keeping a game alive to postpone collecting points from it ?

[enterprise47]

Haven't seen or read about this 'strategy' yet (something other than double turns, deadbeating (which is dead now lol), etc...)...want to know what others think!

Scenario: keeping a game alive when just you and one other player are left - you occupy everything on the board but one territory, and the other player has just one army on one territory, and you have him boxed in with lots of armies in the one territory adjacent to them. You make turn after turn after turn, placing tons more armies but not attacking - this goes on for three or more turns over multiple days! Why? Because you know that soon you will be knocked out of one or more other games and want to wait for them to finish so you loose less points in them first (because your score hasn't gone higher due to the game you will win), then you would gain more in the game you delayed completing because your score was adjusted down from the losing games.

Yes, the game engine allows this...but is it really what the Conquer Club community is all about? I think taking up a game slot of someone's by dragging out a 'done' game for your own point-mongering is unsportsperson-like and cheap, especially if it has to drag on over multiple turns and calendar days. And especially if the other player asks you to just end it so you can move on to another game...

Here's an example of a drawn out game I was recently tortured in (at the hands of Robinette ):
http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=36940

[AK_iceman]

**brings out ignore list**
**adds robinette**
**puts ignore list away**

[evilclown]

I think it's a good strategy. All's fair in love and fake war. Plus I find it very funny that it gets under your skin.

[areyouincahoots]

I can see how annoying that would be...that person must really have some problems with their score if it's that important...

[sully800]

Yeah I've heard of that "strategy" before, and I think its crap. Play the game to win using whatever means possible if you want....but if you have the game won, go ahead and end it.

It wouldn't be a problem against a premium member I guess, but against a non premium thats just not right.

Wow, I just looked at the link and its a terminator game?? That is incredibly pointless then. He only stood to gain 18 points by knocking that player out. I'd be surprised if that made more than 1 point difference by waiting until he lost his other game. That's just a waste of time.

[enterprise47]

It wasn't a terminator game...but either way the point different would have been very small following this strategy.

Someone could in theory keep a game going on indefinitely unless the trapped player stops making moves and eventually gets kicked out (which I guess could take almost a week to run it's course).

You have to love the extra benefit the ignore list has of filtering out of the game logs the asinine chatter of the ignored player!

[sully800]

lol sorry about that. I don't know what I was thinking when I said it was a terminator game.

[Haydena]

**brings out ignore list**
**adds robinette**
**puts ignore list away**

*Copies AK_Iceman*

[Kenny_Smooth]

I agree. that isn't the point of the game. the point is to gain points by winning. Not just trying to cheat the system. If you got yourself in that position where you have to drag a game out because you are going to lose a different game then you deserve to get less points for being in that position in the first place.

[GabonX]

I dont understand what the opening post is talking about and Im curious. Can someone try to re-explain it. Maybe I just dont know enough about the point gain system.

[sully800]

Points are calculated as follows:

"Conquer Club players are initially given a score of 1000. At the end of each game, the winner takes points away from each loser. The points to be awarded is calculated as (loser's score / winner's score) * 20, up to a maximum of 100 points."

So lets say I have a score of 1000 points and I am in 2 games in which there is only one player left. In game A I am about to be knocked out by someone who has 1000 points, and in game B I am about to knock out the last player (all 5 players had 1000 points to make it easy).

So I have two options...

#1 Win game B right away which would give me 100 points (20 from each player) for a total of 1100. Then when I lose game A I would lose 22 points for a total of 1078.

or

#2 I could postpone winning game B (even though I had the oppurtunity) by dragging it out and making sure my weak opponent couldn't attack. I do this to make sure I lose game A first, which would mean I lose 20 points so I would have 980. Following the loss I would win Game B where I would win 20 points from each player (20.2 actually but I believe that would round down). THis would give me 100 points for a total of 1080 instead of 1078.

