This is a guide for rank 17 and above, though you could apply the same strategies at lower ranks. I’m writing this guide mostly for feedback, because I’d like to improve on this strategy and hit even higher ranks. I think this particular strategy would cap out at a rank somewhere in the 40s. In order to match the spirit of the developers (making the brain good), I’ll try to post conclusions without too much explanation.

Axes and Acres is primarily a game of managing choices. Some need to be short term focused, and others long term. In order to manage these choices, we need some way of comparing them. I allocated a point value to each of the following benefits

• Movement point = 5
  
• Any base unit (gatherer, builder, etc…) = 10
  
• 1 food = 20
  
• 1 wood = 30
  
• 1 stone = 40
  
• 1 vp = 50

I use these values to compare the various choices throughout the game. At the higher levels, efficiency is paramount. So your needs are obtaining food, wood, stone, vp, and killing barbs/spawners. One special note on roads. Using this value system, you have to walk on a road 9 times to break even on its cost. So don't build them, unless they are VP objectives.

Food:
The early game choices are rabbits, farms, and the marketplace (MP) cards. Farms have a terrible return, and using rabbits long term requires a hunter’s hut. For a long time I used rabbits, but their random spawn makes it too difficult to win consistently, especially if a river divides the map. So the marketplace is best.

Wood:
The early game choices are chopping trees, a lumberyard, or the MP cards. Trees are ideal, followed by lumberyard, followed by MP cards. This strategy doesn’t require a lot of wood, so chopping a few trees is usually sufficient.

Stone:
This is the hardest to get. The stone tile, even with a quarry, is a very inefficient way to get stone. The only real option you have for efficiency is the marketplace card. The build order should be light on stone.

VP:
We want to choose the cheapest VPs we can get in round 1 so our long-term build order is as uninterrupted as possible. Ideally the objectives will get us most of the way we need. Long term, we only have one option for amassing the 100+ VPs required in later ranks. We must use the only VP option that scales, namely the town hall (TH) card.

Killing barbs:
Crusaders can be made at the guardhouse or by making priests. Unfortunately, the church is very expensive, and crusaders have little other value. The guardhouse is the better option.

Ideally, at turn 1 you will know exactly how you’ll get all 17 VPs you need to make it to round 2, and it will interfere as little as possible with this build order:

• Guardhouse
  
• Marketplace
  
• (ASAP!) 3 or 4 marketplace cards (3 if it will be easy to get 17VPs, 4 if it will be hard)
  
• Reproduce 1-3x, IF it does not slow the town hall beyond turn 12.
  
• Town Hall (Ideally this is done by round 1)
  
• Purchase TH cards until you have at least 7 (ideally when your draw deck is at 0), build 1 lumberyard at 9 pop, another at 11, use workers to convert stone to food, and gatherers to collect lumberyards when they have 3. Increase population sparingly. Amass resources.

All that really matters are the round 1 objectives. Having nice round 2 objectives might overcome some bad RNG if needed. I’ll divide them into tiers:

Fantastic: Build house, have marketplace, kill barb. These either don’t interfere at all, or interfere very little.

Great: Build fountain/quarry/lumberyard, have 9 dice/4 houses, reproduce, or kill spawner. Dice and reproduce offer you some VP for increasing your production. The fountain and quarry are big VP bonuses, even though you won’t use them at all. The lumberyard is ok, but having them later is very helpful. Killing spawners is not as nice as barbs (you can only kill 3 spawners in round 1, but 4 barbs), but it clears the map for you in future rounds.

Start Over: Build farm/bridge/builders hall, have priests/woodsmen/masons/farms. If you have any two of these, the likelihood of making it past round 1 is near 0%.

In addition to random objectives, there are random penalties for progressing through each round. All are survivable except “lose all food”. If this is the round 2 penalty, start over. If it’s the round 1 penalty, maybe the game can be won.

After the main build order plan, we need to focus on how to make the most of each turn. Basically, that means using all cards and all units, without leaving any units on the board or having movement left. Very often, you will fall short of that ideal. Plan how to use the dice and cards fully before doing anything each turn.

