Savannah Biome Tips?

[poke_k]

Recently got the game and I'm really enjoying it, but I feel like I'm missing something on the Savannah biome. On Continental I've gotten all score achievements except for gold on the largest map, on Savannah I'm still getting stuck on getting further than ~900 points on the small map, and even getting there from around 800 points feels like a slog. Is there a general strategy for savannah that I'm overlooking?

[oldladygreybun]

It's usually to do with your river.
You need it long enough, and fairly straightish (don't make very sharp bends), to max the no. of 'habitat tiles' around it. Do NOT put river right on the edge of your map, it needs to be surrounded all round with habitats.

If you're not doing this, then that is a place to start, anyway :-)

[oldladygreybun]

You get max points from a river 24 cells long, surrounded by habitat.
(or longer than 24, iif you want - but then it's a tradeoff against other uses of free cells, for potenial 12-cell habitats with 3 alike animals, so you may need to do some thinking about that as you get into the late-game for your map)

I guess you're aware (?) that you can extend an already laid river by adding on a new piece of river from the last river cell.
Yes?
Or also by joining another bit of river into it - in which case it has to join somewhere upriver from the last river cell. I

n Savannah a river doesn't have to start on a mountain, but can start anywhere. But you still have to keep in mind that it must move forwards either on the same level or to a level further down - it cannot go uphill.

Best of luck with it :-)

[poke_k]

Diposting pertama kali oleh oldladygreybun:

You get max points from a river 24 cells long, surrounded by habitat.
(or longer than 24, iif you want - but then it's a tradeoff against other uses of free cells, for potenial 12-cell habitats with 3 alike animals, so you may need to do some thinking about that as you get into the late-game for your map)

I guess you're aware (?) that you can extend an already laid river by adding on a new piece of river from the last river cell.
Yes?
Or also by joining another bit of river into it - in which case it has to join somewhere upriver from the last river cell. I

n Savannah a river doesn't have to start on a mountain, but can start anywhere. But you still have to keep in mind that it must move forwards either on the same level or to a level further down - it cannot go uphill.

Best of luck with it :-)

Hey thanks for the pointers! I have been doing a lot better since prioritizing longer rivers, still struggling with the large map but feeling less clueless, haha. Do you find that it tends to work out better if you go for a single long/straight river or one with other river "branches" connecting somewhere in the middle? The wonders with the specific shape needs are the thing throwing me for a loop now, which will probably get easier with some more attempts, but for example last large map attempt I had gotten a pretty long/straight river and by the time I was buying wonders realized I had no way to get a wetlands one with the way I had already set everything up.
Thanks again!

[Senor Cojones]

From my experience it's best to fulfill the requirements for the wonder building asap to have enough free cells left to place the wonders and habitats around. Concerning the river i like to go with 1-2 shorter branches creating a small "v" with the main river to have more green habitat tiles in one small area.

[oldladygreybun]

Happy it helped you along a bit :-)

My comments were primarily for getting higher points in the small map in Savannah.
There I tend to go for just one long fairly straight river, unless I'm really unlucky with one of the map pieces. It means having to build the river length in sections, so I have dry/rained-on tiles to build the dry-tree habitats on, before putting down too much river and blocking those cells from being used for 'dry' habitats. (as you may have noticed, the habitat tiles for those has to be put down first, and the river afterwards, as the dry habitat tiles can't be put down on dark green (lake- or river-watered) cells.)

For the medium sized map, I usually go for one long river too, but generally make my map slight fatter at least at one end, to fit in a 6-lake as soon as possible.

For the large map, I usually try to make one long river too, but occasionally with a second branch at one end to make up the necessary total length for the quest card, as my experience is that it's necessary to make that map fairly broad and connected, or else it's impossible to fit in the Wonders. And there, like @senor... says above, you need to keep in mind where to place your wetlands Wonder. I try to start planning around that one at least by midway on my map, while some of the other wonders are a lot easier to squeeze in somewhere, like the mountain one, or, of course, the grassland one.

But for the big map in Savannah, it's a bit of a balance too, between planning out shapes ('holes') that you can place Wonders into later, but not planning too far ahead either and leaving too many holes early on - because you need to make enough points out of your early map pieces to get more tiles and move ahead on your map.

