Slum Lord!
City of Remnants Strategy Musings
You're a fearsome gang leader. There's Yugai sniffing around, some other gangs are starting to talk big shots, and you want to crush them down. The game of taking control of this run down city is just begginning, and you're probably wonering what to do. You're presented with a few options from your sources about some investment opportunities, but which one do you choose? Who can you possibly trust in this place?
Well you can trust me. Or so I'd like to think. You don't have to trust me. Or listen to me. But I rather hope you do.
In City of Remnants there are a total of 18 different development types, of which you play with 9 in each game. There are 6 Slum types, 6 Midtown types, and 6 Heights types. Each game you randomly play with 3. (Which means there are 8000 different arangments just for those who are curious).
For today we're going to be taling about the 6 different Slums developments, and how to utilze them in your winning strategies and tactics. In most games you're likely to be starting off early on with building a few of these, and these developments also tend to be the ones that have the most copies and space to put them on, so you'll be utilizng their powers all game. If you will, they sort of set the tone for your early strategy and can start you off right or wrong.
One important thing to note is where the Yugai drop. One of my fellow informers got a good report on these guys a while ago. He infiltrated the coppers headquarters, and learned their secrets. Check it out. The Yugai don't really bother with messing around in the slums, particularly at the gang entry points. They'll never bother you there, and only will generally only visit you once in the rest of the slums. You've got some safely sialing to be producing your Red Eden or Star Dust in piece with the Slums.
For your six slum districts you have Back Alley Games, Thieves Distric, Red Eden District (Light), Red Eden District (Heavy), Star Dust District (Light), and Strongholds. The Red Eden Districs and the Star Dust are your fairly standard production districts which manufacture products for you to sell later. The Thieves district provides you some income at the start of every round. Back Alley Games randomly produce you some cash, 50% chance they do, 50% chance they are failures. Finally the Strongholds are unique districts that you can just hole some dudes up in. Let's start by checking out the Thieves District. 
This is a pretty good development to get early in the game. If you get it and just plop it on your entry space you basically guarantee yourself 2,000 ARC's extra at the start of every round (so you'll be up to earning 4,000 ARC's), and you'll usually be capable of getting the 2 renown off of it every turn as well. It is a little expensive in the early game, and not all gangs can always build one of these very early. The blue gang usually can utilize their discounts to get one, and the Yellow can often find the money to get there as well, but the Green and Red gangs rely on some luckier draws or other factors to get one very quickly. The are only 3 copies of this development in the game, so usually they will be snatched up pretty quick. I'd advise to just keep them in the Slums where those Thieves belong, but they will operate in Midtown if you want them to. Other gangs might get pretty jealous of it, particularly if they can snatch it at the end of the round. All in all, Thieves Districts are sweet. For 4,000 ARC's you likely will get well over 10,000 ARC's off it throughout the game, without having to spend any other actions to get the money. If you place it near your start zone, you won't have to worry about defending it as much or it being stolen, and the Yugai will almost never come. Cheap and effecient source of income and renown to get your finances and gang rolling.
Next we've got our Back Alley Games. These developments cost 3,000 ARC's and provide 2 renown. Similar to the Thieves District there are only three copies of this development, but they too can be placed in the Slums or Midtown. When you take a Produce>>>Develop action a Back Alley Games lets you roll a die. On a 4 or higher, you earn 3,000 ARC's. If you roll a 1-3, I'd find publicly humiliate those stiffs until they preformed better, but that's just me. The big upside of this development is that if you roll well you get your cash immediately. You don't have to fiddle around with manufacturing products and then taking another action to sell off those products later. However the big downside is that it might just nto do anything. Still that upside is pretty big. One of these Districts pays for itself as soon as it is successful, and the money can then be utilized right away to build your next development. If you're feeling extra risky early on, build one, move into it, and then take a Produce>>>Develop action to try and get the 3,000 ARC's to build another one right away. As with anything with such wild luck though, it's best if you never have to rely on rolling a 4+ for your actions, and instead the extra income is a nice bonus. Depnding on the type of player you are, you might want to just stay away from these alltogether if possible and go for the sure and safe options. However, sometimes riches comes to those who take the risks.
