We're going to discuss how to play and win the board game Wyrmspan, with a focus on the first round of play. Wyrmspan seems pretty straightforward. You just play as many dragons as you can before the time runs out. Honestly that approach isn't all bad in the first round of the game! Playing cheap dragons willy-nilly will get you to 70 maybe 80 points. If you want to get to 100 points, you'll have to work harder! The first step will be to build up the value of your Explore actions. The value of my Explore actions is mostly just dependent on how many cards I've played... so aren't you still just saying 'play as many cards as you can willy-nilly'? There's a couple things to keep in mind. For example, you'll need a mix of resources, dragon cards, and cave cards in order to keep playing dragons. Each cave, or row, on your player mat is specialized. For example, when you explore the Crimson Cavern you get resources. In the first round, it's best to play one card into each row, so that you have balanced access to resources and cards of both types. I don't really think the three caves have the same value. For instance, I start with three caves already excavated, so I don't really need any more cave cards right away. And I need a lot more resources than I need dragon cards because most dragons require more than one resource to play. Those are both really good points... but be careful... Your game really slows down if at the start of the second round, you have no cave cards and no caves excavated. And you may need to draw more dragon cards than you'll actually play, because you need to cycle through them looking for good combinations, or looking for a card that fits in a specific spot. But playing one card might not even help me get more resources when I Explore, because I still get the one resource I always got... and then I get one of these Dragon Guild movements?... Movements on the Dragon Guild are worth a lot more than a single resource or a card. First off you usually get a single card or a single resource just for taking the movement! But you also move closer to the three spaces on the Dragon Guild that are worth a lot more than one resource. The first card you play down into a cavern, generally increases the value of the Explore actions there by a factor of 3. So try not to Explore until you've placed a first dragon into the cave! Each additional dragon you place, continues to improve the value of your Explore actions... but that first step is the biggest one. Further, the card you play may give you Explore abilities, or ongoing Income, or even a one time bonus. Clearly the value of Explore abilities and Income abilities is highest if you play the card early in the game. Because you'll get to use it more times before the game ends. At the start of the game, I select four cards from: three dragon cards and three cave cards. Over the course of the first round, I might get 1or maybe 2 more dragon cards. I don't have many chances to get one dragon of each color, or to find useful Explore abilities. It's true to some extent... you are the victim of your opening draw. But it works out a lot more often than you might guess! I generally keep the three dragon cards... and then I'll select one cave card which provides resources to help me play those dragon cards. About a third of the dragon cards have more than one color, so you'll draw a dragon that can be played in each cave about half the time. Otherwise you might try to fill in the missing color by playing a yellow dragon, and then Exploring the Golden Grotto. Or maybe you have a cave card that provides a dragon card. But if there's a really useful card in the display, shouldn't I go ahead and Explore right away... instead of waiting to play a yellow card (first)? Generally no. But the example you've selected is a close call. It might depend on player order and the actions of the other players. If I'm last to act, and someone else has already played a yellow card... I might be tempted to grab that red card before they do. What if I draw three cards of the same color? Drawing three dragons of the same color is unfortunate, but statistically it'll only happen in about 1-in-20 games. If it does happen you may have to play lopsided in the first round. Perhaps your dragons will provide the missing resources, or perhaps you can pick up what you need on the Dragon Guild. So in the first round, try to play one card of each color. And where possible, emphasize Explore abilities and Income abilities. That's all fine... but where am I going to get all the resources I'm going to need? You get 3 resources during setup. Pick them so that you can play one or two dragons. Often I'll play a red dragon first, so that I can Explore the Crimson Cavern and get another resource. Maybe I'll also play a yellow dragon, and then Explore to get another dragon card. After that, I'll have taken two steps on the Dragon Guild, which will give me a meat (resource). Then I might be able to Excavate to get even more resources! Then I'd play my third dragon! That's three Entice actions, one Excavate action, and two Explore actions... for a total of six actions. It's always good to go looking for an extra action here or there, but... in the first round, you may only get six actions. Look, this is all very theoretical. Let's look at some examples! EXAMPLE 1: Let's just take a look at a starting draw. Okay, these are just about perfect. I've got one (dragon) of each color, they're all inexpensive, and they all have useful early game abilities. I'm going to take these, and I think this will be the most handy cave card. For starting resources, I'll take a meat, and a gold, and a milk. How would I play this?... In my first turn I would Entice to play-down the Reticent