Large gold achievement tips

[Kamigami]

Just got my last large gold achievement. Here's some advice for those working on theirs.

Continental - You'll need to have about half the squares on the map with a wonder applied, but with size 12 biomes you will not have enough terrain cards to buy enough wonders for that. Instead buy and apply a few wonders as soon as you can, and then grow those biomes past size 12. You'll get an additional 10 points per tile added, getting the cards you need to buy more wonders. Merging a biome with a wonder and a biome without one also works, all tiles for both areas will become wondrous.

Marine - This one felt the easiest. You'll need to make sure that you make a biome of each type with a circular area three tiles in diameter so that you can place your wondrous creatures. Since you can't lower terrain, be especially on the lookout for a good ocean floor area for the giant squid. Ensure that every zone has a vent, trading in islands as necessary. Place the vent surrounded by the biome where possible, or at the intersection of 3+ biomes when the vents become constrained. Trade excess islands for vents.

Savannah - The biggest challenge is ensuring you have space for your wonders. Skirt a size 24 river as close to the edge of the map as possible without being on the edge itself (or you'll lose fresh water points). Curve your map so that it is somewhat circular. Unlock the wonders quickly via many small biomes, which you grow to size 12 after. Then buy and place your wonders as soon as you can. Watch for the expansions with lots of green tiles; reserve these for the marshland wonder. Trade excess rivers for ponds.

Jurassic - You'll need to make sure that you have a size 24 biome of each type so that you can place your wondrous creatures. Place them around a central mountain so that you can flow short rivers off of the mountain to get your lush animal placement bonus. All other biomes can be size 12. Put your rare size 18 animals in the size 24 zones, going for three of a kind as needed to ensure they are all placed. Trade excess rivers for vents.

Hope this helps!

[Mr McTabernaffy]

Hello, interesting to see you found Marine the easiest, could you write up a more detailed section for it? I'm struggling to get past silver on the large map and I've been banging my head against my desk for hours trying haha

[CascadeHush]

I think there is a noticeable jump in complexity from Forest to Savannah, where as Marine is at best a sideways move in complexity (Not that that's a bad thing). All you need to do is figure out oxygenation and I remember when that clicked for me and it all made sense what I needed to to. I can imagine some people will really struggle with that because it is a bit mind bending. Clever design though.

[Mr McTabernaffy]

Thank you, I must be misunderstanding the oxygenation in some way then, I have frequently got to 3400~ score with full 12 habitats and wonders.

This is the layout I've settled on when I have the vents to do it as I thought it would be the 'max' score:
-oooo-
oVooo
-oooo-

o = habitat
V = vent

[CascadeHush]

Yeah, that's pretty much it for vents... there are 2 problems with that that OP already mentioned
1, you may struggle to fit your wonder creature so you need to make an area for that. I guess if you have exactly your layout then you could fit it there
2. You may not always have enough vents for all your habitats so you'll need to sacrifice some points to share a vent between more than one habitat.

i will also add to that that
3. You can't put a vent in shallow water for coral so if you want oxygenated coral you'll need to put a vent next to it in deeper water or have part of your coral zone be in deeper water.
4. You don't always have the exact space for your layout, but I figure you know that.

I'm thinking in the long run it's probably better to share vents than worrying too much about maximising the points for the vent itself. But I'm sure both of you have played more than me :)

[oldladygreybun]

On the Marine large, the Silver goal is 4000.
If you're struggling to get past that I'm guessing that you're not getting optimal use out of your vents and islands adjacency points. Perhaps your animal points, too.

If you aren't already aware of it, there is a guide in the Guides section here with, amongst other things, scoring tables for the 3 first biomes. You may find it useful for at least thinking through tradeoffs and priorities in how you use your cards.

From your postings above, it seems like you're missing out a lot on Vent points, for example. The vent multiplier (stacking) points make a lot of difference, and it looks like you haven't really thought through the scoring systematically. A Vent with 6 same habitat gives 36 pts in vent adjacency, while a 5+1 habitat (5 surrounding cells of one hab.type, and 1 cell of a different hab type) will give you only 26 adjacency points. (6x6) versus (5x5, plus 1x1). And a 3+3 split gives only 18 pts. (3x3, plus 3x3). Just as a couple of examples. And once you've achieved the in-game task for the Lighthouse, then the points really start to pack a punch, as that adds +2 pts for all vent and island adjacency.

So: do think about your placements.

Also for your islands. Make sure to surround them on all sides by habitat, so you max out the adjacency points for them. I.e. no very tight bends in an island-string. And keep them away from your map edges, so they are fully surrounded by hab. (doesn't matter what kind hab, any mix will count the same). And with the Lighthouse bonus, it pays best to either put islands in a 6-string, or spaced out as singles. On a Large map, you'll usually get enough islands for two 6-strings and some singles, but not always.

And think through how you use your animals. Have you clear in your mind which habitat can give 4-unique bonuses, and which can only give 3-unique, for example. Are you getting 4-unique bonuses for all the habitats where you can place 4 different species? Are you using the card swap if necessary (especially in late-game)?

Might be a place to start, anyway...

Hope this may help :-)

And if you post a screenshot of your 'best effort' map, then you could perhaps get some useful pointers from the community on any obvious improvements (in which case, need a screenshot that includes your card row, and UI.)

Good luck with it !

[CascadeHush]

or, you know, make a pretty map and watch the animals swim around :)

[oldladygreybun]

Which is a great way to play the game too :-)
Just not what McTabernaffy was asking about...

[oldladygreybun]

And to @kamigami's advice for the Marine Large - to trade excess islands for vents. Imo that advice is a bit 'it depends'.

May be a good move if your're short of vents, although I find that often in the Large, it's the other way round, more vents than habitats, though often many come in right at the last card drop and can be difficult to find good fits for.

And, considered as 'per cell used' value, then a Vent (with Lighthouse bonus) is much higher value per cell-use, than Island.(And both are higher than habitat, per cell value).

But in total, you may be better off using your islands as they are. Because you lose a potential 6 pts. in the 3-for-1 swap. And islands are often easier to get a good placement for than Vents (but, again, it depends).

Because the trade-off in swapping 3 islands for 1 Vent is:
1 Vent = max 48 adjacency pts (6x6 basic, with all-same hab., plus 6x2 from Lighthouse bonus)
1 Island (placed as a single) = 18 adjacency pts (6 cells x 1 basic pt, plus 6x2 from Lighthouse bonus). Since the swap is 3-for-1, then times this with 3 = 54 adjacency pts

So a trade of 3 islands for 1 vent, will lose you a potential 6 pts.

These are 'marginal' points though, and doing it or not, depends on your situation, especially in the end-game. Like, if you have enough dry land for an island, or wet for a vent, if you can surround a vent fully with same hab. or not, if you really need extra vents to get the most out of your last habitats, or need the last few cells to get a full habitat for a 4-unique, or if you're just trying to squeeze as many pts as possible out of a few oddly placed cells, ... That kind of thing.

But as a general rule, do try to get as many vents and islands placed as you reasonably can, they are high-value cell usage.