I never win with the builder when it's against people. Against the AI, it's doable, though still tricky. You need too many things to go your way. As soon as you start accumulating buildings, the other players will catch on to who you are and what you're doing and they'll block your ability to buy buildings at the first opportunity. As the builder, I've found that there are two things (beyond buildings) that are important to you. Getting the money to buy them, which is easily achievable and can't really be blocked effectively by other players and going first to ensure you get to buy your building. If you have the rotten luck of drawing the ambassador building, you'll need to try and snag that one too, because the ambassador moves before the first turn player, so whoever has that will just rush off to the building hall to block you off. As for quests, you won't care for the most part and generally take whichever ones you can complete, but there are two I feel are worth picking up asap as the builder. The first one is Defend the Tower of Luck (which you did draw, btw) and try to rush its completion before turn 3 if you can, because it falls off in value as turns progress and, imo, isn't worth completing past turn 3 as the builder. It doesn't offer any points, but it does offer you 1 free worker of your choosing at the start of each turn, which means you can score up to 5-6 free workers if you manage to complete it early, which in turn allows the completion of at least one other quest. Sometimes two. The other quest that is an absolute must grab as builder is Return the Magister's Orb, which allows your worker to occupy the same spot as another player's worker once per turn, thereby eliminating their ability to block you from buying buildings. This quest is an absolute must have for the builder and should be finished asap, if you want to stay in the game. Like Tower of Luck, the earlier you have this, the better but unlike tower, this one remains good all game long. I would argue that it gets better in the late game, because you can still freely pick whichever spot gives you the most advantage and there's nothing they can do about it. Cannot overstate the importance of this quest as the builder. It should be your top priority to rush it, with the only exception being buying a building (obviously) before the builder's hall is blocked off. A *LOT* of things need to go your way for you to have any hopes of winning LoW if you're going against players. Even on its hardest difficulty, the AI is still pretty stupid and won't catch on your gameplan, so it won't block you off, but players can and will screw you over. Those two quests I mentioned earlier are the only two things that will keep you in the game when you're going against experienced players. Unlike the other lords, the Builder usually knows if they've won or lost around turn 3. If you're not set up by then, you're basically screwed. Obviously I'm talking about vanilla LoW. Things change drastically if we include either or both expansions. I've never known anyone to win with the builder. It's like winning the lottery. Technically possible, but the odds of everything falling into the right spot perfectly are so improbable, you need insane luck to pull it off. No matter how good and experienced you are, it's really difficult to pull off a win with this lord. We still keep it in the game, though, because we're all waiting for that one time someone will pull it off. The best I've seen it do so far (after about 6 or so years of playing this game) is someone getting second spot. I've won against AI with Builder many times, but never against players. Perhaps I'll see it one day, but until then, I'll have to settle for that second spot as its best achievement so far (though it wasn't scored by me, but a friend of mine).
I never win with the builder when it's against people. Against the AI, it's doable, though still tricky. You need too many things to go your way. As soon as you start accumulating buildings, the other players will catch on to who you are and what you're doing and they'll block your ability to buy buildings at the first opportunity. As the builder, I've found that there are two things (beyond buildings) that are important to you. Getting the money to buy them, which is easily achievable and can't really be blocked effectively by other players and going first to ensure you get to buy your building. If you have the rotten luck of drawing the ambassador building, you'll need to try and snag that one too, because the ambassador moves before the first turn player, so whoever has that will just rush off to the building hall to block you off.
As for quests, you won't care for the most part and generally take whichever ones you can complete, but there are two I feel are worth picking up asap as the builder. The first one is Defend the Tower of Luck (which you did draw, btw) and try to rush its completion before turn 3 if you can, because it falls off in value as turns progress and, imo, isn't worth completing past turn 3 as the builder. It doesn't offer any points, but it does offer you 1 free worker of your choosing at the start of each turn, which means you can score up to 5-6 free workers if you manage to complete it early, which in turn allows the completion of at least one other quest. Sometimes two.
The other quest that is an absolute must grab as builder is Return the Magister's Orb, which allows your worker to occupy the same spot as another player's worker once per turn, thereby eliminating their ability to block you from buying buildings. This quest is an absolute must have for the builder and should be finished asap, if you want to stay in the game. Like Tower of Luck, the earlier you have this, the better but unlike tower, this one remains good all game long. I would argue that it gets better in the late game, because you can still freely pick whichever spot gives you the most advantage and there's nothing they can do about it. Cannot overstate the importance of this quest as the builder. It should be your top priority to rush it, with the only exception being buying a building (obviously) before the builder's hall is blocked off.
A *LOT* of things need to go your way for you to have any hopes of winning LoW if you're going against players. Even on its hardest difficulty, the AI is still pretty stupid and won't catch on your gameplan, so it won't block you off, but players can and will screw you over. Those two quests I mentioned earlier are the only two things that will keep you in the game when you're going against experienced players. Unlike the other lords, the Builder usually knows if they've won or lost around turn 3. If you're not set up by then, you're basically screwed. Obviously I'm talking about vanilla LoW. Things change drastically if we include either or both expansions.
I've never known anyone to win with the builder. It's like winning the lottery. Technically possible, but the odds of everything falling into the right spot perfectly are so improbable, you need insane luck to pull it off. No matter how good and experienced you are, it's really difficult to pull off a win with this lord. We still keep it in the game, though, because we're all waiting for that one time someone will pull it off. The best I've seen it do so far (after about 6 or so years of playing this game) is someone getting second spot. I've won against AI with Builder many times, but never against players. Perhaps I'll see it one day, but until then, I'll have to settle for that second spot as its best achievement so far (though it wasn't scored by me, but a friend of mine).
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Not sure what you mean, but thanks for commenting!