Resolutions of a brand new player

[aznin]

1. Only play sequential games. Freestyle is faster, but it seems that some people like to time their turns so they can play 2 turns back-to-back.

2. Absolutely no games with dugcarr. (Eesh!)

3. Only play "flat rate" games. "Escalating" is neat, until you get burned by someone getting 50 armies out of the blue. I like the idea, but it seems to favor the one-shot strategy over careful planning.

4. Master the Space map.

5. No doubles/triples games until I win a few on my own.

Aznin

[ttocs]

why the space map?

[aznin]

I think it's nifty that you can attack from any wormhole to any other wormhole --- that completely changes the strategy of the game. Also, I'm a big science fiction fan and run a big SF reading group, so I like the space theme.

[ttocs]

Well, as far as I know, many new players to the game disregard strategy, and do what their instincts tell them.

P.S. I'm not saying all new players...

[reverend_kyle]

Are you premium.... because with sequential flatrates I dont see you finishing alot of games.

[jondough47]

Common sense, but when playing Freestlye Real Time, make sure... I repeat MAKE SURE your internet connection is at 100%, or you can kiss your chances of winning good bye, lik a fart in the wind.

[tanar]

Your rules apply very well to some veteran players, too...

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[ZawBanjito]

3. Only play "flat rate" games. "Escalating" is neat, until you get burned by someone getting 50 armies out of the blue. I like the idea, but it seems to favor the one-shot strategy over careful planning.

I used to think that too... but check out a game with only high ranked players in it. You'll see everyone spending 90% of the game making tiny, tiny shifts in position. Yet no matter how tiny, each one counts, and each one has to be weighed carefully with a total awareness of the entire board. There's no room for error in escalating... you won't have a chance to recover. Every single country and every single army needs to be taken into account. You have to hone in on the likeliest targets while at the same time blocking them off from other players and protecting your own rear, and this over usually no more than 8 rounds. Needless to say, you need to be so intimate with a map's layout that you could make love to it blindfold and shackled. Pedronicus, one of the best escalating players here, recommends forgetting all the shiny maps in their abundance, and just obsessively playing the same few over and over again with the same options. I totally agree.

Then, whether you're good at all this or not, playing escalating takes guts. Can you take 20 with 30? Can you reach their last isolated country and take their cards? If you don't finish it in one go, you'll probably never finish it. Screw up one time and it is done over finished. But if you pull it off... man, your adrenal glands are dumping everything they have right into your trigger finger! Oh yeah, wipeout! CC's crack cocaine. It's the hardest workout you can get without moving off your ass.

Flat rate games build a sort of inevitibility towards the end, usually... you can tell who'll win three or four rounds out. The end is mostly sighing.

Speaking of Pedronicus again, he once came on this board and declared (this was ages ago, when we were all young) that escalating games were the only true Risk game. I thought he was just mouthing off crap, and didn't get him at all. I had to become a good player before I agreed.

[qeee1]

I've lost too many escalating because my opponent got a cash in on three, while I had to wait until 5.

Flat rate is inevitable at the end, but it's not the end that's the exciting part. It's the struggle to force "the end".

If I can hold this continent for this turn, I'll have enough forces to win the game, or if I can take out this player I'll be strong enough to beat everyone else united.

That's the stage where it's really fun...

[ZawBanjito]

Oh yeah, I still play a lot of flat rate. You can learn a lot about the maps with flat rate (I only just worked out how to use Ukraine...) But it's just not the same man... you screw up on flat rate and you have to spend the next week watching it all fall to bits. Then again, if you're on top, I guess you can sit and gloat for a week... that is pretty sweet.

I should also add that it takes me waaaaay more mental effort to play a flat rate doubles/triples game than just about anything else. It practically destroys me. 's why I hardly ever do it. So right on there, aznin.

[cyberdaniel]

That's soo true ZawBanjito. And wait when playing a real time escalating game it gets even better. You make that inocent little attack just to get a card, you end your turn and press the refresh button endlessly until your next turn. You can't wait that turn since you know that turn will be the mother of all turns, that you hold 3 cards whitch will kill one of the unexpecting players. Your eyes can't get away from the screen since you fear another player has a set and will crush all your plans. With every begining of a turn without card cashing your heart beats faster and faster. And then your turn comes. Your hand is shivering, you start the turn, cash in the 3 cards you have. You carefully reevaluate your strategy. Check 3 times before making that deploy. And finaly you start attacking. You get to that 7v3 dice phase. You can't wait to kill his last 3 armies but you're afraid that you might loose. The inevitable attack moment comes. After a 2 second wait until the page reloads you see the result. Each one lost a troop. You get a bit more relaxed since it could of been worst and try again. The next one isn't that lucky, you loose 2 troops. Its down to 4v2. You get a bit warried. Fustration start to overcome you. What if you don't make it, what now, should I attack right now, or just wait for a few more seconds for better dice, what if waiting will bring bad dice, what if ...? Finally you make your attack and for you're surprise you win. Suddently all those fears go away. You have 5 new cards which will go nicelly with the rest of your plan. You passed from joy to hope to frustration to desparation and back to joy in 20 seconds.

Nothing is better than a real time escalating game.

[hitandrun]

Nothing is better than a real time escalating game.

Except maybe a game of a certain board game, when you can see your opponants faces as you sweep right across the board

[ZawBanjito]

Its down to 4v2. You get a bit warried. Fustration start to overcome you. What if you don't make it, what now, should I attack right now, or just wait for a few more seconds for better dice, what if waiting will bring bad dice, what if ...?

Oh my stars... so I'm not the only one! Does everyone do this?

[Scorba]

I do.

[Knight of Orient]

i do too, then i lose terribly and get p'od

[Scarus]

What's this about a Science Fiction Reading Group? I used to be a big fan and still am very familiar with most of the authors.

[aznin]

What's this about a Science Fiction Reading Group? I used to be a big fan and still am very familiar with most of the authors.

It's an online reading group called Beyond Reality. Each month, our members nominate novels, then we vote to decide which book will become the Book of the Month and read/discuss that novel. Lately I've been inviting authors to join the discussion - David Brin is participating in the discussion of his novel "Earth", next month we'll have Robert Charles Wilson (who won the Hugo this year) for "Spin". It's a fun group if you're into SF and fantasy - discuss novels, get recommendations and so on. We have about 450 members at the moment. You can find the group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Beyond_Reality/

Thanks for asking!

Aznin

PS So many answers to my post - I am flattered! Now if I could just win a game...

[Scarus]

I'm on my way. Who would've guessed that there were literate people here....lol

[P Gizzle]

i always liked Ray Bradbury

[Scarus]

Something Wicked this way Comes........

[P Gizzle]

or, Farenheit 451, the Martian Chronicles and that poem, when the Sweet Spring Rains Come, or whatever it was called

[aznin]

We had Fahrenheit 451 as our Book of the Month some time last year. Great novel. I've been pondering doing a "classics" month --- only novels that are at least 25 years old and still in print.