Faroe Strategy

[ArchDevious]

Faroe seems like the worst island to me. Despite strong bonuses it has very weak income, which is what most players like. It ends up turning into Baffin in all my games. Any tips for using Faroe? And in what scenario would you grab it over shetland/lofoten?

[KeithHendricks]

You should generally only take Faroe to prevent someone else from getting Baffin. And only if you have a solid path to filling it quickly. So you need a good center piece for it, as well as something for the left and right “boots”, right away. The only good thing about Faroe is all the bonuses, and you want to start getting them as income right away.

That said, there are some players who do well with this island by taking it early. They are not the norm, however. As for myself, I have only taken it in round 3 to prevent someone from getting Baffin in round 4. Usually I also have good occupation cards that could help fill it quicker, like Chronicler or Linseed Oil Presser.

[Urziel]

Faroe makes sense only if you get to sheep by the end of 2nd action round. Is it possible - yes. Is it easy? No. Are there better strategies? I guess yes.

Why Faroe has problems:
- low points
- low income
- real prize is at the end of the track - sheep
- after filling lower left corner you are tempted to put 1 coin to get from 1 -> 2 in income - this is BAD

Compare with Shetland:
- low score
- low income
- you get ALL the income and one bonus after filling 10 squares - with some luck this is a single whale + runestone
- bonus - meat is great (you cover -1 and get a bonus)

Compare with Lofeten :
- Lofeten is an absolute god tier expansion
- 2 tiles to cover to get income
- first turn:
- 2x wood -> small boat -> whales (ore from boat + 1 remaining wood + spear + maybe another spear - you win on 3) with 3 you have 58% with 4 it's 71% -> take lofoten -> oil to lofoten you have whale meat for the next tourn for lofoten and income of 3 you can use 2 to take fish


Summary:
- Faroe has high opportunity cost - you skip better islands

[BlackHatGuy]

Faroe has big potential. Definitely more than Shetland. But it's quite tricky to fill, and gives income mostly in oranges and reds which is much less flexible than money.

I've made it work a couple of times such as here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/309078 ... g-champion

[danielvictor]

Whenever I take Baffin,I lose to someone who takes Tierra Del Fuego.So I wouldn't take Faero to stop them from getting Baffin

[MasterMystery]

thats why norwegians, which is still in alüha raised the point value

[AQJ]

thats why norwegians, which is still in alüha raised the point value

Not only was Faroe increased, Baffin was decreased.

[MasN]

Even with the buff, I find myself not taking Faroe often, generally preferring Skye and Mull.

[JipenDavid]

You should generally only take Faroe to prevent someone else from getting Baffin.

I think taking Faroe to prevent others form getting Baffin is a losing strategy. If you want to prevent other players from taking Baffin you either block the 3v exploration spot the turn it flips (Baffin gets a lot worse on later turns) or just take Baffin yourself.

In practice I don't think it's ever good to take Faroe, but there might be some niche situations.

(Mull)>Lofoten>Skye>Mann>Shetland>Faroe

[KeithHendricks]

In the base game, it makes more sense. In fact, the only times I have taken Faroe were on BGA, pre-Norwegians. There were limited options (Faroe/Baffin, Iceland/Labrador, Greenland/Newfoundland, Shetland/Bear), among which Faroe was still the bottom rung to be sure, but sometimes if you knew early on who was likely to go first and take Baffin, and you had collected the right tiles that round, it made sense to take Faroe with a surprise final move rather than let Baffin get added on to an Iceland/Greenland combo. Even with Lofoten/Orkney and TDF added on, in a 3-4 player game, I could see this happening, and might have done it, but can’t remember.

Faroe is not valueless if you activate the income and bonuses early on. I have only ever activated the sheep bonus by the end of round 3, but then I have never focused on making this island part of a component strategy, just a contingent strategy. Even taking the island in round 3 and activating its bonuses, that’s 4 sheep, plus a bunch of green and orange tiles. The income bites to be sure. But you can upgrade the sheep to help speed up a homeboard strategy. But sure, no one wants Faroe, it’s a fallback. Even in the base game, you want Iceland, Greenland, or even Shetland before Faroe. But it is sometimes likely that player four will be locked out of any other islands by the end of round 2. It happens. So it is good to know how to do something with it rather than let the flip side get piled on to an Iceland/Greenland combo.