Splendor Strategy and Tactics

This guide is designed to help the reader learn winning strategies and imploy tactics that will help the reader become a better Splendor player.

Splendor Strategy and Tactics

This is a guide to the board game “Splendor”. The strategies and tactics discussed here were developed after playing this game over 100+ times against people at local tournaments, friends in local gaming groups, and against computer players and real players using Splendor on Steam. Many strategies were tried and tested. This guide will first discuss the basic strategies for winning and then break down the game and discuss advanced tactics.

First, some fundamental knowledge about the game design.

The victory conditions for this game:
When a player reaches 15 prestige points (nobles included) complete the current round so that each player has played the same number of turns. The player who then has the highest number of prestige points is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the player who has purchased the fewest development cards wins.

As obvious as this may seem, a strategy that can get to 15 points faster AND with fewer cards purchased is going to be a better strategy then one that is slower and requires more card purchases. This has direct relevance to one of the fundamental aspects of the game, which is its inclusion of “Nobles” and the mechanics for attaining one.

Nobles are a fundamental mechanic of the game and work as follows:

A “Noble” is worth 3 prestige points. A player is visited by a noble if they can meet the quantity and type of the gem resource requirements stated on the noble tile. The first player to meet these conditions is visited by and keeps that noble.

All of the Nobles in this game provide 3 prestige points and their requirements are either 3/3/3 (3 gems of one color, 3 gems of a second color, and 3 gems of a third color) for a total of 9 gem card purchases, or 4/4 for a total of 8 gem card purchases. After extensive game play and testing, most if not all victories can be achieved between 21 and 26 turns, with a total number of card purchases between 5 and 8 cards. In other words, most games will end before a player can ever achieve the total number of card purchases necessary to attain the cheapest of Nobles (4/4 = 8). Conclusion: Targeting Nobles is a losing strategy. Don’t focus on acquiring Nobles! Only consider a Noble if you’re approaching a total of 8 or 9 card purchases and the game hasn’t been won yet by another player. In general, the gaming community has mostly already come to this conclusion, but for those that haven’t spent the time testing this, save your time. It’s been done for you!

So, if winning strategies are achieved with 5 to 8 card purchases, then the main focus should be targeting “Point Value” cards.

The game has “Point Value” cards ranging from 1-point cards at the low end up to 5-point cards at the high end. These point cards are spread out among the 3 decks in the game (or 3 tiers). To achieve 15 points with only 5 to 8 card purchases, the majority of “Point Value” cards that a player should be targeting would be 2pt, 3pt, 4pt and 5pt cards at the best “Chip to Point” value ratio possible.

There are “Point Value” cards with different costs in chips. Example:
3 PV cards in the 2nd tier deck that cost a single gem color of 6 gems. That means the “Chip to Point” value ratio for a card like this is 1 point per two chips. A 1 – 2 ratio. There are 5 PV cards in the 3rd tier deck that cost a total of 10 gems (7 of one color and 3 of another). This again is a 1 – 2 ratio chip to point value. There are also 4 PV cards in the 3rd tier that cost a single gem color of 7 gems. These are the very best chip to point ratio cards available in the game.
This may be yet another obvious point too many… the winning strategy is to target these high PV gem cards with good chip to PV ratio.

However, targeting these cards alone is not enough to guarantee a victory. This may be the winning strategy, but when you’re playing against other players who are also aware of this strategy, then simply knowing it is the winning strategy isn’t enough. You will need some additional tactics to get the upper hand against your opponents.

Tactics:
Okay. We know we should be targeting the high point value cards with good Chip to Point Value ratio, but everyone is doing the same thing. How do you get the upper hand?
To answer this, I’m going to discuss several concepts. First the list of concepts/tactics… or whatever you want to call these. These are things you should know about the game. (These are my names for them… so I’ll explain each one)

1) Color Triangles / Triads
2) Color Prevalence
3) Board Analysis (Reading the board)
4) Spring-boarding
5) Card Chaining
6) Deck turnover
7) Reserving Strategy
8) Future Farming
9) Stalling
10) Defense (Chip Blocking)

Okay… we have a number of items to discuss here, so let’s get to it.

1) Color Triangles / Triads

There exist among the 5 base gem colors, pairs or ‘triads’ of colors that work in synergy. Many people have picked up on this already, while some have maybe subconsciously picked up on this. They are:
• Black /Red / White
• Blue / Green / White
These color groupings support each other with costs to purchase additional cards within the same grouping.

