Annotated games: 4 players

This game was played during final testing of Mare Balticum. For test purpose, the players follow pre-defined strategies.

1. Fleet-building strategy
2. Army-building strategy
3. Fort-building strategy
4. Farming strategy

For each turn, a table lists the placement of units for each player (province, build deck, title deck or gold at hand). Bold indicates that the player is the leader of the fleet/army/fort while underline indicates that the province is overseas (and generates twice as much goods). Last in the table are the played enemy cards.

Setup

The players follow their strategies in the setup. Player 1 and 2 select provinces which will generate the good required for fleets and armies respectively while player 3 and player 4 add goods to a fleets to get part of the early production while still pursuing their fort and farm strategies respectively.

Turn 1

Production: All players produce 1 good each in their local provinces.

Battle: No battles.

Enemy: All players select routes far away from their local provinces. Player 1 also avoid Ingria and Estonia, as she wants the fleet to sail to their cloth and wood markets. The results is no enemy action since no routes border each other.

Movement: No movements, the players want to use their goods for investments rather than turning them into gold.

Investment: Player 1 uses her wood to complete the fleet while player 2 and 3 use their cloth and iron to complete the army. Player 4 invests her grain in another farm.

So far no surprises in the opening. Player 4's farm will give early benefits while the other players have postponed their early growths to invest in the long term benefits of fleets and armies.

Turn 2

Production: All players produce 1 good each in their local provinces except for player 4, that following her strategy, produces 2 grain aiming at local expansion.

Battle: No battles.

Enemy: This time, players 1-3 try to get enemy actions towards the expanding local provinces of player 4, with the result that 3 enemy armies enter the game.

Movement: The first fleet enter the game and as player 4 is the leader, she moves it to Ingria to protect against potential Russian threats. The army could have moved to a local province but the leader, player 2, chooses to let it wait to next turn so that it may use the fleet to enter an overseas province. The existing units remain still as the players want to use their goods for investments.

Investment: All players pursue their strategies with player 2 investing in a 2nd army, player 3 in the fort, player 4 in a 3rd farm and player 1 in a 2nd fleet. Note that player 4 is unable to invest in 2 farms since she only has 1 gold so her 2nd grain is simply turned into 1 gold.

So far no surprises in the opening. Player 4's farm will give early benefits while the other players have postponed their early growths to invest in the long term benefits of fleets and armies.

Turn 3

Production: Player 4 is still the top producer with 5 goods thanks to her many farmers but the other players can be expected to catch up once their fleet and army building strategies start to pay off.

Battle: No battles.

Enemy: Both player 1 and 3 are interested in an enemy fleet in Ingria to allow their fleet some battle profit now that the army blocks the trade. Since player wants to see enemies against the local provinces of player 4 and selects Trondheim, two enemy fleets enter the game.

Movement: The first army enters the game as player 2 leads it across the Baltic Sea to Ingria, where an enemy army waits.

Investment: Player 1, 2 and 3 has no gold for investment and have to turn all their goods into gold. Player 4 invests in her 4th farm, choosing the scarce resource of stone, and claims the Treasurer title at the same time.

The farming strategy of player 4 has earned her the first title in the game but the enemy is approaching her provinces.

Turn 4

Production: Due to the battles in Ingria, players 1-3 produce very little but hope to gain from the battle instead. Given that the battles are won, player 2 (4 units) and 3 (5 units) will have caught up with player 4 (5 units), although no player generates more than 2 kinds of goods so far.

Battle: No player wants to be bad guys (yet) and choose to attack in their battles, leading to 3-0 victories both at land and at sea, resulting in gold for the fleet and gold and goods for the army.

Enemy: The enemy phase sees the first Polish armies on the board as both player 1 and player 4 want Poland to deny the army the Polish stone needed to build forts.

Movement: Player 2 moves the army to Estonia, where it'll have to fight another army, while player 3 moves the fleet towards the stone markets of Trondheim, where an enemy fleet awaits.

Investment: With the movements, the army goods were turned into gold. Player 4 invests 1 grain in yet another farm in Smolandia to get wood and 1 grain and 1 stone in a title. Player 1 focuses on a 2nd fleet with her 1 wood while player 2 decides to buy 1 grain for 2 gold so that she may invest in 2nd army. She also invests her 1 cloth in a title. Player 3 uses her 1 iron to complete the army and buys 1 stone for 2 gold to complete the fort.

