Board Game Arena - User contributions [en]

Tips scythe

2026-07-12T04:36:59Z

Shivaware: /* Pre-Game */ Added order numbers for player mats which determine starting player

== Pre-Game ==
Pick 6 stars you want to achieve:

• Generally you always want worker star, objective star, and 1-2 combat stars.

If picking factions:

• Tier 1 = Crimea/Rusviet

• Tier 2 = Polania/Saxony/Nordic (in that order)

When bidding for faction/player mats, the lowest order number on the player mats is the starting player, but these numbers are not shown on BGA. The numbers are as follows:

# Industrial
# Engineering
# Patriotic
# Mechanical
# Agricultural

Plan to abuse your faction’s power:

• Crimea = enlist a lot

• Rusviet = Get stars and factory fast

• Polania = move a lot and gain encounters

• Saxony = tons of fighting and objectives

• Nordic = hide and accumulate resources, usually

Abuse lake retreat.

== Early Game ==
Beginning of the game until midgame

• Get workers on village

• Get workers on tiles that match the bottom row stars you want to pursue

• Get 1-2 mechs

• Quick factory card if you don’t have the resources you want nearby

• 1-2 early upgrades can be helpful for smoothing out later production

== Mid-Game ==
Mid-game begins once most players start to have access to the middle of the board and can hit other people’s resources.

• Make sure to start hammering out your stars (don’t let a game end when you have 3 mechs/buildings/enlists).

• Watch who has lots of stars and try to track how quickly they will end the game

• Track who can attack you and who you can attack (riverwalk and lakewalk abilities can be complicated here).

• Take advantageous combats as long as it won’t mess up your other star plans.

• Interfere with opponents who are winning.

== Endgame ==
Triggered once someone is 1-3 turns away from winning.

• Focus on spreading out your troops as much as you can without giving away easy combats

• Finish final stars even if you might not get 6 stars.

– If you are rushing the game, end it quickly.

– If you are playing slowly, delay these turns as long as possible (2+ extra endgame turns usually destroys the rush players).

Gamehelpclansofcaledonia

2020-06-11T12:20:06Z

Shivaware: /* Longest settlement. */

== '''Overview:''' ==
Players play as one of nine clans of Caledonia, expanding over land and sea to establish production chains, fulfill contracts, and become the most successful clan of them all. Gameplay takes place over a setup phase followed by five rounds.

== '''Setup.''' ==
After turn order has been randomly established, each player chooses a clan in reverse turn order. There is always one more clan available than the number of players in the game. Then, in turn order and then reverse turn order, each player puts down two workers (miners or woodcutters) on the map. These serve as starting points for expansion in future rounds; the two workers can be placed anywhere on the map, but subsequent placement in future rounds must be connected to previous units.

== '''Rounds.''' ==
In turn order, players either (i) place units on the board, (ii) take a contract from the contract board, (iii) buy or sell goods, (iv) buy merchants, shipping upgrades, or worker upgrades, or (v) pass. If a player has access to a port (located at the corners of the map), the player may use the port as a bonus action before the main turn. Multiple ports can be used in the same turn. Each port may only be used once.

==== ''Placing units.'' ====
The total cost of each unit is the sum of a fixed unit cost and a variable land cost from £1-6. Units on land must be adjacent to each other; units next to water may extend their placement range by a number of water tiles less than or equal to their number of shipping upgrades. The first shipping upgrade allows players to cross streams (water along the edge of tiles), the second allows players to cross up to one water tile, and so on. There are five possible shipping upgrades, each costing £4.

* Woodcutter - costs £6 - produces £4 (+£2*) each round

* Miner - costs £10 - produces £6 (+£2*) each round

* Sheep - costs £8 - produces 1 Wool each round

* Cow - costs £9 - produces 1 Milk each round

* Cheese - costs £8 - produces 1 Cheese from 1 Milk each round

* Grain - costs £18 - produces 2 Wheat each round

* Bread - costs £8 - produces 1 Bread from 1 Wheat each round

* Whiskey - costs £10 - produces 1 whiskey from 1 Wheat each round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> ''The woodcutter and miner can be upgraded to produce an extra £2 each round (see 'Worker upgrades', below).

Placing units that neighbor other players' units over land (not crossing any streams or bodies of water) will trigger a neighborhood bonus, allowing the player to purchase up to three goods produced by neighboring units for a £2 (raw goods: wool, milk, grain) or £3 (processed goods: cheese, bread, whiskey) discount over the market price. This is a bonus action that takes place after the main turn. Each purchase requires one merchant. A neighborhood bonus may be triggered for multiple neighboring units in the same turn.

