Tournament format - vanishing Islands

[danielvictor]

In the basic game,4-player,the metagame seems to have developed into a scramble for Islands,and even long and stone houses.Two turns into my current tournament game,all the Islands had been taken,and there was nothing left to explore.This makes for a less interesting game,so I suggest that tournaments should include all islands,and perhaps Norwegians.

[KeithHendricks]

In the original AFFO alpha years ago, this is how the 3-4 player game was as well. Players took as many of the four islands as they could, and they were usually gone at the middle of round 2, or perhaps Faroe would remain. There was no mini expansion 1 at this time, so no TDF, no Lofoten/Orkney.

Sometimes when you’re denied islands, you can play a challenging game by racing your home board build with whaling and animals and taking houses and emigrations when you can.

I remember one game in which one of the players took all of the islands. I think he was player one, took 2 wood, built a knarr , took Shetland to block player 2’s whaling ship from getting it, then took Iceland. He was player two in round 2, and player one, the whaling ship player, did not want Faroe and could not take Greenland. Player two took Greenland, then Faroe for some reason. Just to do it? So that meant the other three players could not get an island that game. I was player 4 that game, and I had taken 2 sheep in round 1, knowing I would not get an island in round 1. (Card+coin, 3V sheep, 2V sheep I believe).

To make a long story short, I believe Mr Island-Pile-On-Man ended up in 3rd. I won. Another player took second copying what I was doing without the benefit of animals. We both filled out home boards but I had more houses and emigrations due to my early investment in sheep and cows saving me Vikings for those things later on. He was whaling every chance he could, both on the 3V and 4V spot.

I remember that game every now and then. It was quite a bit different than my other games in Alpha.

There was a game in which I hogged all of the islands also in alpha. That game wasn’t as mémorable. Actually it was a bit stressful filling all of those islands with the weaker base game actions and the weaker bonuses on the base game islands. Greenland was a big help of course with its whaling meat bonus. I didn’t have animals this game, and was just doing what I could to cover negatives and score points.

[danielvictor]

If there are plenty of islands,then trying to monopolise them becomes a losing strategy.The Norwegians also helps a bit with better animal options.

[KeithHendricks]

Monopolizing islands is often a losing strategy anyway in the base game. That was the point of my response. And animal strategies aren’t that bad in the base game. The 4V market is better in the base game than in Norwegians.

[danielvictor]

The trouble with the animal strategy in the base game is not that it scores badly - it can score quite well.It is that it leaves the other players free to whale, pillage and explore without interference,so they tend to score better.

[KeithHendricks]

Yes, animal strategies work better when you can block pillaging or whaling strategically. The same is true for most strategies, though. That is, if I have a longship and 3 silver, and my opponent has a whaling ship and 2 silver, and no longship, it may behoove me to go whaling first by buying a whaling ship by anytime action, as I can always go pillaging or raiding with my next action.

[danielvictor]

Ok,fine,only the act of buying the animals tends to leave me poor.So then I can't afford to buy a longship for a while,and if I take one with wood,I alert my opponent,and wind up probably going after them in the turn sequence next turn.Maybe I should try sheep istead of cattle.