Dolmengötter Tactics #1 - The First Turn
Die Dolmengötter is a tactical game. It is not about finding an innovative strategy and implementing the associated long-term objectives. The game mechanics don't allow players to try different strategic alternatives or opportunities. A long-term focus is simply wrong in Die Dolmengötter.
The game is truly tactical. It is about gaining a slight short- to mid-term advantage over the other players. So far, I have failed every time I tried to play the game on a strategic level. This approach simply does not work here, as a different player will probably bring the game to an end before the strategic advantages could have generated their positive effects. Dolmengötter is all about the small steps.
Having learned this the hard way, I thought about writing a few articles on the tactical options and game mechanics in Die Dolmengötter. Perhaps this will become a little series of articles that investigates multiple aspects of the tactics. I am not certain if this has been done on any of the other board game blogs but I certainly find it an interesting idea. I'll give it a try and see how people like it (if you have written something similar about a different game please let me know - I'd be anxious to read it!).
The goal of this basic article is to investigate the different opportunities during the first player's first turn in the game. Two more things:
1. You need to be familiar with the game rules (available here in English).
2. You need to be the smallest person at the gaming table. Because this is the only case in which you will ever get the chance to start the game. If you are as tall as me you will probably be interested in an "upcoming" article on possible counter moves or try to talk your game group into rotating start players. Naah, not gonna happen...
Picking a good starting position
As the starting player, we are looking for a section on the board with valuable (=larger) stone circles as these offer the highest multipliers. Unfortunately, since these circles are very large, majorities might change and put other players into a position where they can steal the highest multiplier from the starting player. But let's not worry about this during our first turn.
But -- instead of looking simply for a spot within a large stone circle there is a second thing we need to take into account. Since players only have a limited number of stones it seems a good idea to put them in a spot where they help you gain a majority in *as many* stone circles as possible with the highest multipliers as possible.
Given these two criteria, let's look at the game board. The spots on the borders are not part of as many circles as those in the middle. Therefore, let's focus on the middle section of the board:
How to pick a good starting position in the middle section of the board?
The image below shows several interesting spots on the board.
- Spots highlighted in red: These spots are all part of three stone circles: two circles of size 5 and one of size three. If we were to claim the highest Dolmen in all three this would give us two multipliers of 4 and one multiplier of 2.
- Spots highlighted in black: These spots are part of one circle of size 5 and two circles of size 4. If we were to win the best position in all of them, this would give us one multiplier of 4 and two multipliers of 3.
- Spots highlighted in yellow: These spots belong to one circle of each size (3-5). This results in multipliers 4, 3 and 2.
Which alternative is the best? Let's assume we are in a two-player game. In this case we have one Dolmen with value 4 and three Dolmen with value 3. To calculate the victory points for each option we need to multiply these values with the multipliers of the corresponding stone circle. Let's assume these were the only stone circles we had to worry about. In this case we would maximize our score by putting our most valuable Dolmen into the top position of the biggest circle, the second best Dolmen into the top position of the second largest circle and so on. As a result:
| Multiplier | Value of Dolmen | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 16 |
| 4 | 3 | 12 |
| 2 | 3 | 6 |
| - | Total | 34 |
| Multiplier | Value of Dolmen | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 16 |
| 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 3 | 3 | 9 |
| - | Total | 34 |
| Multiplier | Value of Dolmen | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 16 |
| 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 2 | 3 | 6 |
| - | Total | 31 |
What can we draw from these tables?
The first intuitive assumption that the red (5-5-2) spot is the most successful one is only partially true. The spots highlighted in black (5-4-4) might even be better in some situations.
In the "red spot situation", maybe we should keep our second Dolmen valued at 3 points for a better opportunity? If we do that, however, the black spot will score better than we. The problem gets even more interesting. Since the red and black position both compete over the same huge circle granting a multiplier of five only one player can make into the highest multiplier level. To really make a final decision on the "best" starting position we need to have a look at the dynamics that might evolve in the first (few) turn(s).
Hope to see have you back for part 2... ;)