Game Tips for Hansa Teutonica

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Sep 20th, 2011| Tip

55 of 60 gamers found this helpful

“You can grab merchants when using the bag action AND when being displaced”

I’ve noticed an often overlooked rule in Hansa Teutonica concerns the ability to grab a merchant (disk) when you can grab a trader (cube).

Bag Action

When taking pieces with the Bag action, the pieces moved from your general to personal supply may be any combination of cubes or disks. When taking spots on trade routes, it’s important to keep cycling your merchants to make displacing your piece tougher. In general, people understand this rule.

Being Displaced

When you are displaced, you may take a cube OR disk from your general supply as the extra piece you place on an adjacent route, regardless of whether it was a cube or disk that was moved. I often will see opponents immediately grab a cube, even when a merchant is available. This is an even stronger play if you plan to use the Book action to move your pieces during your next turn.

3

Jake Waltier {Avid Gamer}

Jan 24th, 2012| Tip

52 of 58 gamers found this helpful

“End your turn occupying the road”

If you’ve filled a road and you have just one action left, it can be tempting to complete the route and claim your skill upgrade or kontor. However, if you abandon it and leave it empty, the next player can jump right in and claim it herself. If there is no immediate benefit to completing that route on that turn (such as an additional action), leave your traders and merchants blocking off other players and keeping them fighting over other routes. Complete the route first thing next turn, and then enjoy the benefits of your new acquisition.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Sep 19th, 2011| Strategy

40 of 45 gamers found this helpful

“Books and blocking”

Everyone likes to have lots of actions. What can you do if you’re not able to get into the routes surrounding the action city? Don’t underestimate the power of the Book ability.

Book

When you take the Book action, you can move cubes/disks from any routes to any unoccupied trade route spots. By having a higher Book value, you can move more cubes for a single action.

Blocking

When you are displaced by an opponent, not only do they have to spend an extra cube, you gain a cube, or two if they have to displace your merchants (disks). Often an opponent is not able to fill a trade route in one turn, especially early in the game when you have fewer actions. If you grab the extra spot, they’ll likely need to displace you, giving you an extra cube, and eating up their resources.

The downside to gaining cubes through blocking is you can only move to an adjacent route, the locations of which may not help your long-term goals.

Book and Blocking Together

The Book action does not require all of the cubes/disks to be on, or move to, the same routes. You may pull from any route(s) on the board, and move to any route(s). By regularly blocking opponents, you can amass a larger number of cubes on the board, albeit cubes that may be spread out. By then spending a Book action, you can grab routes all at once, or move your cubes to useful places. You may choose to either grab abilities, or move around the board grabbing control of cities, or completing the 7-point city connection.

Additionally, when you increase your Book ability, you gain more merchants (disks). As they are harder to move (require two cubes/disks to be spent) they’ll help gain you more cubes on the board, or make it less likely opponents can take the routes you are going after.

In the end, you can gain some measure of an action advantage by gaining “free” cubes and moving them en masse around the board.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Sep 19th, 2011| Strategy

38 of 44 gamers found this helpful

“Instead of gaining an action - gain control of the city”

Especially in 4-5 player games, the routes around the city where actions are gained (bottom center of the board) are hotly contested. It can often be to your benefit to take the office location in this city instead of gaining an action. The points gained every time someone scores a route can increase your score quickly.

It’s even more advantageous to claim this city if you’ve already gained your third action, and the office is still unclaimed. I’ve played in many games where players become less likely to go for extra actions in the mid-game as your score can be 8-10 just from the city scoring. At this point, it’s easier for you to grab extra actions yourself as competition has decreased.

The city has three offices, a normal cube, a normal disk, and a purple cube slot. Being able to grab the “merchant” (circular) office is even better, as the bulk of action ability increases are typically finished before someone has the purple (third) privilege. This means you’ll get most of the scoring for that city. I’ve found the benefit in score is worth the cost of tying up a merchant.

Grabbing this spot lends itself to attempting to end the game quickly (unless players stop going for actions and allow you to grab an action advantage). Grabbing offices around other ability spots (including the single bonus points in the corners) can get you to the 20 point mark before opponents get their end-game scoring engine going.

6

orions {Avid Gamer}

Mar 19th, 2012| Tip

52 of 65 gamers found this helpful

“Controlling two cities near a tavern”

Beware of your opponent controlling both cities at the ends of a route with a tavern… or, alternatively, try to do it yourself. Remember that getting bonus tokens, aside from their use effect, can give you quite a lot of points at the end of the game (21 max for 10+ tokens). Normally, if you see someone amassing tokens, you try to get some yourself to deprive them of the VPs. But what happens if that person controls both cities at the ends of the tavern route? Well, then each time you get a token, you give them 2 points for scoring the route. Not a good situation.

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