how do u distribute ur 20 houses ?
any tips/tricks ?
any tips/tricks ?
Strategy?
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Re: Strategy?
With the digitized version, the houses cannot be eaten, so the game can be played by young children.
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RicardoRix
- Posts: 2109
- Joined: 29 April 2012, 23:43
Re: Strategy?
yes, on-line you can't make tessellated shapes out of your components to show everyone that you're a proper board-gamer.
Children eating components I find only really effects the final score -> no scoring marker = no points. But sometimes this can be a useful tactic if you're losing against your wife.
Children eating components I find only really effects the final score -> no scoring marker = no points. But sometimes this can be a useful tactic if you're losing against your wife.
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bbrriiaann42
- Posts: 8
- Joined: 05 September 2020, 22:49
Re: Strategy?
NCCCC, I feel you on this. I like this game a lot, but I always lose.
It feels very "tight," not a lot of room for error or missed plays. I think my biggest improvement will be if I just pay closer attention.
It feels very "tight," not a lot of room for error or missed plays. I think my biggest improvement will be if I just pay closer attention.
Re: Strategy?
Try not to use the administrator. Pay attention to what others are doing. Game ends the round someone hits the 7 carriage, so if someone is rushing that, especially if they are after you in turn order, you want to make sure you score on your last turn.
Re: Strategy?
Some thoughts on the game:
1) Going for Baiern early on rarely works: it's hard to pull off, and often means card duplication later on. That said, one sometimes has to run with what the cards give, and it can use up houses. If you do get an early all-grey route, don't feel it has to get them all - pick off the remaining greys on subsequent runs. Beware, good players will actively stop you finishing the greys if the see you’ve only a couple of cards left to complete the set.
2) The key cities are Innsbruck, Pilsen and Sigmaringen: if you sabotage any of these, it can ruin your opponent. Lodz can also be attacked, although it's less effective as at the end of a line - a one-stop only. Of the three, I consider Sigmaringen the most essential - it's hard to build multi-coloured lines in the south-west without it, and without it one loses the ‘easy’ green bonus. To a lesser degree than Sigmaringen, the spare Pilsens/Innbrucks in one's hand can be useful later on, e.g. as part of a Budweis-Linz run, as well as a Lodz run, whereas extra Lodzes have very little benefit and will clog up your hand.
These cards are SO desirable, that if the opening spread offers two of them, it’s one tactic to take them both, even though they don’t join. Sure, you can come unstuck - your opponent may actively prevent you finding an adjacent city to the one you play - but usually it’s worth the risk.
3) Salzburg is an interesting one: aim to include it in a run with Innsbruck, or Pilsen, or both. If it's with Pilsen, it enables you to get the Bohmen-Salzburg region in two runs, not three. If one doesn't put Salzburg in one of these two runs, it really slows down the east side, and makes it hard to get the red-orange bonus.
4) Aim to get Budweis and Linz together, if at all. These two are useful - relatively easy to pick off at the end, so scoring three out of five cities in a run (if with Passau or other unvisited greys). You might need to hold one whilst you wait for the other, but scoring just one (e.g. Linz & Salzburg) means you’ll have to revisit that region to pick off the other.
5) Typically, I find one doesn't get all the greens and purples and blues: normally two of the three, sometimes only one if the cards have been bad. The greens are the most accessible, so often the decision is blue or purple. Purple can be a nuisance. If you can get all three in one go, great, but it's rare; and getting 2/3 at the end uses up a house, but no bonus tile, so may not have been worth the effort. Getting two early on is good, e.g. Mannheim + Carlsruhe, so you can get Freiburg in another run, with a light blue and Siggy.
6) Thinking ahead: sometimes the spectacular runs of 7 aren't worth the time they take to build; and they often include inefficient builds - cards that won’t score a house. Better to plan it - even keep back cards - to make each run strong. E.g. All three purples in one run? Might be better to save the Freiburg, and use it to access Basel later - this avoids duplication. Another conundrum: if your first run is Freiburg-Basel-Zurich, do you take the blues, or mix the colours? My hunch: take the blues, which near-guarantees the blue bonus later, and means any purple in a later run ticks the all-colours box. This means three cities to choose from; whereas choosing Freiburg and Basel means one has to revisit Zurich to get the blue bonus.
7) Unremarkable runs early on can tee up rewards later. I used to like Lodz-Pilsen-Nurnburg-Stuttgart-Carlsruhe, but have rarely used it recently. Perhaps because I realise getting one extra purple isn't so useful.
