# Strategy

Some of these tips are **simulated**: computer players played the same maps with and without the idea, many times.

## Where to put the castle

Your castle decides the shape of your whole realm. Simulated on 200 maps of the full game: after the castle, the same computer player
finished every game.

| Castle placed …                        |   Gold   |  Lands   |  Stars   |
| :------------------------------------- | :------: | :------: | :------: |
| where it **claims the most cells**     | **65.0** | **8.91** | **1.89** |
| as close to the centre as possible     |   58.5   |   8.78   |   1.65   |
| where it earns the most gold right now |   56.5   |   8.55   |   1.70   |
| as close to the edge as possible       |   49.5   |   7.69   |   1.34   |

**Look for open lines, not for the first gold.** A castle whose four lines run long (no lakes, few mountains in the
way) touches many lands at once, and every touched land is a place where farmers and knights can start.

## Farmers at the edge

Farmers are free, but every farmer blocks the eight cells around it. Put them where their ring covers cells you would
never use anyway: along land borders, next to lakes, against the board edge. Keep the open pasture inside a land for
the next pieces.

## Knights pay for themselves

A knight costs 10 and earns double: 10 on pasture, 14 in a land with a lake, 40 on a treasure. On lake pasture it is
in profit the moment it lands; on a treasure it nets 30. Under _Costly knights_ only treasures and lake pasture are
worth it; under _In the king's pay_ knights are your best piece almost everywhere.

## Bishops open doors

Use a bishop when a land you want is not connected to your domain yet: its diagonals cross borders, and from its claim
farmers can start in the new land. It is also the cheapest way into the moor for herbs.

## Treasures first

Before every move, look at which cells the new claim would cover. A claimed treasure is lost. Take treasures
**before** you claim around them.

## The land star

Half of a land is enough. Count before you place: a farmer that brings a land from 4 of 9 to 5 of 9 is worth a whole
land; a farmer deep inside a land you already rule only adds gold. In the last moves, check every land that is one cell
short.

## The endgame

Gold counts at the end. A knight or bishop placed in your last moves costs gold that may not come back, and can lose
the gold star. When no remaining move earns gold, press **End game** and keep what you have.

Got a trick that works? Share it in the comments of the daily post (without spoiling the map for others).

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