Tips & Strategy

How to teach Opera Magna, first-game advice on Merchants, left and right Buildings, Carts, Certificates and the Market clock, and where the teaching videos differ from the rulebook.

How to teach it

Most teaches follow the same order, and it works: the theme and goal, then the boards (Shop Board, the three Cities, the Market, the Opera), the 9-round clock, and finally one turn walked through phase by phase — Merchant, City Activation, Refined Goods, End of Turn — before the scoring boxes. The Teach the Game page follows that order.

Your first game

• Plan your Merchants a turn ahead. You can never enter an Area that already holds one of your Merchants, so it is easy to box yourself out of the City you need next.
• Use the Cost Area for the City Power. Only a Merchant activating from the Cost Area gets the Power, and it can be used at any moment of your turn after paying.
• Get a Cart early. You start with none: your first Building on the right is what opens the Opera to you. Without a Cart, Refined Goods can only go on Buildings or back to Raw Goods.
• Don’t neglect the left. Discounts on the left add up and stop you bleeding Certificates and points when a City’s Cost grows. Many players rush the right side in their first game and run short of Raw Goods later.
• Protect your Certificates. Missing Goods cost Certificate steps, and they are slow to win back; a low Certificate also locks you out of higher Worksites.
• Fill columns to unlock levels. A level 2 or 3 Worksite opens only once the Worksites below it in the column have a token — sometimes it pays to fill a level 1 spot just to open the one above.
• Read the Market. The decks run A → B → C: Costs grow but Profits become rich in Refined Goods. Paying 1–3 Raw Goods for a better card is often worth it, and you can see which Refined Goods are leaving the Cities before you commit to a Building that needs them.

Player counts

The Market decks shrink with fewer players (2 players remove 4 A, 6 B and 6 C cards; 3 players remove 2 A, 3 B and 3 C), so every count lasts 9 rounds. With 2 the Cities change less often between your turns, so you can plan further ahead; with 4 expect other players to rewrite a City before you get back to it.

Videos versus the rulebook

• Some teaches say unused Refined Goods turn back into Raw Goods at the end of the turn. The rulebook says they are discarded; to keep their value, convert them yourself during the phase.
• Videos disagree on whether a “+1 Certificate level” Building helps a Good below level 1. The designer’s answer: it counts as level 1 (FAQ).

The rulebook wins wherever a video differs.

Host game

Start with the nine-round clock and one Merchant-to-City activation, then show how Refined Goods feed Buildings or the Opera. On turns 1–3, ask which Building side unlocks the Cart or conversion the player needs. Before ending the Refined Goods phase, check every unspent good so the player can choose what to convert.

Rehearse spending or converting a Refined Good

Put one Glass on your Shop Board during the Refined Goods phase. If you can legally spend it on a Building or deliver it with a Cart and the required Certificate, do so. Otherwise you may explicitly convert that Glass into one Sand.

Now leave it unspent: at the end of this phase it is discarded. Conversion is not automatic. Have the player announce which Refined Goods are used, converted or left over before clearing the phase. Convert Refined Goods.

Sources

YouTube: Opera Magna - Teach & Playthrough, by Before You Play; How to Play Opera Magna & Full Playthrough, by Tabletop For World; Opera Magna | The Market Changes Everything | Playthrough, by Dicing With Death; Opera Magna Review - Will You Be A Part Of Our History?, by BoardGameCo. BGG: community answers are linked by thread in the FAQ; the publisher’s Opera Magna files include the rulebook.