Something refreshing for a change....

https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=9231467

Wanted to have picture of territory distribution but I don't know how too... Yes I'm an idiot. I forgive you.

My 3 picks were 1. Scandinavia
2. Antarctica
3. Indonesia

4. 5. 6. = My laptop was out of charge and had only 10 sec to pick.. Not even worth mentioning cause I got my first 3 picks.



My strategic guide-ish

Turn 1 - Was surprised to get all 3 picks. Knew I had an advantage as getting all 3 picks meant that I would have 1 area to expand into.

Turn 2- No first turn contact made me believe that my opponent was in Central Russia or Africa.

Turn 3 - Ruled out Central Russia as place where opponent could be. Made a small stack of 6 into South America. Doubted attack on South Africa. Would plan to attack SA if opponent was in Africa.

Turn 4- Enemy was in africa. Was sure he/she triple picked.

Turn 5- I use reinforcement card. Put immediate pressure on West Africa and a small 5 troop attack on South Africa as previous planned.

Turn 6- Knew I had the army advantage so attacked hard on both sides.

Turn 7- Success in West Africa.

*Enemy Surrenders*

This was my perspective of the game.

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All-Game perspective of the game.

1. Lobisomi triple picks Africa for combo on West Africa. This was ineffective and failed.

2. Platinum had Russia area to expand into. Indonesia + India too. Platinum had more of a prescence on corners of this map than Lobisomi.

3. Lobisomi fails to complete East Africa. Gives Platinum advantage.

4. Stack is made from Antarctica into South America to West Africa. Lobisomi caught un-aware and loses West Africa. Platinum wins.

5. More of a presence in main areas in map gave Platinum rough-idea where Lobisomi was at. Lobisomi had no idea where Platinum main picks were based due to triple picking in Africa.

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Do you want me to do more of this? Please show your support if you do! :)

I made this because I want to refresh people of Warlight gameplay instead of Warlight suggestions or ideas... Enjoy!

It's hard to analyze a game and discuss about strategy when there is luck involved.

Lobisomi *should* have been able to grab West Africa on the first turn and East Africa on the third turn, but he did not. Under Pure Skill settings, the game could have ended very differently: he could have expanded more quickly with his bonus troops, which in turn would have allowed him to defend better. The placement of the 10-units-wastelands was also very unfavorable for Lobisomi. There was one in Madagascar, which preventing him from taking South Africa in the short run - and one in Israel, which blocked access to Asia.

However, I can say that you building up a small army on your way to Brazil was definitively smart.

I really like the idea of analyzing matches but we should probably choose another one. xP

Take a screen shot by pressing and holding fn then press prt sc or simply press the print screen button.

Could you also provide the game link?

As ZeroBlindDragon said, its hard to analyse a game with the luck involvement. If you look at the graph of luck statistics, Platinum ends on +2.9 and Lobisomi on -3.2. This difference is pretty huge for a 6 turn game and provided a large advantage to Platinum.

It's hard to analyze a game and discuss about strategy when there is luck involved.

Seriously, I don't know where you get this silly idea. There are hundreds of ladder games, that were analyzed, and this template is not called "Strategic ME" just for fun.

Anyway, here's my attempt to do the analyze:
Lobisomi picked a wastelanded bonus (South Africa), witch is not a best idea. Even if he'd grab his FTB, he needs to waste those extra armies he earned, on warlord in East Africa. So incomewise this triple pick didn't gave him completely nothing.
Moreover positionally he is much worse than Platinum, because no safe pick. All picks in one place means, that enemy nearby will smack all your bonuses in the moment they get to Africa. And basically that's what happened. After Platinum picked Antarctida, it was almost impossible to win for Lobisomi.

I'm assuming I'm supposed to put a game in this because of the plural "games" in the title.

https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=9133685

This is proof that picks don't win you games. I had better picks than Ollie, but my gameplay was a lot worse.

Platinum's picks aren't that good either imo

1. he didn't make a combo so expansion in the first few turns is slower and less efficient compared to combo picks

2. Indonesia sucks because it requires at least 3 turns to move from Malaysia to Solomon Islands


I think I would have gone Antarctica + Australia + Scandinavia for the 11 income in 2 turns, which looks like the best option on this distribution - South America + Central America isn't bad either, but it is completely countered by both Africa triple and Antarctica combo + Scandinavia

https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=8820846

Not the normal settings, but still a ladder game.

