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Strategy Advisor
Registrace 11. 02. 2023
Strategy guides for tabletop games.
Azul - Secret Strategy
Surprising Azul opening strategy.
Other Guides: Ark Nova, A Feast for Odin and more! czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html
Azul general strategy guide: czcams.com/video/dYRNbHTJAgo/video.html
Other Guides: Ark Nova, A Feast for Odin and more! czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html
Azul general strategy guide: czcams.com/video/dYRNbHTJAgo/video.html
zhlédnutí: 3 850
Video
How to Win A Feast for Odin
zhlédnutí 3,8KPřed 10 měsíci
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. Other Guides: czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html
How is Ark Nova balanced?
zhlédnutí 13KPřed rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. Ark Nova tier lists: czcams.com/video/_ZjChoUZtIo/video.html Top 10 animals: czcams.com/video/gCFPgfk0kSo/video.html Other Guides: czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html Spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18_m21aq99m426WB3wDSq5bOPFIXVjexpSrZwABWpQBs/edit?usp=sharing
Tier List + Rank 1 game: It's a Wonderful World
zhlédnutí 623Před rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. Other Guides: czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html
Ark Nova Strategy - Full Game
zhlédnutí 7KPřed rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. Other Guides: czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html
Akropolis Strategy - Undefeated
zhlédnutí 2,7KPřed rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Other Guides: czcams.com/video/_ZjChoUZtIo/video.html
Ark Nova Strategy in 4 Tier Lists
zhlédnutí 29KPřed rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. More Ark Nova: czcams.com/video/-OTo1C7-OpM/video.html Other Guides: czcams.com/video/-0bGPtkgpEI/video.html
Ruins of Arnak - Strategy Guide
zhlédnutí 6KPřed rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. Other Guides: czcams.com/video/_ZjChoUZtIo/video.html
Woodcraft - Strategy Guide: Best Tips
zhlédnutí 982Před rokem
Straight to the point strategy guide. Tips from a competitive gamer. Other Guides: czcams.com/video/_ZjChoUZtIo/video.html
could you make more strategy videos? they are very useful
A lot of valuable insights. Clever is hard to use properly, so it's good to hear it is valued lowly and I shouldn't be scared to take it. I'm really surprised that reputation is equivalent to appeal, most animals will give you the baseline appeal needed to get the most efficient early income, but early reputation is hard to find and can get you an early card unlock and worker, as well as giving you more selection on upgraded cards, animals, and sponsors, and endgame every two or three appeal gets you a conservation point on top of all the bonuses in between. Personally I value it somewhere between appeal and conservation points. I did not even know that animals with multiple continent icons got multiple partner ship zoo discounts! Assertion seems pretty undervalued as it can often net you 5 conservation points on the final turn (minus the value of your next best play) where your opponent either gets either 2 or 0 and if they get 2 it is at the cost of their next best play so probably close to 0. Posturing seems really good before you upgrade build since it's both action and cost save and fairly weak afterward.
What about the 7 point bonus for completing a column?
Usually you complete 1 column so the winner is determined by adjacency points. It's better to fill out as much of the top 3 rows as possible than to go for multiple columns most games.
@@strategyadvisor5604 I see, I’ve seen others say to mainly start with going with the center columns but this seems like a good alternative strategy. Thanks!
Hi, I'm putting together a huge strategy guide with jdan, would you mind if I use a screenshot from this video? I'll give you credit and link your video and channel ofc.
Nice video, thank you! Where can I find this mod? Looks like TTS, but I can't seem to find it. Thnx!
Here: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2779950344
@@strategyadvisor5604 Thank you for your swift respons. Where do people "meet" for games? Discord? Or can I just join games made in tts?
@@strategyadvisor5604 Thank you for your very swift respons! What is the most common way to look for/join games? Discord? Or can I just join games through TTS? Thnx!
Thank you for a consistent tutorial
Animals build and cards are what winners take most
thanks for your interesting opinion!
Interesting that you rank migration and breeding sponsors so low. The breeding ones I think are definitely A tier in 2 player (and I would think still B in 3/4 player) as they can be critical to getting high-level conservation project spots before your opponent(s). Migration is more niche, but can be huge if there are release projects available. With 2 players, the breeding sponsors are always snapped as soon as possible because getting the project spot before your opponent is such a huge swing. They just aren't a "play first round" sponsor. Which there should probably be two tier lists, one for early sponsors and one for mid/late/anytime sponsors. Since many of the early sponsors are garbage later in the game.
