Dorfrivalen strategy guide

Settle-and-trade games are won in the setup and lost in the middle. These tips come from playing, and from the thousands of simulated games that trained Dorfrivalen's computer rivals. New to the game? Start with how to play.

Your first two villages

• Count the odds, not the numbers. Out of 36 rolls of two dice, a 6 or 8 comes up 5 times each, a 5 or 9 four times, a 4 or 10 three times, a 3 or 11 twice, and a 2 or 12 once. Add up the corner's tiles: three tiles adding to 11 or 12 is a strong start.
• Cover different numbers. Two villages on the same 6 pay out together or not at all. Spread your numbers so something comes in most turns.
• Cover the scarce resource. Look at how many tiles of each resource the island has. If brick or ore is rare, a corner on it is worth more than its numbers say, because everyone else will need to trade for it.
• Pick a plan. Wood and brick build roads and villages early; ore and grain build towns and development cards later. A start that leans one way and has a harbour or a second village to cover the other is easier to play than a little of everything.
• Your second village is your first income. It pays out one card for each tile around it, so put it where those cards get you to a road or a village quickly.

The middle of the game

• Expand before you upgrade. A new village adds a point and new numbers. Towns double what you already have, so they are best on your richest corners.
• Claim corners before rivals do. One road toward a good free corner can be enough to make it yours, as no one can settle right next to a village.
• Use your harbour. A 2:1 harbour for the resource you collect most turns a surplus into whatever you lack. Without one, the bank's 4:1 is a last resort.
• Trade for what finishes a build. Offer what you have most of to the player who needs it. Be slower to trade with the leader: the card you give may be their last point.
• Keep your hand at 7 or fewer. On a 7, more than 7 cards costs you half. If you can build, build; if you can't, trade down before you end your turn.

The cat robber

Put the cat robber on the leader's best tile, ideally one where you have no building, and take a card from whoever has the most in hand. Knights let you move it on your own turn, even before rolling, and three of them win the Largest Army for 2 points. If the cat robber sits on your tile, a Knight frees it.

Longest Road and Largest Army

Each is worth 2 points, a fifth of a 10-point game. Longest Road is cheap to take and easy to lose: a rival village in the middle of your road breaks it. Largest Army can't be broken, only overtaken, and the Knights that build it also move the cat robber. Count what a rival needs before you race them: a lead of one card or one road is rarely safe.

The endgame

• Count everyone's points, including what their hidden cards could be. Victory point cards stay hidden until they win.
• Near the end, development cards are cheap points: one in five is a victory point, and Knights may tip the Largest Army your way.
• Stop trading with anyone two points from winning, and keep the cat robber on them.

The computer's playstyles

Each computer rival plays one of eight styles, and you can pick them at setup. They are a good way to learn the different paths to 10 points:

The levels go from Easy, which makes mistakes and forgets your cards, through Normal and Hard to Unbeatable, which plans deep and counters whoever leads. The daily challenge puts you against three Unbeatable rivals and asks which style beats them.

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