A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Star Wars…

To avoid any spoilers, I’m going to stop there. But in light of Rogue One, I am strategizing about one of the best Star Wars games ever. Epic Duels! The premise of the game is every Star Wars fan’s dream. You choose any character from a great selection of heroes and pit them in one on one battles against any other.

Have you ever wondered who would win if Boba Fett went head to head with the Emperor? Oh, and Fett has a thermal detonator. What’s not to like about that?

To optimize your game play, there are some bonus rules to add to the fun.

1. Play with 2-4 players
2. Randomize characters
3. Start with extra cards.

This game is great, but if you play with more than 4 players, the game can last forever. My favorite way to play is with 2 players. I have each of us randomly select three characters, and we go head to head with each one, best two out of three. This eliminates any advantages from getting one lucky character, and ensures that the games are short, and everyone gets plenty of turns.

The game can also move faster by giving everyone 6-7 cards at the beginning instead of 4. This just gets you into the action a little quicker.

After you’ve set up your ground rules, you are ready to play the game. Here is the strategy:

1. Choose Obi-Wan Kenobi if you get the choice
2. Build up your cards before rushing in to attack
3. Focus on your characters strengths
4. Only take risks to defeat opponents

Obi-Wan Kenobi

All of the characters are pretty balanced, except for Obi-Wan. The creators made him strong enough that you should always choose him if you get the chance. If you are playing with someone younger or inexperienced, let them play with Obi-Wan, and it is usually enough for them to be able to win.

Card Buildup

Usually, it is in your best interest to draw cards before going into battle. Ensure that you either have an escape plan, or you can defend yourself for a turn or two before getting into range of the other players attacks.

Focus on Strengths

The general categories of characters are the following (can you count as a category if you are the only one in it? #settheory):

1. Attacker: Anikan, Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker
2. Defender: Yoda
3. Ranged: Boba Fett, Jango Fett, Han Solo,
4. Special: Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine
5. Balanced: Dooku, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu

Attackers should collect cards until they know they can kill their opponent in 1 or two turns. They have very minimal defense, so if you get stuck in the fight, you won’t make it out.

Defenders/Yoda is very hard to kill, but has a difficult time defeating anyone. He almost always has defense cards, so any chance you have to attack; you’ll have to take it.

Ranged characters can attack at any time. Target the opponent’s main character, shoot, and run. They usually can’t survive a close on fight, so keep your distance.

Special characters have many cards that work regardless of where you are in relation to the other characters. Stay away from the opponent and use your special cards to whittle down their life points. Save up one or two attack cards to finish them off when they get close.

Balanced characters are great at attacking and defending. The strategy is the same as attackers, but it is easier to get defense and attack cards. You’ll be able to move quicker on your attacks, but still need an exit strategy.

Although there is some luck in your card draws, the fun game play makes this an excellent Star Wars themed game. Unfortunately, it is out of print. You can find it on Ebay for 100 dollars. Well worth the money.

May the force be with you.

Carcassonne is a great game to play with children. Each turn, they only have to make one decision, and you can easily guide them to make decent choices. They enjoy matching up the roads, cities and fields and making a world.

Here is the strategy:

1. Field Early, and Field Late
2. Share the cities
3. Plan your exit strategy
4. Plan for cloisters
5. Finish strong

Field Early, Field Late

Very early on in the game, the first time you draw a non-city tile, you want to put a farmer into the field. Field control gets you so many points at the end of the game, you want to get a guy in early, so that the cities get built around him.

After you have one guy in the field, you want to wait before playing any other farmers. You don’t want to run out of guys, so wait until the game is getting towards the end before playing more.

When the game is nearing the end. (3-5 turns left). Start playing in fields strategically. You know at that point where the cities are, and can often sneak one more farmer into the field.

You may have to start a little earlier if opponents start first.

(Carcassone teaches kids that good farmers lie around in the fields all day, (grin))

Share the Cities

The best way to handle cities is to allow someone else to sneak into your city, or to sneak into someone else’s. When you share the city, the other player has the incentive to help you build it.

Try to build one city with one opponent, and one city with another opponent. Then you have people working for you, and even if you share the points, you are getting double the cities.

Right before the city is almost completed, you should consider sneaking a guy in and stealing all the points, but this will put a target on your back.

Plan your Exit Strategy

(Do you have an exit strategy?)

Each time you play one of your men. Think about how you plan to get the guy back. Will it be a small city for quick points? Will it be one of your large cities? Are you planning to leave the guy in the field for the game?

It is ok to leave guys out the whole game, but you have to manager your guys, so that you don’t run out. I always like to keep one guy in reserve just in case you pull a cloister tile.

Cloister Tiles

Always play on cloisters. They are the most guaranteed points in the game. Playing with kids. I will slip all of the cloister tiles into the stack that they draw from before the game starts. This gives them just a little advantage.

(Side note: when we play with the kids, we modify the game so that you don’t have farmers. It makes their decisions easier.)

End Game

At the end, you have to be very aware of everyone’s farmers. This is the point that can make or break your victory. Often you can steal one or two cities away in the last couple of turns.

That’s it! Do you have a recommendation for game modifications for kids? What is your Carcassone strategy?

