clue board game strategy

Time to take notes!

We already saw in a previous post a clue strategy on how to use optimal paths between rooms, in the clue game arena, to navigate through the clue board game. Now it's time to reveal my clue strategy on how to take good notes to find the context clues of the murder. But before I do that, I wanted to mention that I recently played Clue Online(lack of friends), so if you are like me and would like to try my strategy, this online clue playing could be a nice way to do it. Back to my strategy, to do it, you'll need a piece of paper like this one (see clue detective note on the right).

My clue strategy here is to not lose a single piece of information exchanged during an accusation done by me or any other player. With want to be able to resolve the clue murderer before anybody else. The clue player that takes the best notes is the one with the best clue board game strategy, period!

clue board game strategy step 1

Here's how I fill my clue detective notes. First, I put my name on top of the first column in the detective note sheet and then the name of all other player playing clue with me. Second, I put a check mark beside all the cards in my possession. The same check mark will be used when I figure the cards hold by other clue player. Third, I put an "x" mark beside the cards I don't have. The same "x" mark will be used when I know for sure that this card is not hold by a player. Take a look at the picture to see how my clue detective notes looks like at this point.



clue board game strategy step 2

Ok, that's the easy first step in my clue board game strategy. The following clue tips will show you a more powerful way of taking notes. So step 2 consist of every time someone will make a accusation, your will fill your detective notes. To do that, I use a question mark symbol with a number. The first accusation is number one, the second clue accusation is number two and so on.

The picture on the left shows that an accusation was made with the following clue elements: Clue Suspect Professor Plum, Clue weapon Knife and Clue room Kitchen. The question marks and the numbers under column "A" means that clue player "A" shown one of the three card of the accusation. I choose those three card to illustrate that we can already figure out that clue player "A" was holding the clue weapon card "Knife" since we already have the clue room card "Kitchen" and the clue suspect card "Professor Plum" in our hands. Let's make a more complicated example to show how you will get an edge on the other player around the clue game board.

clue board game strategy step 3

Question, how do you play clue the board game ?" Ok think again after reading this cool example. After a few accusation, your clue detective notes will look a little bit like this next picture. A bunch of "x" mark, check mark and a lot of question mark. Now your job is to carefuly examine each question mark and numbers to solve some clue questions.

In this picture we can see that from the first accusation answered by clue player "A" we solve the card shown by this player to another player. It was the clue weapon card "Knife" and this is the reason why we have a green check mark there now instead of the previous question mark. The next accusation was answered by clue player "B" that revealed a card about an accusation: Clue suspect Miss Scarlett, with clue weapon Rope in clue room Library.

We placed the usual question mark with the number of the accusation. The only thing we can be sure of is that clue player "B" didn't show the clue suspect card Miss Scarlet. Nothing else can be solved from here, so we have to wait for future accusations.
The next clue accusation answered by clue player "C" will reveal the power of my clue game strategy. Of course this accusation could have been answered many turn after accusation number two, but to simplify this example, it's happening right after. So clue player "C" answered something to the accusation: Clue suspect Professor Plum with the clue weapon Wrench in the clue room Library. The board game strategy imply that you look back at previous accusations to solve previous answers. This third accusation tells us that player "C" shown the clue room card Library. Why? Simply because the clue weapon wrench is in our possession so is suspect Professor Plum. My strategy just not reveal one secret, but two secret in the same accusation. You can for sure put a check mark under column "C" in the clue room "Library" and if you look back at accusation number two, you will find out that you now know what was answered to this accusation. You were previously wondering which of the "Library" or the clue weapon "Rope" was shown, now you know exactly that it was the rope since the library clue card is in player "C" possession. You can put a green check mark under column "B" in the clue weapon rope box.

Here's a small legend to help understand my clue detective notes.

Clue player don't have this clue item


Clue player have this clue item


Clue player might have this clue item. Player answered to accusation number 3 with one of three clue card.


I hope you enjoyed this clue board game strategy and that it will help you speed up the process of making the final accusation!

My other post about Clue the board game

Clue, how to do you play this board game
Clue memory refresher, remember those detective notes... this post is kind of an introduction to this old time classic board game.

Clue game arena part I
You know the game, you know the characters (Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard,...) but do you really know their stories?

Clue on the internet
Tired of waiting for someone to play with you? The solution is right here in this post, find out how you can play this with people around the world and also find out new ways of playing it.

Clue game arena part II
Find out the shortest path to explore the entire clue board and be the fastest to collect more evidence to make your accusation.

Clue versus (male suspects)
Find out the obvious reasons why Colonel Mustard would use a revolver to murder Mr. Boddy and why he would do that in the conservatory.

Clue versus (female suspects)
Why would Mrs. White use the knife in the Kitchen to terminate Mr. Boddy's life? The setup is obvious, but what were the real motives...