Personally, I think we should use the +5 Card now to build on our current income advantage and really push Imp around this turn. My 2 personal favorites right now are #1 for the obvious benefit of domination in South America if the next turn or 2 can go our way (which should be a lot more certain given our OP and OD Cards) and #4 which should keep us in a decent spot in South America and force the issue in Africa. Really tho, I definitely like anything that has to do with getting back into Central America and either forcing Imp to make a mistake by defending up there or conceding a pretty easy +3 for us to grab and then re-turn our attention back to South America or even West US from there.

Hahaha damnit Ruth this is why I asked for a "Final Answer" version of ideas!
I'll take your vote option off until you give me the final green light =P

This is my Final:

Use Reinforcement Card.

Deploy 5 to Nunavut, 1 to Nuuk, 11 to Brazil. Attack/Transfer from Venezuela 12 armies to Colombia, Attack/transfer 10 armies from Venezuela to Brazil, Attack Northwest Territories with 7, Attack Quebec with 4, Attack Nigeria with 4, Attack Argentina with 6, Attack Cuba with 5 from Venezuela.

Ruth: We make 17 right now without the Card and 22 with so you're gonna need to clarify your above post further please.

11 + 1 + 5 = 17

Right but he put "Use Reinforcement Card" in his post as well so I'm trying to understand where the other 5 is supposed to go or if he meant "DO NOT USE Reinforcement Card".

He's going to have Australia in three turns and he probably just took South Africa. We have an income advantage right now, but it's only two armies. We can only keep up if we can get Canada. So that's a no-brainer.

We need to do something with South America to justify our game-long investment there. We put a blockade between us and South Africa and conceded both of our spots on the other side of that blockade without a fight. I think we've put ourselves in a tough spot by overcommitting to South America if we don't have serious plans of keeping it, so we need to come up with a serious plan to keep it. He can play keepaway by sneaking into that neutral or attacking Colombia, since we seem likely to move to Brazil.

We also need to prevent him from getting West Africa. If he can get a big army into Nigeria, then we're in trouble. It's entirely possible that those 8 armies last turn included a first step from East Africa towards Nigeria, and not an attempt at South Africa - in which case we might need to beat him there this turn or lose out on our chance. But we've cleverly indicated to him that we have no intention of doing so, or even protecting our only entry into Africa, so he may not consider that a priority.

Finally, we may see him pop up in Caucusus. Another possible explanation for him using some of his armies out of our view is that he broke down that four point neutral and is coming to break our bonus. We can't afford to see monsters in the closet, but it would be nice if we had some intel. Sliding a small army towards that neutral would let us know if/when he decides to start his slide towards us.

I think we all agree on using six armies in Canada. So that leaves us 11 to play with, or sixteen with a reinforcement card.

Here are some more tactical options for discussion:

• Place all 16 armies in South America. 14 in Colombia, 2 in Venezuela. We poke at Central America, slide the large army from Venezuela to Brazil, do our other business, and with our last move, we attack Argentina from Venezuela. The goal here is to leave him alone in either Argentina (if he stacks up and doesn't move) or the neutral in the center (if he slides his armies there). It's hard for him to make a move that beats this - if he attacks Columbia, it will fail. He can still stack up in Mexico next turn to create problems for us (or come at us through Nigeria) but we should be able to hold South America for a turn or two if we go all out to get it.

• Place all 11 (or 16) armies in Brazil, then use a first move attack or order priority to head in to Nigeria with our first move. He probably isn't there yet, but if he is, this could be our last chance to get Nigeria. This seems unnecessary, since we have a large army in Venezuela.

• Place all 11/16 armies in Ufa, and use a first move attack or order priority to head southeast towards Caucusus. This basicallly concedes South America, but it defends against a possible attack from India, and even if it doesn't work, we have a big stack on the way to his other bonus.

• Place 4 in Ufa, 7/12 in Brazil, slide them all to Nigeria. Let's get in to Africa ASAP - it may be too late to beat him to Congo, but we can at least threaten his bonus.

• Place 8 in Columbia, 4 in Ufa, use the card, and place 4 in Brazil. Slide all but 2 armies from Venezuela to Brazil on first move, then poke Central America with the 2 there and the 4 in Columbia. Do our business elsewhere, then poke our last couple armies into Argentina at the end of the turn. If he slides north into that neutral, we can scoop up Argentina behind him and we'll have him isolated next turn with the threat of a lights-out attack in South America for the bonus putting the pressure on him to defend more vigorously than he'd like.

