Quick winning principles
- Place farmers early on fields touching two or more unfinished cities.
- Complete small cities fast to recover meeples; never leave five meeples trapped.
- Use abbots or small monasteries for safe 9-point closes when meeples are tight.
- Steal shared cities by placing tiles that enlarge the city on your side only.
Ideal strategy
- 1
Farmer endgame: count connected cities per field before placing—one farmer in a field feeding three cities beats two farmers in separate fields.
- 2
Meeple economy: aim to have 4–5 meeples in play mid-game with at least two returning within three turns.
- 3
City stealing: when joining cities, control the tile orientation so opponents cannot re-steal with a follower.
- 4
Cloister placement on central crossroads denies opponents clean field boundaries and scores reliably.
- 5
Endgame tile denial: if you cannot score, place tiles that isolate opponent farmers from new city completions.
- 6
Inns and cathedrals: commit a meeple only when the city will finish before the deck runs out.