Some may argue these groupings and claim that Red should go with Green. It does on occasion, but in general I find that these two triangles work more often than not.
For example, a 2 PV card from the 2nd tier deck that costs 5 red gems of a single color will buy you a card with a white gem. An equivalent 5 black cost gem card will buy you a Red gem. And finally the 5 white cost gem card will buy you a black gem. These three 2 PV cards when purchased help you to reduce the cost of future card purchases that stay within this 3 color triad. You’ll see in a bit that this particular Black/Red/White triad is very powerful..

The second triad is the Blue/Green/White triad. This triad works a bit different from the Black/Red/White triad, but still forms a solid triad that can be followed to a victory. What is different about this triad is that the equivalent 2 PV card from the 2nd tier deck that costs 5 gems of a single color works differently than the Black/Red/White triad. In the case of Blue/Green… the Blue 5 cost card buys you a Blue gem, and the Green 5 cost card buys you a Green gem. Interestingly, that means these cards “feed on themselves” rather than support the other colors of the triad. Additionally, you might concluded that White doesn’t even belong here at all.
The Blue/Green pair has a tendency to keep you building up the same color. A Green cost gem buys you a Green gem card, making the next Green cost card even cheaper. This can snowball into a quick piling of 4 or 5 cards purchased all with a Green gem. However, you may need luck on your side for lots of Green cards to make an appearance on the board.

Why do I include White in this Blue/Green triad?
White is what I call a “pivot” color. White can support the Black/Red pair which you see that it does naturally when you look at those 2 PV cards I mentioned above. (The 5 White cost card buys you the Red gem). But… the reason I call “White” the pivot color is because White shows up as a cost in several other good PV cards in the top 3rd tier deck.

Examples:
The [7 White/3 Blue] cost 5PV card that buys you a Blue gem card from that 3rd tier deck;
The [7 White] cost 4 PV card that buys you a Blue gem from the 3rd tier deck; and
The [6 White/3 Blue/3 Black] cost 4 PV card that buys you a Blue gem from the 3rd tier deck.
There is also a [5 White/3 Blue] cost 2 PV card that buys you a Blue gem from the 2nd tier deck.

All four of these cards buy you a Blue gem, and they all require a large investment in White. You can find examples of this with Green cost that “bleed” into Red gem cards, but in general, the important colors are the high investment colors for each card. White seems to ‘bleed into the Black/Red pair and sometimes also bleed into the Blue/Green pair. Thus, I consider the White color a color that can pivot from one pair to the other if necessary.

What can this tell you? Well, first of all… focus on staying within one of these two triads during the game. Additionally… When in doubt… buy White gem cards! If you don’t know whether it is safe to commit to one triad or the other, then the safest choice to make is invest in White gem cards until the board eventually clarifies for you which triad you should go after.
This takes me to the next item…

2) Color Prevalence

What is “Color Prevalence”? This means looking at all 12 cards out on the table and looking at all of the ‘costs’ for all the colors out there. How many cards require a particular color? For example, if all four of the bottom tier cards all require Black in their costs, you can probably assume that somebody will be taking Black gems from the very first turn of the game. In fact, maybe everyone will be taking Black!

We already talked about the color triads. There are essentially two triads. In a three player game that means there is going to be some ‘doubling up’ on the same triad. If 2 out of the 3 players in a 3 player game choose to go down the Black/Red/White triad, then you would be best served staying away from that triad and take the Blue/Green/White triad yourself. You’ll avoid the competition that would result from more than one player trying to go after the same Point Value cards that you want. You can also use another tactic which I’ll discuss in greater detail later… Stalling!

So, noticing the Color Prevalence that exists on the table among the 12 cards out there can potentially open up a tactic for you. If there exists very few cards that require a particular color (e.g. one or two that require Blue), you could Reserve the Blue cost card and reduce even more the prevalence of that color. So, if Blue is already not well represented on the table, if you Reserve those Blue cost cards, then Blue becomes even scarcer. What this does is forces your opponents into taking gems of colors you don’t need and ensures that when it comes around to your turn to take gems that you need… your gem color will still be available… and in large supply. Another way to view this… if everything costs Red… avoid targeting Red cost cards. Those gems are going to be snatched up fast by everyone.

