55 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
# Strategy
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Some of these tips are **simulated**: computer players played the same maps with and without the idea, many times.
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## Where to put the castle
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Your castle decides the shape of your whole realm. Simulated on 200 maps of the full game: after the castle, the same computer player
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finished every game.
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| Castle placed … | Gold | Lands | Stars |
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| :------------------------------------- | :------: | :------: | :------: |
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| where it **claims the most cells** | **65.0** | **8.91** | **1.89** |
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| as close to the centre as possible | 58.5 | 8.78 | 1.65 |
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| where it earns the most gold right now | 56.5 | 8.55 | 1.70 |
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| as close to the edge as possible | 49.5 | 7.69 | 1.34 |
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**Look for open lines, not for the first gold.** A castle whose four lines run long (no lakes, few mountains in the
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way) touches many lands at once, and every touched land is a place where farmers and knights can start.
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## Farmers at the edge
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Farmers are free, but every farmer blocks the eight cells around it. Put them where their ring covers cells you would
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never use anyway: along land borders, next to lakes, against the board edge. Keep the open pasture inside a land for
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the next pieces.
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## Knights pay for themselves
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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
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in profit the moment it lands; on a treasure it nets 30. Under _Costly knights_ only treasures and lake pasture are
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worth it; under _In the king's pay_ knights are your best piece almost everywhere.
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## Bishops open doors
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Use a bishop when a land you want is not connected to your domain yet: its diagonals cross borders, and from its claim
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farmers can start in the new land. It is also the cheapest way into the moor for herbs.
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## Treasures first
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Before every move, look at which cells the new claim would cover. A claimed treasure is lost. Take treasures
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**before** you claim around them.
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## The land star
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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
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land; a farmer deep inside a land you already rule only adds gold. In the last moves, check every land that is one cell
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short.
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## The endgame
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Gold counts at the end. A knight or bishop placed in your last moves costs gold that may not come back, and can lose
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the gold star. When no remaining move earns gold, press **End game** and keep what you have.
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Got a trick that works? Share it in the comments of the daily post (without spoiling the map for others).
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Back to the [wiki index](/r/Ninelands/wiki/index).
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