is 2-player and agree with pretty much all of the advice above for 4-player games. I think the major difference for 2-player is that direct counter-play is much more relevant. You should be tracking all of your opponent's reserved cards, imagining you are them each round, and figuring out what you would want in their position. It is often worth picking the last coin of a color specifically because you know your opponent wants it even if you have no use for it. At any given time, there is likely to be a color or two that is more in contention than the others and it may be worth hoarding those coins.

At the start of the game you should analyze the whole board and evaluate what the "best" colors are. Step 1 of that is figuring out what the "best" cards are. Generally these are the most efficient cards in terms of points per coin. Focus on reserving and playing the best color cards whenever possible.

But at the end of the day any advice for Splendor is provided generally and will have exceptions. That's what makes it a great game :)
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GinerG
Posts: 6
Joined: 23 April 2017, 05:41

Re: strategy guide?

Post by GinerG »

FastMahina wrote: 26 November 2022, 23:42 This advice is for the 4 player game:

Not that I'm an expert (well I guess I am), but my strategy is to look at the number of coins it takes to get a point. For example, the cards with 7 coins of the same color for 4 pts = 1.75 coins/pt, the 7,3 for 5 pts. and 6 for 3 pts. are both 2 coins/pt. Reserving these cards early is key. Getting supportive cards is great, but not essential. Try to make your supportive cards point cards too. the 5 coin 2 pts. cards, the 4 coin 1 pt. cards, and the 4,2,1 for 2 pts. are good support cards.
Never reserve 3 difficult cards unless you can play 1 of them with the gold coin you receive (or you can insure on your next coin take, i.e. 5 in the coin stack where you need an additional coin. A 2,1,1 draw by your opponents means there is still the one you need) at least one of your in hand cards are playable. Otherwise you can get stuck having no playable card.
Nobles almost never come into play. The exception is when the top row has 5,3,3,3 cards and there are only 1 pt. cards in the second row. I will blind draw the level 3 deck before taking any of those cards.
Stay aware of what your opponents need in the way of coins, and try to build supportive cards if you are in conflict. When your opponent completes his card, the coins in contention may become abundant.
Count to 15 with you victory points. if you are at 11 and there is a great 3 point card, be sure you can get it and another point faster than a 4 point card. Usually you can get 1 card faster than 2, given that you are a turn behind because you have to play 2 cards.
I try to play between 5-7 cards, in 19-22 turns. Each turn you play a card, is a turn you are not gathering coins, and if the key is spending the fewest coins, getting them faster is important. The minimal card played strategy means you win ties.
I just wanted to thank you for this post. I am new to the game and was really enjoying it but couldn't compete to save my life, and this post helped me understand how I was thinking about strategy wrong and all of a sudden I could actually compete and sometimes even win a game!
Seac
Posts: 1
Joined: 27 December 2022, 15:44

Re: strategy guide?

Post by Seac »

The rules for playing online are different that what we use while playing the physical board game...did the rules get changed to shorten play?
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Meeplelowda
Posts: 1216
Joined: 14 March 2020, 10:31

Re: strategy guide?

Post by Meeplelowda »

Seac wrote: 27 December 2022, 15:48 The rules for playing online are different that what we use while playing the physical board game...did the rules get changed to shorten play?
Which rules specifically?
CamCam001
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 July 2022, 06:58

Re: strategy guide?

Post by CamCam001 »

FastMahina wrote: 26 November 2022, 23:42 This advice is for the 4 player game:

Not that I'm an expert (well I guess I am), but my strategy is to look at the number of coins it takes to get a point. For example, the cards with 7 coins of the same color for 4 pts = 1.75 coins/pt, the 7,3 for 5 pts. and 6 for 3 pts. are both 2 coins/pt. Reserving these cards early is key. Getting supportive cards is great, but not essential. Try to make your supportive cards point cards too. the 5 coin 2 pts. cards, the 4 coin 1 pt. cards, and the 4,2,1 for 2 pts. are good support cards.
Never reserve 3 difficult cards unless you can play 1 of them with the gold coin you receive (or you can insure on your next coin take, i.e. 5 in the coin stack where you need an additional coin. A 2,1,1 draw by your opponents means there is still the one you need) at least one of your in hand cards are playable. Otherwise you can get stuck having no playable card.
Nobles almost never come into play. The exception is when the top row has 5,3,3,3 cards and there are only 1 pt. cards in the second row. I will blind draw the level 3 deck before taking any of those cards.
Stay aware of what your opponents need in the way of coins, and try to build supportive cards if you are in conflict. When your opponent completes his card, the coins in contention may become abundant.
Count to 15 with you victory points. if you are at 11 and there is a great 3 point card, be sure you can get it and another point faster than a 4 point card. Usually you can get 1 card faster than 2, given that you are a turn behind because you have to play 2 cards.
I try to play between 5-7 cards, in 19-22 turns. Each turn you play a card, is a turn you are not gathering coins, and if the key is spending the fewest coins, getting them faster is important. The minimal card played strategy means you win ties.

