General Pipeline Strategy Tips:

Turn Order: - Supply of pretty much every resource in the game is limited - getting priority to take what you want can be important - Especially UPGRADES - being last to play at the last turn of a year allows you to guarantee yourself going first on the first turn of the next year, allowing you to get first dibs of the upgrades, pipes, or crude oil (usually upgrades) - calculating turn order multiple turns ahead can be really tough because 6/10 actions that will not allow you to manipulate it. - the later in turn order you are throughout a year, the more you can react to other players trying to manipulate turn order in their favour. Sometimes it’s worth it to take a sub-par action just to maintain last in turn order, but try not to do it too much.

Pipelines: - The pipe-tiles are a tough puzzle to optimize, especially when you’re presented with so many options right off the bat, but learning it is instrumental to your success in pipeline - I recommend playing Trailblazers, another game by Ryan Courtney featuring pipe-tiles to get used to how different tiles are able to connect to each other and how to get the most out of every pipe. - if you are better at the pipe-puzzle than your opponents, you have an enormous advantage, especially with valuations that care about “values of pipelines”

Upgrades: - Upgrades have different levels of utility. I’m sure my local meta has effected my perception of what upgrades are better than others, but nonetheless here are my rankings

S Tier: 1,2,3 Machines, 2,3Government, 2,3Technology, 2,3 Engineering, 1,2,3 Specialization A Tier: 1,2,3 Shops,1Engineering, 1,3Human Resources,1Government, 1Technology, 2,3Crude B Tier: 1,2,3Contracts, 2Human Resources,1,2,3Refined Markets

- The Machines upgrades are by far the most money efficient in the game, a machine on its own would cost at least $20, and the ability to run your pipelines normally on top of it is not irrelevant! Level 2 and 3 of machines are obviously incredible as well.the only issue with the machines upgrade is you don’t usually want it on the first turn of the game, meaning if there’s another upgrade that is desirable early, machines will usually get blocked.

- The government upgrades are really great as well. Though initially inefficient (2 pipes for $20 isn’t great) the fact you can pick from any open government spots instead of getting adjacent pipes means you can both be more efficient with the pipes you choose, and block off your opponents from getting bigger combinations of tiles when they take the government action. 2 and 3 of government can devastate the other players by denying them all of the pipes on the board they could want.

- Technology is a tough one to judge. It is one of the best things to get in the last turn of a year when you’re set up to go first in the next one, but it requires a lot of investment. You need $80 to get the most out of the upgrade path - Buy Technology, Buy a closed upgrade - next turn Buy Technology level 2, and buy the second level of the upgrade you got last turn. That said, if you pull that off you’re flying. Level 2 and 3 of technology are very dependent on what isn’t in the game. See my tier list.

- Engineering is a really good way to improve your pipelines when the refinement requirements are high. The first level is not bad, and can definitely improve your refinement ability, but level 2 is usually very impactful, making it very easy to get more and more-efficient pipelines with only a few tiles. Level 3 can be extremely impactful for fulfilling demanding contracts and orders, but only if you set up correctly for it. Level 3 can also be money wasted very quickly if you don’t have sufficient oil or tanks to run 2 oil out of any of your lines.

- Specializations both improve your ability to refine and improve your selling price for specific colours or grades of oil, if you follow the specialization you get, you will make your money back on it very quickly. Contracts become a lot more attractive as they will pay $5 more for the specific type of oil. When you get more specializations and they begin to stack, you can get away with a lot of crazy stuff in the game.

I’m not going to go over every upgrade here, but I wanted to give my notes on the S-Tier Ones

Hope this improves your pipeline game