by Ranior
jonpfl wrote:
All,
My wife and I only play this in 2 and I usually take 1 or 2 islands and she usually doesn't take one.
I have won most of the games but they have been close.
Should I tell her to at least take 1 island to help her win? Do the better players agree that taking islands is the way to win?
Thx
jonpfl
My wife and I only play this in 2 and I usually take 1 or 2 islands and she usually doesn't take one.
I have won most of the games but they have been close.
Should I tell her to at least take 1 island to help her win? Do the better players agree that taking islands is the way to win?
Thx
jonpfl
Yes.
Exploration Boards are pretty much the path to victory. That's not to say you'll never be able to win without taking one, but at a table of experts you can expect the first several actions will be building boats and exploring to get the limited exploration boards. (Future expansions may change that a bit, but the main point stands--exploration boards are highly valued by experts).
In general my summary of how to win at this game is as follows: Always be working to maximize bonuses and income. Pretty much every round that should be your goal. If you're taking actions that aren't somehow increasing your bonuses or income you'll like lose to someone who is. And that's because this is ultimately an engine building game whereby those players that produce more bonuses and income can get even more stuff done, including earning and unlocking even more bonuses and income faster. All of these extra goods and coins should translate to extra points by the end of the game.
The homeboard provides a modest income and bonuses so it isn't a bad idea to fill it in. But in general most exploration boards offer faster income and better bonus goods with less effort than the home board, and as such you'll be better off filling them. Or at least having an exploration board in conjunction with filling the home board.
All strategies can work in some emigrations and houses as well since both of those things provide smaller bonuses (emigration reduces food slightly which is kind of like getting bonus goods while houses generate a few small bonuses). In general the early game (R1-4) should see players getting an exploration board and filling it. Some players will work on filling the home board, others may not. R5-7 are when players will focus on covering home board negatives along with house building, emigration, and whatever else they want to do for some additional points.
Winning without taking an exploration board is tough and in general I wouldn't expect it to fare well often. Especially in 2 player where both players should be able to get one of the pretty good boards (Shetland, Iceland, Greenland--Faroe is kind of bad).