It's a Wonderful World Strategy Guide

[sorryimlikethis]

Hello everyone!
It's a Wonderful World is my all-time favourite game and I'm so delighted it's now on BGA. Thanks to the developers for making a great implementation!

I made this strategy guide for the base game a few months ago and thought I'd share it here.

https://youtu.be/mUhCZtjbNO4

I have just reached #1, which granted is not a huge achievement given how recently the game came out. I also have a few hundred games played on a different website of which I am also in the top 10. I'll happily answer any questions. Thanks & good luck!

[VioletAngel11]

Thanks, just started playing this, and am making it my mission to get good at it!

[DouxHC]

Thanks for sharing, will check later, IWW has become one of my favorites here and in general, I wish you could choose the Empire card so you can get good strategizing for an specific Empire and master it then jump to the next, is a great game, wish once they release it they start making the expansions available too.
Also I'm on for any Turn game, can't play Real Time for now, doesn't matter how many players or ELO...

[sorryimlikethis]

Thanks for sharing, will check later, IWW has become one of my favorites here and in general, I wish you could choose the Empire card so you can get good strategizing for an specific Empire and master it then jump to the next, is a great game, wish once they release it they start making the expansions available too.
Also I'm on for any Turn game, can't play Real Time for now, doesn't matter how many players or ELO...

This is why I like Side B (symmetrical empires) so much. You can play any strategy you want without having to worry about what empire has been given to you

[rommeswi]

I agree, I think it is a big flaw in the game how much it locks you into a particular strategy. At first, the different empires feel good and interesting but it is very frustrating to play matches where very few cards come out that match the empire's specialty.

Overall, once playing reasonably competent, the game feels very luck-of-the-draw based, especially with more than two players. That's because you don't know what cards will come out in the last two rounds but have to commit to a strategy early on. You can compromise by not committing early and still get a decent number of points. But on a four player table there will invariably be some player fully committed to that bust-or-100 point strategy that again turns it into a game of chance.

[nandblock]

To clarify: Side A is only intended for learning the game and is not especially balanced. (In particular, if someone gets the 3 grey + 1 yellow empire and the other gets 1 grey + 2 yellow, they will be in direct competition with the latter at a distinct disadvantage.) -- The symmetrical empires (Side B) are for regular play.

There are more balanced asymmetrical empires in the expansion material but it's not implemented on BGA.

[nandblock]

Re: luck of the draw--on the whole there are enough duplicates in the deck that you aren't too locked in to a particular strategy. That said, there are definitely a few crazy good cards--in particular, I'd say that any player who draws the single copy of Magnetic Train in the first round or two is going to be very hard to beat if they are reasonably competent.

[flolem]

Re: luck of the draw--on the whole there are enough duplicates in the deck that you aren't too locked in to a particular strategy. That said, there are definitely a few crazy good cards--in particular, I'd say that any player who draws the single copy of Magnetic Train in the first round or two is going to be very hard to beat if they are reasonably competent.

my last game, have magnetic train in first round didnt' won. I was producting a lot of yelow cubes but no cards to place them... so much waste
And I lost.. when no yellow cards appears and jsut a few, your opponent can deny it too these cards.. I felt so much dependant of the randomness for this game

[nandblock]

The odds of getting no yellow cards and no cards which score for financiers over 4 rounds is vanishingly low. I guess it can happen but this is so small a chance that blaming randomness is like blaming card games in general, rather than a knock on this particular game. You need to accept some chance of just having bad luck to play any card game.

[sorryimlikethis]

Re: luck of the draw--on the whole there are enough duplicates in the deck that you aren't too locked in to a particular strategy. That said, there are definitely a few crazy good cards--in particular, I'd say that any player who draws the single copy of Magnetic Train in the first round or two is going to be very hard to beat if they are reasonably competent.

my last game, have magnetic train in first round didnt' won. I was producting a lot of yelow cubes but no cards to place them... so much waste
And I lost.. when no yellow cards appears and jsut a few, your opponent can deny it too these cards.. I felt so much dependant of the randomness for this game

It can definitely happen, particularly if scoring cards show up early while you're building your engine and then don't appear later. It's really hard to know when you need to take scoring cards and when you need to keep working on production. Ideally you do both in each round, but that's not always possible.

I'm looking at your game now. Perfect start with Magnetic Train.

2nd pick of round 2 I would pick Lunar Base over Transmutation.
This is one of those situations where Magnetic Train already gives you enough production by itself, adding in more yellow production isn't a top priority. Especially since you saw from your opening hand in rd2 there aren't any scoring cards there.
Also worth noting you should finish Research Center before Financial Center as you already produce more than the 2 yellow you need, but only produce 1 out of the 4 green you need. This would also win you the green bonus this round

Round 3 there isn't much choice. I probably would have taken Teleportation 1st pick because there's just nothing else. It would be easier to complete if you had finished Research Center last round. Underwater City is okay. If that's your 1st pick this round then Garden of the Hesperides should be your 3rd pick. It's only 4 points now but could be 8-10 by the end of the game and you're producing the blue anyway.
Building another Recycling Plant to take back the white production bonus is a good move.

Round 4 some scoring cards appeared but not enough black production to finish them all. With yellow builds it's always a good idea to prepare some black production because there are a lot of cards that can require it. Casino City x2, Space Elevator, Lunar Base, Underwater City. Getting a Nuclear Plant at some point would have been good, but I don't remember if there was an opportunity for you to grab one. I remember in round 3 you threw away 4 white cubes.

30 points may seem like a lot but a few small differences and I think it's a winnable game. It's much easier to say that in hindsight of course.
Finishing Lunar Base is a 25 point difference (+13 for you, -12 for them), green bonus in rd2 in a 3 point difference, denying them Teleportation is -9 for them. They will do other things with their production so it's probably not as extreme as that, but the idea is generally there.

What your opponent did really well that game was deny you opportunities to score, and if you can see your opponent is going to out-produce you sometimes this can be the only way to win.