by Ranior
entwife wrote:
I've played it 30 times, and never once bought a ship with silver - it just costs so much and every penny I have (until the last couple of rounds) is needed for either filling gaps on my boards to ensure I get income/bonuses or else emigrating.
I usually aim to have one ship by the end of round one, and if that had to be a whaling boat I'll be aiming to get a red sailed ship by the next round or two (so I can go plundering). I'd never have enough money to buy one that early on in the game.
Then in the mid-late game I try to take the ship+house option that costs 4 vikings (+2 wood and 2 stone), once or twice, and I will aim to emigrate with those ships, and then emigrate anything left by the end of the final round if possible.
I mostly agree with this. I don't buy ships with silver all that often and I don't expect it will make that much of a difference in your scores.
I do think I'd suggest doing it a little more than Kim is though, but mostly because it sounds like they emigrate a bit more than I do, or perhaps put a bit more silver on my boards. Or possibly I play a bit too much solo and so forget how it's probably a bit better strategy to buy boats in solo. (In solo you can tend to get higher scores and get even higher incomes meaning that the effective opportunity costs of buying boats with silver is decreased).
I also think allstar64's advice is spot on.