8) In a two-player game (I haven’t studied three- and four- sufficiently to comment), going first is undesirable, and can cause self-destruction in the end game if you’re on the back foot and the second player is threatening to finish off. In case your opponent earns their 7th carriage, you score your own run to avoid it being wasted, but this then buys them an extra go for free. As you scored early, the pressure’s off them and they can extend their line further, or administrate for a key city.
If going first, stay on the front foot if possible. Conversely, if you’re second to play, it's good to force the issue: get ahead in turns where possible, so you can milk this advantage later on.
The disadvantage of going last in a 4- player game is considerable: the bonuses are paltry because wherever you build, it’s likely someone else has already taken the top token. But such congestion is rarely a major factor with 2, and getting the second bonus tile in the pile is still a good load of points.
9) Avoid administrating if possible - it costs time; if you find you're administrating, getting a connecting card, playing it, but then having to administrate again the next go to keep afloat, you've got yourself into a hole, and it can cost the game because of the loss of pace. The odds on a good lucky dip are surprisingly high, although it depends on which cities you've already laid down, and how specific a city you need. If the opening cards aren't tempting - no key cities, or strong pairs, then picking a lucky dip can be good - it's likely to connect to one of the six that you didn't choose.
10) DIRTY TACTICS. Some people have really resented 'dirty tactics' when I've used them, but as one excellent player said to me on our first game at BGA (possibly my first game here? Or first loss?) 'that IS the game'. There are a couple of mean things one can do to sabotage the opponent, but - and this point's important - they don't always work, and they sometimes waste precious time. Sometimes, by using such strategies you compromise your own lines. It's all judgement, weighing up the likelihood. Much like Tantrix, a game I used to play avidly: games between strong players often have low scores, because they're expending so much time on blocking the opponent as well as building their lines. For me, the game is FAR more interesting when both players are interacting (interfering) with each other. Aggressive play is much more effective in 2- player games: in a 3-player game you might mess up one opponent but the time spent means the other player pips you at the finish.
Examples of skulduggery:
- if they're building in the dark alleys of the board, you can get them trapped. Opening picks of Lodz-Pilsen; Linz-Budweis; Basel-Freiburg are ones I've cornered. But often, with an Administrator or two, they can wriggle out - even in these corners. Once, one player said to me 'Great. Now I can't play.' and other such stuff, indicating he wasn't amused or impressed by my early tactic. I was feeling smug that my deliberate sabotage had paid off! Conversely, don't leave yourself open to such attacks early on: a first run around Ulm route is much safer than Basel; but if you think an administrator or two will bring forth the essential card you need to land strong opening run, then risk it. Even if your opponent administrates and finds a get-out card, that time administering can put them on the back foot. And their administering can help you find better cards.
- pinching the cards they need. It's always good to keep an eye on the opponent's moves - you can trap them as above, but also simply frustrate them on their building. Sometimes these cards are useful for you too, so it doesn't look as mean-spirited... but one can usually sense when the opponent is wilfully making life difficult!
- holding cards: typically one of the four key cities (the dark shades and Pilsen), which prevents the opponent from ever getting the rainbow bonus, and can lure them into fruitlessly administrating each turn to find the hidden cards. If it works, it's nuclear, and ruthlessly vicious. However, keeping cards costs hand space and time - do you keep holding when you have to get back to three cards? Thus slowing down the start of your next run? Or release them back into the pile? Here, it's worth looking at the number of cards in the deck; if it's just passed a cycle, then release them: the opponent will have to administrate lots to bring them round again. Sometimes I've even administrated simply to get the deck through, so when I release these cards they won't go straight back into the pick-up pile. But again, it's a strategy that can go wrong: like London buses, you wait ages for a key card, and then two turn up. So, having swiped a Pilsen to spite your opponent, the deck punishes your malicious intent by immediately replacing it with another. A savvy opponent will try and win by other means if they suspect you’ve monopolised a key city.
11) Draw from the deck: It’s a more useful option than one might first think: on the BGG link elsewhere on this thread, it explains the favourable odds of getting a decent card. In one T&T tournament online, I was beaten in the knock-out stage by a player who drew from the deck lots. I was astonished, - there were good cards face up on the table - but when I reviewed the game, could see this tactic won it for him. Partly because I didn’t know what he had, but also because he had some super-jammy pick-ups! Like Innsbruck. So he was able to do strong runs in spite of it. It's not a strategy I've tried, but can see, early on, when there's the whole board available, and cheeky unremarkable little runs are OK, it's a crafty tactic; and most cities could be incorporated into something.
