A player’s strategy guide to Century: Spice Road

[Meeplelowda]

Basic tips for the early game:
- Make sure you have trade cards to trade for any color cube.
- Make sure you have trade cards to trade away any color cube.
....
- Avoid multiple trade cards that have the same input.

What do you do if you aren't ready to start cranking your engine because you haven't finished collecting Merchant cards that satisfy all these guidelines, but there are no Merchant cards available that get you closer? For example, you need a card to be able to trade for green and none are available, or there are no Merchant cards available that don't duplicate an input.

[Ceaseless]

Basic tips for the early game:
- Make sure you have trade cards to trade for any color cube.
- Make sure you have trade cards to trade away any color cube.
....
- Avoid multiple trade cards that have the same input.

What do you do if you aren't ready to start cranking your engine because you haven't finished collecting Merchant cards that satisfy all these guidelines, but there are no Merchant cards available that get you closer? For example, you need a card to be able to trade for green and none are available, or there are no Merchant cards available that don't duplicate an input.

Not a Century player, but this is the sort of question where a "for example" is best displayed with a specific example, which shows how you got to that point, what alternatives are on the table, etc.

[Meeplelowda]

Basic tips for the early game:
- Make sure you have trade cards to trade for any color cube.
- Make sure you have trade cards to trade away any color cube.
....
- Avoid multiple trade cards that have the same input.

What do you do if you aren't ready to start cranking your engine because you haven't finished collecting Merchant cards that satisfy all these guidelines, but there are no Merchant cards available that get you closer? For example, you need a card to be able to trade for green and none are available, or there are no Merchant cards available that don't duplicate an input.

Not a Century player, but this is the sort of question where a "for example" is best displayed with a specific example, which shows how you got to that point, what alternatives are on the table, etc.

I was looking for something general like the guide is. The question is what things should one consider in that situation, not specifically what should I have done in that situation. The first is teaching a man to fish. The second is giving a man a fish.

[h_illes]

What do you do if you aren't ready to start cranking your engine because you haven't finished collecting Merchant cards that satisfy all these guidelines, but there are no Merchant cards available that get you closer? For example, you need a card to be able to trade for green and none are available, or there are no Merchant cards available that don't duplicate an input.

If you get to a position where your hand is unfinished but nothing on the board helps you, it also matters whether your opponent has a finished engine or not. If your opponent has a finished hand, he can start right away and in all likeliness, you will lose no matter what you do. (So, yeah, try not getting into a position like this.) Still, one option for you is to keep digging and when something useful shows up, grabbing it right away. If you have good yellow production that allows you to refill the yellows once you grab what you need, this could still be viable. Another option is to not pick anything else and start trading. If you are aware of your hand's shortcomings from the start, you can mitigate them to some extent by later choices (e.g. by targeting point cards that allow you to spend colors you cannot trade away, or using your upgrade card in each pickup loop to get out of those colors).

If your opponent's hand is also unfinished, that's fine, you can both just keep drafting trade cards for some more turns.

[Ceaseless]

What do you do if you aren't ready to start cranking your engine because you haven't finished collecting Merchant cards that satisfy all these guidelines, but there are no Merchant cards available that get you closer? For example, you need a card to be able to trade for green and none are available, or there are no Merchant cards available that don't duplicate an input.

Not a Century player, but this is the sort of question where a "for example" is best displayed with a specific example, which shows how you got to that point, what alternatives are on the table, etc.

I was looking for something general like the guide is. The question is what things should one consider in that situation, not specifically what should I have done in that situation. The first is teaching a man to fish. The second is giving a man a fish.

When you start moving important things around, there's a very good chance that what you do can vary greatly based on information you aren't even thinking about as the asker that increase the chance of significant caveats to any "general" answer. Examples give bases to talk about general examples with, letting responders check the boxes of important prerequisites and avoid having a key detail the asker didn't think anything about at the time end up derailing the whole thing. For starters, I'd probably like to know if the other player had green or not. I don't know how many such questions might pop up but never underestimate how important those key details can be.

[Meeplelowda]

What do you do if you aren't ready to start cranking your engine because you haven't finished collecting Merchant cards that satisfy all these guidelines, but there are no Merchant cards available that get you closer? For example, you need a card to be able to trade for green and none are available, or there are no Merchant cards available that don't duplicate an input.

