Strat-X #3

[KennyC]

I'm starting another strategy explaination game if anyone is interested.

Game #: 656291
pw: stratx3

5-player, North America, Sequential, Flat, Unlimited

Once again I will be posting my reasoning behind the moves I make, this time I will put some more emphasis on what I am setting up for. If you are interested in doing the same please feel free to join.

If you do not get the chance to join, but want to comment on different postions or moves please do.

[KennyC]

It looks like we will have a pretty strong group for this game! There is still one spot open to anyone willing to give it a shot.

[Bob Janova]

Ahh what the hell, this has been here for 4 and a half hours. I will hopefully learn a lot from playing with these more experienced members!

/me joins

I'll also attempt to explain my (attempt at) strategy for all to laugh at ... um I mean admire

Edit: looks like I got to go first. The highest concentration of armies I have is in Eastern USA, so on my first turn I have just consolidated there, and taken one territory for the card – don't want to over stretch at the start. I have a vague plan to look for that bonus at a later stage, and this is also a good point to have a large army to potentially break other bonuses.

I also have half an eye on the Arctic with a strategically useful army in North Greenland, but it is too far from my other territories at this point to make that my centre of operations.

[kerosion]

Darn. I would have loved to have joined but did not have a free game slot when the game started. Will be nice when I'm ahead of my finances enough to justify the expense on entertainment again.. although limiting myself to 4 games at a time is limiting my time expenditure on non-essential activities.

[Sgt. Drake]

Well, first of all I'm glad to be in this game.

For my first move, I made the decision to concentrate on The Tropics as my platform for moving forward. This of course is because that is where my best concentration of men are. I do have a number of men in Central USA but I consider The Tropics and Mexico a better place to focus because you have an "unofficial" border in that it is an outlying area, there are no countries further south. My current plan is to eventually own The Tropics with borders at Yucatan and Florida so that I'd be receiving 3 men per turn while only having 2 borders. From there I will try to move up through Mexico holding Arizona and California. This would give me a 7 man bonus while holding a mere 3 borders. I do however expect resistance from yellow as he also has a concentration of men in Mexico. It is a Flat Rate game so in the back of my mind taking cards every turn and continental bonuses are both important.

[mrhuhn]

to make it fair im going to join in too

considering i was spread out pretty well to start i decided my best chance was to try to get a decent sized army piled together and sit around taking cards and heading of towards a smaller bonus. patience seems to be a key for me in this game.

[Bob Janova]

Turn 2

The 9 on Michigan has put a damper on my ambitions for Eastern USA, so I've switched my attention to Greenland and the Arctic. My 8 from Turn 1 will keep me in with a shout at Eastern USA and if blue over extends and loses his strong region I may take it. For now I am playing conservatively and taking a card where I can.

[Night Strike]

I was going to start out in French Canada, but after blue put his 9 up there, that idea didn't look as appealing. It would have been nice to secure that and then move through Canada. I decided to start in Mexico where the dice were pretty kind to me the first round. Once I take it (perhaps secure it for a turn, perhaps not), I have the option to taking the Tropics or Western USA. Both look about equally appealing: I have some armies in the USA, but going south would protect my blindside. We'll see what happens.

[KennyC]

Let me first apologize for missing the first turn (just forgot about CC for a day ). I really had two options start in the North or Start in the West, I thought that the North would be a better position to be in for the middle game. My only concern is with teal right now, with 6 troops in North Greenland, although I probably could have attacked him with my 6 new troops I decided to go for a smaller target of his on Yukon. This still attacks my threat and gains me space in the Arctic Circle.

With the fortification I loaded up some troops in Nunavut, and brought my guys in the west up to Vancouver. Hopefully it will convince teal to focus back on Eastern USA.

[scottie]

656291

I'm following this so posted a link to the game to make it easy to follow...

[Night Strike]

Now seriously, how could you forget about CC for a day?!?!?!

[mrhuhn]

seeing yellow seemed occupied in mexico i decided to make my move and break his chain of armies going into quebec i could have taken it this turn but i think it would have left it too weakly defended and made me a bigger target because i would be the first person with a bonus

[Bob Janova]

Turn 3
For deployment, I reckoned my 8 in Eastern US were safe enough and the biggest threat to my position was from Kenny trying to take the Arctic, so I deploy in North Greenland to make a 9 v 6 attack on his army, hopefully either taking the territory or weakening it sufficiently to keep me safe. Unfortunately I lose both 3v2 rolls 2-0, losing 4 armies for no gain and leaving me at a disadvantage.

I then move my attention to the Eastern US, taking a territory there for a card (although again losing 4 armies to take 3, not my day). The fortification step is to have a potential pop at Blue's Quebec if he does not defend well enough, and also for the northern part of Eastern US. In the Midwest I clearly have no real chance at the US part, so I move my armies from Montana into Canada for potential future use.

[KennyC]

I also started with the battle in the Arctic circle, and like Bob had very little success with the attack (I beat 1 troop). Normally I would have waited to do anything with my troops on Vancouver, but I was looking for the card and wanted to reinforce the Nunavut if I could. I got away with taking BC without losing any troops and was able to do both. So I'm set up for a nice attack the next turn.

One of these days I'll get signed up for one of those image sharing sites, and then I can post the map so it is easier to follow...

