(EDIT1. Disclaimer: these tips are just personal opinions from my own experience)
Some tips for Tranquility: The Ascent
- General tips and comments
Don't disable the preference to confirm discarding 2 cards or otherwise you will at some point discard 2 cards instead of playing one and discarding the other (this used to be disabled by default).
Be prepared to handle some frustration. You make plans to play now card A and later card B in your hand, but your teammates have their own problems and might be forced to play something that ruins your plans. This is part of the game.
Remember that if one player cannot play due to lack of cards, the whole team loses, so the team is as vulnerable as the player with the fewest cards.
Keep in mind what cards are in play: 72 (2x3x(1-12)) colored/numbered cards, 5 summit cards, 5 bridges and 3 campfires. That's 85 cards total. 55 have to be played, so there's room for up to 30 discards / goat food.
If a game is already lost but the system doesn't detect it and you don't want to abandon, the fastest way to finish the game is by running out of cards, so you can play something that makes you discard 4 cards.
What is the most elo you can get? Of course, it's 42 (goats, green path, 5 panorama goals and 5 players).
Don't despair. Even if a game has a bad start or seems lost early on, there is usually a chance for a comeback.
Here's a couple of examples of games with the toughest setup that I really thought were lost and that were finally won:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=360246761
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=351226273
EDIT2. On the other hand, a bad play early in the game can make things really difficult for the remaining of it. It could even be already doomed. A cascading effect can propagate throughout several turns forcing players to discard for nothing or having to overpay (in discards) in order to play something.
EDIT6. If you are the first player, check if the table allows to start rows anywhere. Starting on the left on the first turn could mean having to start on the left for the rest of the game.
- General strategy
You should try to give as many options as possible to your teammantes (and yourself in later turns), both in number of playable places and variety of card values.
If a teammate is running low on cards, try to produce free places for them to play. For example, by allowing them to play the first card of a row or playing a bridge so they can play for free a card on its other side.
Near the end, sometimes you have to count cards and turns left. If you have several options to play on a high row, try to count played / unplayed cards to see what could work better for your teammates. In row 8, playing a 10 is a great option because the rest of the playable cards won't require more than 2 discards. Playing an 8 or a 12 could be a problem if your teammates have the opposite one.
Discarding 2 cards to play a third card is something to do only under special circumstances, it's a high price to pay. Discarding more than 2 cards should only be done only if it can save the game near the end.
If you can start rows anywhere, start row 1 in the middle. Other rows will depend on panoramas, goats and green path, but at least try not to start upper rows on the edges unless circumstances dictate otherwise. This setup makes the game easier and gives 50% elo.
Try to play low cards on low rows. The game can still be won with some high cards played on low rows, though. Sometimes players have many high cards and it's better to play them on row 1 than to keep discarding trying to get low cards, as you might not have enough high cards later on for high rows.
EDIT3. Here's a game won with goats, green path and 5 panoramas with not a single 1-2-3 card played:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=363240479
Near the end, in scenarios like the following, it might be worth it to play discarding many cards, perhaps even all your cards:
The teammate who preceeds you has no more cards, so this would be your last turn.
It's not clear if this will be your last turn, but you can replace a bridge and the other players have almost no cards. Perhaps it's only you who can replace it. Not doing so could later prevent a teammate from playing the summit card and there might not be room for another full round.
One of your cards can work as second card for row 8 and another teammate would only have to play the summit card to win.
EDIT2. If a row is started with a card of value X, consider cards of X-1 and X+1 values to go on that row (and even X-2 and X+2) and try to start the next one with at least X+3/X-3 cards. This becomes less important with higher rows, as they need less cards.
For example, if several 1 cards have been played on row 1, it's a terrible idea in my opinion to start row 2 with a 2, as row 1 won't be able to hold all 1 cards and will need something higher at some point, and that should be 2 cards. This move will most probably force players to discard as some will have only high cards. It would have been much better to play the 2 on row 1 paying one discard (or none if played on the other side of a bridge).
- Bridges
They are more useful in the early-mid game.
Even players (second and forth if there is one) always recieve a bridge at the beginning of the game, so you can count on that.
The best cards to play on both sides of a bridge are the two copies of the same card.
A bridge can often wait to be replaced until you have trashable cards.
