Earth Tips & Tricks

Here are some of my top tips and tricks for Earth, unfortunately not the planet but the board game. Whilst I do not claim to be the best Earth player ever, I have a few little hints and tricks that could help you as you’re getting to grips with the game.

Earth is a 1-5 player engine building board game where you develop your own ecosystem and try to score the most points in the process.

1. Use your engine building knowledge

As one of the newer (and ever popular) engine builders, you can use your existing engine building knowledge to help you here. While this tip is not helpful for those who have never played an engine builder, I wouldn’t recommend that Earth be your first one.

We know from other engine building games like Wingspan and the like that the key thing is synergy. You want to create chain reactions that ripple through the engine and get you swimming in resources. This initially is less clear than other engine builders, but for example, one of your plants could get you extra cards and those extra cards could be turned into compost. Or if you’re able to get some extra sprouts, you could turn them into a canopy that could turn into another flora card. Since you know your engine will go from left to right from top to bottom, you can place plants strategically to make the most of your engine.

2. Prioritise resources based on their value at different stages in the game

You can accumulate a lot of stuff in Earth, sometimes to an overwhelming degree as you’re constantly collecting resources on other people’s turns. But something to be aware of is how the value of resources change throughout the game.

One of the biggest changes that occurs is with soil. At the beginning of the game soil is very valuable as it’s effectively your currency to buy flora and terrains for your ecosystem. However there’s a point in the game where soil is effectively useless as your tableau fills up and you don’t need to buy anything else and you will have selected the remaining flora you want. You can convert soil into sprouts but it may not be the most effective use of resources as soil isn’t worth any points at the end of the game. Once you’re aware of the value shift of resources, it’s in your best interest to focus on the more valuable resources when you have the opportunity to choose.

3. Use your event cards!

Event cards are special cards that you can use at any time whether it’s your turn or not. With the number of cards you’re able to hold (there is no limit), it can be easy to forget the event cards as you look for compost candidates, but the one time bonuses they give you can be really useful. They often give you a much larger resource payout than most flora that mitigates the negative points you could receive at the end of the game. You can also use event cards at any time, including on other people’s turns, so you can really maximise on resources if you make the most of your event cards.

4. Focus on a few fauna goals

The main competitive goals of Earth is the fauna board where you’re aiming to complete certain goals to appease specific animals. For example, having eight cards in your tableau with a winter climate (a snowflake symbol) or having three fully grown canopies. Naturally the person who completes these first gets the most points (and they are worth gunning for as first place gets 15 points). However, unless you are a true pro at Earth you are not going to be the first to all the fauna goals. It doesn’t help that some of the fauna goals are really difficult to achieve and you have to be intentional about reaching them. I recommend having a few that seem doable with your tableau and going for them. If it seems like other people are running away with certain fauna goals, just abandon it and focus on something else. If possible go for a fauna goal that other people aren’t trying to get, then you can claim your 15 points easily.

5. Reduce waste where possible

This tip seems fitting for Earth, and is generally a good principle in engine building games. Given the number of resources you get in Earth it can be really easy to suddenly have loads of something you can’t really use. But try your best to keep an eye on your resources and your plans to convert them into something useful. For example, once you’ve locked in the flora and terrains you want for your tableau, try and find ways to turn your extra Earth cards into compost where you can. Most of the resources can be turned into points one way or another so if you run a tight ship you can really maximise efficiency.

Those are my top tips for Earth, hopefully it’ll help you as you get started and begin to become a master of the soil. What’s really nice about the game is that as you learn the terrain, environments, fauna and flora cards, you have a better idea of what kind of cards could work well together and the best positions to place them in. There’s a lot to dig into here.