Tips nippon

This is a game about efficiency, area control, and timing. Some key points:

In the long run it is more important to score in as many regions as possible, during as many of the 3 scoring rounds as possible, than it is to come in first in scoring any given region. Pay close attention to the advance of the scoring marker, and try to make sure that scoring triggers at a moment of advantage to you (i.e. after you have placed tiles down but before your opponents can do so).

When taking actions in the early game, concentrate on two worker colours to keep your post-consolidation costs down. Once you have risen on the money track (by filling contracts, typically), you are freer to take a third or fourth colour.

Do not concentrate on the knowledge track; it is useful to increase it to 2, but otherwise use blueprints to make up shortfalls. Every effort should be taken to increase the coal track and money track, however.

Several factories are highly desirable and should be acquired whenever possible:

• The silk factory immediately giving 5000 yen. If you're the first player, a standard opening is to buy this, and use the resulting money for a double machinery upgrade on the next turn.
• The paper factory yielding 2 blueprints: this will speed your acquisition of a second factory
• The factories immediately giving 2 ships, 2 trains, 2 steps on the coal track, and especially 2 machinery upgrades.

In general, avoid acquiring two factories of the same level until the endgame: it's more important to focus on exploiting the ones you've got. Tailor your acquisitions to the strengths of each region--if a particular region has two cities with the same need, that is a strong reason to focus on that type of factory. Upgrade your factories as rapidly and efficiently as possible.

When placing tiles in a local market, give some thought to whether to use all your resources: it is sometimes good to place a lower value tile if it allows you to hang on to one or two cubes for a more powerful export action, or for later placement in another region. Placing lower-valued tiles also allows you more flexibility, as you can replace them later and gain the region bonus repeatedly in the process. You ultimately want to place your high-valued tiles to gain a stranglehold on multiple regions, of course, but don't discount the power of flooding a region with multiple smaller values which your opponents will have to waste time and resources on to dislodge.

When gaining bonuses, both a rushing strategy (going 3 or 4 turns before consolidation) and a long-term strategy (5-6 turns) can work. Make sure you drop a 5x bonus on the spot for regional coverage--since you will want to have a toehold in all 4 regions, this is a guaranteed 20 points.