Time for turn two! Where we left off players one and three were broke and player two had $2. Player two is also the governor for turn two so he gets the choice between all six roles. For this turn there is $1 on the Craftsman, Trader, and Captain roles. Also if the pictures are too small to read just hold down shift and click them.
None of the roles with money on them help player two here (except the captain which gives one point), so player two can again focus on choosing between Builder, Mayor, and Settler. Being the builder would have a benefit of $1, but there is no building that player two really needs, and spending money would further slow player two from building his tobacco storage which is the building he probably wants more than any other. A construction hut isn’t terrible, but if player two wants a quarry he should probably just choose Settler. Being the mayor would allow player two to produce indigo (and get extra slave) as it is likely player three will choose to be the Craftsman, but player three would still have first crack at the trader card so that indigo would only have a benefit of $1 anyway (same as Builder). Settler on the other hand offers a quarry which is worth significantly more than $1 unless player two stops buying buildings. Which would be quite silly.
So player two takes Settler and chooses a quarry. Player three now has an interesting decision to make between corn and coffee. Choosing coffee would secure the cash crop that he is missing, but since player three has a hacienda he can afford to take a chance by picking corn. Player three will only be disappointed if he randoms indigo really, and there are less indigo tiles than anything else to this point (2 for starting cards, 2 on the first turn, 1 now – no other crop has had more than 3 tiles pulled, and sugar has yet to be pulled). So though I am too lazy to count out the actual number of tiles, I think choosing the corn and taking a gamble is the best move, but I wouldn’t criticize a player for just choosing the coffee. Player one now chooses coffee since indigo is pretty much the worst crop, he already has it, and he doesn’t have a cash crop yet. At the end of the phase both haciendas trigger, and player three receives a random sugar crop and player one receives a random coffee crop. The four new tiles are two sugars and two indigos.
Now it is player three’s turn and the captain and trader cards are still useless. Builder is a bad call here since player three is broke, and the two buildings he could get for free offer little benefit (small indigo plant and small market). Mayor would allow for the production of more corn, but that corn wouldn’t be produced until someone chose Craftsman. While this would probably generate more points, as I explained earlier money is much more valuable at the beginning of the game, so Craftsman is probably the best choice. Player three choosing Craftsman will provide him $1 and 2 corn, which can later be sold for more cash, or worse case scenario turned into points. Craftsman also provides absolutely no benefit for players one and two, and is probably the best choice.
Player one now is sorta shafted. Builder is useless for him since he is just as broke as player three was on his turn, so Mayor and two cards with $1 are his options. Being mayor would allow him to activate his quarry and get an extra dude, but since he has no cash anyway getting the quarry active probably isn’t his top concern. Besides that though, at the start of next turn player three will probably choose settler (it’s pretty much the best choice for the first few turns) and player one could then choose mayor with $1 on it. Another way too look at it is to try to decide what is more valuable at this point, $1 or an extra slave. Slaves offer no direct benefit, and without money the only cards they would actually help would be corn crops, and no corn crops are available as choices for the next settler phase. Not to mention the fact that money is
really really really important early on. So then if taking a card with $1 is more important than an extra slave, the choice is between trader for $1 and captain for $1 and a point. Player one chooses captain and collects $1 and a point, while player three starts a corn boat and gets two points.
7 comments:
I remembered what I disagreed with. Player One should take the trader on turn 2 not the captain. Since player one is not actually shipping anything he will not get the victory point. So, the only benefit of the captain over the trader is for the player shipping, so basically player one is giving player 3 two free victory points.
To the above comment, those 2 corn barrels are almost defenitly going to be turned into points anyways since no one else has a competeing corn crop. So player 1 isn't really giving player 3 free points, he is just getting them sooner than he would have otherwise. I think the ca[tain was still right call for the free point.
However, I forgot how the captain works, I thought you actually have to ship something to get the free point?
As for the next move for player 3. This is starting to get interesting, I would probably go mayor or builder. The problem with going mayor is that both player 1 and 2 will most likey place a guy on a quarry giving them advantage in the builder step. Since the builder has some gold on it, it will almost defenitly be chosen this round (2 free gold). Where having 3 fields of corn manned is really nice, I don't think the craftsman will be picked this turn and I assume one of the other players will pic the mayor before the craftsman is picked anyways.
This pretty much leads me to picking the builder, denying the other 2 players a good building round and denying them quarry money, while procuring a sugar mill for player 3, with a little cash left over. The other players will probably buy nothing because I assume they are saving for cash crop production.
Yeah I screwed up about the captain thing, you only get the extra point if you actually ship something. So the two roles have basically the same benefit. If he had better crops I would rather him be able to ship them than sell them so captain would still be a better choice, but with corn that isn't as important. But like Jonny pointed out those two corn barrels are getting shipped no matter what, so taking the captain card isn't giving him any points. In fact it would prevent him from shipping them with the captain card and getting an extra point! In any case I still take the captain because I would rather him ship his crops than sell them.
As for the next turn, while I think the settler card definitely has a greater value than the builder reward, the builder card would allow for a sugar plant this turn. If you take the settler card you can only get a sugar plant this turn if player one chooses mayor and then player 2 chooses builder, which doesn't seem likely. So I think taking the builder this turn will allow for one more sale than you would get with the settler. So the true reward offered by the builder is the $2 for the card, plus the $2 for the extra sale.
Now I still think the first quarry is probably worth like $4 immediate gold, since the first quarry can be used for every building that will be purchase throughout the game (a few buildings during the early game when $ is so vital, and a few when $ is less important). So in my opinion the two rewards are pretty much identical. The thing that would probably swing me towards builder to break this tie is that the crops that are available are all beneficial to you, as you can either increase your sugar trade or pick up indigo with the plan of building a factory. So yeah, I choose builder, but it is really close!
Also another rules thingy that I didn't realize when I made my post is that you can take your random hacienda crop before you pick. So player 3 wouldn't really have to choose between corn and coffee - if he randomed a corn or indigo he would take coffee, otherwise another corn.
Perhaps if quarries are that important player 3 could buy a construction hut with his money rather than a sugar mill? I'm not sure. it just seems like he needs to get some sort of income and fast.
The thing that made me lean to builder that round was the fact that the other 2 players probably wont be building anything and they don't have their quarries manned yet. It is almost like taking gold away from them (if they decide to actually build something). And even if player 1 picks mayor, the builder option is gone that round for player 2 since player 3 already has it.
I guess when I think what the best move is, I think in terms of what will benefit the other players the least while still giving you some sort of an advantage. Where settler probaly would be a better choice in terms of direct benefit, leaving the builder open to player 3 is dangerous. If player 1 picks mayor, that will alow player 2 to buy a tobacco plant with the builder, which is no bueno.
I agree with you to a certain extent, but if you are constantly trying to hurt your opponents you are hurting yourself a lot in the process. But that is a good tiebreaker between two options that have close benefits for you. Like the builder/settler option here. Thing is letting one of them get a second quarry is a big benefit as well (probably player 1 would take it). Another thing I thought of that makes builder a better option than settler this turn is that you still get points for your building.
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