Now you could potentially gain a few more points than this depending on the opponents you were facing. But in any case I think its crap and is not at all in the spirit of this game. There could actually be a very effective strategy for gaining points using this method but I will not explain it because I don't want anyone to read my post and then try it. Anyone who postpones winning like this is a disgrace in my opinion.

[joeyjordison]

that is really low. how much more could you lose from your score? 4 points?
this tactic is escpecially annoying for a non-premium player like myself as it takes up a valuable game slot. personally if this happened to me i would just deadbeat.

[Nappy Bone Apart]

If your life is so wrapped up in your CC score that you would do this, I would suggest you unlock the basement door, ask your parents to borrow the car, and drive off a cliff.

[chrisfquinn]

Well that is another name for my ignore list.

[tanar]

May I point out that a surrender button would surely prevent this kind of problem from existing?

[dcowboys055]

this "strategy" would be extra annoying for a player without premium because it would take up a game slot. if somebody does this against a person with premium sure its annoying and pointless and only shows how big of a loser you are but it isnt hurting anybody

[enterprise47]

I don't have a premium membership...so I was stuck...but I don't know which would be more annoying...if I did have a premium membership and that happened I'd be paying to have someone hold me up even though I'd have more slots to play with - and the delay in me loosing points in that game would also negatively affect my score earning in other games I complete while waiting for that one to finish (in the same way it positively affected her by waiting to complete it).

[zorba_ca]

Obviously Robinette's actions are poor sportsmanship. I don't think anyone can argue that.

However, I don't see why it's such a big deal. Just stop playing. After 3 turns you would get "kicked out", and no reasonable person in the CC community would fault you for doing just that if you are in such an intractable situation and your opponent is being spiteful.

And of course, I would add Robinette to my ignore list, as Iceman suggested.

[Robinette]

Just for the record...

I did NOT gain any extra points... I ended the game as soon as I realized that enterprise was not premium & needed the game to end to open a game slot
(and this was just hours before I would have gained extra points for it, by the way)

Also, Enterprise retracted his negative feedback for me after he realized what really happened.

No harm - no foul. Except for the unjust reputation that was caused by this thread early on. Who knows how many ignore lists I'm on because of it

[karumai]

I'd happily be left alive, kicking, and with a chance to win by so arrogant a player.

Forget three turns in a row and it's victory, huzzah.

[Robinette]

I'd happily be left alive, kicking, and with a chance to win by so arrogant a player.

Forget three turns in a row and it's victory, huzzah.

Me? Forget three turns?....

Like an army sleeping in and forgetting to go to the battlefield?
Like a mother forgetting she has a child to care for?
Like Tiger Woods forgetting there's a golf tounament?

It'll NEVER happen!

[Robinette]

Enterprise retracted his negative feedback for me after he realized what really happened.

No harm - no foul. Except for the unjust reputation that was caused by this thread early on. Who knows how many ignore lists I'm on because of it

So just how many ignore lists?
All I know for sure is that I sent out PM's for a game invitation to 12 players and 4 wouldn't go thru... 33% ? Wow.
It's an un-just world!

[tals]

Enterprise retracted his negative feedback for me after he realized what really happened.

No harm - no foul. Except for the unjust reputation that was caused by this thread early on. Who knows how many ignore lists I'm on because of it

So just how many ignore lists?
All I know for sure is that I sent out PM's for a game invitation to 12 players and 4 wouldn't go thru... 33% ? Wow.
It's an un-just world!

Really depends if you're still so sucked into your score that you'd keep a game going like this again. It also tends to suggest you may like some of the other legal tricks which whilst legal can be a pain in the backside.

Tals

[vorm]

If someone is keeping you alive just to squeeze out extra points or be a jerk or whatever, why not just deadbeat on purpose to end it and ruin there plan? I think that's what I'd do and I'd tell them I was going to do it in the game chat if they didn't finish me off.

[joeyjordison]

i hav heard about this. anyone who does it is just sad. you would hav to lose several hundred points for it to even make a considerable difference.