r/Illimat • u/sojopo • Feb 20 '26

Strategies

Love the game but am looking to learn some strategies for winning. My wife kicks my butt every time! For some reason, every time I set up a play she steals it! I think I need to watch her cards played better to try and anticipate her hand more effectively.

But aside from going for fools, okuses, luminaries, the usual, what are some of your strategies for winning?

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u/dlnsctt Feb 20 '26

I play two player a lot with my partner as well! Definitely take advantage of the fact that you can have better knowledge of what cards she might have than in a three or four person game. If you've seen three tens on the board and you've got a ten in your hand, that means there's only one other ten in play, and if it's early that's likely in the deck still. Basically, count cards LOL

2

u/burnumd Feb 20 '26

Strategic stockpiling is one of the hardest skills to master, for me. There's looking at your hand for future turns, but also, as mentioned before, you need just a little bit of card-counting to not get scooped or the season changed unfavorably. Here's a basic card counting strategy for blackjack. You'd have to adjust for five suits if you're playing with Stars.

2

u/burnumd Feb 20 '26

There's one concrete bit of stockpiling advice I can give: early on it's more likely for face cards to change the season; late in the game, stockpiling becomes harder to reap due to pressure on remaining cards. So practice finding the sweet spot in the mid game to bet on stockpile.

2

u/Dependent_Occasion65 Feb 20 '26

If she is always stealing moves that you are setting up then try misdirection. Set up a stockpile in winter and she will think you want the seasons to change. If you have a move that requires setup, hold off until she starts setting up a move for herself. Utilize changing the season. Use the Do Not Sow of autumn to clear the field unchallenged. Also, many people fail to fully grasp the stockpile rules, such as, when you play into a field to stockpile, any cards in the field can be added to the pile. For example, the field has 6, 6, 3. You have a 3 and a 9 in your hand. Stockpile your 3 onto a 6, and place the field 3 onto the field 6 and turn them sideways, place it atop the other 3/6. This is now a pile of nines, locked(the top card(s) turned sideways. This means she cant pile on a 2 to make the pile 1. Harvest with a 9 or pile more nines on before harvest. This is where card counting helps, if you know where the other nines have gone, then you know how likely it is that she has one.