With the first round completed, we have seen some actions and more is to come as additional units are on their way. Player 4 has a small lead but the game is still very open.

Turn 5

Production: Player 4 maintains the production lead with 5 local goods and participation in 1 fleet while player 1 struggles since her 2nd fleet remains uncompleted.

Battle: The players play safe this turn as well and cooperate to defeat the enemy fleet in Trondheim with 3-0 and the enemy army in Estonia with 3-0.

Enemy: Both player 2 and player 3 wants to see enemy actions against Ingria (and, eventually, the possessions of player 4 in Karelia) and with player 1 selecting Estonia, more enemies enter the game.

Movement: Player 1 moves the fort to Estonia and player 2 moves the army to Trondheim. Player 3 also moves away the fleet from Trondheim, since it won't generate a units there with the army.

Investment: Player 1 buys 1 cloth for 2 gold to be able to complete a fleet of her own and invests 1 iron in a title. Player 2 also invests in a title and invests in an iron farm as well to secure future armies. Player 3 also invests in a farm to secure future stone in addition to 1 iron to build a fort. Player 4 finally invests 1 wood and 1 gold to claim a province title and another 1 stone in a fort. She plays safe and chooses a local province, Karelia. It is only worth half to that of an overseas province but is easier to defend.

Player 4 has used her goods advantage to claim two titles (Treasurer and Karelia) and is followed by player 2 with 1 title (Constable thanks to her army subjects). However, player 1 has a fleet of her and player has several high-productive units so it's too early to talk about leads.

Turn 6

Production: With many enemies on the board, it is player 4 with the most local provinces that produces most goods. However, if the other players are successful in their battles, they will catch up.

Battle: In Estonia, there is an interesting situation with both an army and a fort against an enemy army. Even if the army defeats the enemy, it's the fort that will generate the goods. Since player 2 wants to maintain her constable title and player 3 wants her fort units to generate goods, they both attack and give the army a 3-0 victory. However, in Trondheim player 3 gambles and chooses to defend. Player 2 suspects this and lets 1 subject defend, leading to 1 of player 2's subjects being defeated. The players grunt a bit before agreeing on a truce and attacking the next round to secure a 3-1 victory.

Enemy: In the enemy phase, player 1 and 4 want to see more enemy action in Estonia to pin down the subjects there while player 2 and 3 want to avoid the same, resulting in no enemy action.

Movement: Player 1 would like to move either the new or existing fleet to the cloth market of Ingria but fears that the Estonian army would follow. Instead, she agrees with player 3 to leave it there so that player 3 may have her stone in return for a movement to Ingria next turn. The new fleet is moved to Scania instead, hoping that this will be a less interesting province for the armies. Player 2 moves the Estonian army away from the fort to face an enemy army in Livonia while the other army remains in the iron province of Trondheim.

Investment: Player 2 goes all in for a title with 1 iron and 1 gold and also invest 1 cloth in an army. Player 3 first invests 1 stone to complete a fort and then decides to invest iron, stone and grain in a title. However, player 4 denies them a title by not investing the missing wood and only investing 1 grain and 1 stone. In addition, she invests 2 stone in a fort. Player 1 invests in a cloth farm and saves the rest.

Player 1 has struggled to get return on her fleet strategy so far while player 4 starts to adopt a fort strategy. Player 2 and 3 share 2 armies and the increased tension between the two will be interesting to follow.

Turn 7

Production: Player 1's fleet strategy finally pays off as she produces 12 goods. On the other hand, 8 of them are grain - the price for having a fleet of your own is monoproduction. Given that player 2 and player 3 will win their battles and generate gold and goods from them, player 4 is now the smallest producer. Has the tide turned for the farming strategy?

Battle: Both player 2 and player 3 need wood to claim province titles and manage to settle their differences and win the battle in Estonia with 3-0.

Enemy: All players try to find the enemy actions that hurt the others the most. The result is no less than 4 enemy actions in Scania-Trondheim-Ingria-Estonia!

Movement: Player 4 moves the new fort to the only available overseas province - Trondheim. Player 1 would like to move her fleet to the cloth market in Ingria but since this would result in her goods being turned into gold and not available for investment until next turn, she remains in Scania yet another turn.