P.S. It was that Rockstar Table Tennis game that distracted me for a full day. That was only the second time since I've signed up and I think the first I just overlooked because I had too many games going.

[Bob Janova]

Turn 4

Normally I would have remained conservative and hoarded my cards for a little longer, as I was not in a position to take and hold a region which a rainbow set can be very helpful with. However, if I did not use my cards I would have lost Greenland, and that's one of my two 'rallying points' at the minute (and losing the chance of the Arctic would also have greatly reduced the worth of the Canadian midwest armies). I have also invested a lot into Greenland (7 armies before this turn), and while throwing good money after bad is a mistake I felt I would be in a very weak position if I allowed Kenny (red) to burn all that investment.

So I decided to take a gamble on leaving the Eastern US a little weak for a turn and deployed my cards plus my full deployment (14 in total) in Greenland and remove Kenny's 8. I took quite a hit (losing 7 armies) but am left in a much stronger strategic position in the region, with only Yellow's 5 in Manitoba a potential threat.

I also did one attack from New Mexico (a territory that is pretty much dead in terms of its position anyway) on Arizona in the hope that Green or Blue will break the Mexico bonus through the 1s which now remain.

[KennyC]

This is where missing the first turn really hurt me, Bob was able to get the set before me and foil my plans for the Arctic Circle. My luck was very poor this turn, I refocused on the west in Nevada and had lost my attacks on Arizona. Then I went looking for an easy card which I finally got in Michigan. I then fortified in Nevada from Yukon, conceding the Arctic circle. Hopefully in the near future I can gain a foot hold somewhere.

[KennyC]

I am in trouble here, I just turned in a set of 10, and am still have a bit of bad luck with my rolls. I finished what I started with my attack on Arizona, and then broke yellows bonus in Mexico. This move will probably be questioned, but as I see it right now, if I try to go back North against teal then I have to to immediately deal with Blue. Hopefully they will fight it out and keep each other in check. Meanwhile, this makes Yellow my biggest threat, I had the troops to break his bonus but I lost about 5 trying to break his 1. I cut my losses there, and ended the attacks.

My fortifications might be questioned as well. I am guessing that blue will continue to focus in French Canada, so I am using his troops on California to protect the 1's in the west. If Yellow wants revenge he will have to go through my 6 on Arizona. Then the 5 on Vancouver strictly for defense.

[KennyC]

http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=656291

There's the link in case you are following along.

[john1099]

Who the hell are you, and why would we want to hear your strategies for games

Just curious, since you have a worse rating then myself.
Are you a pro or something?

[Bob Janova]

It's just to illustrate some of the strategies used in a game ... if you don't think you can learn anything from us then you don't have to read it . Since everyone in the game except myself has a rating of 1400+ I'm sure their strategies are interesting to quite a few people on the site.

I had to take my turn and go quickly, so I didn't post. My turn was before Kenny's; I basically just took the Arctic and fortified the two entry points. It was a slight gamble to extend to the whole region in one turn, as I am now slightly weak on the control points, but I felt it was worth the gamble as I am still going to be rather painful to break and I should be able to retake the region if someone does break me.

[kerosion]

Who the hell are you, and why would we want to hear your strategies for games

Just curious, since you have a worse rating then myself.
Are you a pro or something?

Those posting here are Conquer Club members interested in improving upon their game and contributing to the community. We might want to hear their strategies for the sake of the discussion they may bring. Every player does not share the same experiences. Our experiences lead us to the formation of strategies to apply in various scenarios. By observing the strategies of others we may glean upon the benefits of their experiences in order to learn what does and does not work, and why. Through discussion comes the understanding from which to improve upon oneself.

Feel free to contribute. No matter ones talent there are always points to learn and relearn. The process of thinking through ones decisions in order to voice an idea sharpens the mind to potential flaws in judgment. One can only become more thoughtful from the experience while improving upon the depth brought to this forum.

Your rating may be higher today, but those contributing improve at a greater rate.

[Night Strike]

My strategy is survival. Apparently blue thinks I'm a huge threat down south, so he broke my bonus and left me 7 armies. Then green (I guess technically before blue) weakened my escape route. So I guess I'm getting eliminated instead of blue weakening teal's bonus.

[KennyC]

Who the hell are you, and why would we want to hear your strategies for games

Just curious, since you have a worse rating then myself.
Are you a pro or something?

You sort of missed the whole point of this thread here, I am looking to improve my game. I thought this would be a good way to get people discussing alternatives and to give constructive criticism. If you disagree with some of my moves please speak up, because I am not a pro and am always open to new ideas.

I don't want to get into a pissing match about ratings, but I would be glad to compare after I have 700 games under my belt like yourself.

[KennyC]

My strategy is survival. Apparently blue thinks I'm a huge threat down south, so he broke my bonus and left me 7 armies. Then green (I guess technically before blue) weakened my escape route. So I guess I'm getting eliminated instead of blue weakening teal's bonus.

This was a very very strange move in Blue's part, because I had broken your bonus before his turn. I wonder if he just misplaced his troops and decided that you were stronger than me at this point.

[Bob Janova]

I am happy to see Blue is focusing on the southwest, so I didn't feel it worth breaking his bonus this turn, as I would have taken serious losses doing so. I have strengthened my bonus defence slightly and taken an easy card (Michigan, which was a 1). That choice also let me bring my two stranded armies from Illinois into the Eastern USA block where they will be more use.