Lizard Folk vs RiverFolk

[beaulieu.mark]

I was in a multiplayer game against the Marquis, Eyrie, and Riverfolk. I was the Lizard Cult. The Riverfolk ran away with the game, but I couldn't figure out a way to hinder the Riverfolk. Are there strategies for the Lizard Cult to hurt the Riverfolk? I'm trying to learn the Lizard Cult and I think I have the basics pretty good, but this game was just odd. I did a good job of hindering the Cats and Birds, but couldn't do anything to the Otters. Just curious if the Lizard Cult has to rely on the other factions vs the Riverfolk.

[JeanH13]

In this particular scenario, probably not? It sounds like the Eyrie and Marquis did not have enough board awareness, or maybe you had beat them up too much ;)

Riverfolk is my faction of choice. The first way to stall the Riverfolk engine is to not trade with them. The second way to interrupt them, and to also kill their engine, is to destroy a trade outpost. When an outpost is destroyed, the Riverfolk lose half their funds, which is the primary way for them to score.

You could also convert their warriors, which can be a significant setback to the Riverfolk. They will have to spend a fund to make a new warrior, which is expensive for them to do in the long-term since this reduces their scoring potential.

[beaulieu.mark]

Thank you. The Riverfolk and I had done a job on the other 2 factions, but he kind of ran away with it due to his crafting. I was a distant 2nd. I'm just glad I didn't miss something obvious.

[JeanH13]

The digital version definitely benefits the Riverfolk, in the sense that their pool of funds take slightly more effort for other players to see.

I would suggest clicking on the Riverfolk's player board every couple rounds to see the size of their funds. If this is not monitored often, then they can easily sneak a big scoring round for +4 points (8 funds/warriors) or +5 (10 funds/warriors), plus an additional 2 - 6 points for a last round deployment of outposts (if they have them).

For the not so obvious part of playing against Riverfolk:
When a faction buys services from the Riverfolk, they are reducing their warrior pool. Payment is made using that faction's available warriors, and they are only returned back if the Riverfolk spend the funds (vs committing the funds). It is possible the Riverfolk had a distant victory in your game using this denial strategy, by rarely spending (i.e. returning) the warrior funds so that no one could rally a strong revenge battle. By destroying a trade outpost, you force them to return half of their funds back to those respective players.

[beaulieu.mark]

That's exactly what they did. They kept a large force on the board, protected their 2 outposts and crafted and attacked.

[VeeJay]

So ideally, a Riverfolk player is spending / committing all their funds and not relying on dividends. Destroying a trade post doesn't really hurt them in this situation, and is a bit of a nuisance for a Lizard player to do anyways. The best way to hinder the Riverfolk is to a.) starve them by not purchasing services and b.) take out their warriors on the board, presumably with convert. Given that the Lizards aren't really an offensive faction, this second bit should be left to a faction like the Eyrie or an aggro Vagabond. You might have to coordinate early in the game and strike an early truce.

Generally speaking, the Lizards are a tough faction to use and have many disadvantages compared to the other currently available factions.

[beaulieu.mark]

Thank you for the input. I'm glad to see answers like this. I was worried I was way off in my strategy but I wasn't.