Do you mean search the hinterland?
Yes. That’s the one
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Pretty sure you only have 2 supply left, and that’s 3 supply of actions.
Damn. Will amend
Muster on which card?
(hint: the answer to this is important if you intend to trade for secrets this turn)
I’ll wait until you come up with a turn or reveal new hidden information before posting any updated images.
Yes, I want to have a good luck at the rules first, and work is a tad busy today
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Just posting to say that I find this game baffling. It’s my third play and I still have no idea what I’m doing!
When I’ve PBF’d complex games like Antiquity and Roads and Boats, by turn 3 I’ve got a decent idea of what I’m doing and how to try to win. Oath? Not a Scooby.
I understand how the win conditions work, but can’t work out a reasonable way of achieving them and even less clue what everyone else is doing!
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I am sorry you feel that way. If there’s anything I can do to make things easier, please let me know.
I can always offer my take on the current situation, but I think that might do too much to influence players who aren’t confident in their read of the board.
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Cheers
It wasn’t a criticism as such, I’ve just never had a game like this where I can’t grok it at all. I’m hoping it will show itself as the game progresses.
I imagine if I could sit down with it at a table it would be clearer.
OK, but in brief, the current Oath is largely an economic one - who can amass the most secrets. You can see that Yashima and GeeBizzle have both been busy doing this. You can also try hiding out in places where it’s difficult for people to recover the darkest secret once you’ve got it, i.e., not the slums! Citizen wins are hard, because they require both the Empire to have the Darkest Secret, and wresting the Sceptre from the Chancellor. As an exile, you do of course always have the ability to dig for visions (and the Darkest Secret makes that easier). Everyone other than the chancellor should probably always have their eye on two win conditions, and not get fixated on one.
I think once you have a clear idea of the economic game, a lot else falls into place. But everything can also be taken by amassing warbands too.
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Thanks again
I think this game could be ‘The Chronicle of Captain’s Folly’ but time will tell
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My strategy for what it’s worth has been. Scramble for a vision before it gets too expensive. If it’s too expensive then try for the oathkeeper (if in exile) or usurper if a citizen.
I’ve also stupidly been choosing the most interesting advisors (for shits and giggles more than strategic benefit). I had a ooooooh moment in the last game when I figured out the power of your advisors to allow amassing secrets and favour a lot more easily but also that you needed to compliment your advisors with same suited options on the board to ensure that the favour bank for your suit has a healthy supply of income. So In this game elders and spirit snare keep cash flowing into those suits.
This was a bit stream of consciousness-y so apologies
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To me this is a sandbox game where everyone can do whatever they want within the wide boundaries the game sets. I find longterm strategies are really hard the more people play. I have generally grokked the rules and what I can do in the game. But actual “how to win this” not so much.
I play whatever comes across my way for a “fun” turn. Fun to me is when I get to do lots of stuff: change the world, generate resources and possibly even interfere with other players.
I try to generate “free” stuff as much as possible where free=“doesn’t cost me supply” because supply is what is the scarcest resource in the game (IMO). So I have to build my hand of advisors and maybe 1 or 2 locations around that.
I find the 2 banners are really useful: one allows going through the world-deck cheaply (we actually emptied the world deck last game!) and the other allows to rearrange the world by dropping denizens (I am not sure everyone is aware of this ability of the people’s favor because it hasn’t been used much).
As I have been really busy at work and had a lot of outside-of-work stuff to worry about, too, I have been playing the long game of what @Benkyo said: amassing resources and preparing… for an opportunity. Maybe none comes and maybe one does and I do not recognize it. I feel this is a game where you want to study the board when it comes around to you and do the best thing you can do “in the moment” which makes it good for async play and probably stressful in larger rounds in a live game.
I am not sure this helps in any way but maybe it gives you a bit of insight into how I am playing. And why I am doing things?
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I am there with you, often the ways to get things done in this game can be quite obscure, at least on this platform and for me.
I’d say you are not doing too bad, anyway. Your two last turns you have created quite some disruption in the game. Even if not very sure how you did it, you did it!
To me the game suffer a bit of “symbolitis”. On many occasions I would love to have the rulebook handy to double-check what some symbols meant. Or review how you did this or that. I can totally see how that is more my bad memory at fault (and the discontinuity of playing it by forum).
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Definitely some kind of misunderstanding going on.
You muster, or trade, on denizen cards, not sites. So you could muster from the nomads (rain boots) for 1 supply, which would put a favor on that card and prevent any further muster/trade actions until you rest, and trade for secrets with the beasts (animal host) for 1 supply, which would put 2 favor on the card. Both of these cards are in the slums. The more matching suits you have in your advisors, the more effective the trade (face-down advisers can’t help, obviously). Travel is one of the most expensive supply actions in the game, so should be avoided where possible.
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I knew I was getting it wrong, thanks @Benkyo
Can I offer you some tips? You seem overwhelmed.
You are already in possibly the best site for trading in the current game (the slums). You still have access to Spirit Snare and Alchemist, both of which are very powerful - there’s almost no situation where not using them makes sense. One of the two people currently holding a lot of secrets is a citizen, and you don’t care which empire player holds the darkest secret as long as one does - you can still win. As the chancellor, you can just trade and muster and use the very powerful effects you have access to, to build up a position of strength.
Moving to the wastes and resting skips using Spirit Snare and Alchemist, moves away from a site you hold, and moves to a site where you can’t trade or muster effectively.
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Would it be better to muster again instead? Not that I am sure that I can…
You can’t muster again at the slums, because both cards now have your favor on them. You could search to put down a third card to muster on. Then you are on a site where you can muster twice and trade once every turn if you want to, which is more efficient than travelling about.
Regardless of how you spend your supply, you still have the Spirit Snare and Alchemist and Scryer you can use.
Sorry for the delay, it has been quite hectic this weekend, with our house warming party.
I can se how there is an advantage to stay in the slums, but I was thinking that if I stay where I was, the Darkest Secret Banner was as good as gone.
I am happy to change it as long as nobody has an issue with it.
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