If you haven’t played Ganz Schön Clever then check out my review first for a spoiler free piece on the game in solo and multiplayer format. Here I will focus on the solo version (at least as the basis) and how to score over 300…

Seriously stop reading if you are still trying to math this out!

During the Game:

Extra Dice; The starting principal is that every extra dice in every score sheet is valuable. You should be aiming to achieve all five of these. For most of the score cards that tells you very little about where to place things, but for the yellow score sheet this tells you a lot! The diagonal already in place and the diagonal for the extra dice give you a cross on the yellow score sheet…

Foxes; To get over 300 you re going to need four foxes. The combination that seems to be most effective is to get all but orange. Blue offers lots of points, green becomes a lagging score without it and so does purple. Back to yellow – with the bottom row complete and the diagonals, the most effective way to score 30 points needed as a minimum from yellow is to complete the two middle columns – this will also give you a free blue! Now you know what to aim for in yellow. The foxes (just to state scoring here) are important because they multiply your lowest score and hence one extra fox can be +30 points!

Blues; With all the boxes to be completed here there is a lot of boxes to fill, but don’t get carried away. There are three free blue boxes to be got in the game – that’s like three extra dice. Make sure you can use all of these in your bid for the 300 and don’t let any go to waste.

Yellows; Not quite done with that area – you will need the three free yellows (from blue, orange and purple) and you will need to make sure you use them just like the blue ones I mentioned!

Green; This is the trick i missed for so long – often my lowest score was 28 on reaching the green fox. If you go two further down the track you get a free purple and a big bonus to your score. this is worth the investment if you are going for the 300+ but not if you are just playing to win in a competitive version (where diversification can be more often rewarded and far less risky). This is a risk you will have to take for the 300 though.

Purple; Two free purples available (that green one and the blue). Factor that in before you go too far down the purple track. You should hit the fox exactly and no further here. There aren’t good bonuses for going beyond and the track should not be your lowest scorer. Also, consider that free six in round four – I often find resetting purple a big help!

Orange; This is your points basket, rarely a leader but an important contributor and probably not last. You should be hitting the double spaces with 5 or 6 to ensure this is contributing and try to get a few more high scores along the way. Watch out not to over commit to this line as you don’t need the fox. Oh and be careful to use the +1 late in the row – I once missed a 300 solely by not putting down the 5 that I had available! The +1 is probably your final box.

Variations; I think you can probably score 300+ by falling short on the green (to the fox) and going two further on purple (which adds another green). I think that might be the limit though, and would be interested in how others get to 300+ in this frustratingly addictive game.

Order; Order does matter, but I think I have included enough above to leave how you pick your dice and which order to fill up rows/columns to you!

Good Luck!