Expensive actions

I won in a 5 player game by having 7 of the tunnels, 2 cartographers, one trader, and a couple worthless crossroads. This took some folks by surprise I think because they were all distracted by the Border Village and its accompanying benefits when buying it. This configuration allowed me to win because everyone else was making me discard my tunnels, resulting in 15 gold in my deck at the end of the game. I used the gold to buy provinces.

This looked silly at first, but turned out fun. We played with 3 players, and each picked a different strat. We each bought Noble Brigands right off without thinking and we all bought a tunnel right away to make it a little nervous. 1 - Tunnels/Cartographers. 40pts This worked alright for me; I had trouble affording the cartographers since I came out of the gate with tunnel/brigand. Next time id go tunnel/silver, or even silver/silver. Either way, once the cartographers enter the game, its amazing. 3 - Border Villages/Mandarins. 37pts. Being able to repeat the same purchase over and over and load up your deck with villages and mandarins was strong. 2 - Highways/Trader. 12pts This didn't work well, he wishes he'd gone tunnels. Maybe he got bad luck with his hands. Overall, a TENSE and fun game - give it a try, we like hinterlands a lot more now!