Placing four production facilities of the same kind triggers a contract bonus, as depicted on the bottom of the player board. If the player's contract slot is empty, the player may choose from one of three random contracts drawn separately from those of the main contract board. The player must still pay the round cost for taking a contract.

==== ''Taking contracts.'' ====
Players may take contracts from the contract board for a certain cost depending on the round---the costs for each round are, respectively, -£5, £0, £5, £10, and £15. (Yes, you get £5 for taking a contract in the first round.) Players may have at most one unfulfilled contract at once.

==== ''Buying or selling goods.'' ====
Every good bought or sold requires the use of one merchant, which is then locked for the round. Players start out with two merchants, and can unlock up to five more for £4 each. Buying or selling goods respectively raises or lowers the position of the good marker on the market board by a number of steps equal to the number of goods bought or sold. This makes it more cost-effective to buy in bulk in one go. In a single round, a player cannot buy and sell the same good. The same rules apply to the neighborhood bonus (see above, 'Placing units that neighbor other players' units').

==== ''Buying merchants, shipping upgrades, or worker upgrades.'' ====
The purpose of each upgrade has been detailed in the sections above. Merchants cost £4 and allow for more buying and selling from the market. Shipping upgrades extends the reach of tiles adjacent to water. Worker upgrades cost £10 and increase the profit from each worker by £2 per round.

==== ''Passing.'' ====
Once the player cannot or does not want to keep performing actions, the player can pass, stopping them from performing any more actions this round. The order in which players pass determine their turn order for next round; passing early also gives a slight monetary bonus for next round. In all cases, passing gives at least £10.

After all players have passed, the production phase is triggered. Players decide what combinations of goods to produce with the units they have, end-of-round scoring takes place, and the next round begins.

== '''Scoring.''' ==
The main contributor to points are, in descending order, contracts (hops, sugar cane, tobacco, cotton), glory (end-of-round scoring), longest settlement and most contracts achievements, and goods (raw, processed, and money).

==== ''Contracts.'' ====
Each fulfilled contract gives up to three benefits---0-4 of an import (sugar cane, tobacco, and cotton; the rarest import is worth five points at the end of the game, the next rarest worth four, and the most common worth three), 0-9 hops (each worth one point), £3, £5, £10, or £15, an expansion bonus allowing you to expand once without paying the land cost, or 1-2 free upgrades (worker upgrades are reduced from £10 to £5 instead).

==== ''Glory.'' ====
Victory points are obtained for satisfying randomly drawn objectives after each round, as depicted on the top of the main board.

==== ''Most settlements connected by shipping.'' ====
Each settlement is a group of units connected by land. The player with the most (then second-most and third-most) settlements connected by shipping gets the points listed at the top of the main board.

==== ''Most contracts.'' ====
The player who has fulfilled the most (then second-most) contracts gets the points listed at the top of the main board.

==== ''Goods.'' ====
Raw goods are worth one point each and processed goods two. £10 is worth one point.

Gamehelpnorthwestpassage

2019-06-19T15:11:20Z

Shivaware: /* Exploration Points: */

'''''Looking for the Franklin Expedition'''''

''In 1845, Sir John Franklin led an expedition on behalf of the British Royal Navy to find and explore the last portion of the Northwest Passage. They sailed into unknown waters, and no-one ever heard from them again... Players must venture into these hazardous Arctic waters in order to discover Franklin’s fate and succeed where he failed: by finding the Northwest Passage.''

----

In the game, prestige is awarded for exploring islands and straits, getting information from Inuits or Cairns about the Franklin Expedition, finding shipwrecks of the expedition, and for being among the first to find their way up to the Northwest Passage and back to Groenland. The player with the most Prestige points at the end of the game is the winner. In case of a tie, the first tied player to have returned to Greenland is the winner.

== GAME CYCLE ==

The game is divided into ten rounds. At the end of each round, the solar disc moves, and part of the board above the sun freezes into ice or melts back to sea.

During one round, player will take up to 7 actions, in turn.

Actions can be taken either from the ship, using crewmen on the ship, or from the sled, using crewmen on the sled.

During one turn, one player can play one or more actions. However, '''all additional actions (beyond the first one) will cost one more crewman than normal'''. In order to stop playing more actions during one turn, click the blinking [End Turn] at the top of the screen.

At the end of the round, all used Crewmen move back to «Available».

The next turn order is the order in which players used their last crewmen (or passed). This is shown by the turn order markers at the top left of the board.

== ACTIONS ==

=== Draw a tile ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the chosen tile at the top of the board.>

 

=== Refresh tiles and Draw ===
''Cost: 2 Crewmen''

<Click on the "Renew deck" icon.>

The player MUST:
# Refresh: all large tiles available on the board are replaced with four new tiles which are randomly drawn from the reserve. The replaced tiles are placed back into the reserve.
# Draw a tile: he takes either a large or a small Exploration tile and adds it to his personal reserve.
 

