Tabletop Strategist

For those of you who don't recognize "Play Nine" you may have heard of golf.  I've been told they are essentially the same thing, simply different countries of origin.  Our copy comes from our Canadian Grandma and is, therefore, the Canadian version: Play Nine, though the strategies should pertain to both. I chose Play Nine as our strategy tip post today because the best card you can draw: the "Hole-in-One" is slightly more red than the others and therefore deserves its place in the REDD WEEK line up! The object of the game is to get as few points as possible.  As you can see from the cards behind the -5 there, it's not at all uncommon to be dealt some very high cards.  (yes this was random and it worked out well). Since I drew the -5 from the draw pile I may replace any card from my personal set, face up or otherwise.  Typically, I find it unwise to replace a facedown card with anything valued 4 or greater.  Since the -5 is less than four this c...

So you fancy being the Carnivore at the watering hole? Hopefully, this post will give you some good ideas on how to use that effectively.  Being a red card we decided "Evolution" would be the perfect game for todays REDD WEEK highlight. Using the Carnivore strategy can be a hard thing to plan on.  With the way the traits are randomly distributed, you can never tell whether you will get Carnivores, or when in the game they will arrive. If your first turn gives you 1-2 Carnivores, you can know that this will be a great strategy for that game.  If it takes you a few turns you may be in trouble. The fact of the matter is that in "Evolution - the beginning" Carnivores are far more necessary for all players as the food supply in the watering hole is very low.  It's never smart to plan on more than two food there.  This differs from "Evolution" in that you can regularly get by with a killer herbivore strategy there where that's not as easy in ...

Hey folks! It's REDD Week this week so I'm going to be coving strategy tips in different games based around the RED player or some other RED component.  Tonight, we're discussing Diplomacy! And of course, the Red team is Austria. If you've never played Diplomacy before you are seriously missing out! It is prime! Head over to playdiplomacy.com  to set up a free profile and learn how to play. Screenshot from playdiplomacy.com This is the opening map for a traditional 7 player game, let's take a look, shall we? Personally, I've never been a huge fan of playing Austria as they are in a very difficult position from the getgo. Austria and Germany share the pain of being stuck in the middle of the rest of the players.  Diplomacy is all about negotiating however, so all is not lost as Austria. I even know a few people who choose Austria as their first preference... they are crazy, but there it is. Austria does benefit from the opportunity for two builds year o...

Splendor is a easy to learn game that teaches players a lot about strategy which can be applied in multiple games.  That strategy is Opportunity Cost.  In the Business World, the Opportunity Cost of an Action or Item is the time/skill/cash lost by making a decision.  For example, you're at a Seminar and there are two classes you would like to see. Unfortunately these classes are at the same time and you can only be in one place.  The class you decide to see comes with the Opportunity Cost of not seeing the other class.  Hope that helps clarify rather than muddle for you. In Splendor, you can take a limited amount of actions, each of which comes with an Opportunity Cost. Those actions are: Pick up a set of three different tokens Pick up two of the same token Pick a wild token and reserve a card Purchase a card with tokens Just looking at the options may not show the best route to take, nor will it be obvious without a time frame to spread those optio...

Charging into the fray the barbarian took three hasty strikes from the startled Goblins before leveling them with his battle axe.  Looking forward he saw a far nastier threat.  From within he felt his heart take courage and his health bolstered he charged forward again renewed by a spell cast by the wizard behind him. That's the idea behind a Meat Shield.  Someone who can take the hits for your more vulnerable team members.  In something like DnD you've got characters that act much like tanks, charging into the fray and taking the attention of the enemy off the rest of the crew.  Left alone such a reckless soul wouldn't last too long.  However, thanks to magical spells or other effects, the other players can keep the tank running while others take long shots with ranged weapons to assist in dealing damage. In Gloomhaven, a Scoundrel can be a particularly good character as a Meat Shield, not because of a high health level, but because most of their car...