Noticing Color Prevalence among the 2nd and 3rd tier cards is more important than for the 1st tier. You want to target cards with good point value from the 2nd and 3rd tier. If you can reduce prevalence of the card color you’re after, you’ll benefit by having more of that gem color available in the chip piles on your turn.

3) Board Analysis

This is your ability to read the cards on the table and decide what course of action you’re going to take. This is fundamental to every turn in the game. This isn’t so much a tactic as an ability on your part to know what to look for and make good decisions.

At the beginning of the game you’re going to want to analyze all 12 available cards on the table and decide on a course of action. This is going to depend heavily on several factors:
a) Total number of players in your game
b) Your “turn” (E.g. First to go, second to go, etc.)
c) What ‘good’ PV cards exist on the table and how many of these are out
d) Color Prevalence
e) Color Triangles / Triads currently out among the 12 cards

So, what you are trying to do is identify…
1) What good PV cards out there you want to target.
2) Whether another player who ‘goes’ before you could beat you to the card you want.
3) How many chips a good PV card will cost (7 chips in 4 player games makes buying 7 cost cards much easier than if your game only has 3 players and therefore only 5 chips for each stack)
4) Whether you can take advantage of Color Prevalence…or directly affect Color Prevalence with your card choices.
5) Whether you can “Spring-board” to buying good PV cards. More on that later.
6) Scarcity of good PV cards. If there are only 1 or 2 good cards available to start the game, you may want to Reserve the card the very first chance you get.
7) If you choose not to Reserve a card on your first turn, then looking for ways to keep your “options open” and reduce risk of cards you want being reserved by someone else. Essentially, do you have a back-up option available if your primary option disappears? If you have only one option… Take it and Reserve! Don’t risk it.

All of these things are what you’re looking for when analyzing the board. In general, you do this every turn of the game throughout the game and you look for opportunities to use the tactics available.

4) Spring-Boarding

“Spring-Boarding” is a name I give to a tactic I use to speed up the process of buying the PV cards I want. If I can be efficient and buy the PV cards in as few turns as possible I’m increasing my odds of winning. So how does it work?

When I’m “Spring-Boarding”, I’m trying to be as efficient as possible with my chip draws. I don’t want to waste any turns drawing chips of colors I don’t want or can’t use to buy the card I’m targeting. So, let’s look at an example.

In the 2nd or 3rd tier of cards you spot a card that cost only a single color. Let’s say you spot the 6 White cost 3PV card that buys you a White gem card in the 2nd tier. You target this as the card you want. (For now let’s NOT worry about Reserving the card… which may be a better tactic. Let’s focus on this concept of Spring-Boarding for it first).

To “Spring-Board” for the card you’re targeting, you want to buy a White gem card from the bottom tier. There are a few bottom tier cards that work for this. One example is the White gem card that costs 4 chips of all the other colors other than white. How you pick your chips during the next two turns can make a huge difference. What you want to do is buy the card on your 3rd turn after you’ve taken the two turns before accumulating the chips for the cost of the card. You’re trying to end with 2 White chips and the White card. Essentially having a stockpile of 3 white when you’re done. You must choose your gems properly with the two turns you have to take your chips.

You would take (Black, Green, White) on your first turn for example. On your second turn you would take (Red, Blue, White). The key here is that you’re taking White gems on each turn while taking half the cost of the card with the other two chips. When you buy the card for the cost of the Black, Green, Red, and Blue chips, you end with a White card and 2 White chips for a stockpile of 3 white. You’re now half way to the cost of the 6 White Cost 3PV card in the 2nd tier you were targeting! This is what I call “Spring-Boarding” to the cost of the card you were targeting.

All too often I see players use their first turn to take Black, Green, Red when trying to do the same thing. On their second turn they take the one remaining color chip they need for that bottom tier card (Blue), but then with their remaining two chips they can only take one White chip. They can’t take a second White chip. So they pick up another chip from a color that isn’t White. They screwed up their opportunity to “Spring-Board” to the 6 White cost card.
Spring-Boarding is really a very simple concept that many players figure out on their own very quickly. I said “many”. Some people just don’t see it!

5) Card Chaining

“Card Chaining” is taking the Spring-Boarding tactic and extending it to multiple cards within your chosen triad. The Black/Red/White triad works best for Card Chaining.