Strongholds are the next type. They cost 5,000 ARC's and provide 3 renown. There are five copies of this devlopment, and they uniquely can be played in any area, Slums, Midtown, or Heights. They have a very unique ability that restricts movement into them. As long as you control them, any emeny gang member trying to get in will be destroyed on a 1-4, giving opponents only a 1/3 chance of getting in on any turn. This sets up a powerful defensive location as long as you have control of the development. These tiles don't provide any cash or extra support however, so they likely shouldn't be some of your first buys, as those should be going to things to boost your economy, wheras Strongholds will not. However, Strongholds really excel at providing some safe renown, 3 every turn, and you don't have as much to worry about defensively. You can place these on the edges of your developments and have a good roadblock for enemies to get through. One of the best uses is to stick them in the middle on those spaces that provide extra renown, and your enemies will hardly be able to bust in. If you get one of these on the 3 renown square, you can be rolling in 6 renown a turn with little fear of breakins. The one final thing about these, as a reccomendation, remember you can build a development on a space that already has a guy. I'd encourage you to make sure you have control of it right away, before your opponent takes a move action or utilizes some cards to run a guy into your development. It's not considered under control unless you have units in it, and once someone else breaks in, you'll have a very hard time getting it back.
The next three developments are all fairly normal tiles that produce goods. We'll start with the cheapest.
There are 6 copies of this development, the most in the game. It's also the cheapest development, costing a mere 2,000 ARC's. It provides 2 renown, and can only be placed in the Slums. Finally, it produces one single good that sells for a meager 2,000 ARC's. This does mean that if completely pays for itself after one Produce>>>Develop and then Sell, but it's still only 2,000 ARC's. These are decent ways to earn money though, and you can always build up a few products on some and then sell off your influence to earn more money in one action. If you can get two of these down, at least together they will prodcue 1 each per Produce>>>Develop action, and you'll be going pretty well at that point. These are the cheapest tiles to put down and each does earn 2 renown, so you can also spam a few for some cheap renown in the Slums.
Very similarily you have Red Eden District (Heavy). This costs 5,000 ARC's, and provides 3 renown. There are 3 copies of this development in a game, and this tile is a double tile, so it takes up 2 spaces and requires 2 gang members minimum to hold down. It can be put in the Slums or Midtown. This district produces 3 products that each sell for 2,000 ARC's. In many ways this is is extremely similar to just having 2 Light Red Eden districts (2 light districts cost 1,000 ARC's less, produce 1 less product, and earn 1 more renown comparitvely). These slum tiles can provide you with some quick cash flow in the early game. After one Produce>>>Develop and then Sell you'll earn 6,000 ARC's, netting 1,000 ARC's, and be doing very well off to get into buying those Midtown developments after that. I'd reccomend only ever getting one of these though. While they are pretty nice, producing 6 goods every Produce>>>Develop actions is basically useless, as until your influence gets higher you can't sell that many. I tend to find that my Heavy Eden districts wind up stockpiling a lot of products by the end of the game, as at a certain point you'll be selling other goods that are worth more than 2,000 ARC's per. More useful in the early game, later on if you're going heavy developments you'll have better options for Producing and selling.
Finally, there is the Star Dust District (Light). This is extremely similar to the Red Eden District (Light). The Light Star Dust Districts cost 3,000 ARC's, earn 2 renown, can only be placed in the Slums, and has 5 copies in the game. It produces one product that sells for 3,000 ARC's. Much that can be said about these is covered by what was said about the Light Red Eden Districts. They are extremely similar, and both are about as useful. The Light Star Dust Districts are slightly better and preferrable, given their slightly better production, but that's about it. Utilize them for some cheap districts that have decent production to get your economy humming.
Overall, the Slums districts are often good building blocks for your future victory. If you plan on going heavy on developments and selling products, any of the Red Eden or Star Dust districts are a good start to build up some nice production to sell off to fuel the cycle. If you're planning on doing more attacks and things, Thieves Districts are always a nice buy for future and continual money without any other actions required. Stronholds aren't as useful in the very early game unlike the other Slum districts, but if you can get one set up in the center quickly, you'll be pulling in a lot more renown while your opponents scramble to catch up. Finally, Back Alley Games can fit into almost any strategy, as long as you're willing to gamble. Unlike some of the future developments we'll talk about, you can't go too wrong with your building options in the Slums.
