Insurmountable drop?

[dnucci]

Can the initial random placement on a game be so bad as to be insurmountable?

[detlef]

I only voted yes because, technically it can be but really only if you are completely spread out and more than one other player gets totally hooked up at the same time. If only one player gets the goods, he's going to have an uphill battle 'cause everyone is likely to gang up on him.

Even still, great dice and a knack for making mixed sets every 3 cards can go a long way to make that up. So can laying low and letting the board work itself out. If you can avoid many attacks and everyone starts linking up their armies, there'll be a lot of 1 army countries to attack so you can get some easy cards and avoid many losses. At some point, you may be able to link up even the most spread out of armies. Perhaps there'll be an ugly battle between two others for SA or Aussie (or their equivalent) and you can jump in after the fray and take it.

That said, I can certainly imagine certain cases where you may as well pack it in right out the gate. No where near as many as people probably claim, mind you.

[chewyman]

Deployment almost entirely in Asia is never a good thing on the classic map. But it would always be possible that because of that everybody ignores you and you could make a fantastic comeback, especially with escalating cards.

[dnucci]

Re: previous post, that is of course when the game is the most exciting. When you are unlikely to win and make a ridiculous comeback, and I agree that good cards and good rolls go a long way.

[detlef]

Deployment almost entirely in Asia is never a good thing on the classic map. But it would always be possible that because of that everybody ignores you and you could make a fantastic comeback, especially with escalating cards.

Deployment entirely in Asia can be great. Nobody goes after you because nobody gives two shits about taking countries in Asia unless it's Siam. Then you putt all your guys into one country, wait for two people to fight over Aussie, then swoop and take it from the survivor.

[yeti_c]

Deployment almost entirely in Asia is never a good thing on the classic map. But it would always be possible that because of that everybody ignores you and you could make a fantastic comeback, especially with escalating cards.

Deployment entirely in Asia can be great. Nobody goes after you because nobody gives two shits about taking countries in Asia unless it's Siam. Then you putt all your guys into one country, wait for two people to fight over Aussie, then swoop and take it from the survivor.

I concur...

C.

[Lhuth]

Sure it can be insurmountable. Was playing a no-cards game and I was dealt holding an entire country which gifted a +4 bonus. From there you'd have to do something pretty special not to win.

[poo-maker]

No, you can win from any drop. As long as the forts are unlim.

[MeDeFe]

I think I once won a game where I had one army on every Continent, two in Asia and none connected. Lay low, collected my armies, came back, grabbed a continent, annexed further territories. It can be done, but you need some luck with other peoples playing and a lot of patience.

[Colossus]

I think whether a drop is insurmountable or not is largely dependent not only on strategy, but also on the ability of opponents. The best players can smell weak players and are very adept at keeping them that way. Thus, if you start off spread out very diffusely, it's real tough to establish a base of power against very good opponents. Also, as detlef and Lhuth mentioned, I do think a fantastic drop for one player can basically put them in a position where they have to really f*ck up to lose. Of course good strategy can go a long way, but mix in a teeny bit of bad dice, and I say, yes, a wretched drop can screw you over.

[detlef]

Once again, I don't think you can just judge a bad drop by where you got placed but how bad yours is relative to everyone else.

There have been times when I've looked at my drop and thought that I got screwed. Then I looked at the fact that there were 4 different colors on both Aussie and SA and that I couldn't honestly pick out somebody who'd gotten hooked up and realized that I was fine.

Other times still, I'm spread like a cheap hooker and both SA and Aussie are nearly occupied by players from the outset. Then you know you're pretty much hosed. Of course if those guys are idiots, you may have a chance anyway.

[ParadiceCity9]

i dont know what insurmountable means...

[IronE.GLE]

I've overcome some horrible draws, but I think that a large part of that is people don't see you as a threat when you are spread out all over the map.

Now the dice on the other hand......