SpielByWeb

[The Friendly Golfer]

Are there any online Strategy guides for Hacienda. I have the basic gist of the game but cannot seem to formulate any sort of winning strategy.

What works best...

Stockpile land cards or stockpile animal cards at the beginning of the game or rush headlong into placing your 'hexes'

When should you buy water / haciendas ?

When should you harvest ?

[Total_Twit]

I think the reason I like playing hacienda more than a lot of the other on line games here, amun-re aside which has sadly gone, is because the strategy is different every time dependant on whether its varient 2 in which case getting a good land chain at the begging is best or no variant in which case position for markets can be a lot more important since they score twice. variant 1 is the hardest because it's like no variant but with money issues.

the other important thing is position and picking the right places to go that wil either give you a good land chain or connect you to more markets than everyone else, although sometimes the best places are fought over and can then be worse if that happens

[Total_Twit]

forgot to add that it's not just the variant but also the map that dictates many strategies.

thinkgs that i didn't know at the beginning were that once all land of a particula type is taken on the board, any land of that type still left out becomes like pampas which can be very useful at the end game to get to that one or two last markets.

also when harvest counters run out you can still havest by moving one havest counter from another player who can then re-havest on his land chain if he wants to

i only havest if i have to or if it gives me lots & lots of points before scoring

[andyp]

Hi and potentially welcome to hancienda - I've been playing since May and its my prefered choice although I quite like Wallenstein (hve joined your tournaments there) Nothing helps better than actually playing - follow the game log especially what the better players do - look at profiles before you start number of games played and percentage won.

general strategy - the interesting part of hacienda as Julian has just said is the straegy changes on every map. the crucial part is do you go for land chain or markets - I'd say the crucial part is getting this strategy right at the start choosing where to put your initial tiles - and how quickly to put them on the board relative to buying new tiles and whether you start by buying animals or land.

very general but if a map contains lots of easy to reach markets - animals become perhaps more important especially if you can be blocked easily by other players. Animals become more important if you can make a big land chain i.e. very hard to make a land chain because they're all broken on the map.

The variant is also very important - var2 and land chain becomes very important (normally more than animals), var1 then often animals can easily be more important than land but not always in a var1 and var 2 game. no variants it can be either depending on map but animals normally edge it due to the them(and everything else) scoring twice.

if possible don't start water's and hacienda's too late especially in a var 2 game (they're not as good it a var1 game but still important not so urgent to keep buying them each round near the end though.

andy

[Kanga]

Strategies vary depending on the map being used.

It's important to look at how many markets there are, and how easy they are to reach.

If there are lots of markets (more than 10) which are reachable with 1 or 2 animals then chances are the person who touches the most markets will win. Not always, just most of the time.

Similarly, if there are fewer markets, or the markets are all 2 or more animals from a land mass, then markets are less powerful and bigger land masses become more powerful.

It's also important to consider which markets have only limited ways to touch them. On many maps, there will be one or more that have only 1 quick access point. These access points will usually be worth trying to claim quickly.

Many games are won in the first few moves. The player who claims the best starting spots, or makes the right strategic plays, goes on to win.

In my experience, it's rarely the best move to buy land (with the exception of pampas) at the start. There is nearly always value in claiming the best location your tiles allow. On many maps there are several good locations, but your starting land tiles might only fit one or two of them, so if you wait a turn before claiming them you might miss out. If you buy land to start with, then you are hoping for more flexibility to claim better spots later.

The other important reason why it might be wrong to buy more land is that on many maps, you wont need to use more than your starting 8 tiles before the halfway scoring. Buying more land means your opponent might have time to buy more animals and touch more markets than you.


In games with halfway scoring - try to reach the scoring with very few tiles unplayed. Every tile is potential points. Having 10 land in your hand at the halfway is a sure loss. If you are more than a few points behind at the halfway you'll never make it up.

variant 1 games are different in some ways. Making money is harder. If you build a large herd to make money with, it will be at the expense of touching more markets. Once again, the type of map you are playing on will determine whether or not touching markets is critical.

I'm sure there's more stuff I could post but that'll do for starters.

[Total_Twit]

just thought I'd bump up this old thread started by friendly golfer since there were a few players who have joined since and are wanting to improve their strategy and win some tournament games.

[sharma]

strategies should be made according to the situations