Association rarely needs to be upgraded early. Unless you have a 2nd worker early it isn't as good as animal/build to upgrade early. Usually it is one of the last actions I upgrade. But agreed that playing 2 workers in one association action is strong. But that is a mid to late game action. I would say "build" should be tier A because 99% of games will upgrade build and in the majority of games it is the 1st or 2nd action upgraded. Association is strong, but it often isn't upgraded if you upgrade sponsor (card is the other action I often forgo when upgrading sponsor). (Context: I mostly play 2 player, so the strategy may change with 3/4 players)
I'd probably switch Build and Association now. I won many games upgrading Association first, getting 3 partner zoos, and not upgrading Build. It's more viable than people think, but Build is better in most games.
Love how simple and clear this was. Good work.
I’m currently competing in the “Board Game Olympics” at my local board game cafe, and tonight I represented my team for this game. By keeping your strategy advice in mind, I was able to take first place! Thank you!
Wow that's awesome! I'm jealous of your board game cafe haha.
@@strategyadvisor5604 Thanks! Yeah, it is definitely my favorite place to go for fun in my area. If you’re curious, look up Tabletop Board Game Cafe in Cleveland, Ohio.
I personally think that build is far more important to association. Especially if your bonus for four partner zoos is only one conservation bonus or if getting your third association worker doesn't give you any conservation points or just one. For me Animal and Build are A tear while cards is the third one I always tend to upgrade. The fourth one is between Association and Sponsors, depending on the cards I get early and if I need sponsors. Sponsors can become an A tier upgrade in certain situations and more urgent to upgrade than any other card, but it's very situational and I upgrade it maybe once every 5 games or so. And any donation after 7 coins is pretty bad value so I wouldn't worry about them too much unless you have a strong income. 10 or 12 coins for just 3 points is not really that good. The good thing is that it doesn't take an extra action so if you have the coins to do everything else as well it can be powerful. But I disagree that it would be hard to win without donations. The Release Animal conservation projects can also be extremely good early on. They are the only conservation projects that you can play before the first break, which gives you another association worker and an upgraded card. They are situational, but I wouldn't but them anywhere near the D tier. I also think that the Waza Small Animal program is one of the most underrated cards in the game. It allows you to play three animals instead of two during your turn or two instead of one and you also get a free snap if there is a small animal available on the table. It's incredibly strong if you can combine it with the Waza Special assignment. The data of the best players of Board Game Arena also show that the top players always upgrade Animals, Build and Cards and then the last card is between Association and Sponsors. Association gets picked like 80% of the time while Sponsors does get picked for the remaining games. There's one or two top ranked players who pick sponsors way more regularly though.
I strongly disagree with ranking action cards. Animals is probably the only one I will always upgrade. However which card you don't upgrade and your upgrade order is extremely dependent on the game. While it's less common, sponsors is sometimes by far the most powerful upgrade
I've adopted this strategy after watching your replay several months back, and I've found a lot of success with it. It's a very strong strategy. I am finding it can be very volatile at higher arena ELO however. In certain tile distributions you may not get enough playable plazas(non-blue) early on to setup the borders of the foundation with. This means you have to either place plazas in scoring district positions on the second/third/fourth level to maximize the number of plazas in play and still make it to level 5. Additionally, purple and yellow districts can be very finicky in this setup. If the tiles run nicely it's a very easy strategy to execute, but all it takes is some bad variance or a smart opponent who will counter-pick your plazas and embrace the abundance of blue plazas and you can get yourself in a deep hole.
Yeah, when you get unlucky you need a contingency plan. In those games I don't force level 5 so that I can place later plazas on level 1. Sometimes it's best to counter draft 1-2 blue plazas.
the problem I see in this game is that all the things you state are an early priority ie., improving your deck and researching w/ your book to get early assistants are only done at the expense of the other....you can't do both. I've only played this two player & it seems to me every one of our games end w/ the person who finished first in the race to the lost temple is the game winner. Admittedly, in a lot of cases it is done by virtue of the tiebreaker (which goes to person who wins that race) but it still feels OP to me & I don't like that. I guess I favor games where your moves aren't so scripted ie., that offer many different ways to win, w/ each being equally balanced.
I've won a decent number of games without winning the race by scoring more in my deck or from guardians/idols.
Gotta work on your tongue clicking man. It’s every other sentence
Amazing video. Its hard to find actually good strategy videos for board games but you nailed this one. Thanks and keep up the great content.
This provided me with some insight I didn't previously have - really clever "discovery." Thank you!
