Oath

As an Exile, you have a choice about where to place your pawn at the start of the game. You should consider placing your pawn in a site with good early-game powers, a site with early resource gain (secrets or favor), or a site in the Provinces region for maximum flexibility in movement. The choice depends on your desired victory condition and playstyle.

The objective for Exiles is to fulfill a victory condition. By searching the World Deck early, you can gain access to Vision cards that outline specific victory conditions. Identifying and working towards a Vision early gives you more time and flexibility to achieve it.

During your turn, especially in the early game, prioritize searching the World Deck. This allows you to see what powers, advisors, and Visions are available, helping you plan your strategy. Searching the World Deck costs two supply, and you can also search discard piles for the same cost if the World Deck is too expensive. When choosing advisors, aim for two to three of the same matching suit to maximize resource gain when trading.

Oath has a closed economy with a limited amount of favor shared among six suits. Secrets are harder to acquire but are valuable. Never burn your last secret, as it's difficult to regain them. Having multiple matching advisor suits is great for gaining favor, but be cautious as opponents can siphon favor from a heavily invested suit. A balanced approach is to have two cards of one matching suit for consistent resource gain and one other suit as a backup.

Campaigning is a crucial aspect of Oath. If you are campaigning for sites, ensure you have a redundant amount of warbands. You can sacrifice warbands to increase your attack value, which is important for overcoming high defense values. However, you must also maintain at least one warband per site you control. If you are campaigning for items, you need enough warbands to sacrifice to win the battle, but also enough remaining to defend the item from other players. Banners can be recovered by spending secrets or favor, or campaigned for. Campaigning for banners might be easier than paying a high favor cost, but it will burn favor or secrets on the banner, making it weaker and easier for others to take.