Suppose you have reserved the 6 White costing 3PV card from the 2nd tier. You’re going to need to somehow stockpile 6 white gems or some combination with Gold chips. Assuming you’ve reserved it, you now need 5 white gems. But then an opponent after reserving a card from the 2nd tier reveals a replacement card that happens to be the 5 Red costing 2 PV card that buys you a white gem card. Good! You can now start taking chips for both White and Red when making your chip draws. Next, the 5 Black / 3 White costing 2PV card is revealed to the board. PERFECT. Now you can continue taking White/Red and now Black chips and stockpile all three at the same time. You’ll want to get the card that will help you Spring-Board to the next card in your hand. So while you originally started wanting to get the 3PV White card… it may now be better for you to buy the 2PV Red card that buys you the White Gem. You’ll only be spending Red gems and therefore not spending any White gems you’ve accumulated. It will buy you a White card that will help you toward the cost of your 6 cost white card. All the while you continue to pick up Black and White gems until you’ve purchased the Red cost card with the white gem. That Spring-Boards you to the cost of the White card which again buys you a white gem. Now you just need Black to buy the 5 Black/3 White card. Most of the cost of the White is now invested in cards so you would only need 1 white chip.

Black/Red/White work wonderfully for Card Chaining. You spend Red to get White. You spend White to get Black. You spend Black to get Red. They just keep Spring-Boarding you to the next card.

In contrast, the Blue/Green/White triad doesn’t do this nearly as well. Green cost cards buy you Green gem cards. Blue cost cards buy you Blue gem cards. They don’t support chaining. Instead you spend all your Green chips for a Green gem card and then need to re-stockpile all those Green gems again to go for the next Green cost card. It doesn’t help you to Spring-Board to the Blue cost cards in your triad. So this is a bit slower. The Blue/Green/White triad usually benefits from purchasing one or two bottom tier cards to get their ‘engine’ going. This however means that the Black/Red/White triad has the advantage when it comes to Chaining.

6) Deck Turnover

This is how many cards from any of the decks are going to see play. If you’re playing opponents who know all the good strategies then you can assume that very few players will actually be purchasing cards from the bottom tier. This means the bottom tier deck isn’t going to ‘turnover’ too much.

In contrast, many people will be buying cards from the 2nd tier. The 2nd tier deck is going to ‘turnover’ a lot. I’ve seen games where the 2nd tier deck is completely exhausted. What this means is you can expect that in most games a good majority of the 2nd tier cards are going to see the table eventually. The 3rd tier deck like the bottom tier deck doesn’t turnover too many cards. Most players will try to purchase or reserve one or two from the 3rd tier deck at most. The worst cards in the 3rd tier deck are the 3PV cards that require 14 chips to purchase. Very few players will actually want these cards. If 3PV cards appear on the 3rd tier from the beginning of the game, very few top tier cards will see play.

You could also find yourself facing opponents that want to build an 'engine'. They're constantly buying bottom tier cards and thus the bottom tier deck is turning over lots of cards. Many bottom tier cards will see play if these types of players are in your game.

You may need to adjust your tactics if a particular deck is or isn't turning over as many cards as you'd like for your strategy.

7) Reserving Strategy

Gold chips in this game are... well… like gold! They’re extremely valuable. When you’re trying to purchase cards that cost 6 or 7 chips of a single color, you’re going to need help to get that many chips. In a 4 player game the chip stacks are maxing out at 7 chips. Exactly the cost needed for these good cards that cost a single color. In a 3 player game the chip stacks max out at 5 chips. Then to get 7 chips you’re going to need either Gold chips or cards purchased of those gem colors to help you. Bottom line… Gold chips are helpful for purchasing these good cards that have high cost in a single color.

Reserving a card… in general… is extremely important. If you see a card you want on the table and you don’t reserve it… chances are an opponent will reserve it or outright purchase it before you can. You don’t want to lose out on the card you need/want. If there are gold chips available, you probably should be reserving a card if there is something on the table worth reserving!

In games with good players, the gold chips go very fast. In 4 player games, each of the 4 players will likely reserve a card from the table on their very first turn. Often the 1st player to play even reserves a card on their second turn as well and completely exhausts the Gold chip stack. So, if there are Gold chips available… don’t lose out. RESERVE first turn if there is something worth reserving.

