I haven't yet decided whether Cloisters are a blessing or a curse so thought I might see if others had any strategy other than I can think of on these - I had a particuarly bad game on Monday night where I got 2 meeples tied up on cloisters that I didn't manage to complete - OK in the count up (8 each), but missed some scoring and tactical opportunities because of meeple shortage during the final stages of the game (and lost the game by 9 points).
Also do any of the expansions change how cloisters play?
Some tips I have picked up (from other posts eg on BGG and my own experience) - some are pretty basic and obvious but here goes:
- look for holes where you can place cloisters with a minimum amount of tiles required to complete
- cloisters are often best placed close to other cloisters
- place cloisters close to other features (particularly your own) that are being worked on so subsequent tiles serve a dual purpose
- cloisters can be good for completing roads
- cloisters (especially the basic set ones) are good for connecting farms
- think carefully about playing a meeple on a cloister if you are low on meeples (particularly if you don't have good possibilities for recovering other meeples quickly)
- late in the game, a cloister could be worth more played as a farmer than as a cloister
- this probably obvious, but unlike other features if you don't play a meeple on a cloister when you draw it you can never cash in on it (mind you nor can anyone else) - roads and cities can usually be joined with a later tile (as long as someone else doesn't do it) - it is therefore sometimes worth saving a meeple or so for cloisters - but you need to balance this with the caution above about being low on meeples.
Thats about it I guess - does anyone have any other tips? I haven't really considered possible use of cloisters for blocking - eg. placing close to an opponents city to make it harder to complete
