Tips & Strategy

How to teach Wireless, first-game advice, the main tension, player counts and where the preview video differs from the rulebook.

Advice, not rules — the rulebook wins.

How to teach it

Teach in this order: the setting, the end conditions, the map and its two kinds of lines, the two player boards, then the five actions one by one, and finish with scoring. Spend the most time on one action column: the Action tiles, the dollar costs of the empty spaces and the two boxes. Then say the golden rule — no tile, no action — before anyone plays.

The main tension

Your Action tiles are the real currency. Every action takes a tile out of its column, and an emptier column makes every action dearer; Supply refills them but costs a Credit token, and every Credit token you give away lowers the multiplier of a Personal Objective. Funding brings money and Tycoons but also costs a Credit token. Decide early how many Credit tokens you can afford to spend.

First game

• Look at your three Personal Objectives first: their Flags tell you where to send your network.
• Pick one or two Progress tracks to empty. A track only scores well if you also collect the matching icons — Flags for the Flag track, Patents for the Patent track, and so on.
• Building a station where nobody is yet gives a third Signal token: early on, empty Locations are worth it.
• A Signal token left in your Ready area costs a point at the end: don’t pull more than you will place.
• Tycoons are permanent: they make Funding richer and unlock better Tycoons, but never pay for an action.
• Factories (more tiles from Supply) and Scientists (Patents) are what make an engine; get one of each early.
• Watch the end triggers, especially the Credit area — it fills faster with more players.

Player counts

• 2 players: neutral Signal tokens block every Flag and Contract Location, so those bonuses go to the player who reaches them second at the cost of an Advanced Action.
• 3 players: the neutral tokens sit on the Technology and Super Technology Locations instead.
• 4 players: no neutral tokens, but the map is crowded and transmissions often need the Advanced Action.
• Solo: the Automa races for Flags from its fixed Locations; its Flag and Permanent Link scores are what you have to beat.

The preview video and the rulebook

Essen Preview - Wireless (Ludopathe Pogonophile) is a good overview of the flow, and it puts the main tension well: you take apart the engine you need for scoring to keep acting. It is a preview of a prototype, though, and some details differ from the rules version 1.1:

• Funding and Supply each cost a Credit token placed in the Credit area; Funding also takes an Action tile.
• Supply gives 2 Action tiles + 1 per active Factory, plus a Patent if you have enough Scientists.
• A Personal Objective scores its value × the Credit tokens beside it.
• There is a First Player marker, and once the end is triggered the round is finished and one more full round is played.

Sources

• Essen Preview - Wireless — Ludopathe Pogonophile
• Wireless on BoardGameGeek