Strategy for Picking a Starting Hand - 5 Cards (Advanced Variant):

Note: A normal game is played with a 3 card starting hand that is automatically picked for the player. In the advanced variant the player gets five cards and discards down to three.

Picking wisely is important, as cards in your hand will dictate the direction the player heads to, for the remainder of the game

Clues Importance

When looking at your first three cards, or your first card to grab after that, getting a card with a clue is pretty important. However, you won't need more than a couple to strategically acquire in the game.

Fame Card Strategy

*Fame Cards - A solid strategy is to choose 2 high fame cards into their starting 3. There are a variety of fame cards, e.g., rewards 17 straight fame, rewards fame for certain wonders (symbols) - such as 4 fame per clue symbol, or give the player 10 points per each set of 4 different regions collected. All this being said there are still ways to winning that don't require high fame cards in your starting three.

*Your third card should be lower than your other two in terms of duration and should have a clue symbol.

Same Symbol Strategy

Another approach the player can take is to try and get two or even all three cards to go after the same symbol. So for example the player may get one cards that gives 4 fame per stone, another that gives 2 per stone, and another that gives 3 per stone. Going with those three cards means you'd get 9 fame per stone played after those cards. But again, here the player have to look at their duration value as well as what symbols they provide to determine their order.

Collecting symbols (for pre-requisites)

Having cards that have a diverse range of pre-requisites is OK - At first the player might think that the player should only keep one of them since that is a lot of symbols and might be hard to get them all, but that's most likely not true. For example, the player may get one card that gives the player 15 fame but requires two chimera and a thistle, and another card that gives 12 fame but requires a thistle and two stones.

There are two ways the player can get the symbols the player need, cards played that give the player symbols and sanctuaries (see below). NOTE: Stone is the most common, Thistle is the least common.

Symbols on sanctuaries apply to every card. Most of the symbols the player will need to fulfill each cards requirements should come from sanctuaries. Try to get between 6-7 per game.

Choosing cards to play:

Now that the player have your starting three cards the player now have to decide which one to play first. Look at duration value and symbols provided to determine order played.

Playing your cards in order of shortest to longest (determined by the exploration number at the top left) gives the player more time to search for sanctuaries which are crucial for obtaining victory.

*Play cards with clues early on - With how important sanctuaries are the player are going to want to have a lot of options to choose from when the player get the chance. Having clues played allow the player to have a better chance of getting a sanctuary, as they get to choose.

The player ideally wants to play a clue card with a low duration first to maximize the chances of getting a sanctuary.

A rookie mistake is to focus too much on playing cards that gives the symbol to collect past requirements and forgo grabbing the high scoring cards - even though, by end of the game sanctuaries provide thee symbols needed. If the player chooses the high scoring card, chances are they will be able to succeed in fulfilling that card's requirements as well. To gain sanctuaries, the player must play cards sequentially higher in number to explore. That means that the player can only afford to play a card lower in duration than the previous card once or twice.

Playing high fame cards early on allows the player to place 5-7 other cards in front of it that will most likely have some or all of the requirements that card needs, however this is not always the best choice strategically. Consider if the high fame card has a symbol that could be used for one of your other cards. This is especially true for symbols that can be acquired via sanctuaries.

You'll gain more fame the longer your exploration takes so all the higher exploration duration cards provide the most points. Chances are at least one of your three cards has a high duration.

Play your cards carefully. Looking back on your starting three cards I often play them in order from shortest to longest duration unless one card will greatly benefit from being played earlier, take a card that scores based on all four regions being played for example. If that is the case, then I will often play that card first and then the other two lower cards I may play a few cards later depending on their duration value. It may be a risk that I won't get all the necessary required symbols if I play them too late, but hopefully sanctuaries and future cards will be enough.

Clues:

Clues help the player find the right sanctuary, which helps the player fulfil requirements. With how important sanctuaries are the player are going to want to have a lot of options to choose from when the player get the chance. Having clues played allow the player to have a better chance of getting a sanctuary.

Having just one clue early on is going to be a massive help. Being able to have two sanctuaries to choose from is far better than getting one randomly. Once the player has a clue or two that can sometimes be enough to help the player get all the sanctuaries the player need but obviously the more clues the player gets the better.

Typically you can focus on getting only one or two clues. Chances are the player will naturally get a few more from either cards or sanctuaries but not focusing on them after the beginning of the game enables the player to get more higher fame cards However, if the player doesn't get a card with a clue in your first three and the choice from the next three then the player needs to prioritize getting one as soon as possible. Unless the player have all of the required symbols the player need for your high fame cards early in the game, don't worry too much about it, but again, sanctuaries can still help the player score quite a bit on your last played cards. So the player are still going to benefit a lot from having 5-6 sanctuaries to choose from. Many times I have been on my 8th card that granted me a sanctuary and I was able to grab the perfect one I needed to get a ton of points because I had 6 cards to choose from.

Rookie mistake: For the longest time I undervalued the importance of clues. I have been in games where I basically didn't get any clues the entire game and I lost pretty bad.

There are Sanctuaries and point cards that score for having played clues so it doesn't hurt having a few clues for that reason as well.

Sanctuaries:

Sanctuaries are crucial for success. Try to get between 6-7 per game.

Symbols on sanctuaries apply to every card which can be especially helpful for cards that are played 7th and 8th. Many cards require symbols in order to score and the last thing the player want is to get to your 8th card and realize that your 15 fame card isn't going to score because the player didn't manage to get that thistle the player needed which costed the player the game. I have seen some games where a card worth a lot of fame was played last but it managed to score, because the sanctuaries provided the required symbols.

Sanctuary Color

There are both sanctuaries and cards which score a significant amount of points for having one of each of the four regions. When looking at which sanctuary to choose and the player have a few good options if the one that is colored vs being grey isn't quite as good as your other choice I would go with that one. Having all four regions in your sanctuaries means that even if the last card the player play is a card that scores for a full set of regions, the player get 10 points.

Sanctuaries allow the player to pick up additional high scoring cards later in the game while providing the player with the confidence that the player have or will most likely fulfil its requirements.

Now of course the player can win with few sanctuaries and the player should if it's the difference between playing a perfect card or not; this game is very situational. But as a general rule, the player want a lot of sanctuaries.