Strategy in Lost Seas

[ren v hoek]

So I'm having trouble with winning in Arena in Lost Seas, and I think a big part of the basis is deciding which side of the vp tiles to use during setup.

The game shows your 4 tiles first for the top, then 4 tiles for the bottom, and the default is the white (less vp) side.

On a recent game, one I played against Anzzz (#2 in Arena in Lost Seas).

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=692138160

i chose, in this game, the black sides of the first 4 tiles, and on the second group, the black sides on two of them, and the white sides on two. I had to pick the white sides as picking the black on all 4 would have been some rows not possible to do e.g. the top two rows goals were 5 items per row, which meant the rows had to be 2,1,1,1 item, but going across the black side was 11 items, which would be 3,3,2,3, so impossible to do both 5 item rows that way.

I suggested to Anzzz that perhaps I should have not picked all 4 black vps on the first row, but if I had not done so, I wouldn't have gotten enough vps to win. As is, Anzzz pick the black sides for all 8 tiles, achieving all of them with a total of 66 vps.

is it possible that some games are simply not winnable?

[crazyturtle4]

Based on described scenario with 2 columns by 5 and 1 row by 11, by math without starting the game you have lost points of 1 of them.
In that situation you need to pick the one that can be done. Fewer points is better than 0.

Strategies to help winning the game:
- Trying to balance the goals as having lot of 5-6 it makes it risky with tiles with 1.
- Keep in mind that number of goals is finite and unique combination between white and black. Either by taking time to count them, or by experience you plan your game
- Also number of tiles is finite, counting what is gone can help manage the rest of the game better. When I started playing I would keep the board open and mark what has been played/discarded

And do not forget you have lost against top player that has won maybe 50% of all seasons in BGA