Manta. For my second turn, I think I would probably Entice again to go ahead and play-down the Redwood Lung Dragon. I could Excavate in my third turn, to play this card... which gives me a move on the Dragon Guild, which gives me an egg... and I get a card. Now I am ready to Explore. I would pick up a milk... and a gold... and meat. At this point I'm actually able to Entice twice in a row! I could Entice to place-down the Seedeating Drake... for my egg and my milk. And I could Entice a fourth time to play the Knowing Guardian. This was slightly inefficient in the sense that I don't have a resource left over to feed the Knowing (Guardian) drake. But it's pretty rare to play four dragons in a single round, I feel good about that. My Explore abilities are excellent, because all three of these have an Explore ability. I'm pretty set up to Explore early in the second round, and then I should be able to get a couple dragons played and continue to have a very strong game. EXAMPLE 2: Okay, let's look at another draw. So here we have three dragon cards, one of each color. I like that, but they require quite a few resources to play. Of my three cave cards, only one of them provides a resource, so I think I'll keep that one. I get to pick my starting resources now. I want to start with a meat, so that I can play this card very early. And I'll also take two crystals, so that I could play the Shaly Rockbreaker. Now I noticed this card right away, because it allows me to play a dragon without spending a coin. That's quite good! So let's go ahead and Excavate first, so that I can take take that card. I also get one resource... I'll take a gold. I can Entice a dragon, which costs me meat. Now I can Explore this row to get another gold... I get to lay an egg, and I get a movement on the Dragon Guild... which is also an egg. On my fourth turn, go right back here and Explore again. Now I can pick up a meat, I lay another egg, and I get a second move... which gives me a meat. Don't forget these benefits on the Dragon Guild... you want to plan ahead for them! So now I'm ready for my big turn! I'm going to Entice the Shaly Rockbreaker. He costs an extra coin... I'll just put that right here... and two crystals. He allows me to Excavate one space for FREE with a cave card from my hand. Because we're scoring cave cards in the Amethyst Abyss in the second round, I'm going to go ahead and play it here. Now this card says I can immediately play a dragon with a discount of one egg or one resource... so I can play down the Warming Firevern with two meat and one gold. You know, I think actually I will (instead) take the discount in meat. Perfect! So my first round is over. I've Excavated twice, I also have one small dragon, which is helpful. In the second round, my first action will almost certainly be to Explore in the Golden Grotto... which will give me one card here, and one card there. Once I have those two cards, I'll know better what resources and cave cards I might need in the second round. EXAMPLE #3: Okay let's look at another draw. A very interesting When-played ability here! I think I'll keep these three dragons, and I'll use this card... which will allow me to reactivate the (yellow dragon's) When-played ability. For my starting resources, I'll take a gold and two crystals. I think my first action will be to Entice (the yellow dragon). (Pay) a gold and two crystals... and then I spend a coin to get three movements on the Dragon Guild. That gives me an egg, and a meat, and a card. I'm going to take this card. Now I can Excavate and play-down this cave card, which reactivates this ability. I have to pay another coin, but I get three more moves! So that's 1 (cave card)... I'll take this one. 2 (crystal resource)... and 3... I get to place a cube on the Guild of Seafarers. The (play from your hand) free dragon is very interesting! I have to discard a card. I noticed that this one is very helpful on all three of these goals, so... I'm going to go ahead and discard the hatchling (instead), even though it's a good card. So that I can play down my red (dragon) card, and that is free! It's great to play an expensive card for free. So I have two more actions left. I need more resources to play my last dragon. I could Explore here... but I think instead I'll Excavate again. Playing this card, I get two benefits. I'll take the movement for an egg, and I will take a crystal. My final action will be to Entice and place-down my last dragon and pay. So here we are! We're at the end of the first round. I've got a dragon in each [column] (should've said cave row). They're actually quite good dragons. I have very nice Explore abilities when I Explore in the second round. And I'm off to a great start! This is a good example of how spending coins isn't necessarily a bad thing. I noticed that you seem to prefer to gather resources using the Dragon Guild or card abilities. In that last example, you never Explored at all! I Explore more in the second through fourth rounds. In this game, you often have multiple ways to get the things you need... and you need to consider them all. In particular, don't forget the Dragon Guild. I suppose once I have one dragon in each cave, I'll just want a second dragon in each cave... you know, a cheap dragon that I could play willy-nilly. No doubt it is excellent to play three dragons into your second column in the second round of play, but you'll find it hard to do. If you follow the path I've described, you won't have a lot of caves excavated at the start of the second round. So in the second round you'll probably Explore three times. You will Excavate at least once, and that only leaves you a couple actions for Enticing dragons. But there's another issue to consider! Every dragon you