=== Place a tile ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the tile from your hand, rotate it or flip it as fit, and click on the white marker on the board.>

The player places one tile on the board, which is taken from his personal reserve. He must meet the following conditions:
* The tile  must  be placed in line with the black grid on the board.
* The tile  must  be placed so that  at  least  one  side (long or large) must be flush with a tile on which the player has a presence (Ship or Sled, depending on which one executes this action).
* The land and sea areas of the newly-placed tile must correspond with all land and  sea tiles of adjacent tiles (both orthogonally and diagonally).
If, by placing a tile, a player creates a space the size of a small Exploration tile which is surrounded on all sides by tiles, a matching small Exploration tile is taken from the reserve and placed to fill the empty space.

An island is complete when the land areas of at least two tiles are completely surrounded by water or the edge of the board. In case a player completes one or several islands, he gets one Cartography token, and Prestige points according to the size of the island.

 

=== Transfer Crew ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the back arrows on the player board>

Crewmen are moved from/to the ship/sled, thus deploying or taking back the sled into the ship. Taking back crewmen in the ship can only happen if the sled and ship are on the same tile. Both active and resting crewmen can be transferred.

 

=== Movement ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the ship or sled, then on its destination.>

'''Ship Movement''': The player moves his ship onto one adjacent tile linked to the tile it currently occupies by a sea passage.

'''Sled Movement''': The player moves his sled onto one adjacent tile linked to the one it currently occupies by a land passage. The Sled cannot cross the sea unless it is frozen.

Multiple Ships and Sleds can be on the same tile.

A frozen tile is unreachable for a ship. If a ship, due to a season change, finds itself in frozen waters, the ship is blocked in and will not be able to move until the thaw. A frozen tile is considered to be entirely composed of land, so a Sled can move freely on it.

 

=== Explore a Franklin site or a Strait ===
''Cost: 3 Crewmen''

<Click on the bonus chip.>

1 prestige point is awarded for the discovery multiplied by the zone multiplier (x1 / x2 / x3), and additionally, points are awarded at the end of the game for the players having the most bonuses of a given type (see tooltip).

 

=== Discover an Inuit or a Cairn ===
''Cost: 2 Crewmen''

<Click on the bonus chip.>

2 prestige point is awarded for the discovery multiplied by the zone multiplier (x1 / x2 / x3).

 

=== Pass ===
A player can choose to Pass and take no action during his turn, even if he still has available Crewmen. In this case, the player cannot take any more actions during this round.
If a player has no available Crewmen, he automatically passes.

== END OF THE GAME ==

The game ends either: at the end of the Action Phase of the tenth round or if all of the Expeditions have returned to Greenland.

In addition to the point earned during the game, players receive more Prestige points based on the tokens they picked up along the way.

==== Exploration Points: ====
Point are awarded to the player(s) with the most, second most, and third most Shipwrecks, Straits, and Cartography tokens. The point distribution is 13, 7, 4 for Shipwrecks; 11, 5, 2 for Straits; and 9, 5, 2 for Cartography.

==== Set Points: ====
Each set is composed of one token of each Discovery type – one Inuit, one Cairn, one Shipwreck, one Strait, and one Cartography token. Each set gives a bonus of 6 prestige points.

==== Abandonment Penalty: ====
Each Sled and/or Ship which did not return to Greenland before the end of the tenth Exploration season is lost. When a Ship or a Sled is lost, all of the crewmen in the corresponding column are lost with it.
Every lost Ship and/or Sled gives a penalty of -2 Prestige points for each corresponding lost Crewman. An abandoned ship gives a penalty of -2 Prestige points.

Gamehelpnorthwestpassage

2019-06-19T15:10:49Z

Shivaware: /* Exploration Points: */

'''''Looking for the Franklin Expedition'''''

''In 1845, Sir John Franklin led an expedition on behalf of the British Royal Navy to find and explore the last portion of the Northwest Passage. They sailed into unknown waters, and no-one ever heard from them again... Players must venture into these hazardous Arctic waters in order to discover Franklin’s fate and succeed where he failed: by finding the Northwest Passage.''

----

In the game, prestige is awarded for exploring islands and straits, getting information from Inuits or Cairns about the Franklin Expedition, finding shipwrecks of the expedition, and for being among the first to find their way up to the Northwest Passage and back to Groenland. The player with the most Prestige points at the end of the game is the winner. In case of a tie, the first tied player to have returned to Greenland is the winner.

== GAME CYCLE ==

The game is divided into ten rounds. At the end of each round, the solar disc moves, and part of the board above the sun freezes into ice or melts back to sea.

