[quote=Optimatum]Playing chess with the boatman increases in difficulty as you play. At first it’s balanced for brand new players, so you shouldn’t have any trouble with it. Eventually it’ll get challenging, but you’ll get new text and lore the more you play. (Some people even intentionally max out the quality tracking your victories.) If your chance of winning drops below 50%, you can play dice with him instead, which heals slightly more on victory than it hurts on losing.
Contrary to Cathy’s advice, I would recommend not giving the Boatman your Weasels or Bats. For some reason those options take all of the relevant pet but give a flat Wounds reduction no matter how many you gave.
Finally, a generally-applicable tip. Red-bordered cards consume an action if you have one, but since they activate the moment you click on them, you can use them even without an action. The slow boat only uses these cards, so use up your actions with the Boatman first and you can play the cards for free. Other menace areas have these cards too, but mix them with regular cards, so this strategy isn’t as relevant.[/quote]
I stand corrected re: my advice on getting off the Slow Boat. I don’t die very often so there’s a lot I forgot or mis-remembered. The advice as to not using actions on the red-bordered cards is excellent, and something that failed to occur to me.
Optimatum: What is the maximum you can get on the quality tracking your victories over the Boatman?