Conquer Club

As stated up thread numerous times: beginner's strategies will only move you part way up the ladder. Timing, lane control, and blocking strategies are learned best from experience, IMO; but we'll get you started anyway with the basic concepts and definitions.

Timing
Timing is all about when to go for the kill. There are two main categories to consider. The single shot kill and the series kill. A single shot is where you will eliminate another player without getting another cash. The series shot is where you will get subsequent cashes, hopefully resulting in a Full Board Sweep (which is what dedicated escalating players live for).

The single shot kill is simpler to calculate than the series kill, but takes care in that eliminations always change blocking and lane control dynamics on the map. If you are not careful, you can make a kill shot that leaves you looking strong but actually leaves the game wide open for another player. This is the error that really pisses off a lot of advanced players.

The series shot takes more careful planning, and can be hard to predict as it involves a long series of dice rolls that often end in "hangings" (a failed elimination try that leaves opponent with only a couple armies on the board). Hangings generally do not irritate advanced players, as they are part of the game. If you aren't leaving the occasional hanging, you aren't winning your share of games. The key here is to not go overboard. If you start trying 10% odds shots because "that's my only chance of winning", then you are still a beginner. Go back.

Lane Control
Lane control is the practice of taking strong positions that keep your attacking options plentiful and in many directions.

Blocking
Blocking is the practice of taking strong positions that prevent other players from either eliminating a specific opponent or that prevent other players from accessing regions of the map.

Examples from the {edit: classic } map.

Lane control territories:
Ontario
Afghanistan
Southern Europe
East Africa
[any territory on any given day that is open to attacking multiple directions]

Blocking territories:
Siam
Indonesia
[any territory on any given day that prevents another player's pending kill-shot]

Blocking and lane control:
North Africa
Kamchatka/Alaska
Iceland/Greenland
Central America/Venezuela

Next up: How the above parameters vary in importance with game settings

Excellent thread...don;t know whether to applaud you for sharing such geat knowledge for the Community or be POed for the same reason

This chart should generate some lively discussion, I hope.



Explanation:
The scale is arbitrary, and the data points are my opinion.

As you can see from the chart, two player games don't require advanced strategies.

Three player games aren't much better.

After that, timing is everything.

Lane control is always important, but there are limitations to what can be accomplished when there are 8 players on the board.

Blocking lives right up there with timing, and becomes more critical with more players

is that chart empirical

can i see your data


by the way, what are the odds of getting two sets from 7 cards or 8 cards, or the rare 3 sets from 9 cards?

stringybeany wrote:
Fortifications: DO NOT GATHER YOUR TROOPS INTO PILES.
*exception: you may move troops out of countries that you have completely surrounded*

I had a quick skim through the first post. I fucking hate it when people dont fort into piles, leaving 2's and 3's everywhere.

poo-maker wrote:

stringybeany wrote:
Fortifications: DO NOT GATHER YOUR TROOPS INTO PILES.
*exception: you may move troops out of countries that you have completely surrounded*

I had a quick skim through the first post. I fucking hate it when people dont fort into piles, leaving 2's and 3's everywhere.

I have to agree here with poo. That bothers almost as much as someone trying to go for a bonus. Especially in 8 man games.

stringybeany wrote:S
Round One:

A: Pick one country in a large continent that is close to other countries you own and deploy there. Roll dice once against opponent of your choice, but try and attack towards your other countries.
Fortifications: DO NOT GATHER YOUR TROOPS INTO PILES.
*exception: you may move troops out of countries that you have completely surrounded*

Step one: check the board strength. Everyone should still have about the same number of armies on the board.

B: If the board is "unbalanced",meaning either one player has taken big losses or big advances then you want to attack whoever has the most "armies due" for the next turn. This means breaking weakly held continents if necessary. Look for the easiest victories that will take the most "armies due" from the board leader. If you can't reduce the leader's strength without becoming weak in the process, then look for easy victories as outlined above.

A. Attack to keep the board in balance. Always attack the leader first, if possible.

Round five:

Attack with same priorities, but now you will fortify with a new goal: elimination.

In round five you examine all your opponents looking for elimination targets. A viable target will be accessible to your troops and will have at least three cards, preferably more.

Fortify against this opponent(s). Make large piles now, if you can.
If there are no viable elimination targets, make no big moves.

Round six through Eight:

Cash your set. Eliminate your target or if no target, take the easiest card you can get and wait for next round. From here forward cash immediately if you have a target, wait until forced to cash if you don't.

Wtf-- attack a 3 first round, move towards your other territories, don't gather into piles, kill-shot with first cash, keep the board "balanced"? Where do you get that stuff from?! I thought you wanted to improve beginner's play?...

Referring to that chart of yours; how is "Lane Control" in 8 player games not as important as Blocking and "Timing"? Timing and Lane Control come with each other-- if you don't have the position to take a kill, then it's no use to you when cards and armies of the other player are to your advantage. Hence, Lane Control should be at least as important and Timing. I don't have the time now, but there are some other points I don't like.