Keeping in mind the tactics of Spring-Boarding, Chaining, and your color triads… you should be reserving your chosen triad cards and possibly even reserving bottom tier cards that help you for Spring-Boarding. In games with players that don’t reserve on their first turn… I will usually reserve twice in a row for my first and second turns. I’ve reserved 3 times in a row for my first 3 turns (A 2nd tier card, a bottom tier card and a top tier card).

Players who win don’t risk their needed cards by leaving them on the table and taking chips to build up the cost for the card. Good players will reserve the card and then begin stockpiling the chips they need for the card.

Additionally, when you reserve a card you are increasing the total number of available cards you can purchase. There are always the 12 cards on the table that are available to all players for purchase. If you reserve a card, that card is now in your hand available for you to purchase in addition to the 12 still on the table. If you reserve 3 cards, you essentially have 15 cards available for you to purchase. Just because you reserved a card doesn’t mean you must buy it right away. If you have 15 cards available to you and your opponents aren’t reserving cards… you have the advantage already. You have more options than your opponents if they are not also reserving cards.

Caution: The max number of cards you can hold in reserve is 3 cards. Be careful when reserving a third card. If you reserve a third card you must make sure that you will be able to purchase from your hand of 3 cards one of those cards so that you will not be what I call “Hand blocked”. When a good card comes along and you really want to reserve it you don’t want to be “Hand blocked” and unable to reserve. What’s worse is having 3 cards reserved and not being able to purchase any of them. If the Gold chips you acquired from reserving aren’t going to allow you to purchase at least one of those 3 cards in your hand, you probably shouldn’t have reserved the third card.

8) Future Farming

This is the term I use when I am stockpiling chips of a particular color with NO card available on the table or in my hand to spend them on. This is risky! If you max out at 10 chips with no card you can purchase with those chips you’re in a bad position. You now either purchase bad cards (not recommended) or you dump chips back to their stacks (Not desired but better than buying bad cards in most cases).

Suppose the 4 cards in the 2nd tier are all crap! They’re the 1PV cards with costs of 3/2/2 or 3/3/2. Yuck! Don’t buy those unless it is your win condition! Suppose the top tier is also bad for you. You don’t see any cards in the top or 2nd tier that you want. What then? You must have patience and stockpile chips in your triad colors anticipating that they’ll make an appearance eventually. This is risky for sure, but it has also won me games. If I know that the 2nd tier deck is getting depleted and a card I want hasn’t come out yet, I know it is still in that deck. It could be the next card to make an appearance to the board. I will stockpile the chips needed for the cost of that ‘yet to be revealed’ card anticipating it making an appearance. With a bit of luck it will come out. But without that luck… what do you do if you get to your max chip count of 10 chips?

9) Stalling

When you have nothing but bad options available to you, don’t blow it by buying bad cards. You need to stall until a good card becomes available. How do you stall? Well… you consider your Future Farming options and try to build up the chips for a card you hope is still coming. You don’t want to max out on your chip count though… so take it slow! Rather than taking 3 chips of different colors, when I’m stalling… I will try to take 2 chips of the same color in my triad. This will stall for time and slow the rate at which I hit my 10 chip max. I will sometimes be at my 10 chip max and I will still take chips in my triad. I’ll return unwanted colors to their respective stacks when I do this. I’d rather do this than spend my important chips on bad cards.

Another method to stall is to Reserve a bottom tier card that won’t be hard to purchase. You may not need the card, but at least you’re gaining a valuable Gold chip and slowing the rate at which you hit your 10 chip max.

You can also use the Reserve tactic in one last risky stall tactic. You could reserve a card blindly by taking a card from the top of one of the decks. This is totally blind luck. You won’t know what you’re going to get, but this can work. If none of the bottom tier cards are in your triad and have bad cost… and you’re just trying to stall… sometimes you can get a better card blindly off the top of the bottom tier deck than what is currently on the table. Additionally, you can do this blind reserve from the 2nd tier or the top tier deck, but at increased risk. The top tier deck has only 5 cards that are of the 3 PV variety. If 4 of them are out on the table… that means that all but 1 of those bad top tier cards is still in that top tier deck. Who knows… if you take a chance and do a blind reserve off the top of that deck you might get lucky. Use this blind reserve tactic with caution. It is pure calculated luck.

