Conquer Club

Tried something new in one of my games, I think I may have thrown the game away though because I was careless, but...

In a flat rate or escalating game is it worth eliminating a player for their cards? Any tips?

Thanks

escalating most definately when the card troop numbers are high, however flat rate, its not definately worth it unless you are playing a small map...

I never play flat rate, but I have seen many escalating games finish via this technique. Say you cash in for 30 troops, then eliminate someone, getting enough cards for a mid-turn cash-in of 35 troops. That lets you take out someone else, get more cards, cash in for 40, and so on.

It's not limited to standard or terminator games. In some escalating games, it may be neccessary to kill a teammate so you can cash or to prevent an opponent from taking their cards. Proceed with extreme caution and only after consulting with your teammate.

in escalating, u also have to consider the risk of having a couple of bad rolls, which means u fall just short of eliminating an opponent, letting a third player take his cards to kill u instead.

in terminator, killing opponents is the whole point of the game, so it's normally worth killing someone for the cards (and points!).

ian.

Just do the math: for flat rate, if someone has 4 cards, and you can kill him: will it probably cost you less than around 12 armies? (12 = A guess of what those cards will bring you. including the +2 bonus if you own the territory and the fact that you own more territories afterwards)
Then just kill him.

For escalating: gut-feeling and checking what other people can do (whether they could kill the person too, and how much more they could gain from it) is important. Experience is important, but in most cases it is the only way to victory to kill as soon as possible.

Mmk, thankyou

You must also be extremely careful when dealing with Fog games.

You have to be sure, or be very brave (or lucky), to take out a opponent in a Fog game, else you miss a territory, and give your other opponents a good advantage.

You should only do it if the person had 4 cards or more, because then you are guaranteed a bonus if you can destroy them completely and allow you to use the bonus to at least help fortify the new territories . You should also do it if you have accumulated plenty of troops before assaulting your opponent(teammate too if needed) to compensate for some bad rolls and help with defense afterwards.

Eliminating players for cards in escalating helps a lot but you have to continue it and make careful sure you take out every single little territory or else your game is screwed. It even helps in flat rate, I toppled a guy with over 50% of the territory in a 4 player flat rate game by eliminating the other two weaker players and then I went for him. Eliminating players in no spoils will destroy you though.

sherkaner wrote:For escalating: gut-feeling and checking what other people can do (whether they could kill the person too, and how much more they could gain from it) is important. Experience is important, but in most cases it is the only way to victory to kill as soon as possible.

ditto... often I arrive at a "now or never moment". If I don't take the chance, and someone else will have a similar chance as the one I am faced with before my next turn, then it makes sense to go for it. (escalating in particular). Deployement is critical as you cash in the spoils. I have fallen 1 army short when I thought it was going to be easy, and also have made it all the way when I thought it was less than a 50/50 chance. The thrill of going for it and making it is a little bit of a rush. Only rarely do you "throw the game" and hand it to another player. But it does happen. I think real life war may be a bit like that as well. Assuming you don't bring out the nukes early on.

example: http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=5627792

ser stiefel wrote:

sherkaner wrote:For escalating: gut-feeling and checking what other people can do (whether they could kill the person too, and how much more they could gain from it) is important. Experience is important, but in most cases it is the only way to victory to kill as soon as possible.

ditto... often I arrive at a "now or never moment". If I don't take the chance, and someone else will have a similar chance as the one I am faced with before my next turn, then it makes sense to go for it. (escalating in particular). Deployement is critical as you cash in the spoils. I have fallen 1 army short when I thought it was going to be easy, and also have made it all the way when I thought it was less than a 50/50 chance. The thrill of going for it and making it is a little bit of a rush. Only rarely do you "throw the game" and hand it to another player. But it does happen. I think real life war may be a bit like that as well. Assuming you don't bring out the nukes early on.

example: http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=5627792

Yes, that game is a perfect example of the escalating rampage. It worked well for you that the first elimination allowed you to cash two sets at once, which really got you rolling. Without a careful examination of the log, I cannot just call it luck, so I'll call it a skillful choice of your first victim. A second shot at that pretty much clinched things.

Being able to look back at games like this easily is why I hope the next update includes attack history (or game log 2.0, or whatever it's being called now).

I have won the occasional flat rate game by taking out people in rapid sucession much like an escallating game, but I would not advise it as a strategy.

I find taking someone out for their cards in flat rate usually makes the most sense when its an attack of opportunity. ie another opponent knocks them down to very few territories that you can see and you are maybe cashing a set at the start of the turn and use the set armies to take them out to get another set the next turn. I have found that when two people get to fighting over an area the "winner" is often so hell bent at getting the loser out of their zone that they will even take them down to one territory. Then you (the true winner) can smile and thank them for the cards. Usually its people who lack overall game awareness who do this.

I try to avoid Flat Rate games with more than two players, just because I can't get a good enough spoils reward by eliminating someone.