RashidJelzin wrote:Wtf-- attack a 3 first round, move towards your other territories, don't gather into piles, kill-shot with first cash, keep the board "balanced"? Where do you get that stuff from?! I thought you wanted to improve beginner's play?...

HAHAHA Be nice though hes just giving info to the best of his ability, theres a reason you are the rank you are and hes the rank he is.

Bruceswar wrote:

poo-maker wrote:I had a quick skim through the first post. I fucking hate it when people dont fort into piles, leaving 2's and 3's everywhere.

I have to agree here with poo. That bothers almost as much as someone trying to go for a bonus. Especially in 8 man games.

I have always found it strange that not allowing your opponents access to easy cards is somehow considered bad strategy??? (ofc you shouldn't weaken yourself just to keep armies even over your territories)

Thezzaruz wrote:

Bruceswar wrote:

poo-maker wrote:I had a quick skim through the first post. I fucking hate it when people dont fort into piles, leaving 2's and 3's everywhere.

I have to agree here with poo. That bothers almost as much as someone trying to go for a bonus. Especially in 8 man games.

I have always found it strange that not allowing your opponents access to easy cards is somehow considered bad strategy??? (ofc you shouldn't weaken yourself just to keep armies even over your territories)

If you dont leave an easy card then the chances are you wont get one back so you lose armies both ways...not good.

joecoolfrog wrote:If you dont leave an easy card then the chances are you wont get one back so you lose armies both ways...not good.

Sure, that's the most basic form of alliances/collusion in a game. But demanding that everyone always does it is a bit much IMO.

Thezzaruz wrote:

joecoolfrog wrote:If you dont leave an easy card then the chances are you wont get one back so you lose armies both ways...not good.

Sure, that's the most basic form of alliances/collusion in a game. But demanding that everyone always does it is a bit much IMO.

You'll win more games if you share cards than if you don't.

poo-maker wrote:

stringybeany wrote:
Fortifications: DO NOT GATHER YOUR TROOPS INTO PILES.
*exception: you may move troops out of countries that you have completely surrounded*

I had a quick skim through the first post. I fucking hate it when people dont fort into piles, leaving 2's and 3's everywhere.

you think it's bad in speed freestyle-- it's worse in casual games. even in some of my private games, just makes me want to auto ALL of them

Just sign up after me. I will give the game to you after the dice kick my butt and I leave one shy of a fifty cash. I just may advance wrong too and blow the whole thing. Fun games though. Just sign up after me, you will win alot. course I handed two games to people this week and they didn't even notice, I will have the win in one and who knows in the other.

Thank you all.

if you stare at the map long enough you can see the future

Thezzaruz wrote:

joecoolfrog wrote:If you dont leave an easy card then the chances are you wont get one back so you lose armies both ways...not good.

Sure, that's the most basic form of alliances/collusion in a game. But demanding that everyone always does it is a bit much IMO.

Im demanding nothing, simply advising the best tactic, pissing your opponents off in the early stages of a game is not a good idea !

thanks this has helped me out big time

leaving the easy card is just basic cooperative game theory

sometimes it helps you more to help someone else. sometimes it doesn't.

tracedout wrote:leaving the easy card is just basic cooperative game theory

sometimes it helps you more to help someone else. sometimes it doesn't.

First of all let me just say that I did not read the whole thread so if I am repeating someone else comment then I apologize for the infringement.

Actually leaving the easy card, is a bit more than just basic cooperative game theory! In Escalating spoils game, you want the spoils set trade in, to get high as quickly as possible. In a game of 6 players with everyone carding on their turns the game should not last more then 10 or 12 rounds. Usually 6 player escalating games are over by round 8 or 9 although I have seen them end even sooner then that depending on the terrible play that some people do.

Imagine a game where no one is carding except for one player. Sooner or later that player that is carding will eventually win the game because sooner or later he will, little by little take out everyone in the game. In a game with no one carding, then no one is assaulting anyone. And this game is won by assaulting and not just dropping your troops. So the whole point of leaving 1's everywhere is so that others will take them and thus build up the "Card Economy!"

The CE is the number one way to not just replenish your troops for the troops lost on assaulting other regions but also the key method to winning the escalating game. The CE insures that the spoils soon overtake the BZ's (Bonus Zones). So influencing and allowing for others to card on easy card spot is what you basically want in an escalating spoils game. Otherwise you may as well play with no spoils in which case it is the BZ's that determine who eventually wins the games and then you are just fighting for BZ's and not spoils.

The setting of escalating spoils is what make it possible that the BZ's soon lose out any strategical purpose or value in the game so then every player leaving behind easy card spots is the whole reason to escalating spoils. The CE is the game and the strategy then lies in how to deal with and benefit from an ever rising Card Economy!