12) Long runs: I've not done a study, but my hunch is that a fast builder will usually beat the long-runner: they're out on seven carriages before the long-runner has got going, and covered the territory. That said, sometimes I've raced for the finish line, and not used up enough houses in the process, so have lost the game. Or got stuck on a later run, which has given them time to catch up the pace, and then clinch the win with their hefty bonus tiles. Do long runs where the cards lend themselves to it, but otherwise, go for carriages. Rarely do players place all the houses to win - and those that do could probably have been beaten if the opponent used the Cartwright more.
13) A quiet rule: if you have no cards in your hand, you MUST use the postmaster. This has caught me out. I finished my 6-carriage run, with two cards left in the hand. My plan for the next three moves: postal carrier, postal carrier, cartwright; and out in three express moves. BUT... this isn't possible; on the cartwright move I had no cards in the hand, so HAD to pick up two with the postmaster. Dang!
14) little extras: some players do little runs to get a territory; this is usually unwise - make each run advance the carriages. Perhaps it was they'd got themselves in a hole and needed to take the swag before getting trapped and lose the entire run. I’ve found that going for houses can be like kids’ sticker albums: getting those specific house-less cities at the end is fiddly and takes too many turns, whereas the 7th carriage requires any run of sufficient length, regardless of the cities included.
15) Cartwright: an invaluable tool, and certainly not a ‘cheat’. Timing your runs to hit the cartwright is key. Eg the 6-carriage run will be 2+1+1 or 1+2+1; thinking this through can help you judge when an administrator is not a waste of a move, because you effectively have a free move before scoring.
Some addenda:
Freiburg is the most important purple, with its access to the blues as well as greens. For Carlsruhe and Mannheim, keep your eye on which has the more promising outlet: Freiburg or Wurzburg ?
Kempten is an important bridging city, with links to Ulm and Zurich (+Sigmaringen, west) and Innsbruck (+ Salzburg, east). It’s flexible in usage, and one to prioritise.
Ingolstadt seems unremarkable, but can be very useful, being so central, with many adjoining cities. Although Nürnburg is the quickest route between east and west, Ingolstadt touches both light greens, and other important greys - München / Augsburg (to Innsbruck); Regensburg (to Pilsen); as such it means you might have only one non-scoring house in a run that bridges east to west.
At first, one thinks of Basel, Mannheim, Carlsruhe, Budweis and Linz as the ‘awkward ones on the edges’ - not so desirable ; but actually, getting one of these out of the way early is good later on - you don’t need to revisit cities to reach an extremity of the board. They just need a bit more care: have neighbouring cards available.
I learned the hard way : a first run of 5 is OK - you can usually catch up the pace - but 7, however tempting, with delectable cards, puts you severely on the back foot. Unless the other player is also playing a long-routes game, it can cost you a promising start.
1) Going for Baiern early on rarely works: it's hard to pull off, and often means card duplication later on. That said, one sometimes has to run with what the cards give, and it can use up houses. If you do get an early all-grey route, don't feel it has to get them all - pick off the remaining greys on subsequent runs. Beware, good players will actively stop you finishing the greys if the see you’ve only a couple of cards left to complete the set.
2) The key cities are Innsbruck, Pilsen and Sigmaringen: if you sabotage any of these, it can ruin your opponent. Lodz can also be attacked, although it's less effective as at the end of a line - a one-stop only. Of the three, I consider Sigmaringen the most essential - it's hard to build multi-coloured lines in the south-west without it, and without it one loses the ‘easy’ green bonus. To a lesser degree than Sigmaringen, the spare Pilsens/Innbrucks in one's hand can be useful later on, e.g. as part of a Budweis-Linz run, as well as a Lodz run, whereas extra Lodzes have very little benefit and will clog up your hand.
These cards are SO desirable, that if the opening spread offers two of them, it’s one tactic to take them both, even though they don’t join. Sure, you can come unstuck - your opponent may actively prevent you finding an adjacent city to the one you play - but usually it’s worth the risk.
3) Salzburg is an interesting one: aim to include it in a run with Innsbruck, or Pilsen, or both. If it's with Pilsen, it enables you to get the Bohmen-Salzburg region in two runs, not three. If one doesn't put Salzburg in one of these two runs, it really slows down the east side, and makes it hard to get the red-orange bonus.