Investment: Players 1, 3 and 4 are short on gold for their investments and have to turn most of their goods into gold. Player 3 invests 1 iron to complete the fort, 1 wood in a title and 1 grain in a stone farm in Finland. As she has no more gold, her remaining 7 goods are turned into gold. Player 4 invests 1 wood in a title and 1 grain in the existing army in Trondheim while turning the remaining 5 goods into gold. Player 1 doesn't expect to get a title this turn and only invests 1 grain in one. Instead, she invests 1 cloth and 1 wood in a new fleet. 9 goods have to be turned into gold. Player 2 invests 1 iron and buys another 1 grain to complete the army. 1 wood is enough to award her the next title and she chooses Uplandia. Since she was the only one with cloth and gold, no more province titles are awarded but both player 1 and player 3 moved their 4th fleet and fort subjects to the board, awarding them the Admiral and the Steward titles respectively.

After 7 turns, the players are beginning to reach their resource limits where they can no longer spread subjects to generate units but must start balancing between subjects, goods and gold. Players 1, 3 and 4 are likely to have so many units tied to gold that they won't have enough units left for their production. The massive enemy mobilization will further add to a challenging next turn.

Turn 8

Production: The "inflation" is immense this turn as most players have so many units on the board and in the investment decks that they don't have enough units for their production. The exception is player 2, who managed to clear the title deck previous turn.

Battle: There are many potential battles this turn. Player 4 has no leaders in battle and while in Livonia, player 2 and player 3 share both armies and forts and dare not betray each other so they all choose to attack and win with 3-0. The same thing happens in Trondheim, where player 3 and 4 have interests in the fort and let their army units to attack to relieve the fort from the siege. Finally, player 3 decides to let the fort in Estonia endure a siege since she has more producers than units available anyway.

Enemy: The first invasion takes place as players 1, 2 and 3 wants to hurt player 4 and select Trondheim and Ingria respectively. With player 4 selecting Scania, 3 enemy actions take place.

Movement: Player 4 decides to defend Karelia by moving the fleet in Pomerania to Ingria and thus turning produced stones into gold available not until next turn. She also moves the new fort to Livonia. Player 1, who currently doesn't need grain, takes the opportunity to move the fleet in Scania to the more attractive Stone in Pomerania. Player 2 moves the new army to Pomerania and player.

Investment: Player 4 invests not only 1 iron and 1 gold in a title but also buys 1 cloth for 2 gold. Player 1 invests 1 cloth, 1 wood and 1 gold. She also buys 1 stone for 2 gold. Player 2 doesn't expect to get a title this turn but invests 1 iron, 1 wood and 1 cloth for the next turn. Player 3 doesn't have the cloth needed to complete her set so she buys 1 in addition to investing 1 gold. This results in 3 titles being awarded this turn. Player 4 thinks the time is ripe for an overseas title and chooses Livonia, where she two units in the fort. Player 1 follows with the Estonian title and so does player 3 with the Trondheim title.

The title race has started with 3 overseas titles having been awarded. It will be interesting to see how well they will be defended against the enemies.

Turn 9

Production: With all the enemies around, inflation is not a problem and all players can generate their units.

Battle: The players starts to distrust each other as all players defend in the Ingrian naval battle, causing all units to be defeated. In Estonia, player 1 pays 2 gold for mercenaries to remove 1 enemy before continuing the siege. In Pomerania, player 2's army defeats all enemy units at the cost of 1 own unit lost while in Trondheim, first player 4 and then player 3 choose to defend, leaving player 2 with the only surviving unit in the army. In Karelia, finally, player 4 pays 2 gold for mercenaries to secure a victory for her 2 farmers.

Enemy: The enemy phase sees additional assaults as the players try to harm each others' interests. The titles of Karelia and Estonia are the main targets.

Movement: Player 1 moves her fleet away from Pomerania, where she won't generate any units due to the army there, to Ingria, where a naval battle awaits her. Player 2 would like to merge her two armies in Pomerania and Trondheim but not until the stone from Pomerania has been invested.