Fred: Your last 2 ideas are almost identical to #3 & #1 respectively (altho the last idea definitely has some notable differences to option #1). Would you like me to put any of the above as options for voting or is this more discussionary at this point in time?

I definitely like what you're saying about South America but I just don't know what Imp's gonna do over there. If he loads to deny us the bonus, it'll be next to impossible to push him out of there entirely. If we can get a favorable turn coming up here tho, I like how you're thinking about where we'll be left off at the end of it and we should keep that in mind when formulating our plans for juggling armies around down there. Again, this is kind of why I like option #1 for it's almost "too good to be true" outcome if we can make a couple stars align.

As I stated already, I don't think he took South Africa last turn, but it definitely could be a possibility that he sent 4 to Malaysia and 4 towards Nigeria, so I also tend to agree with going in to W Africa pretty quick. Unfortunately, if we try to do all of that, we're gonna be spreading ourselves pretty thin. I think the best course of action right now is to choose what we want to do and run with it hard. If we try to do everything that ideally needs to be done right now, we won't achieve anything.

That being said, I still like the option of attempting to take South America but I also understand the import of getting closer to Imp's known sets. For the record, I'd be shocked if he went into Caucasus tho as there's virtually zero for him to gain by venturing up there.

Hmm just realized Malaysia was a Warlord so he would've needed at least 7 to take it unless he already had some troops there from taking India...

Right - we know he spent 8 somewhere*, and the most likely places he could have spent it are on Indo, beating us to Nigeria, South Africa, or Caucusus. South Africa seems most likely, as turn one of a two turn attempt to take it. If he's coming towards Nigeria, he needs to come with a large army because we still have a stack in South America. If we can finally put that in Brazil this turn, we'll be able to respond to him taking Nigeria, although it's not ideal. If he was coming towards Caucusus, he could devastate us with a big move towards Russia.

If we're going to try to take South America this turn or next, we really should try to take Nigeria and the Central Americas. It's absurd to spend all this effort getting a bonus, only to finally get it and realize that he borders us in three spots. I've never wanted South America in this game, though, for exactly that reason, so I am not the right person to talk to about our strategy there.

If you want to create one of those as a poll option, go ahead, but I was just posting them for discussion. The Caucusus thing, while possible and very dangerous, also seems like a bit of a gamble for him right now, so I'm not sure I'd worry about that. Nigeria is still very important if we want to get to his bonuses.

So I guess my first and last options stay in keeping with "our" strategy of taking South America, and are tweaks to what you suggested that give us a chance to isolate him. Do what you like with those. I think I like my fourth option best, and it's probably the one I'd lean towards if this were my game.

• It's still possible, but decreasingly likely, that he has been hiding income from us this whole time and secretly already has Indo and South Africa. I really doubt it, but you have to admit it would be pretty sweet if he'd been able to pull it off.

I agree with pretty much all above analysis by R and BF. Still not ready to suggest actual moves though - just strategizing. I will say that all options shoulg include using the reinforcement card now. It can only help us execute on our plans to have 5 more armies to use now. Imp is 2 turns behind us on cards BTW.

BIG WOOPS -- I forgot to add our 5 starting income /headslap

This is my Final:

Use Reinforcement Card.

Deploy 5 to Nunavut, 1 to Nuuk, 5 to Venezuela, 11 to Brazil. Attack/Transfer from Venezuela 12 armies to Colombia, Attack/transfer 10 armies from Venezuela to Brazil, Attack Northwest Territories with 7, Attack Quebec with 4, Attack Nigeria with 4, Attack Argentina with 6, Attack Panama with 5 from Venezuela, Attack Cuba with 5 from Venezuela.

Sorry to keep busting your balls Ruth, but I think you mean something like this:

Deploy 5 to Nunavut, 1 to Nuuk, 5 to COLOMBIA, 11 to Brazil. Attack/transfer Colombia with 12 armies from Venezuela. Attack/transfer Brazil with 10 armies from Venezuela. Attack Northwest Territories with 7 from Nunavut. Attack Quebec with 4 from Nuuk. Attack Nigeria with 4 from Brazil. Attack Argentina with 6 from Brazil. Attack Panama with 5 from COLOMBIA. Attack Cuba with 5 from Venezuela.

Another side note: you're deploying 11 in Brazil but only moving 10 of them (4 to Nigeria & 6 to Argentina). Did you wanna send 5 to Nigeria, 7 to Argentina, or leave the lone soldier as is?

