Scenario-based games, regardless of their genre, often follow a similar arc in their scenario design. Early on into their life cycle, they explore small tweaks to the familiar system. Players don’t need to see a lot of change for it to feel like a big difference. Over time though, scenario designs tend to become increasingly experimental or complex. The Qinghai-Tibet scenario (designed by Matt Dunstan and released in the Deluxe Master Set), demonstrates this by making the core worker placement loop significantly crunchier than usual. That twist has proven popular though and Qinghai-Tibet has become a fan favourite scenario because of this.

Overview – oxygen

There are a few changes in this scenario, but by far the biggest and most pervasive is the addition of oxygen. Working in the high altitudes of Tibet requires it. Each round, players are given 2 oxygen. If they haven’t used it by the end of the round, they lose it. Most actions now have 3 possible outcomes depending on the amount of oxygen a player spends when the action is taken. Spending 1 oxygen results in the normal version of the action. Spending extra boosts it, while spending none makes it weaker or sometimes even does nothing.

Actions

Before getting into any specific actions, it’s important to note that oxygen heavily impacts worker placement and resolution. Oxygen is only spent when a worker actually performs an action, meaning that you cannot get a total picture of what an opponent’s worker will do until they do it. This, plus the fact that 2-oxygen actions allow workers to achieve much more than usual, allows for feints and player-led surprises in a way that Snowdonia often doesn’t. Let’s say that there are 6 cubes left in the stock yard. You might place your worker in the spot behind an opponent, assuming that they will spend 1 oxygen to take 3 resources, only for them to spend 2 oxygen to take 5 during worker resolution, leaving you with only 1.

Naturally, anything that makes player order more complex increases the value of the first player marker too.

So where to spend your oxygen? And where to cleverly not spend your oxygen? The F action stands out immediately. 0 gets you nothing while 2 gets you 2 contracts for 1 action. The A action offering you 5 cubes is also a very appealing option. However, using 2 oxygen on a powerful action like that requires you to spend 0 somewhere else. If the weather is good, the -1 work rate penalty on B and D might be perfectly acceptable. The G action also offers a free additional oxygen next round. This is very useful not only for timing but efficiency too. Spending your oxygen in bursts can yield better results than sticking to just spending 1 every time.

Track

• 2 players - 13

• 3+ players - 14

This railway runs over a glacier, demanding special efforts be made to strengthen the track. In-game, exactly 1 track card between each station must be “reinforced” by spending 2 additional iron ore/stone when laid. Being the one to bear the extra cost is well worth it however, as you get to place an extra player marker there, doubling its points value and counting as 2 track markers for contracts. This is an incredible deal and all players should be looking to compete for these when possible. If one player is allowed to grab most of these alongside good track contracts, they’ll be very hard to catch.

This is an average length track, though the reinforced track raises the total number of track scoring opportunities for contracts substantially. Keep that in mind when assessing the likelihood of yourself or another player scoring a track contract!

Stations

The oxygen costs for building take many of the standard Snowdonia building principles and double down on them. Spending more resources for more points is generally good to get more points in fewer actions. Here, doing that means that you’re also saving precious oxygen. Excavation spaces on stations are usually a great way to get points at a low cost. Again, that’s extra appealing here where many alternative scoring options have oxygen taxes attached. 

You might think that Xining and Budongquan look like amazing places to build since they don’t cost oxygen to build in, but you will pay there in other ways – namely, very poor resource-to-VP exchange rates. On the flip-side of that, Tanggula and Naqu offer very resource-efficient options but ask that you spend 2 oxygen to use them. Keep bearing that in mind before you leap!

I think that the most powerful spaces here though are the ones costing oxygen. Oxygen replenishes every turn, for free, so besides the possibility of spending your oxygen elsewhere, these cost nothing and are worth a ton of points. Note that the one in Tanggula will take planning though as it needs you to spend 3 oxygen total.