10) Defense (Chip Blocking)

Another tactic you can use during a game is to block your opponents from buying the cards they are after by taking the chips of the colors they need. This is “chip blocking”. If you notice an opponent reserve a top tier card costing 7 Black gems, then you can effectively slow or completely block their ability to purchase their reserved card by taking a couple black chips yourself and then not spending them. Hold those chips and you’re going to make it hard on your opponent to build up the 7 black they need for their card. They’ll have to try to acquire Gold chips or purchase bottom or 2nd tier black gem cards to get the 7 black they need. This can slow your opponent down significantly.

Another “Chip Blocking” tactic I use is taking the 4th chip remaining from a stack leaving only 3 chips in the stack. There are many times I only need to farm up 2 colors but I need to take three chips. What other color chip should I take? If that 3rd color chip isn’t important to you but IS important for an opponent, then take the chip you opponent needs. If you know your opponent is trying to buy a 7 cost black card… and there happen to be 4 black chips in the black stack, you can assume your opponent will want to take a double chip draw of 2 black chips. If I take just one chip off that stack so only 3 are remaining, now your opponent can’t take 2 black chips. This will slow them down a full turn or two as they continue to try to build up the chips they need for their 7 cost card.

Summary

This game is designed to be an ‘engine building’ game. The designers want the player to slowly purchase bottom tier cards for cheap costs and build their way up to affording 2nd and 3rd tier cards. Eventually with enough cards purchased players would then meet the conditions necessary to have a noble visit them.

In general, this ‘engine building’ strategy alone is too slow and doesn’t help a player win a tie game. I’ve also seen players go straight for top tier cards (4 or 5 PV cards) right from the start of the game. Unfortunately, many of these players are easily ‘chip blocked’ or slowed because they have no ‘engine’ built up at all.

My recommendation… and what helps me to win games against both of these types of opponents, is to play a hybrid strategy. Avoid bottom tier cards. Try to limit yourself to 1 or 2 bottom tier cards max. Focus on purchasing 2 to 4 middle tier cards, and try to pick up 1 to 3 top tier cards along the way. In the end, I win with 5 to 8 cards purchased. Any more than 8 cards and I’m at risk of an ‘engine building’ player suddenly catching up with nobles.

The tactics and strategies I’ve mentioned here have been successful for me against all types of players. “Noble happy” players that buy bottom tier cards over and over again. I often get 15 points before they’ve attained 8 points. Players that go for big point cards from the start are easily stalled and blocked. I beat them too just as easily… though they usually have between 9 and 12 points when I win. Give it a go. Try your own tactics and strategies. Have fun no matter what! Enjoy this wonderful game!

Brought to you by Sheldon1994 (aka zackattack_94)

[annlindsay]

Regarding the Challenges: Has anyone conquered the Himilayas?

[AISheldon]

It's part of the rules when drawing chips. If drawing chips results in having more than ten, you must discard back down to ten. You can decide what chips to discard. So their is nothing stopping a player from drawing three chips eve if they already have 10. I do this sometimes simply to rearrange my chip colors. I find this to be a better play rather than burning chips on a useless card, for my opponents to then gain a bigger advantage by taking chips of those I spent.

[Aussiegirl33]

Is swapping chips back on a turn in the rules?

[Aussiegirl33]

very useful!

[bruhaha66]

The Color Prevalence strategy is brilliant. Counter intuitive to me. I don't think I would have ever thought to do that. Going to try this one for sure.

[Skotony]

Nice Guide, thanks!

[FroBodine]

I love this game, but man, you almost have to be a math whiz to follow your guide. Wow! I just play games for fun, but this seems like it takes all the fun out of it. I know there are lots of folks who do analyze Euro games like this, though.

[EdenStarGazer]

An extra helpful guide. Thanks for the careful analysis of a fun game.

[Photiel]

Great guide. Thank you!

[dholland]

Good guide. But what about 2 players? This is really a different game because of greater blocking opportunities -- if you block one opponent and slow the game, you don't have to worry about other players sneaking ahead in 2 player. Also, with only 4 chips in a stack, it is much easier and more effective to block chips. Therefore, nobles can come back into the game at least a little bit, since games will likely be longer. In 3 or 4 player, there is always the possibility of collusion between players meaning the best player may not win if colluded against. 2 player is the real strategic test.