The whole game is about tradeoffs, really :-)

[oldladygreybun]

And - this may just be me and my trouble with rotating shapes in my head - but I've found that for the Wonders on the large Savannah map, it helps me to have the shapes of all the wonders drawn by hand on a sheet of squared paper beside me (would have been even better on hex paper, but I haven't got any). So that I can see how many cells they need in which kind of pattern/shape and how wide and long they are.

Makes it easier to get a feel for what can fit where on your map.

But, of course, that might be just a personal idiosyncracy my end.
( I've always found rotational and 3D puzzles difficult (and, yeah, always hated Rubik's cube and suchlike...))

[cmcmcmcm]

Build a river exactly 24 tiles long, but do it as late as possible. You can put the "dry only" tiles down and then later turn them green by having a river go next to them. Unlock wonders as soon as possible.

[oldladygreybun]

well, I find that building the river in about 3 sections works best for me. Not starting it off straight away, but not waiting too long either to get those first 12 pieces in - to gain extra points from the map pieces placed. And then adding on step-wise, in a balance between having to keep too much of 'intended placement' in your head, watering tiles too early before placing down 'dry' habitats, and getting enough points along the way to avoid pressed situations forcing you to make iffy placements to get past the various milestones.

I've also a couple of times got some quite good points out of a river more than 24 long, if in the end-game I'm very unlucky with available animals to make 3-different animals habitats. (This maybe most relevant for the medium Savannah map).

------
(and - not to brag, but to put in context - : I'm in the top 10 on the leaderboards on all these (so far!), so, at least for me, these approaches work. But sure, likely there will be different strategies that all lead to good points and that suit different people's instincts in different ways)

[poke_k]

Thanks for all the input! I also find 3D non-physical puzzles tricky, haha, I can relate to that. I've also been having better luck with trying to build out the river in 'sections' while still keeping it straight. I realized basically right after my last comment I just plain misunderstood how the savannah wonders worked, I thought they were also placed on top of habitats so when I had first tried a map using them I both had fully filled in the map and didn't have shapes that would've fit for the wonders I could buy even if it was placed on top of the habitats... still learning and adjusting, haha, but getting there!

I've definitely been pretty unlucky with my animal combinations for savannah late game, which I'm not sure if it's just an issue of how I'm prioritizing getting points or the RNG being a little less kind than continental, but it's been consistently the thing that *feels* like its preventing me from getting to the next point threshold.

[oldladygreybun]

yeah, a good point to keep in mind is that the wonders work quite differently in the 3 different biomes. So how to accommodate them and use them to your best advantage is not the same between the 3 worlds - as you'll see again when you get to Ocean biome if you haven't already tried that one.

I find the RNG to be much the same between the 3 biomes, but I guess it evens out (statistically) over time. So since I've done a lot of maps it might feel 'fairer' to me, than if you haven't done that many yet and have been just a bit unlucky in your first ones.

So far I found the Savannah hardest at first, but it's now my favourite :-)

[oldladygreybun]

and if you haven't worked out yet which habitat types are more restricted and less restricted in which animals they have available to them, then that's a thing that will help you too, Check it out in the compendium if you haven't done so already, or perhaps you've worked it out already just through playing.
So that you keep in mind which hab.types only have 3 animal types to choose from, but others have 4 to choose from, so you can keep your available hab type cards and available animal cards reasonably balanced as you go along.

But, yes, the RNG will not give you 'the same' mix of animals for each playthrough, so don't expect it! You have to keep a check on what you've got and alternative uses along the way (and then in the last 5 minutes the game will sometimes throw you LOTS of some animal you've been pining for throughout and had to manage without, lol)

[oldladygreybun]

Oh, and don't forget to use your Undo cards strategically - they can be your friend !

[poke_k]

Thanks again for all the tips! I'm doing much better on Savannah now, finally got all the score achievements. Now to tackle figuring out the Marine biome...

[oldladygreybun]

happy to help :-)
and the Marine is something different again, new rules, new tactics... Have fun!