Winter Court Random Strategy Thoughts

In no particular order:

Seize the Initiative — Imagine you have the 1-3-5-7-9 of a suit and your opponent has the 2-4-6-8-10. His hand is a better, but if you play first on someone with the “1” and he counters, the pawn is back to neutral. If he plays the “2” you can play the “3” etc until he finally plays the “10” and the pawn is neutral. The initiative equalizes the hands. An opening of low cards means play first on as many places as possible … and probably an opening of middle cards means it. And an opening of high cards means it. I might be at the point where I will only play on neutral pawns in the opening if there are any left, but like any guideline the rule is when to break it.

Seize the Meta-Initiative — Getting 3 Royal (Purple) pawns on your side is a big deal. If you miss the card that gets the fourth, the game goes on. But if your opponent ever misses a key suit the game is over.

“Soft Locking” a pawn — Slapping the 10 down is difficult to counter. Some powers deal with it (Fool, Knight and Lover, sometimes Matchmaker, and Charlatan if you’ve locked the pawn in neutral). In one game I played tens on the Fool and Charlatan as my first two plays. Just as in Chess, the threat is sometimes mightier than the execution … I did use them (eventually) but it was always nice to have that option. And if my opponent used the Knight/Lover/etc to move one to neutral, well, my 10 cost them two plays (one to grab the Knight/Lover, one to recapture) and three cards of some value, or a decent card plus booster.

More Cards are good, but how much? — In my first few games, I really fought over the Fool. Now I still fight over it, but I also fight over the card gaining powers (+2 cards and get a card from the discard). The TaoLing wonders if we’re overvaluing it and passing (for the draw two keep one and to grow your hand size) in the middlegame is a viable alternative. Most of my losses seem to come from sputtering out with a hand full of low cards or cards of the wrong color, which again suggest that passing in the middlegame is probably reasonable.

Wizards are for closers — I don’t care if my opponent gets the Wizard early. That’s a card for a power that lets him lose a card for the rest of the game. But in the mid-game I spend a card to neutralize the wizard (if the power isn’t used).

“It is impossible to win if you draw no blue cards” — Actual quote from the TaoLing, and yes, I drew them all. I think that drawing higher cards is also a great strategy. It’s a card game. Get good cards.

I’m sure counting cards helps, but I’m too lazy to do that for almost any non-bridge game.