Board Game Arena

This is something I've seen a few times and I find it particularly annoying.

Usually when your opponent picks Carpenter and hasn't turned a card yet, this gives you a guarantee that one of their remaining spots will have to be filled with a turned down card. It's really helpful because it allows you to know exactly how many points they will be earning from that spot.

The problem is that sometimes, people who picked Carpenter realize that they can get more points than the expected 8 (+2) points by buying another card instead. So they never do their Carpenter and end up with more points than you had anticipated.

I find this sort of playstyle very sneaky and opportunistic. It's like they are "tricking" their opponent by ending up doing more points than they should have. And I don't know, I feel that it's wrong to pick up a card and end up never making use of it, doing something else instead just because it benefits you more. That doesn't seem a very elegant or fair way to play the game.

(This is particularly an issue when your opponent has Brigand and you think "well, they are only going to do 14 points out of it at most, because they have Carpenter", but instead they end up just dismissing their Carpenter and doing the 21 points anyway)

I believe that the ability to look objectively at the game situation without paying attention to previous plans is one of the most important skills for achieving a high place in any game. Only this way can you truly learn and find fundamental mistakes in your playstyle.

Yes, often not using the carpenter might mean that you did something wrong before (maybe not — it could just be how things turned out), but that doesn't mean you should keep making even more mistakes because of it.

Similarly, it's important to look for unusual uses of cards and mechanics by your opponents. If you struggle with this, it's not fatal — you just need to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them, rather than blaming your opponents for it.

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑30 April 2026, 12:06 I believe that the ability to look objectively at the game situation without paying attention to previous plans is one of the most important skills for achieving a high place in any game.

I somewhat agree. I mean, I've probably myself been "guilty" of this Carpenter trick at least a few times in the many games I've played. So, it may be that sometimes resorting to this kind of "dirty" play constitutes your best chance of winning.

However, I think we can all agree that we have more admiration for the players and the boards where everything fits perfectly, where every card is used to its maximum potential and all the cards play into each other like a symphony. I think the best players should be able to do that consistently, even though it might not be possible to do it every game.

tbhp wrote: ↑30 April 2026, 12:14

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑30 April 2026, 12:06 I believe that the ability to look objectively at the game situation without paying attention to previous plans is one of the most important skills for achieving a high place in any game.

I somewhat agree. I mean, I've probably myself been "guilty" of this Carpenter trick at least a few times in the many games I've played. So, it may be that sometimes resorting this kind of "dirty" play constitutes your best chance of winning.

However, I think we can all agree that we have more admiration for the players and the boards where everything fits perfectly, where every card is used to its maximum potential and all the cards play into each other like a symphony. I think the best players should be able to do that consistently, even though it might not be possible to do it every game.

I think perfect board in perfect when it's achieved by perfect play.

And if you flip a card to get 10 points with carpenter instead getting more points from other card you end up not using this card to it's full potential so board isn't perfect anyway