Fellow d21 contributor Smite, in a recent article, talked about the art of “money management” in Euro Games.  I was planning to address something similar within the next few weeks, but I have decided to bump up my own discussion of resource efficiency in Euro style board games in order to build on Smite’s column.  Like Smite, I will lean heavily on Ticket to Ride as a game where you can learn to hone your boardgaming efficiency skills.

In Alan Moon’s Ticket to Ride, you start each game with a couple of cards detailing cities that you are trying to connect.  There is a steep penalty for failing to make these connections, so you can’t ignore them altogether.  However, you do have some choice as to how much “risk” you want to take onto yourself by selecting shorter or longer route cards from the ones you are dealt at the start, or you can even opt to keep all of your starting route cards.  You can also opt to draw more routes by giving up a turn during the game.  There is some risk here as well, but basically this opens up an alternative path to victory where you can concentrate on making a high number of connections, sometimes focusing on shorter length runs, or runs that overlap one another.

Basic gameplay in Ticket to Ride is that on your turn you can draw two train cards, or you can give up drawing cards in order to play a set of matching color train cards in order to claim a route for yourself.  There is a scoring premium for building larger sets and collecting bigger routes.  Thus, an obvious strategy emerges – focus on bigger sets and claiming the longer runs, and place less emphasis on the route cards.  Let’s look at the math…

Assuming that the cards are available, it will take me two turns to collect four yellow train cards.  I can spend two turns claiming two routes of length 2, or one turn claiming a route that is four spaces long.  In the latter case, I gain more points (seven as opposed to four) and, more importantly, I have used only one turn to claim the longer route.

Turns are a very important resource.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that they aren’t that important, or that everyone gets more or less the same number of turns.  Any time you throw away a turn, you are throwing away your efficiency.  In the highly balanced world of Euro games, this is a key to the difference between victory and defeat. 

Consider the situation of two players at the end of a game of Ticket to Ride.  Player one has done things about as efficiently as he could.  Whenever there were useful cards on the table, he drew two useful cards into his hand.  When the offerings weren’t so good, he claimed the longest route that would still help him meet his goals.  At the end of the game, player one managed to force the endgame by using all of his plastic train cars.  More routes claimed (and more cards used) means that more of player one’s cars (a game resource) made it onto the board to score points.  Meanwhile, player two has gotten frustrated with a “bad hand” and gone on tilt.  He keeps making random train draws off the top of the deck, hoping for wild cards or to somehow get a run of useful colors.  Every so often he grabs a couple of short routes along the East coast, but he still has lots of cards in lots of different colors cluttering up his hand.  At game’s end, he still has more than ten train cars sitting in front of him.

In terms of efficiency, every two train cards sitting in a player’s hand at the end of the game represent one wasted game turn.  Every car left unused in front of player two represents at least one lost point, if not more.  It is almost certainly the case that player one will end the game with more points than player two, although the route cards still need to be taken into account.  In short, resource efficiency goes a long way to making you win.

On a related note, should you spend a turn in Ticket to Ride to pick up a single face up wild card?  Well, the short answer is sometimes, but not always.  You give up efficiency by only collecting one card when you could be collecting two.  However, you may set yourself to claim a long five or six space route before your opponent has a chance to get there.  In that case, giving up your whole turn to grab one wild card has benefits for your timing and board position.  You have to evaluate whether you need that wild card urgently enough on that turn to justify giving up a second “card in hand.”  I think that rookie players of this game spend too many turns drawing randomly from the top of the deck when useful wild cards are sitting right there in the open.

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Smite’s recent article also used the example of Alhambra, another Euro board game that happens to have won the Spiel des Jahr award in Germany (winning just a year before Ticket to Ride did, in fact).  Derk Henn’s game has a little less long term strategy than Ticket to Ride does.  Especially in games with 5 players, the situation involving what building tiles will actually be there on your turn ends up to be somewhat random.  Even so, Alhambra is a nice relaxing game with a pleasant theme — players are engaged in a race to build the best possible pleasure palace!  Whenever I put it that way, I have a much easier time getting the game to hit the table with new players.

In Alhambra, you can spend a turn to collect one money card, or you can collect multiple money cards with a value of 5 or less.  Even though the lower value money cards are, well, less valuable, they give you more flexibility when it comes to making “exact change,” as we will see in a moment.  Instead of taking money, you can spend a turn to buy one of four available building tiles, provided you can supply enough points worth of money in the color required for that particular tile.

The trick to Alhambra is that you get a bonus action any time you buy a building with exact change.  Remeber, turns are an extremely powerful resource.  In a three player game, you may even have the chance to save up some money, draw the card that makes it possible to buy that tower in the yellow slot with exact change, and still have that tower available on your next turn.  In other words, you may have some control over your bonus turn efficiency.

Of course, money in Alhambra has no direct relationship to victory points.  You get points in three distinct scoring phases based on who has built the majority of each of six types of buildings, and also for the length of the wall around your palace.  Thus gameplay decisions emerge when you are faced with a choice along the following lines: 1) I can build a building with exact change, even though someone else has the majority, and still take a money card to replace the “cost” of the building.  2) I can “overpay” for a critical building, such as a tower, that will help insure my majority in that type, but I won’t get a bonus turn.  3) I can save up money for a building that will help me to connect two segments of my palace wall, and hope that the building is still available on my next turn.

There’s another efficiency issue in Alhambra.  If you buy a building that doesn’t legally fit into your current layout, you have to put it aside in a reserve area.  It costs  you a turn to swap the building back into your palace later on.  If the building is still in reserve when scoring happens, then you don’t get points for it.  In other words, the depth in Alhambra comes from balancing your money and turn efficiency with your layout efficiency, as well as your efficiency in controlling majorities by building type.

Did I mention that I like Alhambra?  Don’t get too caught up in the mechanics, and it can be fun.  I believe that the key to the game is actually whether or not you have the biggest harem.  If you own the game, look closely at the white “chambers” buildings (Gemacher in German).  Yes, those are guards at the door, and tiny little dancing girls on the balcony.  Even though it’s only the third most valuable building type, I still see controlling the harem tiles as the real key to victory.  It’s all about getting into the theme of the game.  On some subconscious level, my desire to have the biggest harem makes me play the game more efficiently, thus leading me to victory.

Resource efficiency is the key to victory in board games with well regulated and well balanced mechanics.  Still, without some theme and a little imagination, you miss out on the fun of the game.  Don’t forget to keep both aspects in mind the next time that you sit down to play!