Tips clansofcaledonia

Located here is a basic strategy for each clan.

General strategy.

In general, the basic strategy for most clans is to put workers down and upgrade them in the first two rounds, focus on production in the third and fourth rounds, and fulfill contracts in the fourth and fifth rounds.

Clan selection should be determined based on the available ports, the end-of-round scoring objectives, and possibly the resources that come with each clan, though usually this is of lesser importance. For example, Campbell can be a very good choice if the end-of-round scoring objective in round 5 is the number of production tiles laid down. MacDonald can be a very good choice if the end-of-round scoring objective in round 1 is the number of workers put down. MacEwen is an excellent choice if there is a 1-for-3 port, you are the first player, and there is a 1-whiskey/1-bread contract available. Cunningham is generally a good choice.

During the initial worker placement, consider the ports that will be of greatest benefit to you to identify where to place your workers. The £10 port is generically useful for all clans and should be prioritized. The £5-and-contract port can be situationally useful for round 1 and is very useful for round 5 and may be prioritized, though you need not upgrade shipping to access it at the beginning. The 1-for-3 port can be very useful for particular clans, as detailed below. The another-port-for-£3 port is situationally useful depending on which other ports are available. The meat port can be useful for fulfilling a contract in round 1, but is generally of low priority. The swap-two-for-two port can be useful for Campbell in particular, but is generally of low priority.

For most clans, having two workers near ports is effective; MacDonald in particular benefits from having a worker in the central loch instead. If the ports are unattractive or if most of the spots near a port are taken, having a worker near the central loch, particularly if the clan has upgraded shipping, can be very useful for early game expansion.

Turns are precious at the very beginning. If you desperately need access to a port, ensure that you can do so. If there are valuable contracts available , generally having a low good cost and a large gold reward, take them. If you have access to a cheap spot that no one else does, you can build something on it later. Prioritize competitive actions: taking contracts, expanding on contested spots, and selling goods that other players have.

Placing workers down is most effective in rounds 1 and 2. Generally, you are doing well if you can get all workers down by round 2; otherwise, you should at least have four of the same worker down and the corresponding worker upgrade at this point. You may consider putting the remaining workers down and finishing worker upgrades in round 3, but there are diminishing returns at this point. Nevertheless, woodcutters can be effective, low-cost pieces to put down for expansion or neighbor-bonus purposes. (MacDonald should have all workers down by round 1. Cunningham should focus on cows first.)

By round 3, you should be building things from your player board based on your clan's specialty and the goods required for the contracts on the board. (MacDonald should be fulfilling contracts at this point. Other clans may start fulfilling low-cost contracts, but it's generally better to build up your engines instead.)

Buchanan.

(Two contract slots.) Get two contracts in separate turns in round 1. Note that using a port to take a contract and then taking a contract in the main turn only triggers the round cost for the contract once. In particular, this means you should not take a port contract and a regular contract in the same turn in round 1. In addition, if there are two very good contracts in round 1, you may wish to forfeit £5 to take both contracts on the same turn, though this is unlikely. You will want to build a strong production engine and then fulfill most of your contracts in rounds 4 and 5, when you have the most resources and can save the most money by using your clan power. Note that this power allows you to choose from six contracts upon triggering the contract port or the contract bonus from having four of the same facility.

Campbell.

(£3, £4, £4, and £5 cost reduction respectively for same facility purchases.) Expand aggressively in conjunction with putting workers down the first two rounds, but try to ensure that your facilities have enough raw goods to function in the production phase. To this end, purchasing raw goods from neighbor bonuses and using the 1-for-3 port can help immensely. The swap-two-for-two port can be very useful with this clan, allowing you to, for example, put down two cheap bakeries, possibly triggering a contract bonus, then using the port to swap those with two expensive cows or miners, hence giving you more bakeries to put down and refreshing the contract bonus.

Cunningham.

(Sells milk for £8 each during production phase.) Focus on cows, then workers. You should have all cows, all workers, and all worker upgrades down by the end of round 2. If there's a 1-for-3 port available, use it in round 1. If there's also a use-port-for-£3 port available, use that in round 1 too. If there are cows near you, purchase milk using the neighbor bonus. In round 3, build production facilities and possibly start fulfilling contracts.

MacEwen.

(Sells up to min(3, # hops in contract) grain for £9 each on finishing contracts with hops.) Situational and difficult to play. You should be finishing contracts throughout the game, focusing particularly on those contracts that give 3+ hops, given that you have a corresponding amount of grain. This clan benefits immensely from having a 1-for-3 port in the game and access to the 1-whiskey/1-bread contract that gives 15 gold and 8 hops, providing a much-needed gold boost at the very beginning. Try to purchase as much grain as you can use via neighbor bonuses or, if unable to do so, put down your own wheat fields. This clan is particularly difficult because of the tight balancing act between building up a production chain and consuming goods and grain to finish contracts, but can snowball given a good start.

MacKenzie.

(Each produced whisky barrel gives you £3. May store each round 1 of your produced barrels in cellar to gain extra money in later rounds.) Try to build distilleries as soon as possible (2 ore better 3 distilleries in first round). Make sure to have the grain for each distillery (Starting goods / building field / using 1-for-3 port). Sell whisky in early rounds to reinvest the money (building second field, forth distillery and workers as well). But add one whisky in cellar each round. That gives you 15 resp. 22 extra coins in round 4 resp. 5. Therefore this clan is strong in late game.