If you get to a position where your hand is unfinished but nothing on the board helps you, it also matters whether your opponent has a finished engine or not. If your opponent has a finished hand, he can start right away and in all likeliness, you will lose no matter what you do. (So, yeah, try not getting into a position like this.) Still, one option for you is to keep digging and when something useful shows up, grabbing it right away. If you have good yellow production that allows you to refill the yellows once you grab what you need, this could still be viable. Another option is to not pick anything else and start trading. If you are aware of your hand's shortcomings from the start, you can mitigate them to some extent by later choices (e.g. by targeting point cards that allow you to spend colors you cannot trade away, or using your upgrade card in each pickup loop to get out of those colors).

If your opponent's hand is also unfinished, that's fine, you can both just keep drafting trade cards for some more turns.

Thanks.

[Ceaseless]

Could you post an example game where you've basically set up a combo, executed a combo, just doing the normal things you do. Just with a basic explanation of you seeing some regular cards that go together and executing the plan, giving us a feel for the timeline of the game with regards to set-up and execution.

[h_illes]

Could you post an example game where you've basically set up a combo, executed a combo, just doing the normal things you do. Just with a basic explanation of you seeing some regular cards that go together and executing the plan, giving us a feel for the timeline of the game with regards to set-up and execution.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=794579002

I'm done with the draft by move #20 and looking to start up. My main combo is GYY>BB, B>GG, YYY, which is a full loop, but it doesn't involve red. I get red from GG>BRYY; other (less important) support cards are B>RRYY and B. So the plan is that I reset to 3 to 6 browns (closer to 6 if the point card I want to target next is expensive, closer to 3 if it's cheap), then use B>GG to fill my stack with greens and use GG>BRYY to set up whatever I need. After buying, I can reset to 3-6 browns again fast using GYY>BB and/or B.

The opponent has to keep picking trade cards for several more turns after move #20, so I start with a huge tempo advantage and I proceed to get to 3 gold coins first, and then to 6 point cards rapidly. The game is not close.

The above is the short version. Is this what you were looking for? I'm also happy to explain my choices during the draft (before move #20) or go into more detail about the main phase.

[Ceaseless]

Could you post an example game where you've basically set up a combo, executed a combo, just doing the normal things you do. Just with a basic explanation of you seeing some regular cards that go together and executing the plan, giving us a feel for the timeline of the game with regards to set-up and execution.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=794579002

I'm done with the draft by move #20 and looking to start up. My main combo is GYY>BB, B>GG, YYY, which is a full loop, but it doesn't involve red. I get red from GG>BRYY; other (less important) support cards are B>RRYY and B. So the plan is that I reset to 3 to 6 browns (closer to 6 if the point card I want to target next is expensive, closer to 3 if it's cheap), then use B>GG to fill my stack with greens and use GG>BRYY to set up whatever I need. After buying, I can reset to 3-6 browns again fast using GYY>BB and/or B.

The opponent has to keep picking trade cards for several more turns after move #20, so I start with a huge tempo advantage and I proceed to get to 3 gold coins first, and then to 6 point cards rapidly. The game is not close.

The above is the short version. Is this what you were looking for? I'm also happy to explain my choices during the draft (before move #20) or go into more detail about the main phase.

This is what I was looking for. You made a combo, you used the combo, you got ahead. You found an outlet to get into the red your main combo was lacking in.

I don't think there was anything too noticeable to my untrained eye, a lot of the cards seemed like easy grabs without having to extend into some noticeable commitment, I was actually surprised your opponent let you grab those cards so safely, but don't know enough about the game to know how much I missed in what they were attempting.

[h_illes]

He took GGG>BBB and I took B>GG, and after that, two strong B-output card showed up (GYY>BB and GG>BB). If strong B-input cards show up instead, he is in a much better position. Whether B-input or B-output cards show up is pure luck. That said, I disagree with his choice of paying a lot of yellows to deny me GG>BB; that move sealed the outcome of the game. Instead, he should have denied me GG>BRYY and B>RRYY, then the game would have been much different.