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Annotated Games: 4 playersThis game was played during early game testing of Nova Suecia - The Last Letter Home. To test different strategies, the governors played as follow:
The following abbreviations have been used for the district types (parentheses indicate that they are closed):
Round 1Ship bag: 4 gold, 2 colonists, 2 grain, 2 iron, 2 timber, 2 tobacco, 2 fur
Player 1: 1 colonist, 10 thaler, no districts Player 1 goes for a farm strategy and uses the letter to increase grain prices (more colonists) and log cabin costs (less timber).
Player 2: 1 colonist, 10 thaler, no districts Player 2 goes for a tobacco strategy, hoping that either she or another player will settle a tobacco spin and buy her plant. She uses the letter to decrease production costs (more grain and iron ).
Player 3: 1 colonist, 10 thaler, no districts Player 3 joins player 2's strategy by settling a spin and using the spin to increase the tobacco demand.
Markets
Round 2Ship bag: 2 gold, 3 colonists, 3 grain, 2 iron, 1 timber, 3 tobacco, 2 fur
Player 4: 2 colonists, 10 thaler, no districts Player 4 goes for a low cost strategy by settling a trade post and building a log cabin.
Player 1: 2 colonists, 5 thaler, 1 Farm Player 1 chooses a forestry as her second district, partly to capitalize on the high timber prices and partly to "hedge" the risk that the other players buy timber and build log cabins to avoid buying her grain.
Player 2: 2 colonists, 5 thaler, 1 Plantation Player 1 chooses a forestry as her second district, partly to capitalize on the high timber prices and partly to "hedge" the risk that the other players buy timber and build log cabins to avoid buying her grain.
Markets
Round 3Ship bag: 0 gold, 3 colonists, 3 grain, 0 iron, 3 timber, 1 tobacco, 6 fur
Player 3: 3 colonists, 2 thaler (-4 thaler), 1 Spin Player 3 takes heavy loans to be able to produce 4 tobacco next turn. She also decides to settle a trade post to get the low investment revenue necessary to keep her tobacco spin running. She will earn a lot next turn but will it be enough to justify the high loans?
Player 4: 3 colonists, 2 thaler, 1 Trade Post (Log Cabin) Player 4 manages to sell fur when the price is high and continues her trade post/low cost strategy by settling a second trade post and building a second log cabin. However, since both player 2 and player 3 before her produce fur, she goes for the more scarce resources of timber and grain.
Player 1: 3 colonists, 1 Farm, 1 Forestry Player 1 remained alone on the grain and timber markets and now enters another empty market: iron. She continues to go for a productive strategy with a lot of iron.
Markets
Round 4Ship bag: 0 gold, 5 colonists, 3 grain, 0 iron, 4 timber, 3 tobacco, 1 fur
Player 2: 4 colonists, 12 thaler, 1 Plantation (Log Cabin), 1 Trade Post Player 2 enters the tobacco market, where she hopes to produce both plant and tobacco. Cautious about the production costs, she builds a 2nd log cabin and lets her trade post produce iron.
Player 3: 4 colonists, 1 thaler (-14 thaler), 1 Spin, 1 Trade Post Player 3 earns a lot of money for her tobacco and now has the means to invest in even higher production. However, she's getting concerned about the high costs so she lets her trade post produce grain and add 1 iron to the 3 tobacco in her letter.
Player 4: 4 colonists, 7 thaler, 2 Trade Posts (2 log cabins) Player 4 is worried that her trade post strategy yields too little and moves the ships to end the game early before the tobacco players get their engines running. Seeing that the other trade post players have left the fur markets, she decides to enter the grain market.
Markets
Round 5Ship bag: 1 gold, 5 colonists, 2 grain, 1 iron, 1 timber, 1 tobacco, 5 fur
Player 1: 5 colonists, 12 thaler, 1 Farm, 1 Forestry, 1 Forge All player 1's markets have high prices and although she has high costs as well, her position is strong. Given that the other players start getting money, she expects the iron prices to remain high and settles a 2nd forge.
Player 2: 5 colonists, 3 thaler, 1 Plantation (Log Cabin), 1 Trade Post, 1 Spin (Log Cabin) Player 2 sees that the tobacco price is only average so sets herself up for producing plant this turn, hoping that the tobacco price will recover to next turn.
Player 3: 5 colonists, 4 thaler (-14 thaler), 1 Spin, 1 Trade Post, 1 Plantation Player 3 continues to raise cash but the tobacco price is getting low. She decides to refrain from iron to keep the prices high.
Markets
Round 6Ship bag: 0 gold, 4 colonists, 0 grain, 2 iron, 2 timber, 6 tobacco, 2 fur
Player 4: 5 colonists, 11 thaler, 2 Trade Posts (2 Log Cabins), 1 Farm Player 4's entry into the grain market earned her lot and she moves the ships reduce the number of open district to end the game early.
Player 1: 5 colonists, 17 thaler, 1 Farm, 1 Forestry, 2 Forges Player 1 also earns a lot this round too but is no longer alone on her market and moves the ships to end the game early. She also decides not to populate the settled forestry but rather return it to the river, since she already has a forestry and the timber prices are low.
Player 2: 5 colonists, 3 thaler, 1 Plantation (Log Cabin), 1 Trade Post, 1 Spin (log cabin) Player 2 realizes that she doesn't earn as much as player 1 and 4 and decides to trigger the game end and take advantage of buying and selling one last time.
Markets
Final RoundShip bag: N/A
Player 3: 6 colonists, 18 thaler (-14 thaler), 1 Spin, 1 Trade Post, 1 Plantation, 1 Farm
Player 4: 6 colonists, 35 thaler, 2 Trade Posts (2 log cabins), 1 Farm, 1 Forge
Player 1: 6 colonists, 69 thaler, 1 Farm, 1 Forestry, 2 Forges
Player 2: 6 colonists, 29 thaler, 1 Plantation (Log Cabin), 1 Trade Post, 1 Spin (Log Cabin)
End Score
The end score shows that player 1's strategy to go for "early need" resources (grain, timber, iron) paid off well. Player 4's low cost strategy with trade posts and log cabins gave her a second place but perhaps she should have been satisfied with only one trade post. Player 2 wasn't far behind, thanks to having built a stable economy first with log cabins and trade posts before entering the tobacco market. Player 3's result from an early entry into the tobacco market clearly shows that you need capital first. The game highlighted some important areas of improvements that were dealt with in later versions:
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Annotated gamesComplete test games are presented under Annotated Games.
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