Replacing a bridge doesn't create new places to play. So, if it can wait, it's usually better to place somewhere else if it creates a new place to play on the upper row. However, if there are goats below the bridge, replacing it allows for the goats to be moved up, which allows for a new possible action, so it's like opening a new playable place.
A bridge cannot be played on the mountain edges. Better to play them in a suboptimal way than wait too long until they can no longer be played at all.
EDIT2. If the two cards on both sides of a bridge are of different color, the card that will have to replace the bridge will have to be of the third color.
- Campfires
They are usually more useful in the mid-late game.
It's usually a bad idea to discard a campfire, as they can later be game savers.
A campfire can get you out of trouble if by mistake you play a card on the other side of a bridge that is much higher/lower than the card on the other side. For example, imagine the sequence 1-bridge and you play a 9 or even up to a 12 to have 1-bridge-12. Lost game? Not if someone can campfire up the 12 before another card is played next to it. Occasionally it can be a play made on purpose if you have the campfire and you don't want to lose by discarding your other cards because they are too valuable.
- Summit cards
Most often you will want your last single card to be a summit, unless you count and see that you have to play a numbered card and let a later player play the summit.
In a 2-player game, discarding 2 summit cards is safe.
In a 3-player game, discarding 1 summit card is safe.
In a 4-player game, discarding 1 summit card is usually safe, but you can be in trouble on the last round depending on how many cards each player has left and who should play the summit card, so be careful
In a 5-player game, even discarding 1 summit card is risky. Imagine all players do so. But sometimes the risk is worth it if it allows you to play / save other valuable cards.
If you have 2 summit cards at some point, obviously discarding one of them is safe.
- Panorama goals
If you are playing with new players, make sure they know how to play with panoramas or they might ruin them by mistake.
One of the biggest challenges is to stay focused. It's easy to forget about them and ruin them by playing the wrong card in the wrong place.
There are 10 potential panorama goals and only 3 / 4 / 5 of them will be present in any particular game: 3-4-3, 4-4-5, 5-5-6, 6-7-6, 8-8-8, 9-8-7, 10-10-11, 10-11-12, 11-10-9 and 12-12-12.
The most difficult one is 3-4-3 because you cannot leave it for upper rows, you have to do it early in the game. For other panoramas the players can save cards for later and play them right after one another at some point.
If they overlap, try to take advantage of it, as it will mean you will need less cards in total.
Single overlap (with 5 cards you can do two panorama goals): 4-4-5-5-6, 5-5-6-7-6, 11-10-9-8-7, 10-11-12-12-12, 10-10-11-10-9
Double overlap (with 4 cards you can do two panorama goals): 10-10-11-12
Multiple overlaps (with 6 or 7 cards you can do three panorama goals): 10-10-11-12-12-12, 4-4-5-5-6-7-6, 10-10-11-10-9-8-7
If there are several places to play and you either have all the cards or at least the first one of a panorama goal, you can start it. If you only have the first card, your teammantes might have the rest. However, if you have all the cards for a panorama goal and there's almost no places to play and you start it, your teammates might be forced to ruin it to avoid discarding.
If just the first card for a panorama goal that requires different value cards has been played, playing another copy next to it doesn't ruin it (as long there's still enough room in the row), it just means the panorama goal will have to start with the new card.
Finishing a panorama goal can at times wait until you have trashable cards.
If you are forced to discard, try not to discard cards that might be useful for future panorama goals.
Using bridges to secure panoramas is a great option.
Try to visualize on which row each remaining panorama goal could fit to check they can all still be achieved. Sometimes a game is lost because there's nowhere to do all panoramas anymore (and you might have to keep playing or abandon because the system doesn't detect it).
EDIT1. Getting panoramas done quickly is great so you can focus on the rest of the game.
EDIT1. If a panorama goal is already 2/3 done, it's usually a bad idea to ruin it.
EDIT4. Leaving a panorama goal for the last three places in a row is risky as the last number can't be secured with a bridge. If the needed number is unique (because other copies of that number have been already played), it could mean being forced to discard waiting for it.
- Green path
Don't try to do more than two green paths or you might run out of high green cards for the upper rows.
There's enough green cards to play some of them outside of the green path (only 8 out of 25 will be needed for the path), but be careful, specially with high value cards.