At our house, the kids play Legos for hours. Annabelle (8) and Josh (6) will spend hours building towers as high as they are. Isaac (4) can’t compete with the older kids. Sometimes he ends up knocking over their towers because of it.

There are two different intrinsic needs happening here. The desire to create; then second, the desire to feel in control. These two needs affect your Blokus strategy. The game is called Blokus, so you are naturally going to want to be a Blocker, and knock down opponents towers, but a straight blocking strategy will impede your own ability to create as a Builder.

Are you a Builder or a Blocker? To win this game, you need to be both. Here is the strategy.

1. Get out quickly
2. Play your 5 tiles first
3. Share space (Builder Strategy)
4. Block conservatively (Blocker Strategy)
5. Watch closely

Get out quickly

Get into the middle, and into other peoples areas quickly. After playing a few times, this will be natural. You may be tempted to stay close to home. DON’T DO IT.

Play your 5 tiles first

My wife, Mallory, pointed this out to me, but if you don’t play your 5 tiles first, you end up running out of space for them later.

Builder vs Blocker

Blokus works best if you play as a builder. You do this by playing pieces so that your corner and the opponents corners are touching, allowing you both to play off of the connection. As you can see below.
You may be thinking, but the game is called Blokus, shouldn’t I be trying to block?

You are thinking like a Blocker. There is certainly a place for that in this game, but often when you Block. Not only do you anger the Builder you are playing with, but you also leave yourself open for another block.

Suppose you are yellow, and it is your turn. What do you play? There are three good options.

Option 1. Good (Blocking only) It is pretty satisfying to block them completely, but it leaves you open for a bad follow-up block.

Option 2.  Better (Building Only) This leaves you open for more moves. There is no possible way for them to completely block you on that side.

Option 3. Best (Building and Blocking) Not only do you block them on many points, you also leave yourself open to get into their area. This satisfies the desire to create, and the desire to dominate. (We call that piece the clobberer, because it works so nicely.)

General game play

Once you decide to mostly act as a builder, the game will go much more smoothly for you. you will always have an opening, and won’t often get trapped early on.

Later in the game, space gets limiting. Look around and match your pieces with spaces. If you have a space completely open and no one can take it. Don’t play there until later. Target areas that are contested to ensure that your tiles are played where you planned them.

And if possible, save your 1 piece for as long as possible. There is nothing worse than getting to the end and losing because your wife saved her 1 piece. Let that be a lesson to you.

Thanks for reading, do you have any other Blokus strategies that have worked well? Any Blockers out there that are successful?

Settlers of Catan brought strategy gaming back into popularity. Before Settlers game out, the same games had been played for years. This game is so fun. I like to call it the Harry Potter of board games. Have you ever noticed how after the success of Harry Potter, a lot more great young adult fantasy books started popping up everywhere? The same works in the Board Game world. This game was so popular, that it made board games main stream again.

The strategy is pretty complex because it really depends on how the board is set up, your turn placement, who you are playing with, and how other people choose to play. This is one of the great things about the game, but makes it more difficult to write a succinct strategy. Instead, I’ll give some good guidelines on how I try to play.

1. Get Stone and Wheat in your first placement
2. Build Cities quickly
3. Trade often
4. Play the robber evenly
5. Hide your lead until the end
6. End the game quickly

Stone, Wheat, and Cities

Obviously, it is best to have your settlements on the highest rolling spaces. Don’t disregard that plan, but if possible, play on Stone and Wheat. The purpose of this is to build Cities as fast as possible. It really puts you at an advantage to have Cities right from the start. It takes the least amount of resources to give you the most payout quickly.

After the Cities are up, it also allows you to pull development cards to plan for Step 5 and 6.

Trade often

This game is all about trading. If you have the constrained resource, be willing to trade it with anyone, but make sure that they give you at least two, and maybe 3 for it. Be generous by saying things like. “I’ll give it to you for wood (the one you want) and any other resource. That gives them the choice, but still nets you more cards.

The only time to be stingy with trading is when someone has an obvious lead. At that point, under no circumstances are you to trade with them. They, or you, are on their own at that point.

It may also be nice if you get a 2 for 1 port. You can convince people to give you 2 of that one, plus a free card to get something back for them.

Play the robber evenly

People have this innate reaction if they feel that they have been slighted. If you consistently place the robber on the same person, they end up having a knee jerk reaction to play it back on you. Sometimes they won’t even trade with you!

To get around this, play the robber on the spot that covers the most people, or bounce it around each time. Say something like, “I played it on A last time, so I’ll put it here this time.”

As long as it is fair, retribution can be minimized.

Hide your lead

If you are too far ahead, you become “that guy” and no one trades with you any longer. They also start stealing your cards with the robber. To avoid this, stay just ahead of people. the development cards really help with this.

Often you’ll pull the Soldier cards. Use these to get yourself out of a bad robber situation, and save one or two to sneak and get the largest army points.

Other times you’ll get the extra roads card. Use this towards the end to steal the longest road.

Sometimes you will even pull the free victory point cards. Great day! Hold these to the end to cross the 10 point finish line.

When you have 6 visible points, now is the time to plot how you are going to win, by getting the longest road, army, or laying your victory point cards. Everyone will look around confused, as you complete your path to victory

What other strategies have worked well for you?

Also, since it is Friday…

NamelessPC