play after the first round, will probably be a dragon you selected off the display. "They who select the best possible dragons, will stand highly among the contenders to win the game!" So this is where the 'play a bunch of cheap dragons willy-nilly' comes to a screeching halt. So tell us, oh wise one, which dragons should we select? The real trick is to use the available cards and resources to form combinations that work well together. Like I did in the example openings. But in the mid-game, it can be hard to see those combinations right away. And we may want to fall back onto some 'General Rules'. For example... We could assign a value to the various benefits and costs that we would get from a card. And then we could calculate the efficiency or profitability of one action in isolation. Let's say cards and resources are worth about a point. While movements on the Dragon (Guild) track are worth two points, and coins or extra actions are worth three points. Victory points are of course, worth a point. Using these numbers, we can calculate how efficient each dragon is likely to be. I don't know, a resource isn't worth a victory point at the end of the game. True, but resources can usually be used to generate about one point through the course of the game. That all changes if you never use the resource. Unused resources are only worth about a third (should've said a fourth) of a point. Why do you say a coin is worth three points? It's aspirational. If you can use your starting resources well, and assuming you can pick up a few points off public objectives, then you need to turn each of your coins into a little over three points... in order to reach 100 points (total). Mathematically the goal of this game could be described as converting coins into three points each. Look, none of this is exact. I'm just trying to give you a framework to help you assess your turns. Let's start with something simple. I could Excavate a cave that gave me two resources. So I got two resources and I spent a three-point coin to do it. That's a terrible deal! And the deal gets even worse in the third and fourth columns. Fortunately some of the cave cards are better, and Excavating caves is a necessary evil. But I won't want to Excavate caves without eventually placing a dragon in them. And I won't want to put low value dragons in my expensive caves. Now let's look at some dragons. When you Entice a dragon, you pay a coin, a resource cost, you cover an excavated cave, and you use a dragon card. On the other hand, you get victory points and whatever the dragon card does. To value what the dragon does, you must think about how often you'll use it's ability. Based on this system, most cave cards don't break even. And most dragons don't really break even either. Should I just freeze up and do nothing? You'll take a lot of turns where you don't generate any extra points... but remember that I've calibrated this system to 100-point games, which is a respectable outcome. The real trick to breaking 100 points, though, is finding dragons that work well together. Do you mean like playing a final scoring dragon with matching dragons? Absolutely! If you play a dragon that has a Final scoring ability and then play (additional) dragons that score that ability... you improve the scores of ALL the involved dragons. In the games we've played, scores over 100 points are strongly associated with higher scores from Final scoring abilities. In our games, it's hard to get over 100 points without scoring at least 15 points on Final scoring abilities. Which means you'll play, and max out, a couple of these cards. But what about objective tiles? If I play a dragon that matches an objective tile in this round, or a future round, I'll get more points. That's a kind of synergy! True! But it can be very hard to calculate exactly how many points, because you don't know what your opponents will do. In each round, the difference between first and second place is three points. But the penalty for having NO matching cards increases. Be warned! I've seen people lose by chasing the objective tiles instead of concentrating on their own boards. How's that? Usually they've spent too much time trying to draw cards that match the objectives. Even so, you DO want at least one matching card... particularly in the later rounds. But don't overemphasize this part of the game. It's okay to be second or even third. I like hatchlings. If you can cash three of whatever resource they desire, they provide a lot of value! Hatchlings can be some of the most profitable cards in the game. But they're best if you put at least three resources on them... and milk isn't particularly useful for anything but playing hatchlings. So you'd probably prefer to play a couple hatchlings at the beginning of the game. Or in a situation where you can feed the hatchling using another ability... Like the one found at the end of the Crimson Cavern. So using an Explore ability, or a cave card, or another dragon, to fill up a hatchling is another example of a synergy. It seems like each dragon taken on its own, won't provide enough points to get us to 100 points. But if we find dragons that work well together, we'll get the extra points and we can get to 100... or even 110 points. You might even score 120 points, but that takes a combination of skill and luck. Exploring caves feels like a wasted turn. I'd rather be Excavating caves or Enticing dragons. One thing enables the other... but you shouldn't underestimate the value of an Explore action. Even without helpful dragon abilities, you get two resources, a movement on the Dragon Guild, and an egg... for Exploring a row with three dragons in it. That's five points, which is a good use of a coin... assuming you have uses for those