Fred: "It's still possible, but decreasingly likely, that he has been hiding income from us this whole time and secretly already has Indo and South Africa. I really doubt it, but you have to admit it would be pretty sweet if he'd been able to pull it off."

Hahaha, I could totally see Imp doing something like that too! Let's hope that's not the case ;)

I'll give it some more time to see if some more discussion comes out of this but if/when you'd like me to put a vote option up for you, just let me know with a final answer.

He is not hiding his income

Wow i'm seriously brain dead.

The changes are good Eitz and 4 to nigeria but 7 to Argentina. I keep forgetting whats on the board already and putting those into the deployment. Much more difficult to do it in words and when i'm doing it quickly.

Haha it's all good buddy, it's tough too when we don't have the option of scrolling over the territories to see what the names are. I'll add your option to the vote, altho I think it would be better to send 5 to Nigeria and 6 to Argentina. I may still vote for your idea anyways.

I like R's moves.

I would tweak them a bit though to create a bit more delay, increase the stack size in Brazil for next turn and add an attack on Bolivia (adding to the odds that we have one target in SA next turn when we use the OP and a bigger stack to hit that target with).

SUGGESTED TURN 1 (conservative Brazil stacking for OP attack next turn - stronger attacks into CA this turn):

Deploy 5 to Nunavut, 1 to Nuuk, 5 to Columbia, 11 to Brazil. Attack/transfer to Colombia with 6 armies from Venezuela. Attack/transfer Brazil with 16 armies from Venezuela. Attack Northwest Territories with 7 from Nunavut. Attack Quebec with 4 from Nuuk. Transfer only 1 from Brazil to Columbia. Attack Nigeria with 4 from Brazil. Attack Panama with 5 from Columbia. Attack Cuba with 5 from Venezuela. Attack Argentina with 3 from Brazil. Attack Bolivia with 4 from Brazil.

I expect Imp to defend Argentina and maybe try a late move into Bolivia to give himself two spots in SA. My goal this turn is to end up with one target next turn to hit with a big stack from Brazil. The Brazil stack would be 17 next turn with these orders, so we could use the OP to hit with up to 33.

Assuming we want to be sure we get Canada next turn, we'll need between 9 and 11 (depending on how we do on remainder rolls). With only 17 income that leaves 6-8 available to add to the OP attack in SA. If Imp is serious about holding SA, and we'd be foolish to think he isn't, 22-24 probably won't be enough to take out his stack.

I could cut down the attacks into CA to 4s, skip the attacks on Argentina and Bolivia and change the delay transfer to go from Columbia to Brazil. That would add 11 more to our stack in Brazil next turn. Assuming Imp puts 9+ in Argentina, 33-35 might be enough to take him out in one shot. We'd also have another 6 in Columbia that could be thrown in as a 1-2 punch. Alternatively, depending on the what happens next turn, it might make sense to forego Canada for a turn if we think we have a sure thing with the OP to get SA. We could also skip the Nigeria move for another turn although that seems like a popular idea.

SUGGESTED TURN 2 (extreme Brazil stacking for OP attack next turn - weaker attacks into CA this turn):

Deploy 5 to Nunavut, 1 to Nuuk, 5 to Columbia, 11 to Brazil. Attack/transfer to Colombia with 6 armies from Venezuela. Attack/transfer to Brazil with 17 armies from Venezuela. Attack Northwest Territories with 7 from Nunavut. Attack Quebec with 4 from Nuuk. Transfer only 1 from Columbia to Brazil. Attack Nigeria with 4 from Brazil. Attack Panama with 4 from Columbia. Attack Cuba with 4 from Venezuela.

This would get us to 25 in Brazil next turn. It leaves 7 usuable armies in Brazil rather than attacking Boliva and Argentina with them on the premise that Imp will stack to defend Argentina. Even if he puts 100% of his income in Argentina this turn we'll have a sizeable size advantage and an OP card which would make a 1st move stack attack very rewarding.

I added them both in there for ya Duke, lotta different options to consider this turn...

Incidentally -- both these suggested plans are very close to what BF described. Attacks into CA/Africa, expansion in Canada and a plan to get SA next turn.

After thinking about it further I've decided I prefer my second option. I think Imp will take the most conservative approach: stack the majority of his defense in Argentina and put the rest toward picking up a bonus.

Next turn will be a big one. Potentially we could go up +9/turn and run away with this one. That's an 11 army/turn edge assuming he has South Africa and earns 15. Of course it's temporary as Imp will get Indo and Australia shortly thereafter, but hopefully we're busting up Africa at that point :)