During one round, player will take up to 7 actions, in turn.

Actions can be taken either from the ship, using crewmen on the ship, or from the sled, using crewmen on the sled.

During one turn, one player can play one or more actions. However, '''all additional actions (beyond the first one) will cost one more crewman than normal'''. In order to stop playing more actions during one turn, click the blinking [End Turn] at the top of the screen.

At the end of the round, all used Crewmen move back to «Available».

The next turn order is the order in which players used their last crewmen (or passed). This is shown by the turn order markers at the top left of the board.

== ACTIONS ==

=== Draw a tile ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the chosen tile at the top of the board.>

 

=== Refresh tiles and Draw ===
''Cost: 2 Crewmen''

<Click on the "Renew deck" icon.>

The player MUST:
# Refresh: all large tiles available on the board are replaced with four new tiles which are randomly drawn from the reserve. The replaced tiles are placed back into the reserve.
# Draw a tile: he takes either a large or a small Exploration tile and adds it to his personal reserve.
 

=== Place a tile ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the tile from your hand, rotate it or flip it as fit, and click on the white marker on the board.>

The player places one tile on the board, which is taken from his personal reserve. He must meet the following conditions:
* The tile  must  be placed in line with the black grid on the board.
* The tile  must  be placed so that  at  least  one  side (long or large) must be flush with a tile on which the player has a presence (Ship or Sled, depending on which one executes this action).
* The land and sea areas of the newly-placed tile must correspond with all land and  sea tiles of adjacent tiles (both orthogonally and diagonally).
If, by placing a tile, a player creates a space the size of a small Exploration tile which is surrounded on all sides by tiles, a matching small Exploration tile is taken from the reserve and placed to fill the empty space.

An island is complete when the land areas of at least two tiles are completely surrounded by water or the edge of the board. In case a player completes one or several islands, he gets one Cartography token, and Prestige points according to the size of the island.

 

=== Transfer Crew ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the back arrows on the player board>

Crewmen are moved from/to the ship/sled, thus deploying or taking back the sled into the ship. Taking back crewmen in the ship can only happen if the sled and ship are on the same tile. Both active and resting crewmen can be transferred.

 

=== Movement ===
''Cost: 1 Crewman''

<Click on the ship or sled, then on its destination.>

'''Ship Movement''': The player moves his ship onto one adjacent tile linked to the tile it currently occupies by a sea passage.

'''Sled Movement''': The player moves his sled onto one adjacent tile linked to the one it currently occupies by a land passage. The Sled cannot cross the sea unless it is frozen.

Multiple Ships and Sleds can be on the same tile.

A frozen tile is unreachable for a ship. If a ship, due to a season change, finds itself in frozen waters, the ship is blocked in and will not be able to move until the thaw. A frozen tile is considered to be entirely composed of land, so a Sled can move freely on it.

 

=== Explore a Franklin site or a Strait ===
''Cost: 3 Crewmen''

<Click on the bonus chip.>

1 prestige point is awarded for the discovery multiplied by the zone multiplier (x1 / x2 / x3), and additionally, points are awarded at the end of the game for the players having the most bonuses of a given type (see tooltip).

 

=== Discover an Inuit or a Cairn ===
''Cost: 2 Crewmen''

<Click on the bonus chip.>

2 prestige point is awarded for the discovery multiplied by the zone multiplier (x1 / x2 / x3).

 

=== Pass ===
A player can choose to Pass and take no action during his turn, even if he still has available Crewmen. In this case, the player cannot take any more actions during this round.
If a player has no available Crewmen, he automatically passes.

== END OF THE GAME ==

The game ends either: at the end of the Action Phase of the tenth round or if all of the Expeditions have returned to Greenland.

In addition to the point earned during the game, players receive more Prestige points based on the tokens they picked up along the way.

==== Exploration Points: ====
Point are awarded to the player(s) with the most, second most, and third most Shipwrecks, Straits, and Cartography tokens (see tooltips for scoring). The point distribution is 13, 7, 4 for Shipwrecks; 11, 5, 2 for Straits; and 9, 5, 2 for Cartography.

==== Set Points: ====
Each set is composed of one token of each Discovery type – one Inuit, one Cairn, one Shipwreck, one Strait, and one Cartography token. Each set gives a bonus of 6 prestige points.

==== Abandonment Penalty: ====
Each Sled and/or Ship which did not return to Greenland before the end of the tenth Exploration season is lost. When a Ship or a Sled is lost, all of the crewmen in the corresponding column are lost with it.
Every lost Ship and/or Sled gives a penalty of -2 Prestige points for each corresponding lost Crewman. An abandoned ship gives a penalty of -2 Prestige points.