4) Aim to get Budweis and Linz together, if at all. These two are useful - relatively easy to pick off at the end, so scoring three out of five cities in a run (if with Passau or other unvisited greys). You might need to hold one whilst you wait for the other, but scoring just one (e.g. Linz & Salzburg) means you’ll have to revisit that region to pick off the other.
5) Typically, I find one doesn't get all the greens and purples and blues: normally two of the three, sometimes only one if the cards have been bad. The greens are the most accessible, so often the decision is blue or purple. Purple can be a nuisance. If you can get all three in one go, great, but it's rare; and getting 2/3 at the end uses up a house, but no bonus tile, so may not have been worth the effort. Getting two early on is good, e.g. Mannheim + Carlsruhe, so you can get Freiburg in another run, with a light blue and Siggy.
6) Thinking ahead: sometimes the spectacular runs of 7 aren't worth the time they take to build; and they often include inefficient builds - cards that won’t score a house. Better to plan it - even keep back cards - to make each run strong. E.g. All three purples in one run? Might be better to save the Freiburg, and use it to access Basel later - this avoids duplication. Another conundrum: if your first run is Freiburg-Basel-Zurich, do you take the blues, or mix the colours? My hunch: take the blues, which near-guarantees the blue bonus later, and means any purple in a later run ticks the all-colours box. This means three cities to choose from; whereas choosing Freiburg and Basel means one has to revisit Zurich to get the blue bonus.
7) Unremarkable runs early on can tee up rewards later. I used to like Lodz-Pilsen-Nurnburg-Stuttgart-Carlsruhe, but have rarely used it recently. Perhaps because I realise getting one extra purple isn't so useful.
8) In a two-player game (I haven’t studied three- and four- sufficiently to comment), going first is undesirable, and can cause self-destruction in the end game if you’re on the back foot and the second player is threatening to finish off. In case your opponent earns their 7th carriage, you score your own run to avoid it being wasted, but this then buys them an extra go for free. As you scored early, the pressure’s off them and they can extend their line further, or administrate for a key city.
If going first, stay on the front foot if possible. Conversely, if you’re second to play, it's good to force the issue: get ahead in turns where possible, so you can milk this advantage later on.
The disadvantage of going last in a 4- player game is considerable: the bonuses are paltry because wherever you build, it’s likely someone else has already taken the top token. But such congestion is rarely a major factor with 2, and getting the second bonus tile in the pile is still a good load of points.
9) Avoid administrating if possible - it costs time; if you find you're administrating, getting a connecting card, playing it, but then having to administrate again the next go to keep afloat, you've got yourself into a hole, and it can cost the game because of the loss of pace. The odds on a good lucky dip are surprisingly high, although it depends on which cities you've already laid down, and how specific a city you need. If the opening cards aren't tempting - no key cities, or strong pairs, then picking a lucky dip can be good - it's likely to connect to one of the six that you didn't choose.
10) DIRTY TACTICS. Some people have really resented 'dirty tactics' when I've used them, but as one excellent player said to me on our first game at BGA (possibly my first game here? Or first loss?) 'that IS the game'. There are a couple of mean things one can do to sabotage the opponent, but - and this point's important - they don't always work, and they sometimes waste precious time. Sometimes, by using such strategies you compromise your own lines. It's all judgement, weighing up the likelihood. Much like Tantrix, a game I used to play avidly: games between strong players often have low scores, because they're expending so much time on blocking the opponent as well as building their lines. For me, the game is FAR more interesting when both players are interacting (interfering) with each other. Aggressive play is much more effective in 2- player games: in a 3-player game you might mess up one opponent but the time spent means the other player pips you at the finish.
Examples of skulduggery:
- if they're building in the dark alleys of the board, you can get them trapped. Opening picks of Lodz-Pilsen; Linz-Budweis; Basel-Freiburg are ones I've cornered. But often, with an Administrator or two, they can wriggle out - even in these corners. Once, one player said to me 'Great. Now I can't play.' and other such stuff, indicating he wasn't amused or impressed by my early tactic. I was feeling smug that my deliberate sabotage had paid off! Conversely, don't leave yourself open to such attacks early on: a first run around Ulm route is much safer than Basel; but if you think an administrator or two will bring forth the essential card you need to land strong opening run, then risk it. Even if your opponent administrates and finds a get-out card, that time administering can put them on the back foot. And their administering can help you find better cards.
- pinching the cards they need. It's always good to keep an eye on the opponent's moves - you can trap them as above, but also simply frustrate them on their building. Sometimes these cards are useful for you too, so it doesn't look as mean-spirited... but one can usually sense when the opponent is wilfully making life difficult!
