Background
At this point, I have more games played of EoC than anyone except the designer and I've tried it all. One build that I lean into very frequently to beat other top players is the 4-cost fundraiser build, which no one but me ever seems to commit to in a game. Consider these 2 arena games played against other strong players:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=506812749
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=506589908
In both of these games, my opponents had everything going for them: strong in game recruit engines, money and EC generation, great travel, denying me recruits in my home color, and both have huge point bombs including both analytics nerd and success breeds success with 15+ recruits. In both games, I'm unable to find anything comparable and have very few endgame points, but the engine I built to generate points along the way still gives me the win. This is where the fundraisers come in: Paying 1 BB for 2 points is already strong, and if you can get any way to generate money or boost this interaction even a little bit you can start to rack up 4,6,8, even 10 points a turn for free. This adds up incredibly quickly.
What to look for
In general, there are a few early indicators that you want to move into this build. The typical way is 1 or 2 4-cost fundraisers in your starter stash, and/or any of the following cards:
Creative Financing (gives a BB anytime you use a fundraising card)
Call to action (makes the points you purchase free)
Booster Fund (The real powerhouse, gives an EC whenever you pay BB for points, note that even if the points are free with call to action you still get the EC)
Financial advisor (lets you use your fundraisers twice a turn, extremely powerful)
any other money generator
Because there are so many 4-cost fundraisers, the odds of getting your hands on 2+ of them in a game is actually fairly high. The rest of the support cards are also less likely to be counterdrafted since they are weaker than other strong cards on their own. This build can occur more frequently than almost any other that rely on specific cards such as state NIL law, private jet, or booster driven pipeline.
Build strategy
early on, you want to get your fundraisers and a money generator out ASAP, at the cost of recruits. One mistake I see players make often is that they fail to consider the possibility of getting their regional scoring from a non-home region, and think their opponents will do the same. It is certainly easier to do it this way in general due to the free EC of your color in that region and early proximity, but there are more than enough recruits in a 2 player game to play for the region farthest away from your opponent. You can see this in both of the games I linked above. My opponents sacrifice efficiency to block my home region early while I am setting up my engine, and then in the late game I sweep whatever region has the most open recruits. The other tip for this build is that you almost never want to use your fundraisers to travel since the point generation is much stronger, but you may need to on occasion.
Good luck and have fun! Hope to see you in the arena
At this point, I have more games played of EoC than anyone except the designer and I've tried it all. One build that I lean into very frequently to beat other top players is the 4-cost fundraiser build, which no one but me ever seems to commit to in a game. Consider these 2 arena games played against other strong players:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=506812749
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=506589908
In both of these games, my opponents had everything going for them: strong in game recruit engines, money and EC generation, great travel, denying me recruits in my home color, and both have huge point bombs including both analytics nerd and success breeds success with 15+ recruits. In both games, I'm unable to find anything comparable and have very few endgame points, but the engine I built to generate points along the way still gives me the win. This is where the fundraisers come in: Paying 1 BB for 2 points is already strong, and if you can get any way to generate money or boost this interaction even a little bit you can start to rack up 4,6,8, even 10 points a turn for free. This adds up incredibly quickly.
What to look for
In general, there are a few early indicators that you want to move into this build. The typical way is 1 or 2 4-cost fundraisers in your starter stash, and/or any of the following cards:
Creative Financing (gives a BB anytime you use a fundraising card)
Call to action (makes the points you purchase free)
Booster Fund (The real powerhouse, gives an EC whenever you pay BB for points, note that even if the points are free with call to action you still get the EC)
Financial advisor (lets you use your fundraisers twice a turn, extremely powerful)
any other money generator
Because there are so many 4-cost fundraisers, the odds of getting your hands on 2+ of them in a game is actually fairly high. The rest of the support cards are also less likely to be counterdrafted since they are weaker than other strong cards on their own. This build can occur more frequently than almost any other that rely on specific cards such as state NIL law, private jet, or booster driven pipeline.
Build strategy
early on, you want to get your fundraisers and a money generator out ASAP, at the cost of recruits. One mistake I see players make often is that they fail to consider the possibility of getting their regional scoring from a non-home region, and think their opponents will do the same. It is certainly easier to do it this way in general due to the free EC of your color in that region and early proximity, but there are more than enough recruits in a 2 player game to play for the region farthest away from your opponent. You can see this in both of the games I linked above. My opponents sacrifice efficiency to block my home region early while I am setting up my engine, and then in the late game I sweep whatever region has the most open recruits. The other tip for this build is that you almost never want to use your fundraisers to travel since the point generation is much stronger, but you may need to on occasion.
Good luck and have fun! Hope to see you in the arena