Board Game Arena

Seems to me that the player who has an eagle or Sun Bear usually ends up winning between two neck-to-neck players. This has been the case in most games I have played so far. How true is this and what are some tips to win? I seem to be able to rush the base conservation projects faster than my opponents, but they usually end up overtaking me by late-mid game and then win.

All suggestions appreciated!

Those are two strong animals, but there are many others. I'll take a look at one of your recent games and see if I notice anything. I'm far from expert level, but maybe I can find some useful suggestions.

The first thing I am noticing is that you don't have the setting to have each player use the same map. The maps are not balanced, so I would recommend using that setting.

Choosing Commercial Harbor over Silver lake is a mistake, I think? Isn't Silver Lake one of the best maps?

The starting hand seems a bit rough. No strong sponsor, and most of your animals are expensive and/or difficulty to play. I don't see an easy way to get 2 birds or 3 animal types to claim one of the base projects in round 2.

Oh, and you're not using Marine Worlds expansion, so you can't take the university with the science symbol and a specific animal icon.

Maybe build a 3-encolsure bottom left (for the Flamingo) and place a pavilion in the lower left corner so you can start selling a card each turn to get money?

This hand has me a bit stumped.

The Macaw can get you a Kiosk and 2 pavilions, Quickly upping your income by 3, but it requires inefficiently taking a zoo first.

On Silver lake, you may have had enough money to set up the Anaconda and the goat, but without the money placement bonuses, you're too broke. And you're not using the ability of the map you chose to gain extra money that way either.

I think you should have sold the research project card. There was no easy way to play it in round 2, and you ended up discarding it anyway when the break was triggered.

Start of round 2, you could try for build (petting zoo), build a 2-enclosure, sell a card, play both animals, and then claim the third slot on the animal diversity project.

First turn of round 2, building the petting zoo, I might discard the Proboscis monkey. It's going to be a long time before that card is playable, and it's just taking up space in your hand. When you play adventure playground, you'll get a new card. I would try to sell a card more often at least until you have the university that expands your hand size (if you decide to get that university at some point, which may or may not be a good play when that time comes).

Then you did break 5 instead of playing adventure playground. You have a lot of things to do this round, I'm not sure rushing the break is a good idea. You still want to build, play 2 animals, and then claim the project, and now the break is dangerously close to happening, stranding your worker and causing you to discard something important.

And that's exactly what happened. You can't break 5 when your opponent has the sponsors card in the 4 or 5 spot and has already used his worker and you haven't. This round was a total loss for you. Nothing was accomplished. You could have had adventure playground in play, sold a card, maybe even gotten your 2 animals played and claimed the project, or, if that was found to be too many actions before the break, you could have at least taken another zoo and upgraded one of your cards, or taken a useful university.

And then you discarded Adventure playground. Ouch. Also, 2nd time in 3 rounds you had to discard at break instead of having sold a card for 3 dollars, so you're already short 6 dollars.

I don't understand the next sequence at all. You burned an x-token to do cards, snapping a cheap card that would give you a 4th animal icon, only to then do the association project action at 3 animals anyway. Why not do that first instead of wasting the x-token to do the cards snap action? And you could have gained several cards setting yourself up to sell some for cash if they are bad, or keep them if they are good - and you definitely need some good card here because your hand is empty.

With your bonuses from the project action, you took a worker and upgraded Association. I'm not exactly sure what this does. Because of the burned x-token, all you can do is grab 2 reputation, since your opponent is almost certainly going to break if you do not use your worker.

Then you build a 3, I assume to play the Reindeer, which seems like a waste of its flocking ability. And the cards upgrade is questionable, why not upgrade animals if you are about to play an animal with the action card in the 5-spot? There's no rush to upgrade cards; you're not in danger of hitting the 9-cap on reputation.

Then you burn two more x-tokens to gain a university. Why not just play your 2 animals, and then you only need to use 1 x-token for your association action.

You ended that action with 7 cards. Sell one. Surely you don't need all 7? Especially since your opponent triggered break again and you need to discard 2 anyway. At this point you are minus 12 dollars you could have had from selling cards you ended up discarding anyway.

In that round, you used 2 association actions, which isn't really taking advantage of your multiple workers and upgraded association card. Meanwhile, your opponent has 4 upgraded cards and can snap a card during break. And by doing these weak association actions, your association card is always in the 1 spot at the start of the next round, making it almost impossible to do 2 actions with on activation of the card.

If you had upgraded sponsors (often a good idea), you could have played both your science sponsors in one action. Thus far, your two upgrades do not seem to have accomplished a whole lot.

On your next action, association, maybe use 2 x-tokens to get a university and a zoo, getting you the same reputation but also the extra science symbol and another upgrade. Now you have gained another extra worker, but association card is stuck in the 1-slot again.

No matter, opponent does double sponsors and triggers break (stranding your worker but also his worker). That Proboscis monkey has been sitting in your hand the entire game and will never get played.

The build action at move 359. You had a petting zoo animal but discarded it during break. If you had kept it, you wouldn't need to waste a turn and an x-token to place this building.

You did end up getting 5 Americas icons, so that part worked out okay. I think you could have done a donation on your final turn for an extra 3 points.

Next round, you do association at strength 4 again, only using one worker and gaining your 4th, But how are you going to use them? Again, your association card is stuck at 1. You could have supported a project there also - the primate one.

Then, after doing your project, you take the cards action. You already have 5 cards, decent ones, and you're pushing break (move number 329) with 2 unused workers and your opponent's sponsors card in slot 5.

ok, seems you want the elephant. In which case, the Africa project would have been better to take when you played the Rhinoceros.

Your opponent triggers break again, stranding two of your workers while he gains cash and you'll still struggling for money.

Seems that the biggest hindrance for you in this game is inefficient use of your workers and your upgraded association card.

And the failure to use your map bonus to sell cards. Again, 2 more cards discarded when you passed up chances to sell them.