Hey guys, I'm having a bit of a problem on learning how to build resources. For example the order in which to build up your 3 zones in the beginning couple of turns. I try to get to 5 power in kingdom before dropping any in the quest and this feels about right. But, I'm just wondering what strategies some of you guys that play this game more than me like to use.

Also, there will probably be different strategies for the different races.

This is something that cannot be learned from the rulebook so thank you for your input.

I would also be interested in a race breakdown of theorycrafting. For example, I've heard Empire does little in KZ but focuses on QZ. Also, with the addition of Legends, do people build to their Legend minimum asap? My typical build pattern is 1 K, 2 K, 3 B, 4 Q but that's probably way wrong.

One of my favorite opening moves with chaos is to play savage marauders (2P) into the KZ first turn. This lets me put Chaos Knights (3P) into QZ second turn. I'm pretty much set up after that. It just becomes a matter of adjusting to the other guy.

Mestrahd said:

Mestrahd said:

This, Empire only focusing on Quest, is one way of playing one kind of Empire deck, the currently oh so popular kind focused on the Visit the Haunted City quest. It doesn't mean it's a good idea for Empire decks in general, or even VTHC decks in general.

Rush decks, usually Orc and/or Skaven ones, usually don't care about building up Kingdom and Quest. They deploy cheap units to the battlefield, and sometimes with the help of cheap powerboosting supports and tactics, they try to overrun the opponent before he can build up his defense. If they fail at this, they usually run out of steam and can't keep up anymore.

This shows though that there is no general answer to the original question. Rush is one way of playing Orcs, but there are others where the Orc player indeed will build up Kingdom and Quest first before attacking. For every faction, there are different general approaches. And even when you have a clear game plan based on the type of deck you're playing, a lot is born out of necessity. You have to look at your actual starting hand, and where you can go with it. There's no point to building up your Kingdom if you'll find yourself without anything to place into your Quest zone, your hand full of tactics, and you're only drawing one card per turn. It can be a very good idea to play something into your Quest first so you can expect to draw cards that you can play to your Kingdom. Naturally, it helps if you know your deck well. How much do most of your cards cost (a considerable percentage of your deck should be units and supports that you can afford on your very first turn), how many can you play with X resources? Do you have cards that rely on developments in a particular zone? If you included three copies of Innovation, you better develop your Kingdom from the start even if you don't have an Innovation in your starting hand, otherwise you'll waste the major speed advantage it can give you when you do draw it.

Legends are still pretty new to the game, but in general, yes, you want to get them out as soon as possible. So if you have one in hand, it can be a good move to try and get the resources for it as fast as you can. If you don't, you might want to boost your Quest to draw it soon, but if you have no way of getting rid of your own units and supports, you might find yourself drawing too many cards once you finally do get your legend and it adds its power to the quest zone too.

Again, it's difficult to give broad answers. The best answer is "It all depends". Keep playing, and you'll learn from experience how to build up with any particular deck and any of it's particular starting situations. And even then, bad luck of the draw might still ruin everything. Or your opponent will. They tend to do that.

I play it very much like Mestrahd does, kingdom, battlefield and then, quest. Perhaps I should consider dropping that first battlefield unit into the quest zone instead and see what the difference is. Might be an interesting experiment.

In the limited time I've had with legends, I think that although you want to play them as early as possible, you also want to do so when you know that they are reasonably protected. Doesn't work too well if you rush them into the field only to watch your opponent charge through an inadequately defended zone and kill them. In order to really reap their benefits, they need to survive your opponent's turn so that you can use the resource and draw advantage. Or if you can make it so that your opponent's attacking options are limited, that works, too.

Before legends I usually pushed Questzone first in most decks. You have to be aware that you can boost kingdom anytime you have cards in hand but it's difficult to boost quest when you have like 6 resources and only draw 1 card. Kingdom focused play is more vulnarable to control and rush as you want to draw options as soon as possible.

Since legends it's a little different because the game tends to be a bit slower and some bigger units are played that were too slow before. So nowadays the early kingdom boost is good too. It all depends on the deck and opponent you playing against and what starting hand you have.

It depends on your opening hand to a large extent. If your hand needs a few more resources than the starting to get flowing, and you do not need card draw immediately, then I usually develop the kingdom first to a sufficient level then develop the quest zone. On the other hand, if my opening hand has nothing great and card draw would be more beneficial, then I develop the quest. It is also important to be aware of just how much of your deck can be played with your initial starting 3 resources. If a great deal of the deck will not work with this, you may want to develop in that zone quickly, even if just a little, just to support future expansion.