Tips & Strategy

How to teach The Smoky Valley and what to watch for in a first game.

How to teach it

Teach it in the order a turn happens: pick a district with your boat → take its action → add a canal or city action → trade at the market → pass. Then explain what happens between phases: income, new ships and, three times, an election.

Stress early, before anyone moves:

• Cash is your action budget. Every turn costs money, and anything above £12 is lost, so plan to spend before you pass.
• Moving right is free. The order of your district tiles shapes your whole phase; swapping tiles is worth a lot.
• Producing in other players’ industries feeds them too. Their owner bonus is your gift to them, and doing it twice in one action earns you popularity.
• Popularity halves at every election. Bonuses on the track can be earned again after the drop.

Your first game

• Send traders early. The first trader in each market gains 2 prestige, every trader takes a bonus and scores each administration phase, and higher trade levels make processed goods worth more later. The designer suggests early shipments of basic goods with a trader, saving processed goods for when your trade levels are up (BGG).
• Build where you will score. At the end each industry scores its district’s value, and in the canal districts also your canal development there. Developing services raises the district value for everyone with industries there.
• Watch the city card offer. Cards with +A give a free extra district action, and your city cards score at every election, so a category the next mayor likes is worth a lot.
• Go for 22 popularity only if it is within reach: it wins the election outright and gives 3 prestige.
• Upgrade before others produce. Upgraded industries give their owner prestige each time someone else uses them.
• Plan the modernization. From 1855 the canal costs machines but gives 3 prestige per tile and moves your marker 2 spaces.

By player count

• 2 players: only 3 building spaces per district, fewer ships and only 2 service tokens each phase; districts fill quickly.
• 3 players: 4 building spaces per district; the 4-player industry tiles are out.
• 4 players: all 5 spaces and every industry tile; the extra “GB” schooner starts in the canal.

Sources

BGG: rulings are linked by thread in the FAQ; the publisher’s The Smoky Valley files include the rulebook. Videos are listed on the Videos page.