Tips taluva

There are really two aspects of this game that all of the strategy can be divided into: tile placement and building placement.

• Tile Placement

Where and how you place your tile can be just as important as how you place your buildings. It's not always as simple as maximizing how many huts you can expand this turn. Sometimes the most important thing to focus on is how to orient your tile in such a way that your opponents (at least a single opponent) cannot destroy your buildings this turn. Setting up a temple-ready settlement and making it so that your opponents can't prevent you from that temple next turn is powerful.

You don't always need to use a tile that you draw, and sometimes the best thing you can do is put it far, far away. However, always be mindful of how it may help an opponent. Even if your tile doesn't benefit you, usually you can use it to hurt someone else.

Watch for when to smash your opponents huts. The best time to build upward and crush some huts is right before an opponent would be able to get a temple. Stall them whenever possible, but be mindful of how you build up - don't accidently set someone else up to get a tower on their turn.

• Building Placement

Temples are a key component in winning Taluva, and while you can technically win without them, you usually won't. Focus on ways to have 3-space settlements that will last until the start of your next turn.

Don't be afraid to split your own settlement - in fact, try to lay out your settlements so that you can build a temple, then easily separate it, freeing you up to build another one from the same initial settlement.

Towers are hard to set up for. Often when one person is building up the land to get a tower, they actually give the first opportunity to their opponents. Try to keep an eye out for areas that are starting to build up, and where they may reach level 3 soon. Consider placing a lone hut close by, both to give yourself a chance a grabbing a tower from it and to block someone else off from doing so.

The safest way to win Taluva is to build all of your temples and towers, but a skilled opponent will make moves to keep you from doing this easily. Running out of huts and temples/towers is viable, but risky. If you ever don't have a legal, complete building option, you immediately lose. Since huts are the easiest buildings to place, they are your lifeline - run out, and you probably have one turn left to win.

As a general rule, don't place huts where your opponent will want to smash them, no matter how good the placement is. If you can expand with 5 huts, but your opponent can gain from smashing 4 of them next turn, expect them to do so.