Scoring in this game works differently from others, and tends to reward generalizing more than specializing. It doesn't matter that you have twice as many castles as the next person if you get eliminted due to having ignored gold early on.

In the early game, when you take down a monster, just pick whichever pair of options has the best numbers. Worry about shoring your weaknesses up in the middle and endgame.

Even a single error in your path selection can cause your piece to go way off in the wrong direction. Double check your inputs before committing them.

Keep an eye on which regions are up next in the placement stack.