- holding cards: typically one of the four key cities (the dark shades and Pilsen), which prevents the opponent from ever getting the rainbow bonus, and can lure them into fruitlessly administrating each turn to find the hidden cards. If it works, it's nuclear, and ruthlessly vicious. However, keeping cards costs hand space and time - do you keep holding when you have to get back to three cards? Thus slowing down the start of your next run? Or release them back into the pile? Here, it's worth looking at the number of cards in the deck; if it's just passed a cycle, then release them: the opponent will have to administrate lots to bring them round again. Sometimes I've even administrated simply to get the deck through, so when I release these cards they won't go straight back into the pick-up pile. But again, it's a strategy that can go wrong: like London buses, you wait ages for a key card, and then two turn up. So, having swiped a Pilsen to spite your opponent, the deck punishes your malicious intent by immediately replacing it with another. A savvy opponent will try and win by other means if they suspect you’ve monopolised a key city.
11) Draw from the deck: It’s a more useful option than one might first think: on the BGG link elsewhere on this thread, it explains the favourable odds of getting a decent card. In one T&T tournament online, I was beaten in the knock-out stage by a player who drew from the deck lots. I was astonished, - there were good cards face up on the table - but when I reviewed the game, could see this tactic won it for him. Partly because I didn’t know what he had, but also because he had some super-jammy pick-ups! Like Innsbruck. So he was able to do strong runs in spite of it. It's not a strategy I've tried, but can see, early on, when there's the whole board available, and cheeky unremarkable little runs are OK, it's a crafty tactic; and most cities could be incorporated into something.
12) Long runs: I've not done a study, but my hunch is that a fast builder will usually beat the long-runner: they're out on seven carriages before the long-runner has got going, and covered the territory. That said, sometimes I've raced for the finish line, and not used up enough houses in the process, so have lost the game. Or got stuck on a later run, which has given them time to catch up the pace, and then clinch the win with their hefty bonus tiles. Do long runs where the cards lend themselves to it, but otherwise, go for carriages. Rarely do players place all the houses to win - and those that do could probably have been beaten if the opponent used the Cartwright more.
13) A quiet rule: if you have no cards in your hand, you MUST use the postmaster. This has caught me out. I finished my 6-carriage run, with two cards left in the hand. My plan for the next three moves: postal carrier, postal carrier, cartwright; and out in three express moves. BUT... this isn't possible; on the cartwright move I had no cards in the hand, so HAD to pick up two with the postmaster. Dang!
14) little extras: some players do little runs to get a territory; this is usually unwise - make each run advance the carriages. Perhaps it was they'd got themselves in a hole and needed to take the swag before getting trapped and lose the entire run. I’ve found that going for houses can be like kids’ sticker albums: getting those specific house-less cities at the end is fiddly and takes too many turns, whereas the 7th carriage requires any run of sufficient length, regardless of the cities included.
15) Cartwright: an invaluable tool, and certainly not a ‘cheat’. Timing your runs to hit the cartwright is key. Eg the 6-carriage run will be 2+1+1 or 1+2+1; thinking this through can help you judge when an administrator is not a waste of a move, because you effectively have a free move before scoring.
Some addenda:
Freiburg is the most important purple, with its access to the blues as well as greens. For Carlsruhe and Mannheim, keep your eye on which has the more promising outlet: Freiburg or Wurzburg ?
Kempten is an important bridging city, with links to Ulm and Zurich (+Sigmaringen, west) and Innsbruck (+ Salzburg, east). It’s flexible in usage, and one to prioritise.
Ingolstadt seems unremarkable, but can be very useful, being so central, with many adjoining cities. Although Nürnburg is the quickest route between east and west, Ingolstadt touches both light greens, and other important greys - München / Augsburg (to Innsbruck); Regensburg (to Pilsen); as such it means you might have only one non-scoring house in a run that bridges east to west.
At first, one thinks of Basel, Mannheim, Carlsruhe, Budweis and Linz as the ‘awkward ones on the edges’ - not so desirable ; but actually, getting one of these out of the way early is good later on - you don’t need to revisit cities to reach an extremity of the board. They just need a bit more care: have neighbouring cards available.
I learned the hard way : a first run of 5 is OK - you can usually catch up the pace - but 7, however tempting, with delectable cards, puts you severely on the back foot. Unless the other player is also playing a long-routes game, it can cost you a promising start.