I think it would be cool to see some sort of analysis based on the starting distribution of tiles. I'm not sure if it's always better to go for a tile that has the least of them on the boards or the one that has the most of them on the boards knowing that there's going to be fewer than coming back later. Is it better just to force for a particular arrangement of tiles on the board
Ideally you want to finish the top 3 rows every round, so if there are 2 of a color in separate groups, you don't want to commit to row 2 with that color because it can be blocked. For row 4-5, you often won't be able to complete it in 1 round so try to do it over 2 rounds. In 2 player games, it could be better to start row 4 when a color has only 1 pair of tiles because you are getting all tiles of that color that round. Compared to when there are 2 pairs of a color, each player takes a pair, and there are fewer left over.
@@strategyadvisor5604 I think 2p analysis of the starting distribution of tiles would be cool to see and then watch how it plays out.
@Strategy Advisor Can you please do Terraforming Mars next?
So if you upgrade your actions in alphabetical order, you should be good to go! 🤣
Alphabetical happens to be a decent order. Just remember Cards last and Sponsors requires a good reason.
Horses and the sheds and some islands must be in The Norwegians. Not in base. Think I will try this game again on Board Game Arena. Thank you.
Doing build 1 before getting america parter zoo seems very risky. If opponent is also on the 2 america's plan and takes it before you do, all plans are out the window. Since you had priority on getting partner zoo you didnt need to keep the euro bird, but when I dont have prio I would have kept it as a backup plan. 4:14 I think you should always do association at 5 for a project ( either americás 2 or bird breeding). This lets you upgrade build making it a much stronger action especially since we have a huge amount of money for second round. This also lets you get extra worker and to make sure you can use that, you want asso going back up the track asap. Because of this, I don't like advancing the break and drawing cards first actions. I'd probably put it back for an X, because you want this round to last. ( Heck, you could even play both america's animals and do the project after, but then getting the extra worker is more risky) EDIT: You adres this 30 seconds later, but I still feel wating for america's 4 for the 1 extra CP is a mistake. The upgrade and better use of asso at 5 is worth more than the extra cp. Also blocking america's 2 makes it more of a risk for opponent, because if they want to support it they need 4 symbols for 3cp. Getting to 4 leaves them the easy 2 EDIT2: It's crazy the amount of primates showing up for the mandrill.
1. Opponent took Europe before I did build 1. I would have had to assoc before sponsor, which would be a serious issue if the round goes long. Keeping euro bird as backup would have been prudent. 2. I get an upgrade either way. I would get a worker which is wasted, I would not get the 2-size income, and I'd lose a CP. Using your strongest action (assoc 5) on 2CP is below average, it's better to deny the 3CP spot.
For the ones that require partner zoos they do inherently become cheaper. I wonder if that should be factored into the bison for example
It kinda is because the 2nd continent tag is worth 3.
Very useful
Fantastic video, thank you. I would like to see an analysis like this for other popular euro games.
What is your average solo score?
I get 200+ solo and about 160 multiplayer.
@@strategyadvisor5604 That's remarkable. I just started playing. The rulebook says 140+ is excellent. I can't imagine breaking 200. I'd love to see a playthrough. I obviously have a lot to learn.
@@chrisjohnphillips6352 If you get 3 early upgrades or workers then the other actions give max bonus. Try to get max bonus for as many actions as possible when playing solo.
On average, how many upgrades (splicing, gluing, extra saw actions, pots) do you have by the end of the game?
@@chrisjohnphillips6352 4.5. Also to clarify my last comment I meant center bonus.
I looked through the entire internet and I am glad that I found this video
Hello Mr. Advisor, your analysis is incredible. Can I have a look at the original data? I would like to know more about the enclosure and jumping mechanic and the possibility that they can go beyond the times two calculation. However, the data is presented in the way that they are lumped together. I would want to take a look at the original data that has not been lumped together. Applying statistic to the board game is such an awesome approach! Keep up the good work. Cheers
Thank you! That's the only data I have, I created it manually by viewing the cards.
Ark Nova Water World expansion!
I haven’t played in a while, but it seems as if you’re arbitrarily assigning symbols a value. Like how is an ability worth 4, and how is an appeal worth 3? What are you basing that on? Is that in the rulebook?
No, I calculated it with gradient descent. It would be impossible to model so accurately if the designer was not using this kind of balance system.