Surveyor

The surveyor in this scenario has an extra wrinkle in the form of photographs. The spaces at the bottom of the stations with the camera icon are the photos he can take. Once per game, when he arrives at a station, you can place your player marker on the photo space to claim its bonus for yourself. The bonuses function a bit like extra contracts, giving out points rewards. It’s essential that you consider the photographs here as his default points offered are weak once you factor in the fact that he’s also costing oxygen.

But wow are the photographs powerful! If you get to Lhasa and take a snap, your surveyor will give you 50 points for 7 actions (Mt Snowdon’s surveyor offers you only 21 for comparison!). Do keep an eye on the other options though, as higher isn’t automatically better here. Tanggula, for example, which lets you double the value of a contract, can be worth more than Lhasa. The ‘first come first served’ nature of this can incur risk too. If you’ve set your hopes on photographing Lhasa, and pass up other photo spots only for someone to overtake you, you can’t go back for a consolation prize. If things are looking competitive on the surveyor front, putting in less effort in and taking a snap at Delingha might be all you need!

Trains

Before we get into the specifics of these trains, it’s worth noting that trains in general are weaker here because you won’t get extra oxygen alongside the extra labourer. Your 3rd worker will therefore usually be taking a pretty weak action that might just not be worth collecting the coal for. That said, if you can find a way to make a genuinely effective use of them, or the train’s ability is powerful, you’re unlikely to find great competition for coal.

On that note, both trains in this scenario are primarily valuable for their ability. The NJ2-0001 allows you to build reinforced track for no extra costs. As we established earlier, reinforced track is incredibly strong, and so is reducing any cost in a game to 0. Keep a supply of steel around and you can threaten to claim every reinforced track opportunity while saving resources to boot!

The NJ0002 is a sort of “inverted” train. Rather than give you extra workers (which it can, but very very badly), it instead helps you get more value out of your existing ones via extra oxygen. I think this train is very strong. The extra oxygen is, is used well, comparable or superior to an extra worker, but without needing to pay any coal for it!

Contracts

The standout scoring option here is contracts 10’s doubling of your photo score. This is kind of insane. The photos are already worth pursuing and for no extra effort this makes yours double. Even if your photo isn’t very good, it’s probably worth grabbing this just to stop someone else getting it!

The contracts which provide a free extra oxygen are also pretty great – they’re all easy to score and this is one of the only ways to gain oxygen mid-round for powerful surprise plays. That said, I’m unconvinced that the contracts costing coal for oxygen are worth it. If you’ve got spare coal (because you couldn’t get anything else) then it’s okay but if you’re gaining lots of oxygen using these, you’ll also want a 3rd worker… which costs even more coal.

Weather

Fog notably does not prevent excavation or track laying here. Instead it takes 1 oxygen away from all players. You can see this coming in advance of course, so try to either plan a turn that can do alright on just 1 oxygen or use your ways of gaining more here to speed ahead while everyone else is slowed down!

Jaya’s design thoughts

I love this scenario. It’s certainly one of my favourites. The extra nuance and interaction around action selection and execution is a delight. I love crunching numbers in Snowdonia and with each action split into 2 or 3 modes, figuring out the optimal paths through this one is 2 or 3 times more crunchy than usual! I also love the way this amps up the player interaction too though; the additional space for reading opponents and pivoting your plans mid-execution means that you can throw curveballs into even the best crunched numbers.

On a more simple level, it’s also just fun to take the big splashy actions that spending 2 oxygen allows you to make, or the epic combo turns that you can pull off with 3 or 4 oxygen. Figuring out how to make use of the resultant, weaker 0 oxygen actions that that brings is a fun new puzzle too. Finally, I’m a sucker for any scenario that adds some racing flavoured spice to the surveyor and the “cash out or keep going” nature of the photographs is a lovely twist on that formula.

Is this fan favourite your favourite though? Have you found more effective ways to use trains here? Is there a scenario you’d like me to cover next? Let me know!

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