Welcome to Turn 7 of The Impaller versus The World, a game that everyone gets to participate in! For more information about the game, view this blog post.

The winning item from last time was number 6: Deploy 3 to Finland, 7 to Norway and 2 to Brazil. Attack Sweden with 4. Attack Svalbard with 7. Transfer 1 from Murmansk to Norway.

Here's what we did:

Here's the outcome:

• The World: Deploy 3 to Finland
• The Impaller: Deploy 12 to Venezuela
• The World: Deploy 7 to Norway
• The World: Deploy 2 to Brazil
• The World: 4 armies captured Sweden from Finland. 1 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.
• The Impaller: 15 armies captured Colombia from Venezuela. 1 attacking armies killed, 1 defending armies killed.
• The World: 7 armies captured Svalbard from Norway. 3 attacking armies killed, 4 defending armies killed.
• The World: 1 army transferred to Norway from Murmansk
• The World still has an order priority and a blockade card. 3/4 reinforcement, 2/5 delay, 1/6 pri, 7/19 blockade.

1. Goal: Block Impaller from bordering our bonus in Antarctica using our deployment and armies in Brazil and begin taking Greenland.
   -Deploy 14 to Brazil and 1 to Svalbard. Transfer 18 from Brazil to Argentina. Attack Danmark Havn with 4. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway.

2. Goal: Block Impaller from bordering our bonus in Antarctica while trying to block a potential 2 or 3 attack into Argentina first move. Move into Greenland.
   -Deploy 2 to Argentina, 12 to Brazil and 1 to Svalbard. Attack Venezuela with 2. Transfer 14 to Argentina. Attack Danmark Havn with 4. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway.

3. Goal: Defend Argentina to prevent Impaller from bordering our bonus in Antarctica. Move into Greenland.
   -Deploy 14 to Argentina and 1 to Svalbard. Transfer 2 to Argentina. Attack Venezuela with 2. Attack Danmark Havn with 4. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway.

4. Goal: Defend Argentina while moving into South Africa to border potential African bonuses. Move into Greenland.
   -Deploy 10 to Argentina, 4 to Novolazerevskaya and 1 to Svalbard. Transfer 4 to Argentina. Attack Danmark Havn with 4. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway. Attack South Africa with 4.

5. Goal: Defend Argentina while moving towards the India bonus. Attempt to move into Greenland.
   -Deploy 11 to Argentina and 4 to Ufa. Transfer 4 to Argentina. Attack Danmark Havn with 3. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway. Attack Eastern Kazakhstan with 4.

Click here to vote

You should interpret the stars as follows:

• 0 Stars means "I don't care" or "I'm indifferent to this item."
• 1 Star means "I'm positive we should not do this."
• 2 Stars means "I don't think we should do this."
• 3 Stars means "Maybe we should do this."
• 4 Stars means "I think we should do this."
• 5 Stars means "I'm positive this is what we should do."

Use this thread to discuss strategy. Have votes in before the end of the day Thursday and check back Friday for the next turn!

Based on my first look I like 3 but with a transfer of 4 from Argentina. I don't think there's much value in attacking Venezsuela and I would want as much defense in Argentina as possible in case it's 25 attacking there (consider making the transfer of 4 with the OP).

Imp might believe that an attack with 25 is assured of taking Argentina (assuming he doesn't know we got Scan), so that attack for him would maximize his net gain, assure him a card and set up taking antartica. It makes logical sense for him to go for an all out attack on Argentina. If we defend with 19 (13.3), an attack with 25 (15) isn't such a big net loss (especially since Imp would be denied a card piece if we succeed).

I like going for Greenland as well -- it and Australia are the best bonuses for the number of territories on the map. I could see pulling the 2 back to eventually, after moving it over for 3 turns, using it to go into Causacus. But I could also see using it in greenland on after a 2 turn lag.

We know for a Fact He Will not attack mexico if he remembers his blockade because He knows we don't have the resources to get the blockade and anyway it would be a stupid move I think I like No.5 Because there is a good chance that he is in India And In retrospect We will HAVE to expand in Asia Over then next few turns or we wont be able to keep up. We have a tough game but Were still in the lead Option 5 FTW.

Would you please add:

6 Goal: Defend Argentina to prevent Impaller from bordering our bonus in Antarctica. Move into Greenland.

-Deploy 14 to Argentina and 1 to Svalbard. Play Order Priority, Transfer 4 to Argentina. Attack Danmark Havn with 4. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway.

REGL -- Assuming you're right and he's got India. You have to take 3 spots to reach India and even then he only needs to defend 1 spot. If you reallly want to engage hitting South Africa with 4 is much better. I'm thinking next turn when we have the card.

Added #6 as an option on Snappyvote.

6 is a very solid option, got my vote

I'm loving Dukes Plan The order priority ensures defense Its Got my vote.

