Like anyone who has spent a bunch of time on this game, I've got strategy opinions. I mostly play FFAs and I'm pretty good at them (overall 41% winrate over all FFAs). Tell me what you disagree with:
- It's often worth speculatively throwing a single 1 attack at the end of your turn as often players push their luck and move out of a defensive position or attack you where you've defended: 1 for 1 is a liveable exchange of troops, and so nothing is lost usually by testing defences this way.
- Move order is everything and every newbie player (and a lot of players who have managed to play a lot) misunderstands this. I do things in more or less this order every time:
1. Take an enemy position if it's very likely they'll move away, and there are lots of places they can move
2. Seize a neutral position before an enemy gets it
3. Transfer in defensive armies to front line
4. Transfer all other armies in the backlines
5. Take neutrals that aren't threatened by an opponent
6. Take weak opponent positions
7. Make any speculative defensive tests
8. Make normal attacks against normal opponents
- Fundamentally, you almost always want to attack after an opponent has already exhausted their turn, so the more moves you make the better. Lots of players are like Earth, and stay solid. It is best to be like Water and keep everything flowing. The ideal is for every army to be in motion if possible. I see so many players leave useless troops deep in their backline when they could be shifting them steadily to the front.
- A game can be won or lost on alliances, open up the PM box and make pacts. Some people are very quick to betray, others slow, so don't trust entirely straight away, but do trust a little if it allows you to gain more advantage than you'd lose in a surprise attack from them.
- Pay attention to the map and prioritise high income, easy to get bonuses. Always be pushing to get to bonuses before enemies do, as the increased income will help you defend your new gains.
- That said, sometimes you'll want to turtle: specifically, when there are multiple opponents in the same area, you want to be the last to attack, so waiting until they exhaust their stacks against each other is best. Or in games where taking neutrals is more expensive (e.g. where one man must be left behind), sometimes building up a serious army is better than always exhausting yourself slowly getting more income. A judgement always has to be made whether you need to build armies now, or whether its safe to invest. Usually investing in taking bonuses is best.
- Stick with the game even when you're outnumbered in the early-to-mid game, as most long FFAs have incredibly high boot rates for opponents. Often it's possible to improve your chance at winning just by outliving players with superior numbers but poorer dedication. See these games for instance: (
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=26261278.
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=25977857).
- That said, if you're with opponents you respect, you should surrender when they've clearly won, so as not to waste everyone's time.
