Tony Russell
United States
West Lafayette
Indiana
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The Game Says "Play Me." I love Goa--love it. I play it whenever I get the chance. I especially enjoy the two-games-in-one design where you begin with an auction-style game and then play an economics-development round afterward, and while the two are linked together, they both provide limited private victories that can give big returns--it's like that positive reinforcement stuff that everyone's saying all the children of the late 70s through the 80s got along with self-esteem training that supposedly makes us a narcissistic and selfish generation. Imagine that...selfish, narcissistic human beings.
 And while we're on the subject of self-interest, as with all of my primary posts, I will mention, throughout this message, lines from a song. Respond to this message with the correct song name and band, and you shall receive a small tip for your efforts--you selfish narcissist you.
Back to the strategerie...Most times I win Goa. So what makes the difference? How do you win Goa consistently?
Feel It When I Turn the Screw. Strategerie Lingerie is smampy, but revealing, and here's what I mean by that: No one strategy will when you this game. Any experienced player will say, "Duh" to that except for Double Dan who maintains that he still has the "Unbeatable Strategy." (See http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/92053.)
Dan's strategy advocates working the exploration track and the spice track for unbeatable victory. I have also seen other strategists advocate the first and second columns (shipbuilding and spice). I have never won, however, with this strategy.
One thing I can say with confidence. You want Additional Action cards. That being said, however, you do not want to obtain them through moving your cubes down your board. If you reach the second level with all of your cubes (and you should, for the victory points alone), that's great, but anything else is just a bonus. I typically go for the flag and any tile that gives me additional actions.
Running Out of Chips. So additional actions are great; they give you a chance to one-up your competitors on every turn. They also give you an extra chance to tax, if you'd like. Personally, I hate games where people tax like crazy. You don't need mad amounts of cash in this game. But one person starts, and everyone has the fever. In a two-player game, it is very hard to avoid this, since you will see the person across from you taxing, and you will fear for your bottom line and tax, too. It is a vicious circle!
3 and 4-player games can also see some large cash amounts depending on the players. My wife, for example, is all about the tax column and taxing her poor colonists to death. However, note: she loses to me. I personally hate the cash game. You don't need to have a million ducats to win this game.
Nothing Gonna Save Your One Last Dime. If you get caught in a cash game, hang back a bit. Yes, the other players will when good tiles, and believe me, you won't lose every auction. Often in cash games, I place my auction chips on things I know are valuable to others (and not myself) and let them bid themselves to death while accepting a nice healthy sum that I will use in the next round. While at first this seems counterintuitive, you will find that these players "waste" so many of their turns on taxing that they have little time to use the resources you have allowed them. You, however, will not tax in this round, move more pieces down your board for victory points, and still have money left over for the next auction round. So, do not overemphasize the ducats!
Take It to the World. I'm going to advocate a column here, and I fear it will be met with wrath. Let me say, however, that every game is different, and you must be flexible, but as far as the shipbuilding and spice columns go, pursue them, but you do not need them in great quantities. Oftentimes, you can get ships in the auctions or through exploration cards, and if you are steadily building plantations and colonies, you can keep a decent supply of spice on hand. I normally move these columns down one or two and stop.
I have already said how I feel about taxing. Do so when you need to, but don't keep doing it. I usually get to six ducats per turn and find that to be enough combined with the strategy I detailed above.
As far as Dan's strategy goes with the exploration cards, I will say that it can help quite a bit. However, I find that it helps most toward the end of the game when you potentially have a large hand of cards with matching symbols that can get you a fair amount of victory points. I like to have five cards at the end in my hand and find that a lot of players forget the worth of these cards.
 More than anything though, I find that building up the final column (colonists) works very well. Colonists are not easy to get in the game, and I especially hate receiving them as a "consolation" prize for having failed to build a colony. Build this column up and get your colonies out there early. They will provide you with the spices you need and victory points that I find are a must in this game. It's hard to win without all four colonies, I find.
The Databank Knows My Number. Finally, I want to address "blocking." A lot really depends on the auctions in this realm. I confess that I am guilty of blocking cloves. I try to corner the colonists market if I can because I find it to be absolutely crippling. If the other players can't get colonists...well, you know. I also block colonists in the auctions. However, with other spices, I have found "blocking" to be ineffective and disadvantageous on my part. I am wondering what other people have found in this case.
I find that a lot of heads bend down in this game, meaning, a lot of people literally look down the whole time, calculating their next move, counting their ducats, looking at their board. By all means, look up! Count everybody's everything. If you are talented enough to memorize how many ducats other players have, do it. Much like I have said for other games (see, for example, my strategy advice for Thurn and Taxis http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/171603), count. Count what other players have, pay attention to their boards and what they choose in their auctions. If you are losing, this strategy will, of course, only make you madder, but what sets players apart in this game is those who know how to adapt and those who only focus on themselves--narcissistic finks!
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David Trent
United States
Yukon
OK
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AC/DC - Who Made Who.
Good read. Just had a chance to play this for the first time tonight...
Really looking forward to future plays.
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Tony Russell
United States
West Lafayette
Indiana
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Excellent. Enjoy your tip.
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Jeremy Fox
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Great strategy tips! This makes me want to play GOA!!! ...and maybe win for once.
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