here's an idea to increase your success against timinator: don't play him
or else you can do like me and get incredibly lucky

Dear Piggy,

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3661225

Could I have won, if yes how?

Thank you,

Min34

Realized I might have had a much better shot had that 6v4 attack been a 7v4, but I thought Tim had a deployment card left, so thought I needed every more armies than I actually did to defend the border.

Dear Nauzhror,

You lost because Timi got into south africa before you did.

This is a common theme: when West and East Africa Vs Antarctica whoever gets south africa (the territory not the bonus) first has the advantage of calling the shots. They can either batter kenya, can hold S africa and send 4/5/6 to Botswana to threaten congo, they can move their whole stack to Botswana and blockade South Africa.

It is a shame because you expanded into North Africa. Had you gone the other way you would have been winning.

I would also like to commend you for playing it right in russia turn after turn. Just because you didn't guess his deployment correctly doesn't mean you did the wrong thing, and his losses to your bigger stack offset his larger income.

You could have made certain of a card piece on turn 8 by moving your leftover in algeria into mali the turn before. A reinforcement card played on turn 9 would have put you in a much better position, though it probably wouldnt have saved you.

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Dear Min34

Yes of course you could! I would recommend never picking a territory in a bonus with a wasteland in it. You have to fight more neutrals to complete bonuses and you want to use your income for fighting the enemy not neutrals.

Do not try to complete more than 1 bonus outside your starting 3 at a time. At the start of turn 5 you have 4 other bonuses started. If you spread yourself too thinly you will fall behind in income.

Other than that you played well, thanks for your question,
Piggy

Dear Piggy,

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3646004

I just got my membership and joined the ladder. Normally when I lose a game, I can pinpoint my mistake(s) afterwards, but I'm not sure what I did wrong here. Was my opponent just too good?

Thanks,
Z-Dog

dear piggy,

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3673177,
i had a large income advantage early in the game but still lost, what did i do wrong

Dear Z-dog,

Your opponent was very good. He was able to make the most of some of your very minor mistakes, and bad luck. Which is why it's hard to see what led to the loss.

When you get your top 3 picks you dont get any intel, or any counterpicks. Which means you need to have made picks that give you a specific advantage (eg. safety, expansion, good access to enemy bonuses etc) that you can capitalise on. If you know what is good about your picks it will make decisions all through the game a lot easier. You will simply play to whatever your advantage is. What was your advantage? What made your top 3 picks the best on the map? How did you picture yourself winning?

Turn 1 you attacked moscow when that should have waited, incase hooroo was in scand. It wasted 3 armies that you really needed and made his path to your safest bonus easier.

Turn 2 you deploy in africa but dont attack. It is almost always better to attack from somewhere you deploy. The exception is when you assume you are only 1 territory from bumping into an enemy and want him to fight the neutral between you. In this case you are going to have to kill those neutrals, huru is never going to come into africa to find you until he has finished his 3 starting bonuses, at which point you will be far behind in income.

Turn 3 you gambled he had completed brazil. You could have calculated that he would not have had the income to do that, based on his deployment in scandinavia. Instead capturing Ufa to protect your only bonus and completing W africa with 3v2s is your only real shot.

Turn 4 Using 4v2s when youre losing is a bad idea. Gamble on the 3v2s.

Turn 5 You deploy in the area where the armies are least effective because you are both a turn away from each others bonus. In russia your armies could have defended your own bonus and prevented him from completing his.

Try asking your opponent after the game, most players spend a little time looking at their ladder games after they finish, so they almost always have something to talk to you about. Good luck on the ladder =D

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

What could I have done better in this game Piggy? I did win it, but I feel I made some mistakes along the way. At one point (after breaking russia) I felt it's gg and then it dragged on for quite some time. So where did I go wrong?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3563003

Dear Piggy,

How could Locowut have played this game better?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3678437

Thank you,
John

Thanks Piggy! That was great advice.

wow lolowut is pissed in that game

1. Tired from full day.
2. Was not having a good day. (Personal, family, and a gaming buddy's heart gave out)
3. I picked weird.

Lolo you lost this game on picks de facto. The only reason you were able to get back into it were dreadfull mistakes on John's part. On turn 12 you were far from haveing a decisve advantage, no good player should surrender then. Im not going to get into a detailed analisys, that's Piggy's job, but this are the highlights.

best regards

PS. John had better positioning at least in the early game.

Dear Seahawkesareokay,

Do you ever use the analysis option? Your turns 4 and 5 needed some calclating.

When you have an income advantage and hold a territory in your opponents bonus it is often an easy win if you play defensive. Preventing your opponent from finishing one of his starting bonuses is normally enough to win. In this case your plan is to hold Scott and wait for him to surrender =D

Start of turn 4. You could deduce he had an income of 11 or 12 (probably 11 because he finished his bonuses with 3s which suggests he got an 3 bonus first rather than a 4 and was a little short on income.). If he deploys all of it at the south pole he will be attacking with 13-14. So you need to have 10 defenders and no more to keep your foothold in his bonus, the last 1 deploy to Malaysia.

Turn 5. Now you know his income is 11 plus a card. If he deploys all to south pole he will be attacking with 18 so you need 12-13 defenders. If he deploys all to malaysia you need 11 defenders in aus. Then you make no moves and no attacks, no matter what moves he chooses you win (excepting for outrageous luck) on income advantage.

I would recommend that if youre going to double pick aus, pick antarctica first. I call ant/indo/aus the boston special because he does it whenever he can, and even when i know its coming he still wins with it.

Dear john,

I don't think its appropriate for me to talk about drunkowuts performance without him asking. How do you think you could have played better in that game?

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Oh! and thank you for your question SeahawkesareaprettyrubbishteambutIlikethemanyway, I forgot to sign off on your post :#

Dear Artham,

Frankdeslimste has the advantage before the game even begins as he has selected the strongest colour, and that pink really pops! You could learn something from that excellent selection Artham.

Turn 4 certainly looks like gg doesn't it? As with the last post, once you have a territory in the enemies bonus, dont let it go. Turn 5 just put 2 in N africa to get your card piece and the rest in murmansk. Either way, you got unlucky, both in defensive luck and 2nd move twice in a row.

You spent forever on N africa, bad luck certainly didnt help but turn 7 you definitely should have finished it off rather than starting in E China. Certainly you can assume he was in CA and coming for you through hawaii sooner or later, so better to take japan before E China.

blockading tomsk was unecessary and it would have gone badly wrong if he had counter attacked.

These minor inaccuracies aside, incredibe play from the former world no.1 and fellow [WM] member. =D

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Sorry, I mean West China, not East China in arthams reply. =X

Thanks very much for your reply. All good pointers, Im kinda embarassed now that you've put me through your x-ray ;). Can't belive I didin't see those things :).