1. No card games are more dependent on dice + drop than escalating game, which is significantly more dependent on strategy. Sure you can get screwed by having two countries in Oceania, and 3 in Africa, but you can still reposition yourself (will go over it in the next point).
2. If you think that the first 5 turns involve no strategy, that's probably why you're low ranked. It involves moving your armies around, and positioning yourself for prime position. Find out who's weak, who's wasting their armies, and how you can get near them. At the same time, you need to ensure you get a card, and don't attack too many people en route to your destination, lest you lose too many armies yourself and become a target. Also if you see a low rank who IS weak but is apt to attack randomly on whoever is next to them, figure out if it is beneficial enough to stay next to them. Debate on what is more important, moving to a location to get a +2 bonus because you have a card for the territory, or moving into a position that is more advantageous.
3. You need to know when to cash or when not to cash in a casual game. If you have 4 cards, should you cash, or wait for 5? If you wait for five, you can potentially do a midcash the next turn by killing any 3's on the board. However, by not cashing you make yourself a prime target to others who want to kill you and take your cards.
4. Flat Rate is the least strategy type in the entire game. In a 1v1 (on smaller maps), whoever gets the first mixed set will almost always win, assuming the other person does not also get one. It makes it *so* dependent on luck and so devoid of strategy I have stopped playing flat rate games in one player.
5. Unlimited is a preference over anything else. Having chained would hardly alter gameplay, and if you think that high ranked players are "dependent" on that, you are highly mistaken.
6. Going on after point #1, no card games, if played by higher ranks, will generally end in stalemates, because they are smart and don't make retarded moves. However at low ranks, players are so stupid and don't see the bigger picture they just attack who's next to them. I typically get caught in this crossfire. And considering if I play 8 player games with low ranks (who often suicide higher ranks because they fear strategy, not kidding, I've had it happen, people in chat say "sorry I just get nervous around high ranks so I try to target them first"), if I win 3/8 of my 8 player freestyle games I'll probably just break even points wise (I lose about 60 points vs a cook, gain 5), and that's still beating the odds (as you should obviously win 1/8 of your freestyle games statistically).
7. Terminator games are out of the question as then players have a legitimate reason to suicide me as they get more points sacrificing themselves to take me down in the process.
8. Fog of War games is simply a mode that adds luck to the game, and log analyzing, not something I'm fond of. You have to continually look at the log and compare it to the map to be able to predict where they will be, about how many armies they will have had to kill to get to that location, and their strength. Not worth my time.
Any more complaints/bashing? Just another noob that plays 8-player classic speed freestyle unlimited with clickable maps