Well done on the video, it includes a lot of pointers that are going to be helpful to players that want some input on what is a good baseline on upgrades, starting cards and sponsor cards. I couldn't find many things that I disagree with, I just have some pointers on specific sponsor cards or on the upgrade path of your starting cards. As for upgrading the Build action card, this is the card that I tend to vary the most on when and if I want to upgrade it. In a lot of games, you need to upgrade it early to make multiple buildings, including important economy stuff like kiosks, all in one action. Though I don't play online, apparently the metagame over there (with a ton of experienced players) is that it is often the first card to be upgraded, to become more action efficient over a longer period of time and always having the option to spend leftover money on stuff. As I said, I tend to vary the most on this card specifically, as there can be games where you are aiming for large animals, that only requires the occasional 5 enclosure on the strength 5 spot and then waiting for it to be all the way back to 5 for your next big enclosure. In those games, I tend to upgrade the card late in the game, or sometimes not at all. In the sponsor cards you had the 'Federal Grants' card on A tier, this is generally considered to be one of the best sponsor cards in the online meta. As I said, I don't play online, but I can see that especially having it early will greatly boost your economy for absolutely no trouble at all. It is the easiest to play economy card, that also generates an easy point and a science symbol. Also cards like 'Science Museum' and 'Medical Breakthrough' can be complete gamechangers when played early. They are rather hard to put into play, but if you can find some symbols early, they pay off in a big way and can generate anywhere from 2-8 points for a single card, which is insane. Also the 'Breeding Program' and 'Global Breeding Program' cards are legit sleepers, which can in most cases win you the race for a common conservation project. They only work twice for that reason, but winning two 5 point goals before other people can claim them will generally win you the game if it is anywhere close between you and the other players. Occasionally they might even give you a point if you happend to score a lot of goals, which is probably a rare thing, but still a nice bonus.
Lol this game was a joke. Side entrance + Federal Grants. Scarlet Macaw + Bird Breeding Program. Has to be the best card draw I’ve ever seen. No strategy needed when all the stars align like this
Agree. a start like this doesnt really need a strat guide. Also not that many interesting decisions early game. Even some moves I would consider mistakes.
Good job!
Thats cool. I think another interesting aspect would be to look at the ratio of "useful" cost on a card, e.g. cost for appeal, rep vs the dead cost like enclosure. Is there any trend, for example when comparing small and large animals?
I'm not sure I understand correctly, but if you mean efficiency excluding requirements, then the best card is King Vulture with fairly low cost and high requirements. 30 value vs 16 average cost, 14 cost if in aviary.
@@strategyadvisor5604yea I guess somehow what I meant is already priced into it by the inclusion of enclosure size. Was in general wondering if maybe larger animals are more efficient but that would mean just comparing the requirement numbers then.
@@verlausterhippie Larger/small animals are pretty balanced, except at the end of the game you want to play large animals for action efficiency.
What an absolutely fantastic video and analysis. It feels like we are getting a full on peak behind the curtain. It also makes me appreciate the game more. Its complex execution has a deceptively simple underlying mechanic.
Thank you for the kind words! My main focus is usually strategic conclusions, but this video I wanted to give a deeper understanding. Converted value is a useful tool for many games.
Can you make a vid about how to get lots of tiles? Ive played 10 times and can barely get my home and one island covered
This guide is all about maximizing your income, which is how you get lots of tiles. Follow it and I think you will fill up 2 islands. One extra tip: large red tiles are the most efficient to upgrade. I try not to waste actions on upgrading green, yellow, or small tiles. The borderline tiles are red 4 space, yellow 9 space, and green 9-12 space. By upgrading I mean the up arrows, not crafting actions.
I don't agree with everything you say, plus it's very easy to play against someone who has less than 100 ELO (honestly even under 200 is very easy) Make a video with an opponent who's at least 400 ELO and let's see with 10 games how many you win
Check the thumbnail, there was literally nobody with 400 ELO. Still less than 100 people today including myself.
This was a very fast game. Well played.
Best strategy video I've seen for any boardgame
Thank you so much! I put extra effort into this one.
Yeah, I’m not convinced. Purple and yellow are really hard to get right this way.
I find it way harder to improvise my structure. Red/green is easiest but I usually score all my tiles on the pyramid no matter what color they are.
@@strategyadvisor5604 I am quite possibly doing this wrong, to be honest: I find the purple tiles too hard to manage, so I don’t even try. Which in turns makes it harder to actually score the yellow ones… The possibilities to encircle purple districts are extremely few, though, if we want 5 floors!
@@arthursimsa9005 That could be true if you play at more than 2 players, because you have fewer tiles to surround purples. You should be able to score 4 yellow districts on the pyramid, extras should just be covered up. Do not try to score yellow or purple districts on level 1 (unless it's on a plaza tile later in the game).