Investment: Player 1 completes the new fleet with 1 wood+1 gold and adds another 1 cloth+1 gold to her existing fleet, leaving only 1 grain for a title. Player 2 invests the 1 gold+1 gold and 1 stone+1 gold needed to complete a title and chooses Pomerania. She also invests 1 iron+1 gold and 1 cloth+1 gold in her existing armies to be able to defend the title. Player 3 invests 1 stone, 1 iron, 1 wood and 1 gold + 4 gold to secure a title next turn. Player 4 does likewise by investing 1 gold, 1 stone and 1 wood + 3 gold.

After this turn's devastating battles, all players must suddenly balance between investing in units on the board and units on the title deck again. With player 2 having acquired her first overseas province title, the race is tightened with player 2 and 4 having 2,5 titles each and player 1 and 3 2 titles each.

Turn 10

Production: All players have a more balanced production this turn with enough units left to produce in all their provinces (with the exception of player 4, who is 2 units short). Her many provinces give her a good variety of goods but does tie units.

Battle: Player 2 pays for mercenaries to be able to defeat the enemy army in Pomerania. Player 1 and 3, who are both falling behind, agree to fight both the besiegers and the army in Estonia to earn gold. This enables player 1 to pay for the mercenaries necessary ton win the naval battle in Ingria. In Livonia, there is less trust as both player 2 and player 3 let their units retreat, leading to a 0-3 battle loss, after which player 4 decides to endure a siege. (She didn't have enough units to produce anything in Livonia anyway.) In Karelia, however, player 4 once again pay for mercenaries to save the province from invasion.

Enemy: After some tough enemy actions, this turn is peaceful as non-bordering provinces of Trondheim and Pomerania are selected.

Movement: Both player 2 and player 1 moves towards Scania in search of production - player 2 moves her decimated army and player 1 her new fleet.

Investment: The players go all in on titles this turn, with player 3 and 4 even buying the missing goods (grain and cloth for player 3, cloth for player 4). The result is that all but player 1 gets a title. However, neither player 3, nor player 4 dares selecting the overseas province of Scania, as it is only defended by player 2's units, and choose local provinces instead (Eastrogothia and Finland respectively) so player 2 can claim the more valuable province.

Player 2 is now only 1/2 title from victory but player 3 and 4 may still aim for overseas provinces to catch up. Player 1 is likely to get the next title but will it be enough to fight for victory?

Turn 11

Production: With the investment decks cleared again, the player have all the units they need for the production and prepare themselves for the final title race.

Battle: Again, player 1 and 3 agree to have their fort defeat the army in Estonia. In Livonia, however, player 4 doesn't trust player 3 and without gold to engage mercenaries, she chooses to endure the siege. In Scania, player 1 saves her gold and accepts the loss of 1 subject to defeat the enemy fleet rather than engaging mercenaries and player 3 reasons likewise in Pomerania. In Scania, however, player 2 has only 2 subjects and has to engage mercenaries for 2 gold to save them.

Enemy: The enemy phases sees a new offensive in Trondheim-Scania-Pomerania as the players try to harm each others' interests with the armies of player as the main target.

Movement: No movements take place this turn. Player 1 would like to find a better area for her Scanian fleet but there are neither provinces free from armies or forts, nor enemy fleets to battle anywhere.

Investment: Player 3, 1 and 2 go all in to acquire titles, even at the cost of buying the goods they lack (stone for player 1, wood for player 2 and 3) since with no land units in Ingria, only 2 local provinces are available. Player 2 is the only player reaching 6 goods, earning her not only one of the titles but also the victory with 4 titles (Constable 1, Uplandia 1/2, Pomerania 1, Scania 1 and the newly acquired Smolandia 1/2)!

A long and tough game is at an end. Player 1's early fleet strategy didn't pay off well since the other players were quick to get units overseas, constantly denying the fleet the production. Player 4's farmer strategy gave her a strong start but the low producing provinces were eventually beaten by the high producing overseas provinces. The armies sometimes had to struggle to find productive areas as the forts started to arrive but the mix of gold and goods earned in combination with the movement flexibility finally ensured them the victory. However, it was a close call. If player 2 had been beaten to the last local province, it would all have been decided by the last province in Ingria. Would player 2's army have reached it first and if so, would she be able to acquire the province as well?

P&P (PDF, A4)	P&P (PDF, US Letter)

Annotated games

• 4 players

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