http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1216346

This is the first ladder game I've seen someone take a +5 bonus in their first turn! Very nice.

I'm still waiting to see a +6 bonus in the first turn! But that would be extremely difficult. It would require winning a 2v2 if you tried by yourself, but it may be possible to ride off of a failed opponent's 3v2..

Wouldn't it be fairly easy if you had 3 starting spots next to and in China?

China has 7 territories. One you start in. Deploying all your armies in china can take 3 with 3v2s, leaving 3 territories left to take with the two outside-china start spots.

If the two outside ones share a common remainder, you can take one with a 3v2 and then suicide that last army into the other, reducing it to a 1.

Then the other 4 armies have a 3v2 and a 1v1 to win.

This is all pretty slim odds.

Right I get it -- you'd need 18 attacking armies to pull it off with all 3x2 attacks and you only have 17. It's very slim odds, I believe a 1x1 is around 12%. Plus you'd need to prevail in all the remainders at 80%, 80%, 80%, 80% and 60%. So that would be around 3% odds of getting it in 1 turn.

Now, is it possible to get two +3s in the first turn without a 2v2 or 1v1 roll needing to succeed? I'm looking, but I don't see a way...

I think the best shot is starting in Norway, India and Hong Kong but you would still need a 1v1 to win.

if you had 1 in china and 2 bordering 2 territories each in china, you could put 2/5 in china, then 2/5 and 1/5 on the two bordering it

then each territory attacks 2 territories, giving 5 X 3v2 and 1 2v2

Now for a toughie: What's the highest possible income you can get after two turns, without requiring any 2v2s or 1v1 rolls to succeed?

My guess at an answer for that last question is 14.

If you start in India/West China/East China, you could get India on the first turn and use some of the left over armies from that to help you take West China on the 2nd turn. Not sure if that's totally correct, I haven't looked into it that closely, but I assume that is probably doable without requiring any 2x2 or 1x1's to succeed.

I checked it and that does work, Impaller. Check out this scenario to see what the board looks like after the first turn: http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?TemplateID=89376 (just add one AI)

Starting points were India, HK, Inner Mongolia. 2 each deployed on India and HK, 1 at Inner Mongolia. India and HK both attack out in both directions with 3 troops (I'm assuming good luck so only 1 attacker was killed on each attack). From this point it's easy enough to deploy for 3v2 attacks at the remaining 4 neutrals, with one extra troop to spare.

Whether that scenario is the maximum income for turn 2, I have no idea, but it definitely works.

Sweet. I tried it and got it on my first attempt.

I'd be pretty surprised if there is any possible way to get more than 14 by the end of turn 2, but I supposed I wouldn't count it out. Another potentially possible but untested way to get 14 is Central Russia, West Russia and Caucasus and get Central and Caucasus (or West and Caucasus) by the end of turn 2. This would be done by getting Central or West on turn 1 and then using the extra armies to get Caucasus on turn 2.

A final way to get 14 per turn would be to have 3 out of the 4 of Central America, Scandinavia, India, and Antartica. Get one of Scandinavia/Central/Antartica on the first turn and then get the other 2 on turn 2. This requires that both 4x2 attacks in the other 2 spots leave 3 armies left afterward.

Actually, I'm thinking of a way it might be possible to get 15.

I don't think it would work. Getting 15 that is. At least it doesn't work the way I was trying to make it work, which was starting with Antarctica, Central America and South America.

i almost got 15, was just one territory short everytime i tried.. using all 3v2's.


Shanghai-Inner Mongolia-Pakistan

going for the E.china then the W.china bonuses

and Papau New Guinea-W.Aussie-Scott, headed for Indo-Aussie bonuses for 14..

Perrin, that does work for 15, unless I made a mistake. Check out this template for what the position after turn 1: http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?TemplateID=89399

On turn 2 it is possible to attack all the remaining neutrals with 3v2. This has to be the absolute maximum, I think.

If I'm calculating this properly, the odds of success are roughly 3%. It requires perfect offensive and defensive luck on turn 1 (except for the capture of Taiwan), and perfect offensive luck on turn 2.

I kept failing 3v2's so had to speculate on how it would turn out presuming i had captured E.china on my first turn

Crafty, I made it to 15 on my first try using the template...where's that luck for me in some of these Ladder games!