@@strategyadvisor5604I would even say it is best to avoid scoring yellow or purple on floor 2, no? They don’t really give enough points to bother. I started actually following your advice and not avoiding purple altogether, I can acknowledge this is a very strong strategy:) The only problem now is when barely any plaza tile shows during the entire first half of the game… 😅
@@arthursimsa9005 Yeah purple is bad on floor 2. Yellow is fine, but you want to place it on the corner so it blocks 1 space instead of 2. There is only 1 tile that has a red and green district, so it's kind of unavoidable. There are also 3 tiles with 1 plaza and 1 red or green district which could also go on floor 2. It's rare but no early plazas is the biggest problem. Plan for floor 3 or 4 to be the top so you have more space for late game plazas.
Another takeaway from this is that bigger animals are stronger than smaller ones, cause there is no "base value" for the card that would value the cost of adding that card to your hand and using an action to play it (and if you haven't upgraded build multiple actions to build enclosures).
Yes I thought about that, it's complicated. Each animal costs a card (-3) and gives 2 tags (+4). So the best size animals are whatever spends all your extra money. Late in the game, that's big animals.
Big animals are more effective in terms of card draw actions, build actions and animals actions. The limiting factor tends to be money though. Smaller animals are more effective for icons / conservation projects.
@@markvanderwerf8592in general smaller animals are mostly good for the icons, but have less requirements and profit more from build II Larger animals tend to brick your hand but are overall more valuable, while the small ones feel like fillers. Especially late in the game larger animals have requirements that can't be met if you had no time to plan around them. So there is a holding cost in hand size for larger animals
@@Hoellenseher i think it often doesn't matter that much. Smaller animals you need more draws, builds and animals actions but you tend to have enough of those and early on money tends to limit you. Smaller animals help you get conservation projects faster and better kiosk income. But bigger ones save a build action usually. Later on money tends to be less limiting and actions become more making larger animals more attractive. But even then with animals, cards and build upgraded you still find yourself playing small animals often.
This is great! I need more insights specifically for the solo game. I've played 4 dozen times on BGA and i'm just getting slaughtered. I do quite well in games with other people but the solo game.....
In solo it's very important to have sponsors to play, because breaking for 5 doesn't do much. See my Ark Nova Tier Lists video to know which sponsors are worth building around. Snapping is bad and should only be used for key sponsors and projects if they are about to be discarded. Play animals directly from rep range instead of snapping them, this lets you get deeper in the deck. You are not competing for cards so there is no rush. Association is a worse upgrade (good donation spots get taken) and Sponsors is a better upgrade than usual so you can play more cards from the row.
@@strategyadvisor5604 Thanks for the tips. I'll check that sponsors tier list out. So you would recommend upgrading Animals quickly then to start playing animals from rep range? I feel like I can get a good amount of appeal OR a good amount of conservation points. But Im just not efficient enough to get both. First time I play Ark Nova I really hated it :D. Now i've played about 10 games with other people and about 4 or 5 dozen solo games and i'm loving it.
@@newmancl0 Yeah, Animals is good to upgrade first or second. You might need to work on your action efficiency. Play 2 animals at a time when you have enough money. Rarely take x tokens or 5 money as an action. Focus on animals and association actions, especially late game (best use of x-tokens).
3:15 you actually have to buy 4 additional workers to get the free production
You start with 1, and they must be placed adjacent, but not in a specific order. For example, buying 3 workers and placing them all in the bottom row would be a legal way to get both production bonuses.
@@strategyadvisor5604 huh. I was playing it wrong then. The more you know
Just found this channel, thanks, could you do some for Rising Sun, Blood Rage, Cthulhu Wars, in case you are familiar with those?
Yes I have Blood Rage on my list! I'm not an expert in the others yet.
I have no idea what any of this means, but CZcams brought me here, and game design is fascinating. Neat.
Oof, let me take you down the rabbit hole. It's for a board game called Ark Nova in which you design a zoo and place animals in enclosures to increase the appeal of your zoo, all while you fund conservation projects to increase your overall score. Highly recommend, super fun and very deep in strategy.
Fantastic insight! I would assume that the Fur Seal is undercosted in your model because the combination of a rock AND water requirement on a single animal makes it much more restrictive to play
I think you're right about that!
I would also think that the association worker is less valuable as the game goes on, and it is difficult to get an upgraded animals action early.
Hey the icons that are requirements on the left side (like animal and country tags) do not count toward total icons.
Yes I know.
@@strategyadvisor5604 I figured, maybe I misheard what you were saying in the vid.
You have the medical breakthrough card tiered way too low. It’s the most powerful (sponsor) card in the game. Sure, the four research tags are tricky, but you can get those before the third break… A conservation point every break?! Sign me up every time.
It can be very good, especially when you have multiple science payoffs, but my games tend to have only 4-5 breaks.