jjgllg wrote: ↑26 September 2026, 02:38
Mostly just dont overthink about it. There are three ways in general:
1. Just score more points. Optimize your own game and you can often pull ahead even though someone gets a good science run
2. Plan ahead so you can play or hide their cards, either resources or green while not sacrificing your own possibilities
3. Just ignore the situation and secure the 2nd place behind the science player. Usually the best option if there is zero awareness or cooperation from the other players in the table.
On some wonders and some situations you can also play a green game, either scoring one set or building a single chain, even if it is not your main focus. Pick carefully and you can limit green player options a lot, since they often have just one particularly good card in that hand. It is better to snatch yourself a 5 point green instead of a 6 point blue, if you are ahead in the game and that green would score a lot more for the green player.
Then again, you can be a green player yourself. 5 or more players and you can make a lot in it even if you have competition. Especially if your wonder is not expected to rush for green, you might catch them by a surprise and pull ahead before they realize what you were up to. Memorize what resources you will need to play efficiently. In early game you can also force yourself to become the main green player and then others need to take another path. This is often risky, but can win you a difficult table setup if you get lucky. Worth a shot if you have a bad starting position and your opening hand does not improve your general situation. You can't win every game.
I don't fully agree with everything said here.
1. Well the entire point of this topic is how to stop full green players, so saying score more points is just preposterous. If a green player goes unpunished they'll 100% win the game because the points grow exponentially the more green you play, so for example with 3 full sets they are already at 48 points, and they only played half the card available for the entire game (9/18). You simply can't score more points, you need to actively do something about it. You can win every war, play every best guild available and still finish second.
2. I agree with this point, but the planning stars even before the first card you play: you need to get a grasp about which wonders are stronger with green strategy, and these are in order Hali, Babylon and Ephesos. Hali is just the best wonder in the game, can potentially play 3 cards from the discard and the stage wonders are perfectly suited for a green strategy; Babylon plays differently, but it can still be devastating with the second stage giving you a free symbol, never underestimate a good player playing Babylon; Ephesos is the worst of the three but the advantage here is that you start off with press, I would say the most important grey resource for green strategy for different reasons, one of them being school age 2.
So when facing these wonders you should always consider they could go for green, so just play proactively in this direction.
3. This makes perfect sense, but it's more of an emergency exit when the table fails to stop the main green guy, especially in arena games.
My main takes here to help you out are basically 2:
1. First of all, the main way to stop or at least to try to counter green is to win wars against them, this is a staple, you can't afford to let them chain free reds or get cheap war wins, this is something you should always do, otherwise everything else you could think of doing to stop them would be useless if they beat you on reds.
2. So after assessing that you did correctly addressed the main green player at the table, that you need to stop them or you'll lose, and that you need to win wars against them, we can start talking about active strategies.
The most basic error to do is to play trading posts pointed towards them, they are already planning to go full green so they're probably not playing many brown resources so it's a wasted play to do, and moreover you are gifting them crucial gold to enhance their strategy. You should always dry out of gold the green guy, that has to be a concern for them, their plays need always to be on the edge of their chain capacity, so that's one way to make their life harder. For context one of the main way to counter the green player in 3p is for the others to play trading posts towards them, to isolate the green guy.
Next up don't play grey resources for them, it's just a stupid play to do, you are just giving them an early advantage that lets them play early greens age 1 without the need to actively play these grey cards.
Lastly try to break their chains, and this can be achieved in two ways, by hiding 1 or 2 key green cards or by splashing green yourself. How can you do this efficiently? Try to focus on 1 particular symbol, depending on what the green guy is doing, for example the cog is the easiest one to hide or splash, because of their scarcity age 1 and age 2 in 4p and 5p. Don't try to create a green war, it doesn't work, try instead playing for example even 1 or 2 cogs, if the game lets you do so, because maybe sometimes it's better to hide for example with giza whilst sometimes is better to splash for example with ephesos, babylon or cartaghe, or even with alex or olympia, it mostly depends on the player count and on the wonders on the table.
So yeah, stopping science players is not easy, you need the table support and to make the right call, and this is something worth thinking about it while playing, so not overthinking it is not a great suggestion in my opinion
