Does this game have optimal play?

[Curse Words]

I have only played this game once over the board, and I've noticed that there does not appear to be any luck element in this game (unlike card draw games like Terraforming Mars), and all game mechanics surround player actions. Does this mean that theoretically, there is an "optimal" strategy to solve this game like chess?
Obviously, no one has created an "engine" (as in computer) solution for this game and its very easy to understand why, but what I'm exploring here is if, in theory, there is an optimal strategy.

[Meeplelowda]

Obviously, no one has created an "engine" (as in computer) solution for this game and its very easy to understand why, but what I'm exploring here is if, in theory, there is an optimal strategy.

In any two-player game with perfect information, alternating turns, and no randomness, there is in theory an optimal strategy. It just may be hard to find, as in computationally infeasible. So this is a property of a whole family of abstract games.

Some people think Photosynthesis is not an abstract game like chess or go just because the pieces have a theme. This is a weird position to take because playing chess with a set of Lord of the Rings pieces wouldn't make it any less abstract.

By the way, this is one of my favorite mathematical topics: things that you can prove exist (such as an optimal strategy), yet have no example of.