The useful question in The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game is not “How do I win the most tricks?” It is “Which character needs the next trick, and how many chances remain?” All selected goals have to work together. These decisions follow the published rules and designer’s advice; they are reasoned examples rather than claimed playtest results. Learn the follow-suit and special-card rules first.
Choose a character from your hand’s capabilities
In Chapter 19 the White Tower holder becomes Aragorn and Boromir is required. Everyone else should compare the available goals with the suit lengths and high cards in their own hand. A goal requiring many Forest cards is more credible with several Forests than with a single Forest 8. A strong suit is useful, but a goal about avoiding a later trick may need an exit card or a setup exchange more than raw rank. You may evaluate your own hand privately; do not announce its contents.
For a long chapter, avoid leaving every difficult goal for the last deal. You must use required characters each round and complete the roster across rounds, so finish a difficult but plausible goal when a favorable hand makes it available. Do not lock the last chooser into an unattainable task merely because the earlier choices were easier.
Plan backward from the bottleneck
Before a deal, publicly review each character’s objective and the chapter’s special rules. During play, count which goals still need a trick, a suit or a collected card. If one character must win a certain kind of trick and only a few chances remain, that need sets the order of your plan. The Office Dog designer explicitly recommends tackling hard goals and helping the player who chose last. This can be done by referencing the public objective, without saying who holds a particular card.
Example: suppose one role needs two Forest cards in won tricks and another must stop winning after a public event. If an early Forest lead can safely deliver the first role’s cards, take it before the second role’s restrictions narrow the table’s options. The exact move still depends on legal follow-suit plays and hidden hands; this is a way to prioritize, not a fixed script.
Treat each Tower as a timed resource
A single Tower can take an otherwise unwinnable trick when its holder is void in the led suit. The other Tower can cancel it if legally played into the same trick. Before counting on a Tower to solve a goal, ask what public cards remain and whether the other Tower has already appeared. In Chapter 19, the Black Tower holder remains unknown until play, so Aragorn’s shared majority goal is an information puzzle as well as a trick count. The chapter-specific rulebook notes clarify how this interacts with Boromir’s timing objective.
Do not burn a Tower merely to take an ordinary trick if someone’s objective depends on the Tower later. Equally, hoarding it while unable to follow suit may be impossible because play is constrained by your hand. Track what the rules actually allow; avoid treating the Tower as a free action.
Make an Orc exit before your next lead
Orcs never win and cannot be led safely. If you are void in the led suit, playing an Orc may remove that liability without taking the trick. If you unexpectedly win a trick while holding only an Orc for your next lead, the chapter fails. This makes “can I take this trick?” different from “should I?” A deliberately modest suited card, when legally available, can protect the next leader’s hand position.
In Part 2, revisit this lesson rather than copying it directly: the deck removes Orcs and adds Rings and Weariness. Weariness is dangerous when you have to follow with it, while it can only be led. Read the chapter’s Tower event before planning around the White Tower.
Use setup actions and tucks as real turns of planning
An exchange can change which player has the card needed for a goal, and the recipient may send the original card back. It is not a license to reveal both hands. If a character can tuck a card, it leaves that card out of the hand and out of follow-suit obligations until retrieved; the player may bring it back before or after a trick and must do so if their hand empties. A tucked card cannot be exchanged or replaced. One use is postponing a high card that would win a trick too early; another is preserving a later goal card. Check the current character text before assuming an action is available.
A short decision check before playing
- What suit must I follow? Which cards are legally playable?
- Whose public goal benefits if I win, lose or pass a card in this trick?
- If I win, can I safely lead the following trick from the cards that remain?
- Could a Tower, Ring, event or tuck alter the apparent winner?
The answer changes as cards leave hands. Use the chapter guide to separate short from long goals and Part 1 from Part 2; use the player-count guide for the extra information in two-player play.
Explore this game: Overview · Rules · Strategy · Solo and two players · Chapters and replay modes.
Sources: Office Dog English rulebook (publisher-authored PDF) for procedures and chapter exceptions; designer Bryan Bornmueller’s Office Dog interview for his stated advice on character selection, setup actions and difficult goals. Checked October 4, 2026. Examples are editorial reasoning, not claims of a tested optimal strategy.