The common wisdom is that denial strategies are only good in 2p games, because if you spend actions to deny someone in a 4p game, you are just helping your other opponents.
However, I want to ask: In rare cases, is it worth denying food in 4p games?
Here's the game which inspired me to ask this:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=394858026
In round 4, p1 took the 4 clay, and clearly does not need any food for the harvest. However, my idea is that p1 should be taking 4 food instead. Unless p3 and p4 have cards to save them, the expected result of that action is that p2 takes 4 food, p3 takes day labourer (and makes the cottager/childless combo sad), p4 takes RSF.
This way, p1 would still be able to get whatever resource space they want, and p3/p4 would take a total of FIVE BEGGING CARDS! This seems very worthwhile. I'm aware that a grain seeds action can be taken and eaten raw to save 3 points here, but this would just mean that there are more resources on the board for p1 next round, which still makes it seem worthwhile.
(In fact, p3 did have a layabout in hand, but this would still force a stage 1 layabout, force p4 to beg, leave more resources on the board for next round, and give p1 4 food for later.)
However, I want to ask: In rare cases, is it worth denying food in 4p games?
Here's the game which inspired me to ask this:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=394858026
In round 4, p1 took the 4 clay, and clearly does not need any food for the harvest. However, my idea is that p1 should be taking 4 food instead. Unless p3 and p4 have cards to save them, the expected result of that action is that p2 takes 4 food, p3 takes day labourer (and makes the cottager/childless combo sad), p4 takes RSF.
This way, p1 would still be able to get whatever resource space they want, and p3/p4 would take a total of FIVE BEGGING CARDS! This seems very worthwhile. I'm aware that a grain seeds action can be taken and eaten raw to save 3 points here, but this would just mean that there are more resources on the board for p1 next round, which still makes it seem worthwhile.
(In fact, p3 did have a layabout in hand, but this would still force a stage 1 layabout, force p4 to beg, leave more resources on the board for next round, and give p1 4 food for later.)
