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The objective of the game (base game) is to be the first to build all four land marks. For fear of being stolen from or falling behind, I tend to buy them by order of increasing cost. If at one point I can afford more than one at the same time, I will buy the most expensive one. This works alright, but I've never really considered changing my strategy before
Are there situations where this is not a feasible strategy?
I feel there are often times where considering a more detailed approach can help squeeze more optimal play. The base game has 4 cards:
These are all characteristically different. The train station opens up the opportunity to access 7-12 roll values which may be something you want or something you very much don't want if others have cards with these values. Definitely do not buy this cheap card on a whim because you may be wasting 4 good coins that could be used elsewhere. Notice that even if you do not have cards with 7-12, you may want this one just to keep opponents with many 1-3 valued cards from getting any hits at all.
The Shopping Mall is clearly very dependent on your holdings of cafe bakery types. For what could be as little as 1 full round around the table more you, you could potentially afford the Amusement Park, and then further the Radio Tower, so again do not buy the Mall simply because it's affordable unless you feel it strongly increases many cards in your holding.
I would in general gloss over the Amusement Park and go straight for the Radio Tower typically, as for 6 coins more, having the power to retry your roll every turn is far more powerful than occasionally getting doubles which happens 1 in 6 rolls. With the ability to re-roll, consider how much more attractive that looks.