I'd combine number 1 and number 6 by deploying in Brazil and then transfer (I assume transfer means "transfer only"?) priority to Argentina, just to avoid the case where he uses order priority too and attacks our 15 with 25 (assuming he again deploys 12), quite possible resulting in a territory loss and a considerable disadvantage.

Although, if he attacks with 25, he kills 15, to kill at least as much (not to have disadvantage, we'd need 21. So with 19, our loss would be doable (expected difference of 1.4)

Remark 1: by defending Argentina, we do give away that we own Antarctica.
Remark 2: we are giving away our income and thus he may start to deduct where our bonuses are, certainly when he assumes we have Antarctica and the West-Russia/Scandinavia combination is quite an obvious one.

The varient of using the OP to transfer only would be fine. Did Imp miss 1 card piece or 2? If he missed 2 then he doesn't have an OP and it's a nonissue.

I usually run through the history to count card pieces in a situation like this. very hard to do when you see a turn once every week or two and then they're buried in the forum.

We are still hiding income by putting 1 in Scan. Defending Argentina is not a dead giveaway, but I'd be shocked if he doesn't know we're in Antartica based on picks. It's arguably the best pick and probably in his top 3.

Just as we deduce that WA and India are Imp's likely other starting spots, he's bound to deduce ours.

The max potential net loss of 1.4 is fine as we'd also block a card piece -- true net is likely zero

Also -- even if Imp has an OP, he's unlikely to use it to attack a 1 in Argentina. Would you?

Well, if I was planning on hitting Argentina and I saw the 5 in Brazil, I very well might. I wouldn't rule out the possibility.

I'm fine with switching to a 100% transfer only from Brazil, just request the option and I'll change my vote.

this is a terrible plan. if you're so sure he's in east africa, and that he's trying to break antactica, then why hasn't he attacked south through south africa? why don't we attack north into south africa and see what's up?

i say we make him be the aggressor in all the wrong places while we bring the fight to him with a big surprise army. we hold on to south america by adding a couple extra armies to brazil, then attack north on our last move.

concede antarctica, watch him put two dozen armies out of position, we put 14 into south africa with our first move, then we break east africa next turn with a potential 28 on 13 attack. we're up in income 12-8, which is better than 15-12.

and if he's not there, we can still work east africa ourselves, while we move up into australia, and we will have armies in position to keep him from break/taking antarctica in three turns. antarctica has served its purpose. time to move on.

i guess what i don't understand is, why are we so eager to engage in a losing battle when we have an income advantage? we should be pressing our advantage and making him take the bad end of the fight.

bostonfred, i like your style.

I am not sure he's in EA. I'm pretty confident he's deployed 100% of his income for the last few turns to block us in SA and try and position himself to take it. Taking us out in SA would be a very bad result. He might go to Brazil, he might expand elsewhere, he might pop up in SA. I like 6 because it (1) holds SA, (2) protects Antartica and (3) has the potential to produce a nice net gain if Imp deosn't attack with 25.

Your plan has the potential to backfire badly, #6 has little downside (but I acknowledge little upside as well). I think hitting singles is smart with a lead, if we were behind then I'd want a big play.

Let's try this - tell me where he could be. He could be in Canada, India, Indonesia, East Africe, East Russia, or West China. We can see all of the other bonuses that don't have wastelands in them, and I think we can agree he probably hasn't had enough income to have broken down wastelands at this point in the game.

Of those, he can't have East Russia, Canada or West China alone and still have 12+ income. And I don't believe he has had enough time to take one of them on his own.

That leaves India/East Africa and India/Indonesia as the two most likely cases, right?

So now the next question is, which pair is most likely. We started out early saying that impaller would probably spread himself out instead of bundling up his eggs in one basket, and I still very much agree with that. So it's more likely that he's in east africa then indonesia. Which is why we send the big F.U. army there this turn and break his biggest bonus and try to demoralize him. His armies are way out of position, we beat him silly.

Of course, that could fail in a lot of ways. He might try to take South Africa himself this turn (which is why it should be our first move, if not an order priority move). He might already have some spare armies up there, so it's not as easy an attack (although he can't have too many since we've seen his income at play). Or he might not be there at all.

But if he's not there, he's in Indonesia. And we're three turns away from the evil fork in Australia, where we can put a big army that borders him, and move it left and right in a single move, while he can't do the same - it takes two moves to move armies from border country to border country. I'd love to find out he wasn't in East Africa. We'd take it ourselves, and start moving on Australia immediately.

Sure, it could backfire a little. But this thing of, maybe if we put all our armies over here, and then we get lucky and move first, and then we hopefully can stop him for at least one turn - it turns out that can backfire much worse than my plan.

The winning option is 6. Deploy 14 to Argentina and 1 to Svalbard. Play Order Priority. Transfer 4 to Argentina. Attack Danmark Havn with 4. Transfer 1 from Norway to Svalbard. Transfer 2 from Sweden to Norway.

The next thread will be posted shortly.

Enjoyed reading bostonfred's perspective. Don't hesitate to suggest an item to be added to snappyvote for future turns!