In most board games, it’s tempting to believe that victory is determined by a single outstanding move. However, good strategy usually involves a string of incremental decisions. Knowing when to make a move, when not to, and when to adjust your strategy can mean more than any one great play.
Begin With Your Endgame
Prior to making any decisions, consider what you’re attempting to accomplish. Some games prize resource collection, others focus on points, territory, goals, or combos. Knowing your ultimate goal helps you identify what constitutes a useful action and what’s just a pretty action. A good move supports your strategy.
All Good Moves Aren’t Great Moves
Board games usually offer several viable moves. For example, you may:
- Obtain resources
- Expand your board presence
- Cut off an opponent
- Set up for a future turn
- Earn points
The challenge is determining which move provides the highest value at that moment. Five points might seem like a better return than two resources, but if those resources will enable you to score fifteen points down the road, then the latter might actually be the better choice. This is where strategy starts.
Assess Short-Term Versus Long-Term
One of the primary aspects of strategy games is the ability to assess the difference between short-term gains and long-term possibilities.
Short-Term
You decide what offers the best benefit for your immediate circumstances. This can be helpful when you need to respond quickly or seize a fleeting chance.
Long-Term
You make choices based on anticipated results in the next few turns. This can mean hoarding resources, waiting for a combo to develop, setting up an engine, or positioning yourself for an end-game objective. Neither style of play is right or wrong, but the best players understand when to favor one over the other.
Learn To Judge Risk
Each decision involves a degree of risk. You might select a high-impact strategy that relies on drawing a specific card. You might invest resources in a chance that could vanish. You might enable an opponent to get ahead because you’re investing in a stronger position in the future. Instead of shying away from risk entirely, learn how to weigh it. Consider:
What’s my upside?
What’s my downside?
**How probable is this going to work out? **
What if it doesn’t work out?
That can turn a questionable call into an informed one.
Be Alert for Opportunities
Not all opportunities are so easy to spot. Sometimes another player has left a key resource open. Sometimes the board sets up a new combination. Sometimes an opponent gets so locked into their own plan that they leave themselves exposed.
Keep your eyes on the whole board to catch these kinds of things.
Don’t be so married to your plan that you overlook a better option.
When to Adjust Your Plan
It’s just as important to know when to ditch a plan as it is to create one.
If your plan calls for a resource that you no longer have, then sticking with that plan might cost you too much time. Players who can shift gears when necessary have a distinct advantage.
Abandoning your plan doesn’t mean your plan was a bad idea in the first place. It means you’ve recognized the situation has changed.
Consider Your Opponents
Your opponents are also part of the game state.
If one player is obviously heading in a certain direction, you should consider whether you can gain from that, fight against it, or redirect it.
You don’t have to fight your opponents every turn. Sometimes the best course of action is to anticipate what they’ll do next.
Strategy is a mix of making your own plan and reacting to the plans of others.
Refine Your Game Move by Move
You don’t have to master the game right away.
Take one decision from each game that you want to improve upon. Think back on what choices you had and how they affected the outcome.
With practice, you’ll get better over time.
This process won’t guarantee that every move is optimal, but you will improve in making better decisions overall.
The State of the Board Shifts Constantly
Most fun strategy games have many ways to win. The board state changes. Your opponents do what they will. Opportunities arise and vanish. Plans succeed and fail.
That’s what makes strategy games fun.
The best players don’t always see what’s coming, but they still make good decisions.
At BoardCanvas, we think it’s more important to know why a move is good rather than knowing that it’s good. Learn the rules, then practice them, and forge your own path through the game.
Your next move is a chance to improve.