Has anyone noticed that lately everyone is playing to win by getting nobles....AND its WORKING!!!!!! I've always kept to my same strategy...i pick the best card off the top row and other good ones and focus on getting those, and you tended to win. I usually end up with only 7-10 cards and 20-25 turns, but now everyone keeps beating me by just buying loads of cards and attracting all the nobles. I'm about ELO 200, and the other players are similar, between ELO 100-500. Has anyone else noticed this? And how did i miss the memo? and how are they beating me when my old strategy worked so well!!! I'm so puzzled, and thought i would post here as you've said "Nobles almost never come into play". That definitely use to be true for me????!
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Meeplelowda
Posts: 1216
Joined: 14 March 2020, 10:31

Re: strategy guide?

Post by Meeplelowda »

CamCam001 wrote: 21 March 2023, 19:41And how did i miss the memo? and how are they beating me when my old strategy worked so well!!! I'm so puzzled, and thought i would post here as you've said "Nobles almost never come into play". That definitely use to be true for me????!
It is the sign of a good game design when strategies can evolve and what used to be a dominant strategy can be supplanted, if that's what's happening.
thg0724
Posts: 87
Joined: 25 December 2022, 15:25

Re: strategy guide?

Post by thg0724 »

CamCam001 wrote: 21 March 2023, 19:41 .i pick the best card off the top row and other good ones and focus on getting those, and you tended to win. I usually end up with only 7-10 cards and 20-25 turns, but now everyone keeps beating me by just buying loads of cards and attracting all the nobles.
How many turns are they winning in with the "new" noble strategy?
Kero87
Posts: 5
Joined: 28 January 2023, 15:10

Re: strategy guide?

Post by Kero87 »

What is exposed at the beginning of the thead is called the "reservation strategy". As far as I know, it is the only strategy effective for high level players.

What you've been facing lately, CamCam, is called the "engine strategy" (cause it's slow to start, but unstoppable once started). It is effective for us, low~mid level players, who hardly ever finish the game under 20 turns.

The principle is pretty much the opposite of the reservation strategy: At first, you buy a maximum of support cards as fast as possible, and of as many colors as you can. For about the 2/3 of the game, you don't really care about points, just building a base as wide and balanced as possible.
You don't look at the absolute cost of a card, but rather at how many coins it acually cost you, given the support cards you already have.
You almost never reserve a card. With this strategy, you usually have quite a bit of choice about the cards you can get in the next 1 or 2 turns, so it rarely matters if your opponent buys a card you want. And a turn where you reserve a card is a turn where you only get 1 coin and no supportive cards.

As a result, you score usually stays pitifuly low for most of the game. But, when you're about to have 3 cards of each color (usually around the 17~20th turns), you start attracting the nobles, and you often find yourself with a wide choice of almost free valuable cards to pick up. At this point, you start making points like crazy.
If your opponents are playing the reservation game, the question is whether you'll catch up before one of them win.
If your opponents are also playing the engine game, the question is often who will get the nobles tiles first.

Side note: The cards an "engine" player wants are the opposites of those a "reservation" player wants.
For exemple: To get 1 point, a reservation player will want the card that cost 4 coins of the same color. An "engine" player will wait until he has 2 cards of each color, then get the 3-2-2 card, which will actually cost him 1 coin at most.

Personaly, I choose my strategy depending on the game:
_ In 3+ players game, if most of my opponents choose a strategy, I choose the other one (so I have less competition for the cards I want).
_ I'll tend to opt for the engine strategy if there is a lot of 3-3-3 noble tiles and for the reservation strategy if there are more 4-4 tiles.
_ If there is a lot of 5-3-3-3 cards on the third row, I usually go for the engine strategy, while I'll chose the reservation strategy if there is a lot of 7 or 7-3 cards.
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