It was on my favourites so it must be alright at least to analyse.

@benjamin:
Your picks had two errors:
1) you only get your 6th if you also get your 2nd & 3rd, so your 6th should go somewhere else
2) the south of the map is seperated from the north by bonuses with wastelands, you didn't pick anything in the south, so Ollie could safely expand there.

Other then that he outmanouvred you in scandinavia,
sometimes this just happens, this is why you start with blockade-card,
if you had put it in iceland he could not enter greenland nor get scandinavia.

Very abd expansion turn 1 from platinum, why would you expand in indo with 4 and not in scan? Had you expanded in scan with 4 you could have been on 11 income in 2 turns (not bad at all) but instead because of that 1 troop you condemned yourself to 8 income in 2 turns, so slower expansion.

Also you got very lucky, in the whole game you made 8 3vs2 attacks, all of them worked, the likeliehood of that is 0.167. Instead of him where he made 1 6vs4 attack which failed and 2 of his 4 3vs2s failed in the first 3 turns. With the tables turned around it is very possible he could have beaten you with correct defensive play since you might not have had a bonus going into turn 3 so he could have gone into SA before you.

Picks were also poor imo, you want to get combos into play to make for faster expansion and better use of troops and leftovers in the early game. I would have gone:
1 West Russia 2 Central Russia 3 Antartica 4 Australia 5 Central America 6 East US
The Russia combo allows an easy Central Russia take in 2 turns, and hoping for the border in antartica. If I don't get 1 of my Russias I get a combo in antartica to allow very easy fight. If I don't get either antartica but both russia I have safe central america to go south and hit antartica before they finish australia. If we split russia and ant then I either get safe camerica to expand, or the get it and I counter from east us as they "finish" the bonus, so they waste more armies on neutrals giving me advantage.

1) you only get your 6th if you also get your 2nd & 3rd, so your 6th should go somewhere else

This is completely wrong - you get your 6th only if you didn't get your 4th and 5th, so it should be a counter to those picks. You can get 1-2-6, 1-3-6 and 2-3-6

Edited 8/6/2015 12:22:40

powerpos not true - if you get your 6th the only "truth" is that they got your 4 and 5, so you should use it as a strong counter to either or both. You will not necessarily get 2 and 3 as they might pick your 3 as their 1, so they will obviously get it. You are right though, the 6 should have been Indonesia to counter china or antartica for safe quick bonus.
You should not have tried taking West China when you are bordering an enemy since turn 2... way too long to pay off the income you have wasted. The attempt to take scan while you are taking west china is also awful, you cant be taking 4 neutrals a turn where he takes none. If you were to be expanding maybe taking 1 neutral a turn for the card piece, but not more than that.

buns, very nice blockade in camerica, it instantly made west africa and samerica safe bonuses for you and isolated his stack from your new bounses.

For Platinum game:

West africa FTB is bad, it is totally awful with wasteland pick. Malaysia is also bad, because if you do want to capture Indo reasonably fast, you need to deploy some armies there in 2 previous turns as well, meanning in first turns you can capture less then you could have if you could use all your troops. Hope this sentence make sense.

With your bonuses, 11 in 2 turns without cluster have low chances, but depending on 1st turn I would try to do it. First turn deploy all to scand, attack 5vs2 and 3vs2 in there, also make 3vs2 attacks in remianing bonuses, next turn if you can use 3vs2 to finish both +3 I would try to do that, if not capture one (with 100% chance attack(s)) and if you can afford capture Papua New Guinea. Other than that you played pretty good, predicted where enemy is and won easily I would say.

Benjamin:

I prefer Ollie's picks... Rather safe Ant and aus, and 3rd pick somewhere near the action, what's not to love? As for your picks, East africa was better pick than EC, in all aspects. Always capture a bonus 2nd turn, unless you suspect your enemy won't capture a bonus that turn either. taking West china was not mistake, trying taking scand definitely. You lost many troops because he hit you with a bigger stack (or you hit his bigger stack). This aspect is just as important as income advantage, you should pay more attention to such situations. There is no reason to make two attacks with 2 if you can make one with 4 ... (turn 8 west china)

buns:

yea, blockade was nice. You lost quite a few 3vs2 attacks, that made you lose many troops, I feel that sometimes you should have used 4vs2. No mistakes later on, very nice play, your opponent made few mistakes, but you did deserved the win.