Gary

Here’s another option for storing the goods tiles and coins, in case you can’t find the little boxes mentioned earlier.

Keep an eye out at your local dollar store for little white buckets (not the huge ones) like those shown here.

Besides holding the cardboard bits during the game, you can also put the larger disks and wooden tokens in the buckets when putting the game away (assuming you ever do put it away).

If you have 1-3 extra gold coins that probably won’t be used elsewhere (or even if they might) don’t forget about buying gold/yellow dice on your turn. Those few extra dice can often get you into that elite district where that big 12-point souk is located.

Especially early in the game, use your opportunities to build the buildings that give you extra camels and extra gold. Then build up those 2 resources to build the buildings that give you an extra cube and an extra 2 points per completed souk.

Those 4 buildings are often essential to winning, especially if an opponent is trying to do the same. The remaining 2 buildings that you could possibly build are often worth constructing just for the bonus points, but if you have better places to score points on the main board, take advantage of them instead.

Do all you can to hang around on those 6 fortune tiles so you can grab as many as possible. If you can get several of them, go for the big red negative tiles as they then become your friends too.

Especially if you’re not the last player in turn order, take note of the resources the other players have to try to determine which buildings they are capable of building. It can help you decide which buildings you should try to build and in which districts you should build them.

Granted, this can take quite a bit of analysis, but you usually have plenty of time to think this through while others are taking their turns. And if you can keep track of the cards they have bought, so much the better.

Your hand of minor improvements and occupations is the biggest differentiator in Gric, so play your cards well.

Seldom will you want to play all of them, and sometimes you’ll only want or need to play a couple of them.

If your cards are begging you to play a “grain game”, oblige them. Don’t try to play an “animal game” instead.

Conversely (and this is a special situation), if you are in a 2-player game and your cards indicate a “stone game” is the way to go, ignore them because stone is much too difficult to get soon enough with only 2 players. In a game with 4 or 5, this would be a totally different situation and very doable.