clue game arena (part 2)

In this post I want to talk about how I try to optimize my movements in the clue game arena. The arena is for me the actual board. I like this term since it sounds like gladiator fighting to kill someone!

So, here's a picture of the clue arena with all the starting position of all clue suspects. My first goal in the arena is to move to a clue room with the less dice roll as possible. My favorite clue suspect and clue room duo are the conservatory and Mrs. Peacock. I don't know if it's a flaw in the board design, but if you look at the clue game board closely, you will see that there's only six square between Mrs. Peacock's starting position and the conservatory room door (shortest path between a room and a suspect starting position).

The other reason why I like this duo, is that you end up in a clue room with a secret passage to another clue room. Using secret passages is a well known clue strategy to speed up the amount of accusation you can make every turn. So the goal is to maximize the use of the secret passage to find out as many clues as possible about the context of the murder.

The way I usually do it, is by changing room every turn and build up accusations until I know for sure who is the culprit with what weapon and in which room. Many times what happen is that you can't find out what the room is because the conservatory and the lounge are either in your possession or in someone else's possession, so you'll have to move in other clue room soon.

The following picture will illustrate how I navigate in the clue game arena when I need to make accusation from other rooms. Ideally, you want to make sure to end up in a different room every time you roll the dice, so to do that, try to move along the path in this picture. In order, the clue room visited in the game arena are (blue path):

• Conservatory --> Ballroom (3 square)
• Ballroom --> Billiard Room (5 square)
• Billiard Room --> Library (3 square)
• Library --> Hall (6 square)
• Hall --> Study (3 square)

There is also an alternate path in this picture (red path) that is leading to the kitchen room. The reason why I have put this path is to illustrate another way to figure out if the murder was done in the kitchen or the study (through the secret passage). You would take this path if you are already suspecting one of the two clue room. Try to use has much as possible the clue game board at your advantage. Don't try to walk long distance to early in the game to figure out the room where the murder took place. While finding hints for weapons and suspects, you might even be able to find it just by taking good notes of other people accusations. If you keep tight clue notes of all accusation context in the clue game arena, you will save some time and movement. Good places to start investigating for clue weapons and clue suspects are between the following clue rooms:

• Conservatory and lounge (secret passage)
• Study and Kitchen (secret passage)
• Hall and Hall (only one square to walk since there's two door next to each other)
  
• Billiard Room and Library (only three square to walk)
• Hall and Study (only three square to walk)
• Lounge and Dining room (only three square to walk)
• Conservatory and Ballroom (only three square to walk)
  

Optimal moving in the clue game arena is one thing, taking good notes and establishing the context of the murder in another. In the next post, I will give examples of context clues and reveal all my secrets on how not to lose track of any action in the clue game arena.

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 strategy
After reading this, you will be the greatest player around the table to make an accusation the fastest. Of course, this post doesn't explain how to roll sixes all the time, but it do explain how to take the best detective notes with very simple tricks.

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...