I'd like to start by saying that I'm not blaming the game.

I *am* curious what the best way to play is in certain situations, though. I almost
always end up losing.

I play the 1v1 auto real-time games. When we pick our initial three territories I almost always end up picking the same ones that my opponent wants, so I get one, they get one or two, and then my other choices get stuck off in some region that has 10 armies and is inconquerable in the beginning.

Because I can't take over a region fast enough my army size doesn't grow, but my enemies always pull it off, get enough armies, and then wipe me out.

How do you deal with these kinds of situations? Or is it just lousy luck that can't be beat?

P.S. Yes, I've tried picking the territories that I normally wouldn't pick, and I *still* get whammied. Why this doesn't work with lottery numbers is an annoying mystery.

choose twice the number of territories youll actually get, so even in the worst-case scenario you still get decent starting places (so choose 6 in the auto 1v1s)

sometimes it can even be good to not get your first three picks; you know where your opponent is.

I see that you only play 1v1 games on medium earth. Maybe medium earth just isn't your map or your just not good at 1v1.

I'd try giving 2v2 or FFA games a chance and see where that goes.

aravir, like X said. Use this formula for picking territories:

A x B = Y

A= Number of Players
B= Number of starting Territories per player
Y= Number of picks you should make

If there are only 6 or less very favorable starting spots you can assume your opponent is going to pick the same. Try to use that to your advantage and guess what he will pick. You can use your picks to find out where your enemy starts and you can get a jump on them. We call this Counter-Picking.

Say for instance there is a prime #1 spot in Scan (Norway), but there is another pick right next door in West Russia (Moscow or Murmansk), if you assume your opponent is going to go for the Scan bonus, pick that territory later on in the order (maybe 2nd, 3rd or 4th). Maybe you can find another area where you can grow with your first two picks, then with the third pick Scan and then an adjacent 4th pick like West Russia. You instantly either have A) a nice pick in Scan or B) a counter-pick where you can rob your opponent of an easy first bonus.

This of course is one of many different starting strategies people have and some people have counters to this counter picking strategy as well so be wary.

I hope this helps you out

In addition to picking, the 1 v 1 game requires that you expand very efficiently. I've noticed this is where a lot of new players make mistakes.

If you want help, you should post the link to a few of your 1 v 1 games. We can give you pointers on ways you could have improved. Like anything, it just takes practice.

You may be beyond this but there are some newbie tips for these game settings on the wiki:

http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php?title=Strategic_1_v_1

Here's a game I was in with aravir

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1420683

It's good you took a first-turn bonus, but South Africa is a fairly poor starting bonus. It's 3 armies for 5 territories, which isn't as good of a ratio as those offered elsewhere. (There are many 3 armies for 4 territories, or 4 armies for 5 territories.)

Your 3v2 failing vs Sudan hurt you a lot. This should have been a 4v2 instead of 3v2 - remember, 4v2s are guaranteed whereas 3v2s will fail 1/5th of the time. This slowed down your taking of East Africa by a turn. And you had armies to spare - the attack into Antarctica didn't accomplish anything and should have been used to expand faster.

One of the keys to 1 v 1 is to go heavily on offense. Breaking an opponent's +5 is often easier than taking a +5 yourself, and they effectively accomplish the same thing.

For picks, you got your 1-2-3, but they were all right next to each other in Africa. Different people have different opinions about clustering your picks together, but personally I recommend almost never clustering all three of your picks together. Try to make sure you have access to all parts of the map - this is important to carry out offensive attacks mentioned above. Clustering two picks with the third far off might be okay, but it's preferable to have all three spread out.

In this map, the wasteland in Iran was killer for you since it meant you had no easy way to get into Asia. This should have motivated you to make sure you had a start point in Asia.

I remember when I started out I kept using 5 guys to take a neutral 2, this was very inefficent as I realize now. I've also noticed that a lot of new players like to start in africa. The only reason I can think of for it is because it's the best place to start in level 3 of single player.

Thank you for all of your comments.

I didn't realize that I could pick more than three initial spots, and that has already helped a bunch.

Another thing that I need to try to avoid (as Fizzer mentioned) is clustering -- if I lose ground in a location and have all of my troops there, I have no backup plan. Someone wise once said something about putting eggs in baskets that seems apropos here... :)

I actually rarely start in Africa, but chose it because I thought I could get a territory quickly and I was trying not to pick a spot I thought another player might be at. I kind of outplayed myself there (and in a followup game with VaporX too, although that one worked out advantageously for me).