resources. The end of row abilities are break even in the first two rows, although they are handy for using up unwanted resources in the late game. And those abilities are good for feeding hatchlings. Don't forget that! But the purple cave is better! For the cost of two cave cards, I get four eggs! That's excellent... I'm going to fill up that cave every game! It's a good play! But remember, you only have so many spaces for eggs, and Exploring gets more expensive if you do it more than once a round. And you don't need as many cavern cards as you'll need dragons, or resources. The improved end-of-row ability compensates you for the fact that the purple cavern is the least useful in other ways. How does the game change as you move into the third and fourth rounds? Obviously you become more interested in end-game scoring abilities... and less interested in other types of abilities. Generally it's easier to get extra turns in the latter part of the game... because you've advanced around the Dragon Guild, you're approaching the last column on your mat, and you can afford expensive dragons that provide coins. In the last round you can't rely on the point system I've outlined for assessing the profitability of different cards... because excess resources and cards aren't worth much at the end of the game. In the fourth round, the game becomes a tactical puzzle, that must be solved based on the specific facts you're presented with. So in the fourth round, your advice boils down to 'assess the board-state, and do whatever scores the most points'. I'm afraid so. But remember to look for synergies... and don't be too enamored with the ability to convert resources and cards into a coin in the fourth column. It's a great deal if you have extra items you don't need, but it might not be optimal. Finally, playing a cave card in the fourth column doesn't always make sense, unless you can play a decent dragon, or you need access to the end-of-row ability. How many dragons do you typically play? Eleven. It's very hard to play 12 dragons, and if you do, I'd guess you'll make sacrifices that will cost you the game. You might win with 10 dragons, if they're well selected. Stepping back a bit, what's your strategy for maximizing the value of the Dragon Guild? You'll usually get around the Dragon Guild once from Explore actions. That gives you a pile of resources, a coin, and two cubes on the Dragon Guild. The benefits of using a cube are often very good! In the early game, I tend to prefer spaces that give me an extra action... just make sure you think them through. Sometimes players underestimate the value of the spaces that give points. Depending on your game, the end-game scoring spaces can be decisive. But surely it's always better to get an expensive dragon for FREE than to get six points! It probably is... especially if it is an expensive dragon, and it synergizes well with your board. But don't overestimate how much it'll change your final score. In almost all of my games, I play eleven dragons, so getting an extra dragon from the Dragon Guild doesn't necessarily mean you'll have more dragons at the end of the game. You're saying I might have found some other way to play that dragon? Exactly! But don't get me wrong... getting a high-cost dragon that synergizes with your board, out for free, is a very solid play. Getting eight or nine points from an end-game ability is also a very solid play. Sometimes I can get three or four cubes (placed) on the Dragon Guild... that's super good, right? If you can get Guild movements from Explore abilities, or even a bunch of one-time Guild movements, you can really accelerate your game, while costing your opponents opportunity... which is great! The value of Guild movements decreases near the end of the game, because all the best cube spots get filled up. The Guild is most valuable in two and four player games, because there's less competition for cube spots. Competition is worse in three player games... and much worse in solo games. I noticed that too. In solo games, the AI fills up the Dragon Guild earlier and faster than human players. And it competes very well on public objectives. Following the advice in this video, you can consistently beat the AI at third level. But it is a little different than playing against humans... and I for one find it difficult to get to 110 points against the AI. I noticed a few things about the cards! Did you know that most of the hatchlings are purple? I guess that's another compensation for the fact that you don't need as many cave cards as you need dragons or resources. The three color cards tend to be end-game scoring cards... that's a fun fact! Most dragons require a resource of their color, so if you want to play a red dragon you'll need meat. If you want to play a three-color dragon, you'll need a resource of each type. There are four personalities, and three sizes. The dragons are evenly distributed across these categories. The dragons are also evenly distributed across color. 30% of cards have Explore abilities, and another 19% are hatchlings. 20% of cards have end-game scoring abilities. When-played and Income abilities are rarer, which makes certain end-game scoring cards less valuable. The more expensive, more complicated dragon cards tend to be the biggest scoring opportunities. Don't necessarily be put off by their high cost. Well, that's about it! Have fun playing Wyrmspan! And don't forget, Wyrmspan isn't really a brutally competitive game. It's okay to sit back and enjoy your Dragon Kingdom... "and you get an egg, and you get an egg, and you get an egg!" You do realize that that's a dinosaur on your shirt? Yeah, it turns out that Dragon themed clothing isn't a major component of my wardrobe. Shame that...
