Board Game Arena

My friend told me that on bga players often reserve a card with the first action, I recently played a few games and this is really the case.

As far as it seemed to me, out of my 10 games played (counting 4 on bga), it makes sense to reserve a card in one of the following cases:
1) do not give the opponent a very profitable card
2) if there are already more than 7 chips and you don't want to take new ones \ buy cards
3) if it's a very effective card towards the end of the game and I'm afraid that others might take it away to stop me

Reserving a card as first action does not fit into any of these cases and can significantly slow down your early game. What is the meaning of this?

I often see this too, but never do it myself, for the reasons you mention. It is my impression that the top players certainly don't do it, more the players with lower ELO.

I can only see two reasons really:

1) There is already quite a clear path at the starting layout
2) People going for a strategy of trying to accumulate all gold chips

I was very glad that I wasn't the only one who found this strange, but today out of pure interest I watched the beginning of the WSBG splendor ring final and each of the players reserved a card for himself as first action. I do not know the level of the players, but they should be at least experienced. Perhaps it was because it was 4p game.

Looking forward for someone explaining this strategy

Some cards are so much more efficient than others that it's worth reserving them on the first move. Compare the following tier 3 type cards: 4 points for 7 coins, or 3 points for 5+3+3+3 coins. Reserving the first one only gets 1 coin instead of 3, but you only have to collect 7 instead of 14, so you're still better off (obviously it's not going to be all coins, but you get the point). Plus the gold coin also gives you versatility.

The game is balanced in a way that the optimal strategy is often to target relatively few high value point cards rather than to collect a lot of 0 or 1 point cards to build up an engine, and when you beeline for specific high value point cards, it is often best to reserve them in advance to avoid possible interference from the opponents which could leave you in a bad position. This might be counterintuitive at first, as slowly but steadily building up an engine seems like the way to go, but it is often not the fastest way to 15 points.

Additionally, let's say all the bottom row cards are trash. (WHY are some zero-point cards 3-coin cost and others are 4 and others 5? This makes no sense.)

In this situation, it's possible one player realizes that his or her first 4 moves will be draw tokens 3x, and reserve a card for the joker as the 10th token. In that case, why not grab the best top row card? Then, maybe the opponent buys a bottom row card for 5 coins, and a cheaper one lands in its place.

I didn't played much but I think having a yellow token increase a lot your options. If a very good card arrive in the first line, you have the possibility to use your token to buy that card earlier.
Another thing is that if you reserve a card after like 10/15 turns because you really need one ressource, and if you never reached 10 ressources, then doing that play earlier would have been the same.

But I would not do it first action. After you took already 2/3 cards you have some weak direction, after you took 6, you could see what you are aiming for, and at that moment reserving a card could be good.

I am currently in a game in which my opponent reserved a card on the first THREE turns. And I will probably lose.

(This is a game in progress, so please, no further discussion until after the game is over, at which point I will report back on how it turned out )

I watched some guides and gameplay videos and rethought the game a bit for myself. As noted above, some cards are significantly more effective than others and, if there are no alternatives, they are worth picking up right away before the enemy does. In particular, many of these maps have a bunch of identical resources, and it will be sadif you collect a bunch of green and the card you need is stolen from under your nose.

It's a bit disappointing that I didn't stumble upon it on my own and now I want to play luxury more seriously. I still have a lot to figure out, but big thanks to everyone who responded.

T72on1 wrote: ↑08 May 2025, 12:10 I often see this too, but never do it myself, for the reasons you mention. It is my impression that the top players certainly don't do it, more the players with lower ELO.

I can only see two reasons really:

1) There is already quite a clear path at the starting layout
2) People going for a strategy of trying to accumulate all gold chips

I disagree that players with lower elo do the early hold. Most of it would do with the structure of the game, whether it is 2-player game or 4-player game, or play with expansion:
- In the 2-player game, coins are more limited, so there are other strategies that rival the efficiency strategy such as the noble strategy, or the resource control strategy, where holding early expose your strategy that can be counter by resource control.
- In the 4-player game, coins are abundance that nobody can really control resource, without holding efficiency cards you are making a sure lost for yourself. The noble couldn't catch up as the game only ends in 22-25 turns.
- In the expansion, they might hold early at the aim of early achieve strong post. The winning condition also change from game to game, so they hold the card that synergies with the win condition. If there are no strong synergy, and the high efficiency card has nothing to do with the win condition, then just collect coins and build from the bottom up.

If you are min-maxing, 4 points for 7 coins are the most efficient cards available while tier 1 cards are very inefficient. Reserve the best cards and collect only to buy the most efficient cards. The only time you might need tier 1 and tier 2 is for the 5 point cards that cost 7+3 because you can only hold 10 coins and it requires 10. 7 coins and below can be done, but 1 or 2 cards may help if you plan to use it to buy 2-3 cards.