PSA: Lady's Maids

[Delirious]

I've seen a lot of new players this season, which is really great!

But I've also been walloping many of you because you don't take care of your lady's maids (LMs).

If you've played IRL you wouldn't miss me stealing your LM, but it's easy to miss on BGA.

Without LMs, you will lose. You will be disabled in a way that you cannot easily recover from.

Obsession is not multiplayer solitaire. It's a fight to the (social) death, and an absolutely critical front in the fight are LMs. You won't win by having good LM management, but without it you will lose.

Here are my four simple rules for managing your LMs.

1. When you load up your game, always check how many lady's maids you have. Make it a habit.

2. When you pass in the first season, always get 1LM, maybe 2 depending on your opening. Your next pass should be for 2 servants as well, to round out your staff - but take a LM (or two!) if your opponent has left it. Your third pass might go either way, but your fourth onwards should always be: Steal LM.

3. Always check who has 3LM from the midgame onwards. If it's you, you should seriously consider a steal and make it 4. If it's your turn and you have 4, deliver the killing blow and make it 5.

4. If you have only 1LM, you're in big trouble. Red alert. The housekeeper's room won't save you. Pass and get one right now. Pass twice in a row if you have to.

Now once you've played a lot you'll know which of these rules can be bent and broken, and when. But until you've properly mastered LMs, stick to these rules.

It doesn't matter if your hand is a sausage fest. Get the LMs and stay on them. Make sure you're playing the LM game from the beginning and you'll improve very quickly.

[GeoPaladin]

This is well said.

The bulk of your meaningful score comes from prestige guest draws, and the developer chose to give most of these to the ladies. This means that owning LMs gates scoring for both you and your opponent. While there are times I've willingly allowed myself to fall behind on LMs & won from it, this is extremely situational & shouldn't be your ideal going in.

There are good male cards, but overall they're not as common & and for this reason, not as contested.

[Gfunk7676]

deliver the killing blow and make it 5.

U monster!

[Expalphalog]

I'm missing something here. How does passing get you a LM?

[Jontia]

I'm missing something here. How does passing get you a LM?

When playing with the Upstairs, Downstairs expansion you can hire on a passing turn as an additional choice along side gain £200 or Refresh the Market, instead of having to use a playing turn.

The rule is so you can hire more servants to facilitate the use of the new servants in the expansion, which are generally used in addition to normal service on a turn.

[Expalphalog]

Thanks!

I was scouring the rulebook trying to figure that out. I own the base game IRL but I've always avoided Upstairs Downstairs because it seems to ramp up the complexity significantly with all the extra servant types.

[Jontia]

I don't think I would say significantly, but there is extra complexity for sure. The servants are the major change and therefore they are the first thing you'll want to try out. So it handles that complexity by making you want to use it.

But it has more scope for missing out on things when you forget to use your supplementary service. I am always forgetting to use my useful man, to the point where I now don't go for that servant to avoid the "Submit - d'oh" moments. Which is yet another mistake as the Useful Man is very powerful.

[Monkeyunit]

Upstairs Downstairs is some extra complexity, but at the same time the new workers with their special skills can also make it easier.

Getting to play guests from out of reach reputation or usefull man for a little bit of everything.
Its why I personally dont like the expansion very much. Sometimes feels like a "get out of jail free card"

[Muddlewait]

I've seen a lot of new players this season, which is really great!

But I've also been walloping many of you because you don't take care of your lady's maids (LMs).

If you've played IRL you wouldn't miss me stealing your LM, but it's easy to miss on BGA.

Without LMs, you will lose. You will be disabled in a way that you cannot easily recover from.

Obsession is not multiplayer solitaire. It's a fight to the (social) death, and an absolutely critical front in the fight are LMs. You won't win by having good LM management, but without it you will lose.

Here are my four simple rules for managing your LMs.

1. When you load up your game, always check how many lady's maids you have. Make it a habit.

2. When you pass in the first season, always get 1LM, maybe 2 depending on your opening. Your next pass should be for 2 servants as well, to round out your staff - but take a LM (or two!) if your opponent has left it. Your third pass might go either way, but your fourth onwards should always be: Steal LM.

3. Always check who has 3LM from the midgame onwards. If it's you, you should seriously consider a steal and make it 4. If it's your turn and you have 4, deliver the killing blow and make it 5.

4. If you have only 1LM, you're in big trouble. Red alert. The housekeeper's room won't save you. Pass and get one right now. Pass twice in a row if you have to.

Now once you've played a lot you'll know which of these rules can be bent and broken, and when. But until you've properly mastered LMs, stick to these rules.

It doesn't matter if your hand is a sausage fest. Get the LMs and stay on them. Make sure you're playing the LM game from the beginning and you'll improve very quickly.

How does the Loyal Staff variant (which I think the developer said he would’ve made part of the base design in hindsight, and is being used for Arena) affect this approach?

[Jontia]

How does the Loyal Staff variant (which I think the developer said he would’ve made part of the base design in hindsight, and is being used for Arena) affect this approach?

Loyal staff stops your last ladies maid being taken away. Alongside the Housekeeper and the head-housemaid (with the relevant service room), this means you can always count on have 2 or 3 Laidies maids equivilants available even if your opponent goes full court press on this tactic.

In my experience, this means your opponent rarely goes full court press on this tactic.

Having no ladies maids is devestating.
Having one and picking up the head-housemaid flex room, that just means you have to pay attention while managing staff a bit.

That said, I'm still stuck down in bronze this season, so take my advice with a pinch of salt.