Board games and you: A guide to a true nerd sport.

My friends pointed out, moderately bitterly, that I have an affinity to economic board games. And looking back over the past, I've noticed a tendency to win significantly above average. Which is ironic considering my real-life financial situation, but I suspect board games reward the type of behaviour which would otherwise back-fire in real life. So I figured I'd share some of these thoughts as in the hope it will lead to some more intense games in the future, rather than a grimace of "Not again".

I originally wrote this blog with specific problems and examples from each board game, but I deliberately made it generic and applicable across multiple games, for as Drucker said in the Effective Executive, 'most problems are generic and can only be solved through a decision which establish a rule or principle'. This is also partly to help anyone outside of my work group who will not understand the specialized language of the games being discussed.

* Early investment. No.1 rule is anything that provides continuous and preferably exponential investment HAS to be done early. Example 1: In Peurto Rico, an early cheap investment in a 'Small market' accelerates your money making and allows you to get a 'Large market' quickly which accelerates your funding again. Example 2: In Acquire, Forcing an early merge allows you to get substantial cash infusion which you can invest into other hotels, allowing you to become majority share owner in them as well.

* Understand your resources by themselves and with respect to the environment. Each resource has different uses in each phase of the game and you need to understand how to best utilize them. For example: Puerto rico, there is only one good you can sell at a time, so generating a tonne of coffee or tobacco is generally useless. Having one coffee available at all times is plenty.

The second point is just as important. Each resource is has different value based on what people have done. Arms races will on the other hand will kill both players. Playing contranian often works in your favour. E.g. Settlers, if everyone shoots for brick and wood, there will a flood of these resources and you, the contrarian who owns the only sheep suddenly has a lot of power. Alhambra is a prime example. Those who do an arms race to own all the "valuable" 'Purple' buildings might end up having to share points, whilst he who notices this and moves into the "cheap" 'Blue' buildings might get to keep all of those points.

* Over-diversification is a bad idea. Just like real-life, over diversification hurts more then it helps. In nearly every game, you will end up highly overstretched. In Settlers, having access to every resource-type square probably means you have a lot of settlements and no cities to accelerate cash. In Acquire, having a stake in every hotel means you'll likely not get Majority OR Minority shareholder bonuses. In Puerto rico, having more than 2 types of production means you're wasting money on production plants which should have gone to support buildings.

* Strengthening your own hand is always preferable to damaging another's. Don't try to hurt a particular person, even if they seem to be in the lead, if by doing so you sacrifice a better play for yourself. The only exception to this is if you can screw everyone else at once. Example: In Puerto rico, 'Trading' to make more cash to buy that building you always wanted is generally the best move. However if by 'Captain'ing you can force everyone else to dump heavily goods whilst allowing you to have some minor benefit, then this may be a better choice.

* Communication on and outside of your round is vital. As a general rule, you want to steer people towards making a decision that benefits you. The only way to make that succeed honourably is to help them make a decision that benefits the both of you, but screws someone else. Staying quiet can help if someone else is propositioning a decision which fits into your plans.

* Medium-term planning is your friend. As a general rule, people will make decisions (or randomness will) which will make long term planning exceptionally difficult, if not outright impossible. Medium term prediction is reasonable and advised however. E.g. In Acquire, if you have two pieces which will make a hotel, but they are far away from any merging, holding them in reserve until there are hotels closer to that location is advised. E.g. In Puerto rico, you can think in terms of up to 3 rounds in advance since with the small number of 'roles' that can be played, the role you need played before it gets to your turn has a high chance of being played in each round.

One fantastic skill that I would also recommend is keeping a good idea of what resources others have got. It's one I'm generally utterly poor at with my short-term memory, but it makes decision making a lot easier.

That is all I've come up with so far. Hopefully it gives some insights into how I play.