If you have to discard, try not to discard green cards, specially high value ones.
A bridge is a great way to secure a green path card if you don't have any green cards.
Remember that the green campfire counts as a valid card for the green path.
EDIT1. High green cards are valuable, so don't discard them unless you have no other choice. Near the end of the game you can count on your teammates to have the missing high green cards.
EDIT2. If a bridge is played to be part of the green path, don't put a green card on the other side of the bridge or the path will be ruined (as the bridge can't be replaced by a green card).
- Goats
Don't forget you can play a summit card before moving up the last goats (as usual, all bridges have to have been replaced).
Remember you can move goats more than one row up on a single turn, but not more than 4 rows (as you can't discard more than 4 cards). Therefore, a goat on rows 1-2-3 will need at least two turns to be moved to row 8 (often moving up goats from so low is not necessary).
Move goats from bottom to top as it's more efficient as it allows to gather them and move them together.
You don't have to move all goats to row 8, only 8. Keep this in mind and count well goat cards already played and not yet played if you are thinking about moving up goats on low rows.
Goats don't make the game necesarilly more difficult as they allow playing using a single card (moving up a goat). Moving a goat for 1 card is the cheapest action of the game and it's better than discarding 2 cards for nothing.
If one player is running out of cards faster than the rest, try to leave moving goats to that player.
Try to play some goat card as early as row 3 to enable early the action of moving goats. Having some extra goats doesn't hurt, as it could allow a player low on cards to do an action for one card, even if that goat is not needed.
There's room for discarding up to 4 goat cards. If you discard 5, you lose the game, but you won't know until the end (the game doesn't detect it). The three 6 cards with a goat are the most likely to become unplayable if the are drawn very late in the game.
EDIT5. Careful with rushing moving goats, sometimes it's better to go one at a time so you don't deprive your teammates from playing additional turns. For example, if you have two cards left and the teammante who plays after you has four, if you use both of your cards to move goats, you are forcing your teammate to use all their cards in a single turn. What if they need to play both a summit and move goats? By using just one card you would assure yourself another turn to move goats, thus also giving your teammate the chance of playing two turns.
Some tips for Tranquility: The Ascent
- General tips and comments
Don't disable the preference to confirm discarding 2 cards or otherwise you will at some point discard 2 cards instead of playing one and discarding the other (this used to be disabled by default).
Be prepared to handle some frustration. You make plans to play now card A and later card B in your hand, but your teammates have their own problems and might be forced to play something that ruins your plans. This is part of the game.
Remember that if one player cannot play due to lack of cards, the whole team loses, so the team is as vulnerable as the player with the fewest cards.
Keep in mind what cards are in play: 72 (2x3x(1-12)) colored/numbered cards, 5 summit cards, 5 bridges and 3 campfires. That's 85 cards total. 55 have to be played, so there's room for up to 30 discards / goat food.
If a game is already lost but the system doesn't detect it and you don't want to abandon, the fastest way to finish the game is by running out of cards, so you can play something that makes you discard 4 cards.
What is the most elo you can get? Of course, it's 42 (goats, green path, 5 panorama goals and 5 players).
Don't despair. Even if a game has a bad start or seems lost early on, there is usually a chance for a comeback.
Here's a couple of examples of games with the toughest setup that I really thought were lost and that were finally won:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=360246761
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=351226273
EDIT2. On the other hand, a bad play early in the game can make things really difficult for the remaining of it. It could even be already doomed. A cascading effect can propagate throughout several turns forcing players to discard for nothing or having to overpay (in discards) in order to play something.
EDIT6. If you are the first player, check if the table allows to start rows anywhere. Starting on the left on the first turn could mean having to start on the left for the rest of the game.
- General strategy
You should try to give as many options as possible to your teammantes (and yourself in later turns), both in number of playable places and variety of card values.
If a teammate is running low on cards, try to produce free places for them to play. For example, by allowing them to play the first card of a row or playing a bridge so they can play for free a card on its other side.
Near the end, sometimes you have to count cards and turns left. If you have several options to play on a high row, try to count played / unplayed cards to see what could work better for your teammates. In row 8, playing a 10 is a great option because the rest of the playable cards won't require more than 2 discards. Playing an 8 or a 12 could be a problem if your teammates have the opposite one.
