Tips & Strategy

How to teach Trajan's mancala, advice for a first game, two versus four players, and where videos differ from the rulebook.

Advice, not rules — the rulebook pages always win.

How to teach it

• Teach the Game is the script. Introduce the mancala as the way you choose actions — pick up a tray, sow clockwise, the last marker is your action — before anything else (Hans: Solo Board Gaming Trajan, Hans: Solo Board Gaming).
• New players often feel the circle is playing them. Point out that the real puzzle is planning a tray two or three turns ahead.
• A two-player game is the quickest way to learn: a few rounds run fast.

Your first game

• Plan colours ahead. Before taking a Trajan tile, look at which tray your Arch will move to next and pick a tile whose colours are already gathering there (Trajan - Playthrough - slickerdrips, slickerdrips).
• Don’t bunch markers carelessly. A big pile in one tray moves the time marker a long way and can end the round before your plan comes off.
• Feed the people. Grab Trajan demand tiles (bread, games, religion) early: they meet a demand every quarter for the whole game. A missed quarter costs up to 15 points.
• The senate pays twice: points as you climb, and the consul’s yellow bonus tile scores far more than the vice consul’s grey one. Senate tiles from the forum and provinces add votes (Trajan Strategy Tips with Sean Growley, Show Me How To Win).
• [+2] markers and extra action tiles make big turns: put a [+2] where you will act often (Forum, Seaport) and chain three actions in one turn.
• Construction sets of 3 or 4 of a kind score 10 or 20 at the end, and the first tile of each type gives a bonus action.
• Aim at your bonus tiles. Ship and display the commodities your bonus tiles count.

Player counts

• Two players: the senate is loose (the second player always gets the grey tile), construction can be dominated for big sets, and Trajan stacks last longer.
• Four players: the senate is fiercely contested, construction sites and provinces get crowded, and the Trajan stacks run down fast — stay flexible.

Solo

Trajan has no official solo mode. Fan solo rules exist on BoardGameGeek; this guide does not cover them.

Host game

Rehearse a two-marker move before the opening turn. Have the right-hand neighbour move time while the active player names the target tray, checks its Trajan tile, then chooses its action. Keep that order for the first three turns. When time crosses the start, let the active player finish before resolving the round end; a large handful of markers accelerates that deadline for everyone.

Videos versus the rulebook

• A province scores its full value minus 3 for each rival legionnaire already there, never below 0 — not a flat value.
• The bonus action of your first construction tile of a type can be repeated with an extra action tile, as the rulebook’s note says (Trajan | Solo Playthrough, slickerdrips).

Sources

• Trajan Strategy Tips with Sean Growley — Show Me How To Win
• Trajan - Playthrough - slickerdrips — slickerdrips
• Trajan | Solo Playthrough — slickerdrips
• Hans: Solo Board Gaming Trajan — Hans: Solo Board Gaming
• BoardGameGeek Rules forum