If your round 1 VPs require reproducing, do it as early as you can. If they don’t, only do it if you already have the 2 MP cards and you know you can comfortably finish the town hall by turn 12. Remember that you can use a plus to get 5 stored movement points at the guardhouse. When you can choose between multiple options of the same priority, make the choices that maximize the possibilities for the next turn. You want to be able to do something productive even if the game rolls you 5 gatherers and a builder.

Here, I look at the round 1 objectives. How am I going to get 17 points (12 if I manage the town hall)? Build farm will never work at this level, so I’m left with the houses and reproduce. This looks like an unwinnable objective set, but I’ll try it out. My goal will be 5 points from houses, 5 from town hall, 4 from reproduce, and the rest from converting stone to VP. Given all the extra people I’ll have, I will shoot for 3 marketplace cards instead of 2 for more food.

If I build a house on the left, work and gather the rabbit, I use 6 moves, and (2 + 1 + 1 + 1) people, which perfectly leaves me one plus to put on the board. Leaving a unit on the board is usually a bad decision, but I have to be greedy this game to get my population up to have a chance. If I didn’t need more population, I would use the “Gather +1” on the card to make sure all my population did something productive.


Here my gamble pays off. I get one more plus, so 4 units this turn are dedicated to production. I have two units remaining, and more importantly, I need to use up all 3 cards. Here, my hope is that I can reroll 2 to get an extra builder, letting me use the build 3 card on my guardhouse.


Lucky again! Experience helps you know how much luck you need to make it to the next round, and therefore how many risks you should take.


The next turn units are not ideal. I would like to get the marketplace up and running as soon as I can, since the cards are so good. Alternatively, two pluses would’ve been nice. Ideally, we could’ve used the reroll card for more food. Here I will reroll and hope to get a builder or a plus. In either scenario, I want to know how to use up all units and cards. If I get a plus, I’ll make a new unit, and work/gather the tree (exactly 7 units, 3 cards). If I get a builder, I’ll work/gather the tree, start the marketplace, and shed a tear for my unused unit. If I get neither, I’ll use 6 units to work/gather a rabbit.


Here I ended up with the plus, and now I end the turn with 1 food. I know my next turn has to begin with work/gather a rabbit or the 1 food card, or I’m in serious trouble. As you can see, I got the 1 food card. I know that one of my 3 actions this turn has to be hunting the rabbit, and I need to hope for a gatherer next turn. I’ll build 3 on the marketplace, use the gain food card, move 6, hunt the rabbit, and chop the tree (2 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 8). I could gamble and reroll, hoping for the gatherer. But I lose the guaranteed food and waste a lot of potential this turn if it fails. Plus, I get 8 more rolls next turn for the gatherer.


The gatherer has to be the first move here, since I only have 1 food. Gather +1 would be great if the math works out. Up to this point, I have not mentioned the barbarians. At this distance, with the unlucky objectives, I can’t afford to deal with the spawners at all. They will destroy everything on the right side of the map. I want to finish the marketplace and get a MP card, if I can. Unit total is gather (3), marketplace (2.5), card (3, using the work card to get a Crusade) or 8.5, and I only have 8. Instead of getting the MP card I have to build a house (2.5). I want to build it on the chopped tree so a future gatherer can start on it, and it minimizes the distance to the last rabbit. I use the reroll 2 card just to cycle it.


Now I need marketplace cards, badly. Here I note with some good fortune that my draw pile is empty, so any cards I can get this turn cycle quickly. With move 6, the work card can make one MP card for 2, the build can make one for 2, and I can use 3 others to make a 3rd. (1+2+2+3 = 8). For cards you care about accumulating, it’s best to prioritize their purchase when the draw pile is at 0. But I won’t pretend that this turn was anything but incredible luck.


Ok, some bad luck to even things out. I need food, but I have no worker for the rabbit and if I use the food card, I can’t make new people. Cycling cards is very important now that I have the MP cards, but I can’t cycle the gather card because it can only be used on the tree, and that wastes the entire turn. Here I will reproduce, cycle the move and reroll cards, and bank 4 movement points for next turn.