Discarding 2 cards to play a third card is something to do only under special circumstances, it's a high price to pay. Discarding more than 2 cards should only be done only if it can save the game near the end.
If you can start rows anywhere, start row 1 in the middle. Other rows will depend on panoramas, goats and green path, but at least try not to start upper rows on the edges unless circumstances dictate otherwise. This setup makes the game easier and gives 50% elo.
Try to play low cards on low rows. The game can still be won with some high cards played on low rows, though. Sometimes players have many high cards and it's better to play them on row 1 than to keep discarding trying to get low cards, as you might not have enough high cards later on for high rows.
EDIT3. Here's a game won with goats, green path and 5 panoramas with not a single 1-2-3 card played:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=363240479
Near the end, in scenarios like the following, it might be worth it to play discarding many cards, perhaps even all your cards:
The teammate who preceeds you has no more cards, so this would be your last turn.
It's not clear if this will be your last turn, but you can replace a bridge and the other players have almost no cards. Perhaps it's only you who can replace it. Not doing so could later prevent a teammate from playing the summit card and there might not be room for another full round.
One of your cards can work as second card for row 8 and another teammate would only have to play the summit card to win.
EDIT2. If a row is started with a card of value X, consider cards of X-1 and X+1 values to go on that row (and even X-2 and X+2) and try to start the next one with at least X+3/X-3 cards. This becomes less important with higher rows, as they need less cards.
For example, if several 1 cards have been played on row 1, it's a terrible idea in my opinion to start row 2 with a 2, as row 1 won't be able to hold all 1 cards and will need something higher at some point, and that should be 2 cards. This move will most probably force players to discard as some will have only high cards. It would have been much better to play the 2 on row 1 paying one discard (or none if played on the other side of a bridge).
- Bridges
They are more useful in the early-mid game.
Even players (second and forth if there is one) always recieve a bridge at the beginning of the game, so you can count on that.
The best cards to play on both sides of a bridge are the two copies of the same card.
A bridge can often wait to be replaced until you have trashable cards.
Replacing a bridge doesn't create new places to play. So, if it can wait, it's usually better to place somewhere else if it creates a new place to play on the upper row. However, if there are goats below the bridge, replacing it allows for the goats to be moved up, which allows for a new possible action, so it's like opening a new playable place.
A bridge cannot be played on the mountain edges. Better to play them in a suboptimal way than wait too long until they can no longer be played at all.
EDIT2. If the two cards on both sides of a bridge are of different color, the card that will have to replace the bridge will have to be of the third color.
- Campfires
They are usually more useful in the mid-late game.
It's usually a bad idea to discard a campfire, as they can later be game savers.
A campfire can get you out of trouble if by mistake you play a card on the other side of a bridge that is much higher/lower than the card on the other side. For example, imagine the sequence 1-bridge and you play a 9 or even up to a 12 to have 1-bridge-12. Lost game? Not if someone can campfire up the 12 before another card is played next to it. Occasionally it can be a play made on purpose if you have the campfire and you don't want to lose by discarding your other cards because they are too valuable.
- Summit cards
Most often you will want your last single card to be a summit, unless you count and see that you have to play a numbered card and let a later player play the summit.
In a 2-player game, discarding 2 summit cards is safe.
In a 3-player game, discarding 1 summit card is safe.
In a 4-player game, discarding 1 summit card is usually safe, but you can be in trouble on the last round depending on how many cards each player has left and who should play the summit card, so be careful
In a 5-player game, even discarding 1 summit card is risky. Imagine all players do so. But sometimes the risk is worth it if it allows you to play / save other valuable cards.
If you have 2 summit cards at some point, obviously discarding one of them is safe.
- Panorama goals
If you are playing with new players, make sure they know how to play with panoramas or they might ruin them by mistake.
One of the biggest challenges is to stay focused. It's easy to forget about them and ruin them by playing the wrong card in the wrong place.
There are 10 potential panorama goals and only 3 / 4 / 5 of them will be present in any particular game: 3-4-3, 4-4-5, 5-5-6, 6-7-6, 8-8-8, 9-8-7, 10-10-11, 10-11-12, 11-10-9 and 12-12-12.
