In this game I got thrashed by what is clearly a much better player.

My critique goes as far as picking territories in a block and lack of easy expansion. However it seems that whatever I did then other player just avoided any sort of impact on his development or bonus!

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1937762

Thanks in advance,
Mr Muppet

Just a few points. There are no doubt a few things I've overlooked, as I'm far from the best player myself^^


1)
First the picks, you really need to work on those.
I don't like North Africa as a bonus, as it has a bad bonus to territory ratio (3 on 5, rather than 4 on 5 of for instance West Africa or Indonesia).
Besides that, you clustered your picks together, which is seldom a good idea.
Try to start in places further apart for now. Sure, you'll have your first bonus one turn later in some cases, but if you encounter an opponent early, there are at least still places where you can expand safely.


2) 2 on 1 is a guaranteed win, just like 4 on 2. In turn 2 you attacked Libya 3 on 1. You could have better used that extra army on Bolivia. Sure, that's also only 1 defending army, but at least you knew to expect your opponent in Central America, so it could later serve a purpose attacking him. Or leave it behind in Chad to help on the West Africa bonus next turn.

3) As you can see in the history, your opponent kept expanding nearly every turn. That's what eventually won him the game: your inability to expand as the game progressed.
Better picks should solve part of the problem, but apart from that:
In any game, keep looking for ways to expand, even if it's just one territory per turn, it might give you the edge eventually.

yes, I agree with ^

you need to work on better picks

only cluster your picks together, if you can have an income on the first turn. Or ifo you can rapidly expand. Your picks in this game doesn't give you an income advantage on the first turn. It's also hard for you to expand. Plus, your opponent can safely expand in asia and north america and you can't do anything to stop this.

I strongly disagree with your assessment that your opponent was much better than you, or that he "avoided any sort of impact on his bonuses." You took Antartica as well as South America from him. In fact, until the late game you were winning on every front you fought him on, breaking his Central America bonus despite him attempting to keep you out.

You both expanded pretty inefficiently at the beginning. He attacked a lot of 2v2, which only worked for him once, and caused him a lot of trouble otherwise.

He had a lot more room to expand, though, because he didn't cluster his picks. Not only did you have two picks in Africa, but you also had a pick right next to Africa, meaning you had no access to other areas. That's really what killed this game for you. He had free reign over Asia, and eventually had too much income for you to beat him.

Your starting picks could have worked out for you though, if you had done a couple of things differently. One, you should have taken East Africa when you had stabalized somewhat in the war, and you could have taken South Africa as well (or as more general advise, you should have kept expanding even while fighting). From there you could have gone through the Middle East and fought him in Asia, making his picks there much less safe. Asia is VERY hard to defend, which means an opponent with a decent income can thrash somebody who gets all of their income from Asia.

Don't be scared of taking a couple of turns to get to an area, as if it's too far away to reach. It's very worth the couple of troops a turn in order to reach that area and give him trouble. You can also pick up a bonus or two along the way, and be even stronger to fight him there.

By tactical skill, I would say that you were better than your opponent. If he had not had free reign to take Asia, he would have lost handily. The easiest way to stop him from having free reign there would be to make sure you get at least one start in that area (and if he doesn't end up starting there, you have it for yourself). If you fail to get a start in an area, especially an area as large and important as Asia, then work out how quickly you could get there.

One other critique of your playstyle that was quite important in the early game. You appeared to be placing troops and making plans based on the current situation, rather than anticipating what he could or would do. When he attacked South America with a large army, you put your entire income right in his path. If he didn't reinforce at all, then it would have worked. But, he put down his income into that same large army, and rolled you over. He probably could have kept doing that for as long as you wanted to keep putting your weaker army in front of him, meaning that he could kill more of your troops than he lost every turn. As it turns out, you were able to put pressure on South America, and he stopped putting as many troops in Africa. That's exactly what you should have done, but you could have done that three turns earlier. Or, you could have put two turns worth of troops into Nigeria to provide a stronger front against him when he arrived, instead of putting minor speedbumps in his way that he could simply roll over.

Thanks chaps - I'll work on it - I know that I am reasonably good and beat more people than beat me BUT feel like there's a big gap between me and really good players- a resolution is not to cluster! Thing is you only get better playing people of similar or slightly better skill but they're hard to find... We'll see!

Thanks
MM

So I listened and here is a game where the advice worked!

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1948877

However, I tried to follow similar advice in this with poor results:http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1948851

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
MM

And now I'm playing the original opponent again! Let's see how it goes!

error 1

south africa is a bad bonus.

error 2

use more armies to take south america. U were incredibly lucky in taking scandinavia with a 2 vs 2 but that was a bad move. Attackin 2 vs 2 in south africa instead than taking australia ? c'mon...

error 3

in russia u could play more aggro.

u knew at that time, where was your enemy, u knew he had no easy path of expantion. U should only deny him from taking other bonuses and expand in north am or africa.

i'd concentrate army in ufa and block his spreading and use all i could to fight him in australia (haway are the only expantion route for him).

BUT

i think ur turn 3 is a mess. Attack with more armies south am, use the others to start australia or russia. U remained competitive only because u won scandinavia. But a 3vs2 attack and a 2vs2 attack .... how many time could this work ?