Strategy games

The word "strategy" comes from the Greek language. It means "the art of leading an army, giving orders". Strategy games change the meaning of this concept slightly. No one forces the players to do anything in particular, but it is up to each player to think what and how to do it better to defeat the others.

Does strategy always help you win?

Strategy games encourage you to think several steps ahead. Unfortunately, other players can get in the way by taking actions you didn't expect. Then you have to think of new moves and pick your way forward again. The player with the better strategic plan usually wins. Of course, there are also cases where the game itself creates better conditions for the opponent to win. For example, he draws useful cards, some help, etc.

Strategy games, how to play them?

For example - Carcassonne. One player starts building a city. He places a lot of cards and will be well ahead when he completes that city. The other player also wants to win, so he makes a strategic plan to take over the first player's city and get all the points for it. So he places the cards with his pieces next to the city he wants to take during several turns. Finally, the city is merged. Since the first player did not understand his opponent's strategic plans, he still places 1 of his pieces on the city. The opponent had 2 pieces on that city and therefore got all the points.

Another example - Pandemic. In this game, the strategy is not against the other player, but against the game itself. Players can communicate and discuss what actions are better to take, what cards are better to collect for a particular character. For example, disease cubes cannot be placed in the city where the quarantine specialist is located and in all cities connected to it. Knowing this fact, it is best to place the quarantine specialist in a city near which an outbreak of an epidemic is likely to occur soon.