The most difficult one is 3-4-3 because you cannot leave it for upper rows, you have to do it early in the game. For other panoramas the players can save cards for later and play them right after one another at some point.
If they overlap, try to take advantage of it, as it will mean you will need less cards in total.
Single overlap (with 5 cards you can do two panorama goals): 4-4-5-5-6, 5-5-6-7-6, 11-10-9-8-7, 10-11-12-12-12, 10-10-11-10-9
Double overlap (with 4 cards you can do two panorama goals): 10-10-11-12
Multiple overlaps (with 6 or 7 cards you can do three panorama goals): 10-10-11-12-12-12, 4-4-5-5-6-7-6, 10-10-11-10-9-8-7
If there are several places to play and you either have all the cards or at least the first one of a panorama goal, you can start it. If you only have the first card, your teammantes might have the rest. However, if you have all the cards for a panorama goal and there's almost no places to play and you start it, your teammates might be forced to ruin it to avoid discarding.
If just the first card for a panorama goal that requires different value cards has been played, playing another copy next to it doesn't ruin it (as long there's still enough room in the row), it just means the panorama goal will have to start with the new card.
Finishing a panorama goal can at times wait until you have trashable cards.
If you are forced to discard, try not to discard cards that might be useful for future panorama goals.
Using bridges to secure panoramas is a great option.
Try to visualize on which row each remaining panorama goal could fit to check they can all still be achieved. Sometimes a game is lost because there's nowhere to do all panoramas anymore (and you might have to keep playing or abandon because the system doesn't detect it).
EDIT1. Getting panoramas done quickly is great so you can focus on the rest of the game.
EDIT1. If a panorama goal is already 2/3 done, it's usually a bad idea to ruin it.
EDIT4. Leaving a panorama goal for the last three places in a row is risky as the last number can't be secured with a bridge. If the needed number is unique (because other copies of that number have been already played), it could mean being forced to discard waiting for it.
- Green path
Don't try to do more than two green paths or you might run out of high green cards for the upper rows.
There's enough green cards to play some of them outside of the green path (only 8 out of 25 will be needed for the path), but be careful, specially with high value cards.
If you have to discard, try not to discard green cards, specially high value ones.
A bridge is a great way to secure a green path card if you don't have any green cards.
Remember that the green campfire counts as a valid card for the green path.
EDIT1. High green cards are valuable, so don't discard them unless you have no other choice. Near the end of the game you can count on your teammates to have the missing high green cards.
EDIT2. If a bridge is played to be part of the green path, don't put a green card on the other side of the bridge or the path will be ruined (as the bridge can't be replaced by a green card).
- Goats
Don't forget you can play a summit card before moving up the last goats (as usual, all bridges have to have been replaced).
Remember you can move goats more than one row up on a single turn, but not more than 4 rows (as you can't discard more than 4 cards). Therefore, a goat on rows 1-2-3 will need at least two turns to be moved to row 8 (often moving up goats from so low is not necessary).
Move goats from bottom to top as it's more efficient as it allows to gather them and move them together.
You don't have to move all goats to row 8, only 8. Keep this in mind and count well goat cards already played and not yet played if you are thinking about moving up goats on low rows.
Goats don't make the game necesarilly more difficult as they allow playing using a single card (moving up a goat). Moving a goat for 1 card is the cheapest action of the game and it's better than discarding 2 cards for nothing.
If one player is running out of cards faster than the rest, try to leave moving goats to that player.
Try to play some goat card as early as row 3 to enable early the action of moving goats. Having some extra goats doesn't hurt, as it could allow a player low on cards to do an action for one card, even if that goat is not needed.
There's room for discarding up to 4 goat cards. If you discard 5, you lose the game, but you won't know until the end (the game doesn't detect it). The three 6 cards with a goat are the most likely to become unplayable if the are drawn very late in the game.
EDIT5. Careful with rushing moving goats, sometimes it's better to go one at a time so you don't deprive your teammates from playing additional turns. For example, if you have two cards left and the teammante who plays after you has four, if you use both of your cards to move goats, you are forcing your teammate to use all their cards in a single turn. What if they need to play both a summit and move goats? By using just one card you would assure yourself another turn to move goats, thus also giving your teammate the chance of playing two turns.
