Trajan - Tips & Strategies

Players are often more focused on what they can do instead of what they want to do. So they look at each tray and count forward the number of spaces to see what options are available to them.

It is better to focus on what you want to do and see what it takes to get there. An easy way to do that is start with the action you want to activate and start counting counter-clockwise in the trays. When you count a number that matches the amount of cylinders in your current tray, that is the tray you can select to take the desired action.

If you can’t find anything, then add two trays together to see if you can take an interim action this time in order to set you up for the next action that you desire.

This method saves time as you can typically count once instead of for each tray. And with more experience you can see this even quicker without the need to count.

Several times, especially with new players, a player chooses their bowl of tokens, puts them around their board, and then realizes they either a) miscounted and want to take the action back or b) they didn’t get the right colors where they had originally planned. When it’s taken back, who knows what the board really was – it’s hard to tell. Some say stick with their choice, and some times there was a simple mistake made which can really impact the game.

We have a helpful house rule where the tokens are placed in the center of the bowls in their temporary placing over the action symbols. Once the player is happy with the move, they are committed to it when they then move the time marker the appropriate number of spaces – then they can start their actions for the turn and move the tokens into their appropriate new bowl homes. It actually speeds things up as the player can more easily plan their turn by seeing the color combos.

It can be SO easy to screw up your plans for the 2nd, 3rd or 4th turn out if you forget the fact that you are leaving action markers behind in each tray as you go around the wheel. If you want to be able to move three spots on turn two, be SURE that you don’t leave a fourth one in the tray on turn one! Or even better, plan your actions based on a “Tray+1” marker count.

The Senate action can be the simplest path to victory in Trajan. The game is incredibly balanced but if you are able to capture tiles that allow you to double and triple your Senate actions, the points will come regularly as well as the end scoring tiles.