Board Game Arena

It's time to talk about that mission. I often got some remarks while playing it.

I want to talk about 4 players. So if nobody has 4 cards in one non pink color, that's a lost.
You have two ways to lose a winnable game:
- either someone got multiple subs, and wasn't able to play all of them except one until the end
- or either someone got 3+ cards in one color and wasn't able to play all of them

The most straightforwoard strategy is to:
- play 4 times in one color, players subs the last trick
- play 3 times in another color, players subs the last trick
- player 3 times in the last color, players subs the last trick

How are you playing it? What do you comm?

Here is a generation of 4x50hands, if you wanna talk with examples:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... =116190158 (columns A~K)

On the 13th hand (captain has 4 subs), I disagree it's impossible with open knowledge.

My changes from your play :

7th trick : let the player who commed g8 win with blue (P1), captain dumps pink instead.
8th trick : P1 leads green, captain subs.
9th trick : captain leads yellow, P4 wins the trick
10th trick : P4 leads yellow, and captain plays the last sub.

As such, captain only needs to lead 3 times, since the last sub is played on the last trick. Of course, it works if you know all the cards, it might not work in a real game

Does "win with omniscience" mean you would expect the hand to be lost with players following your strategy, and they would only win if they cheat and peek at each other's cards? E.g. deal #9 looks like an easy win just playing normally. A lot of others marked as "omniscience" look like they should be easy wins as well.

Regarding the specific deal #13, this looks winnable even without open knowledge, but does require a single guess that I would call a nonstandard but reasonable play. Granted, my strategy is slightly different than yours. (and also different than a lot of other players, in this mission I frequently see players making what I consider misplays.)

The general team goal is to play each color for as long as possible. E.g. play blue until no one has blue anymore, then play yellow until no one has yellow anymore, then play green until no one has green anymore.

Under ideal circumstances (no problems that players spot in their hands), this is accomplished without comms by:

• Following a middle-high-low pattern in each color. Save your lowest card for last. If you have two cards in a color, play the high card first. If you have three cards in a color, play the middle card first. However, a sufficiently strong hand, e.g. y179, should play the 9 first. The idea is to keep the lead in yellow for as long as possible, so you can deviate from middle-high-low when appropriate.
• Prioritizing one color at a time, rather than jumping from color to color. When you have the lead, lead the color that the fewest people have left.

Now with that ideal play pattern in mind, each player needs to check their hand for obstacles to that plan (reasons you could lose a game that appears winnable), and comm or act accordingly. Each player needs to:

• Fully play out the suits in which they might be the longest (have 3+ cards)
  • Problem: Weak long suit (e.g. 1245g). Potential problem: Weak slightly-long suit (e.g. y124, if yellows are split 3-2-2-2).
  • Potential problem: Strong long suit and no good way to retake lead if subbed over (e.g. 1689g in a weak hand)
• Get rid of cards that block others from playing out their long suits
  • Problem: Multiple subs
  • Problem: High blockers (e.g. a lone 9 or 89)

Comm meanings:

• Lone card comm at start of game means multiple subs.
• High/low comm at start of game means a long suit that you might have trouble maintaining the lead through.
• As time progresses, lone card comm starts to mean "this is my last non-pink". Might be your last lead card that you don't want taken away (if you still have multiple subs), or a card you want someone else to go over the top of / sub over (because if you win with it, we lose).

Fixes to problems (roughly in order of priority)

• Multiple subs:
  • Comm a lone card (not always required, if your hand distribution will make it easy to get rid of your extra sub).
  • A lone card comm should usually take highest priority, since it might be more than two subs.
  • With 3+ subs, sub as soon as possible.
  • With 2 subs, wait until the last trick of a color when play pattern or comms show that the color will continue successfully.
• Weak long suit (e.g. 1245g):
  • The danger here is that green is saved towards the end, someone plays their g96 expecting you to take the g6 and continue playing green, but you can't. g96 needs to be played earlier so you have time to retake the lead in another color and continue green.
  • Comm the suit at start (I would comm g5 here, but low card comms might sometimes be better).
  • You can even comm with three cards, e.g. 124y, since there's a chance of a 3-2-2-2 yellow split. Although I would only comm this if no one else has commed issues, I wouldn't want this maybe-problem to steal focus from something that's definitely a problem. If I don't comm y124, I'm still looking to steer us into yellow before other colors, e.g. I'm leading y2 if I'm commander.
• High blockers (e.g. lone g9):
  • The danger here is that green isn't played until all your other dump cards are gone, and then your g9 takes the lead.
  • There are lots of ways to fix this: comm the g9 so green is led early, save your comm if you'll be able to dump the g9 in a different color, or lead the g9 yourself.
  • You should also opportunistically dump lone 7s or 8s, but it won't cause an auto-loss if you have a lone 8 in the last color, especially if you still have your comm to let the 9 know to play first.
• Strong long suit without a way to retake lead (e.g. 1689g in an otherwise weak hand with no subs):
  • The danger here is that someone subs over the third green trick thinking it's the last, leaving you with no way to lead your last green card.
  • Some would comm g1 at start, but I would usually comm g1 after we start green. The idea is that we don't need (or even want) to prioritize playing green over other colors, but once green starts, you need to reserve the lead and not get subbed over.
  • Someone with two subs should wait for the g1, but someone with 3+ subs is allowed to ignore your comm and hope you manage to retake the lead.

Thanks for answering. Yeah I fully agree with what you said, that's what I already do except the last point (I think I wait one or two green trick, and then comm in a way to make it weird to be sure to play both of them).


I have another question which I believe is where I mess up the most.
What are you playing when you have 2 subs and no pinks left, and got a free discard on a non last trick of the color.
Example: take hand 18: let's said commander start yellow: y5318 g6358 g179p2 y9p95y7 y6p8.

Bentre wrote: ↑13 August 2025, 20:27 Does "win with omniscience" mean you would expect the hand to be lost with players following your strategy, and they would only win if they cheat and peek at each other's cards? E.g. deal #9 looks like an easy win just playing normally. A lot of others marked as "omniscience" look like they should be easy wins as well.

Regarding the specific deal #13, this looks winnable even without open knowledge, but does require a single guess that I would call a nonstandard but reasonable play. Granted, my strategy is slightly different than yours. (and also different than a lot of other players, in this mission I frequently see players making what I consider misplays.)

It was some years ago.
Comm 4+ cards in a color help a lot for players with 3+ subs to find their weak color more easily.

I don't remember my creteria to put a red or green color, but yeah #9 look easy. But feel free to edit the page if you want to spend time on it though.