I'll keep trying and will see where things go.

Thanks!

Aravir

P.S. Fizzer, nice job. The game rocks. :)

The History Button is your friend!!

You can learn so much by going back and see what you did right and wrong.

Also, you are able to see what your opponent picked in the beginning so you can see their strategy. (Their name is in the drop down if you go all the way back in the history)

looking at the game you played... I think you needed to concentrate more on the bonuses you started in... the attack into Antartica wasn't the best move, especially since you didn't capitalize on it later.. Imho instead of attacking SA on turn 4 you should of used those armies to continue into Antartica...
Likewise Ruthless said History is your friend... before you break *any* new bonus in a game with manual/wastelands check to make sure that bonus doesn't have a wasteland in it, or in your path "like if you're planning on breaking an opponents bonus through it* you wasted alot of armies breaking Venezuela that could of been used to capture Antartica and then start wrecking into Vapor's bonuses

Also you only need 8 armies to guarantee a win against a 4 with 16% luck and 7 wins a pretty fair amount... attacking with 11 is inefficient unless you intend to continue in that path with resistance. You could of used those extra armies to start pushing into Europe..

You need to play against me more. You beat me in the one game we played together.


http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1420086

The History button is a nice tool for looking back to the map at the beginning, if you forget which territories have 10 neutral armies in them then use you history to help plan a path of growth for your armies.
South America was a very bad idea.

Also take into account how manual distribution is allocated.

Fizzer,
In 1v1 is manual distribution still as on help page / wiki?
I thought I read (somewhere) that if both players pick the same for 1,2,3 in order that if player A gets 1, player B would get 2 & 3. The way I read the help page A would get 1 & 3 and B would get 2

It goes ABBAAB. The wiki page is here: http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php?title=Manual_Distribution

being dumb... :)

the best way to learn the game is to watch the histories of the best players in 1vs1 ladder. anything they do makes sense, just think about why they did it...

it is good to spread your starting territorys as much as possible. you have to be able to expand somewhere, while fighting your enemy!

if you have one starting position in the middle of 2 of your enemies starting positions, you have a huge advantage. especially West russia (in the middle of scandinavia, caucasus and central russia) and east china (in the middle of indonesia, india and west china)are good for this. defend that position well, if you have it!

i personally hate africa. north- and southafrica (and canada, and whole US) are the worst bonuses on the map. it is about the bonus-territories-ratio. 5 territories for 3 bonus units is not worth it. (canada, US: 7 territories for 5 bonus).

north america is a bad continent aswell.

Getting central america, antarctica or scandinavia in first turn is worth a try. but it is even nicer, if you can hinder your enemy from getting it. (for example, your enemy starts in mexico and wants to get central america in first turn. you start in venezuela. now he will probably attack whole central america with 3 armies each. if you attack cuba after that, he has wasted his first 5 starting units.); this does not work against really experienced players.

if you move around single armies, you can delay your attack(s) on the enemy. Delay important attacks as much as possible!

if you takes over a bonus, you should "search" for your enemy by walking through the bonus before taking it over. so you are prepared, if your enemy has territorys next to the bonus you want to take over. (for example, if you want to take over australia from antarctica, you move through australia, until you reach indonesia, before you take over australia.)

sometimes you can find out, where your enemy has his territorys. You can find it out when you did not get your starting position picks, and sometimes when your enemy receives 8 armies after the first round. in rare cases you can find out even other starting positions, by doing maths!

use your blockade card wisely. if your enemy overwhelms one of your bonuses at start, blockade one of that bonuses territorys. later, you will probably use it, to block his way.

even during the game, history is your friend. it is important to know, who has first move during a turn. and it is important to know, where the wastelands (territorys with 10 units) are!

so much more to write, but i guess thats alot already...

"Getting central america, antarctica or scandinavia in first turn is worth a try. but it is even nicer, if you can hinder your enemy from getting it. (for example, your enemy starts in mexico and wants to get central america in first turn. you start in venezuela. now he will probably attack whole central america with 3 armies each. if you attack cuba after that, he has wasted his first 5 starting units.); this does not work against really experienced players."

this works against every player, sometimes... I used this against fizzer a few games back 'not ladder, but a tourney' and it worked wonderfully, primarily because the counter-pick had a wasteland which made it less predictable as a counter-pick