“The point isn’t to win?” I asked.
“The point,” Bredon said grandly, “is to play a beautiful game.” He lifted his hands and shrugged, his face breaking into a beatific smile. “Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?”
- The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
First of all, thanks for the tips, BoardAndDangerous! I particularly liked tip #7, I was semi-consciously aware of it but putting that out in the open really helped me focus. It's super, super important not to lose sight of those colony cards!
I'll share some of my own based on the 500+ games I've played. I'll start with a few important ones and add more tips later as I remember them.
1.
Stacking many cards on a sector is almost always a good idea. This helps you afford Level 3 cards sooner, and by using the "pushers" (the cards which increase the die roll) you can double (or more!) your chances of getting that bonanza. Stacking 2-3 high-sectors and using pushers is fine too; make sure the sectors are not consecutive as that misses the point. (While still on the topic of stacking - I've seen that stacking the 6 sector is pretty effective too.)
2.
Arrows, therefore, are exceptionally powerful since they allow for even more "stackability" - the goal is to deploy (=get to the red) an arrow and then stack the neighboring sector (ideally the one to the right) as much as possible. ALWAYS take the 7-10 sector arrows at the beginning of the game, even if it doesn't help you immediately. The 12 arrow is usually quite useless (can you think why?) and the 11 only makes sense if there are lots of 12s and pushers on the board.
3. Some other universally-accepted powerful cards are the level 2, 2 sector "buy a card"; the level 2, 9-sector card-switcher (switch it to the 1-6 sector, immediately deploy it and then try to switch with a 3+ rocket card); and the three level-2 cards which, when deployed, pay an income in sectors 1/4/6 (getting those deployed early can win games, particularly the 6).
4. The "4 coin" level 3 cards are incredibly underrated cards (mostly in the Light Speed Variant). Deploy those early and you've got an excellent engine. Note that if you get the sector 1/2 cards, it's completely reasonable to use Colony Cards (the victory point ones) to deploy them, even a bit early.
5. Also underrated is the level 2; 3-sector "reroller". I really like this one as it's a great counter-strategy to that of tip #1.
6. Those "switch two sector" cards are nice when they work, but make sure you're ready to give up and just deploy those cards if you don't get the rolls early.
