Commented High Level Game

[BusyBeaver]

Hi,

I am a high ranked player and made a video where I explain my thought process while playing: https://youtu.be/R7WGVEcnIEE
On one hand, I hope it is instructive, on the other hand, feel free to point out where I could have made a better decisions.

[Vengil]

You played very well.
I would have played two things differently:

Round 2: I would have taken F4.
=> The territory is close.
=> Red had only one possibility to retake the castel.
=> Three towers less in the second round, it's a huge loss of points (32 points gained in the end with this castel (without the round 1)).

Round 4: You should have taken a castle with a tower rather than I3.
=> You would have earned the same number of points.
=> But red would have had one less castle and would have lost 4 points.

Thank you for your gameplay.

[Drangor]

It's a good idea to comment a game !

I just look the first two move but i have already some advice :

1st take i would have done the same, always a must to notice which card you give (mountain more than other card, so f2/f3.. and the tresor card with bureaucrat. I dont find matriarch good).
2nd take... well C6 because you get a carrot and a fish adjacent (its always a good territory, even more because you got the pearl). But not G2 (too far from a fish to rentabilize your pearl, i would have taken the master of the Mountain or camp.
In term of strat at the start i always prefer objective than a lone territory to get more flexibility. You never know what your opponent will take. If you choose your "localisation" too soon it will limit your choice later.
Generaly, I only take territory if i have no choice or if i got both adjacent. And if i have no choice, i always focus on mountain or at proximity of a mountain (they can get a 3 castle and 4 type of ressource).

This are few advice only for the very beggining (i could write more but i'm a lazy bunny to be honnest ), after that it depend only on your very first choice .

[BusyBeaver]

Very good points from both of you! I agree these would have been better plays.
I also noticed one better move in round 4: I should have taken the carpenter instead of the city on H3 for 1 more point and denying opponent points. Filling the hole on H3 seemed to be so tempting that it created a blindspot for me there.