Good, we get to eat this turn. Without a MP card, there would be no way to get food and that would’ve guaranteed a loss. I have a very small list of things to do before round 1 ends: hunt the rabbit, gather the tree, build a town hall, and reproduce 4 more times (or sell stone for VP). This turn I can gather the rabbit (8!), but none of my other desired tasks. So I’ll keep a builder on the field, hoping I get the MP card I need next round to start the town hall. I’ll gather +1 on the food because I can’t do anything else meaningful with the remaining unit.


These dice work pretty well. I can gather the tree (2), build 3 on the town hall (2.5), reproduce (4), and only waste 1 movement.


I want to build the town hall up to 5 here (so that build 3, which will come up by round 12, will get the most value). So that’s 4 units. Since I have a move 6, and a spawner that’s 1 turn away, and a work card I can’t otherwise use, I’ll take that spawner out. Town hall to 5 (4), move 6 (1), kill bottom left spawner (2). I’m going to leave a builder and a plus on the map to improve my odds for next turn, because I can’t do anything else meaningful.


This was pretty bad. I didn’t get the build card OR another plus unit, and I’m low on food. In order to have any chance, I need to use 3 builders to finish the town hall (5 units, 3 move), a 4th builder to turn stone into VP (2 units, 1 move), and a gatherer to create 2 food at the town hall (just to cycle the gather card) (1 unit, 1 move). Total is 8 units, 5 moves. I separate the moves here because I have 5 in the bank, and I want to know how many units need to be used to generate movement points. Since I start this turn with only 8 people (2 were deployed from last round), I need all the movement points in the bank. And now, I pray.

Still no pluses! 17 dice rolls without a plus, so it’s important there was some other backup plan. Luckily, I got a MP card and 2 builders, so I can turn 2 stone into VP. I survived the first round. But I had to sacrifice 3 stone for VP, there’s only one tree left on the map, and barbarians are everywhere. I’ll convert stone to food (2.5) and make a town hall card (2.5) with my remaining units.


Now the game is officially trolling me. 27 dice with no plus. I’ll convert the map plus into movement at the guardhouse, kill the barbarian, and make 3 town hall cards since my deck is about to shuffle.


Here I’ll gain one food (1), convert 2 stone to food (5), and use a gatherer to kill the bottom left spawner (4).


Here is my first TH card. I want to maximize my resources before collecting on this card, then do all my other tasks for the turn. Using the MP card gets me to 24 resources, and I have no way of getting to 30. So MP card, TH card (1), kill the coast barbarian (5.5), build a house where he sat (4), build a lumbermill (1.5). That uses up all the stored movement.


Here I have 20 resources, so the MP card and converting one stone to food will bring me above 24 (no way to get 30). Convert stone to food 2x (4), move 6 (1), use TH card (1), kill adjacent barb (2), create another TH card (2). I need 27 VPs at this point, or at most, 7 TH card uses. If I cycle every card every turn (and I’m guaranteed 2 next turn), that should work itself out.


No way to get to 30 resources here, so use 2 TH cards (2), one barb has to go (3), and in order to use my work card, I need to make a crusader to kill the bottom middle spawner (4.5).


Here I’ll convert 1 stone to food (3), gather on lumbermill (1.5), gain 1 food (1), and kill a barb (4)


Here I’ll use a TH card (1), and the rest of the turn priority is saving the tree. Kill nearest barb (3), build guardhouse (2.5), kill next barb (3.5). I would normally never build a 2nd guardhouse, but the build card came up, and killing these spawners would use a ton of movement from the first guardhouse.


Use a TH card (1), move 6 (1), kill one spawner (2), kill the other (5).


Ok, the card draw favored us here, and we made it past the 2nd round. I have 37 resources, and no way to get to 42. So I’ll collect on two TH cards. Gather at lumbermill (2.5), convert stone to food (2.5), use 2 TH cards. (2). Then I’ll see where the barb spawns in case I need to take it out. Turns out he started right next to a house, so it was good to save the movement.


At this point, the game is a lock. I have one spawner to take out, the TH cards are worth 7+ (so I only need 7 of them in the next 30 cards). I’ll post a final screenshot at the end.


On to level 38!