Near and Far - Tips & Strategies

Trading is tricky but boils down to: “You can trade any one thing for up to 5 other things OR up to 5 things for one thing.”

You don’t have to only trade across columns either, i.e. coins/gems/bread «» faction tokens.

Examples of legal trades:
• give 1 food, 2 coins, 1 gem; take 1 blue faction token
• give 2 food; take 1 coin
• give 1 blue faction token; take 1 yellow faction token, 1 food

What you cannot do is trade multiples for multiples. Examples of illegal trades:
• give 5 gems; take 5 coins
• give 1 red faction token, 1 food; take 1 green faction, 1 gem

This is a great way to trade up or down a faction token you don’t need for one you do need. You just have to remember that there has to be a single item of something either going into or coming out of the trade.

The rulebook says you can pass over the same threat space in one turn for as many times you:
A) successfully defeat the threat
B) still have movement left
C) have hearts left to pay for passing over the empty space on one or both sides of the threat

But many have witnessed that, with lucky die rolls and 5+ combat skill, a person could rack up 4+ wins in the same turn, thereby placing 4+ tents on winning threat cards in one turn, plus rack up many victory points, especially towards the last third of the threat deck. A person employing this strategy could also end the game very unexpectedly in that turn.

Thematically, well, it doesn’t really make sense to pass over one spot fighting bandits over and over again on the same day. If you beat them once, it should take a while for them to regroup in that spot, right?

Anyway, for the sake of the game play and the theme, I would either:

1) House rule that players can only move in one direction in one turn (which doesn’t rule out taking on multiple threats per turn, but only makes the threats further apart and thus less likely to stack as quickly) or

2) Discuss this strategy outright at the start of the game so everyone can decide if they want to house rule it or leave it as a viable strategy. At least once discussed, everyone can be vigilant about the potential for an overly armed player prematurely ending the game this way and thus build their own camps accordingly.