The object of the game is to get (more) victory points in whichever color you currently have the least of (than any other player has in their own least color).

You gain victory points by doing one of the following:

A) Placing a tile of color X into a kingdom where you have a leader of color X. This gains you one victory point of color X.

B) Placing a tile of color X in a kingdom that does not have that color leader, but where you haveyour king. This gains you one victory point of color X.

These two methods are the slowest but surest way to get points, since you simply play the tiles and take the points. You need an endlessly unbalanced set of tiles to do this. And you need your leaders on the board.

You would always like to combine laying a tile with more than one point, if possible, by working your way over to a treasure. On the other hand, sometimes you will get no points for an action, such as placing a leader, disaster tile, or something else.

A rule of thumb is therefore try to gain 1 complete set of points (all colors) roughly every 5-6 actions.

Towards the end of the game, you should be gaining between 1 to 1.5 sets of points each round.

C) Forcing a situation such that you have a green leader in a kingdom that has two treasures in it at the end of any player's action.

Usually you will have to do this yourself by placing tiles to accomplish this. The idea is to look for situations where you end your turn two tile placements away from a treasure, since that means that the treasure will be yours next round unless someone does something to stop you (which they will).

Think of all colored points as worth 1/4 of a point, and treasures as 1 point, until midgame. Thereafter, colored points you need and treasures are worth 1 point, and ones you don't aren't worth anything.

D) Placing you leader into a kingdom that has another leader of the same color. If you have more red tiles surrounding your leader plus red tiles in your hand than your opponent, you gain one red point.

Some tricks:

If there are no spaces in the kingdom with more than 1 red tile to connect to, but you already have a leader in that kingdom surrounded by 3 red tiles, your first action can be moving your existing leader somewhere else, and your second action moving your leader into the kingdom at the point you just vacated.

Toss tiles until you get red ones.

Don't spend too many red tiles. Assume you will get some with internal conflicts (and therefore, red points), so keep them stored in your hand. About three in reserve should serve you well, while you use the other three tiles for laying down and scoring points.

If you are attacking at an advantage, attack once. If you lose, and he had to toss out tiles to protect himself, attack again. He may have no more red tiles left.

Don't leave any spaces near your kingdom that have two red tiles abutting. Either fill the space in with other tiles or place your own leaders there.

Don't leave spaces near your kingdom that has even one red tile. To attack you this way, someone would have to both play a red tile and their leader, which is a lot of actions.

Try to place your leaders near temples with treasures, as these cannot be disastered until the treasure is gone.

E) Placing a tile to connect two kingdoms forcing one or more external conflicts. If you can win the external conflicts, you gain one or more points in the color fought in.

The location you choose to connect with, and the order you choose to resolve the external conflicts, is critical. Fight in colors that you need.

Always prefer to be the defender.

Always try to have at least a three tile advantage. Four is better, of course. Two tile advantage if you're feeling frisky. Don't despair if you lose, since T&E is not a resource game, i.e. you never run out of resources. You can temporarily not have the right type of resources, but you always have as many resources as any other player at the start of every round. Use up your tiles. There are always more (until the game is almost over).

Always fight external conflicts whenever you can win. Not only to you gain the points, you increase the distance between your kingdom and other external conflicts, you gain the suppporting kingdom's tiles (although, not in the color you just fought), you force your opponent to spend an action getting his kingdom back on the board, and you get to place your leader in the space he just vacated (if you still have an action).

If you know that your opponent is going to win an external conflict, consider removing your leader before he attacks, thereby gaining him no points in that color when he connects. This does leave him very strong, however.

F) Ending your turn with your leaders in kingdoms that have like colored monuments, giving you one point of the color that matches the leader for each monument that matches your leader.

Build a monument if you can defend it from external conflicts and internal conflicts, even after is is built. Always have at least two connections to the monument so that it takes at least two disasters to separate you from it.

Sow discord among your enemies while it is built: go for treasures, for instance. This will force them to have to decide between attacking you for the monument or preventing you from getting the treasure. Likely they will go for the treasure, and likely that is a mistake.

If you kingdom can be merged into, but only some distance away from the monument, consider adding a leader into the kingdom whose sole point is to lose the external conflict, thereby removing all the connecting tiles to the invading kingdom. This will leave you several more rounds away from joining their kingdom. This gives him many point in one color, however. On the plus side, you won't have to worry about giving him more points in that color for the rest of the game, since you know he has enough.

If someone has had a monument for a while, don't worry about it anymore, since they don't really need those colors. However, if you see someone gaining in all four colors in a round, sever his monument ties.


You prevent others from gaining points as follows:

a) Taking tresures before they can get to them.

b) Placing your leaders into kingdoms that contain their king, which limits the point colors they can earn in that kingdom.

c) Forcing their leaders off the board with conflicts.

d) Forcing then to waste an action merging kingdoms, rather than simply connecting tiles into their kingdom, by placing your leader into the tiles they are about to connect to. The tile they place to merge the kingdoms will not gain them any points. If their are no conflicts, they also gain no points from external conflicts.

e) Forcing their leaders away from monuments, either through conflicts or disaster tiles.

f) Preventing them from winning conflicts, by severing their leader's supports within the kingdom with disaster tiles, turning over their suporting tiles by making a monument, or beating them with an unbalanced set of tiles in your hand.

g) Requiring them to waste their time going after you in ways that feed them points in colors that do not do them any good.

h) Ending the game by drawing tiles when you are ahead.

Yehuda