Strategies for Clue

Once you get into the intricacies of the game of Clue, you can develop various strategies to help you play effectively and win the game. The goal of Clue is to deduce the outcome using logic, fate and even strategy before any of your opponents can do the same. Young children may not appreciate the strategy aspect of the game; however, adults may quickly get swept up trying to internally strategize and figure out ways to trick and persuade fellow players to follow their game plan. A few Clue strategies are listed below. You can either follow these strategies or develop a few of your own:

• Clue Strategy #1: A player may lure another player's character or pawn into the room, deleting the need to roll the die to move their pawn or character into that particular room. Each player should be aware of what the other players are doing in order to avoid falling for these types of tricks.
• Clue Strategy #2: In the alternative from Strategy number 1, if it is clear that one player wants to go to a certain room, other players can sabotage that player’s effort by pulling his/her character/pawn to other rooms, preferably far away from where they are trying to go.
• Clue Strategy #3: If no one has a card to disprove a suggestion, that can mean that either that particular player guessed one card correctly, guessed two cards correctly, or wants to confuse his or her opponents by suggesting three of their own cards. Always be careful of putting too much weight on what other players guess. This is one of the sneakiest ways to confuse an opponent.
• Clue Strategy #4: If it is obvious that one of your opponents are eliminating rooms and weapons and suspects by repeating two of the same each time and just inserting a new person or room for example, the other players may be able to determine that the player in question is up to something, and they may therefore be able to figure out the cards this player has seen.
• Clue Strategy #5: Each time a card is shown, record each accusation with a unique number. For example, suppose that Freddy is asked about Miss Scarlet with the rope in the Library. If Freddy has none of these, put a FX next to them on the detective pad. If he shows one card then mark the detective pad with a F1 (or a F2 if there is already a F1 etc...). As the game progresses, you should be able to eliminate options and therefore you will be able to figure out what card Freddy has shown. This may sound a bit complicated at first, but once you practice it a few times you will find it can be a great advantage in the game of Clue.

Clue Tips and Warnings

Below are a few additional tips to help with the play of the game of clue:

• A character pawn may be moved forward and sideways on the same turn, but it cannot land on the same space twice in the same turn.
• Only one character pawn may occupy a single space at a time, however two players may be in the same room at the same time.
• No player is allowed to enter and exit the same room on the same turn.
• A pawn character can not enter a room through the doorway if another character pawn is blocking the doorway space, however this rule is often ignored in most home games.
• Do not count the doorway itself as a space as the doorway is simply like a real doorway, a place to pass through.
• Any player may use a Secret Passage on their turn instead of rolling the die if they start the turn in one of the rooms that contain a secret passage. A suggestion may be made after the character is moved if the player so desires.
• Players are required to leave a room and re-enter it to make a new suggestion.
• There is never a limit to the number of suspects and weapons that may be located in a room at one time.
• Any player may make a suggestion followed by an accusation on the same turn, as long as it is their turn.