Dear Nauzhror,

I am mesmerized by blue in this game, West China 2nd bonus? Very bold. Thought provoking.

You should just look to a few simple rules to make life easier for you. Finish your first 3 bonuses asap. Making more than a 5v2 towards your opponent is unecessary until you finish your starting bonuses. Starting to complete South America before checking central america, and then before getting blue out of it is unwise. It forces you to be defending an investment rather than attacking. Going to East Africa seems goofy, you know he is in Asia because where else could he have made his 2 other picks? Your route there is faster and thats where his expansion is anyway. You don't need to pick asia, its fine to let him have it and then attack it.

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

A few days ago Lolowut asked me which of my games was best in terms of skill on both sides. I had to pick a recent multiday game with a top player, so I settled on this game with dunga as it reflects top tier games well and I lost (I think analysing your own win publically is a bit vulgar). http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3530797

He also requested a post mortem, here it is:

Picks: This game centres around the very safe SA/CA combo being split in half with back ups in E Asia. I opt for safety in Central Russia, which is probably too cautious. I would struggle to complete it while keeping an E China combo from being completed first. Dunga makes the risky SA/Eafrica combo. It is a risk because if I had first pick, my SA pick would counter africa and CA. He also risks getting all 3 of his top picks, and having poor expansion opportunities in a game that will be decided by expansion.

My plan was to complete russia, and then use South East Asia to deny dunga indonesia until I complete SEA. The 2 problems with this plan were that SEA is a horrible bonus. It is very vulnerable to E China and it is long and thin, making it inefficient to complete.

The other is that counterpicks work a lot better when there isnt another area where your enemy can make you fight, because usually a counterpick will cost the counterpicker more in the short term. The benefit comes after you complete your 3 starting bonuses whereas your enemy cant and your income advantage starts to be decisive. I have to constantly worry that if dunga pushes me out of malaysia my position will be much worse than his for a long time to come. I am tied to defending it which leaves me exposed on the other side of the map.

Dungas plan is to complete E africa efficiently and then fight me wherever he finds me with a safe bonus and the initiative on his side. This is a much nicer plan =D

In the game I spend too much income killing neutrals. Attacking malaysia turn 2 is unecessary, if dunga completes indo first (which is unlikely) we will have equal income and I a bigger stack, which is winning anyway. A stack on thailand is also good against Echina which is much more likely to be dungas first bonus. Attacking mexico is pointless. Attacking colombia guarantees we have equal income and I have smaller stacks, for no good reason. I overstretched myself by being aggressive in 2 places at once. Then the weakness of SEA shows itself, and the weakness of CA being less flexible against SA shows itself and it is gg.

This is a game at the limit of my understanding, so I didn't criticise dungas moves. He thinks about games very differently to me so hopefully he will come and comment too.

Thanks for your question lolowut,
Piggy

I agree that i got lucky geting the 1. The game would go on with a definitive advantage for you, but i would be the one attacking indonesia. It would be a very though first bonus to choose. But the risk paid of and i got the 1.

I didnt think i would get 123 really, so it was not a concern, it would be a game with no definitive advantage (probably a 60/40 because of china), i could go through alaska or either brake the wasteland in california.

I agree that your attack in indonesia was unnecessary, but you needed to use your knowledge somehow, and the major problem about the game was SEA, because you denied me my bonus, but your was too far away.

I do think i played very well in all SA situation, using momentum and being the one doing the threats instaed of being in danger. All was ok, but the game turn to me at turn 4 and 5. The fact the my threats were much more dangerous made me be able to hold both fronts and at turn 5 the game was almost over. I could even have predicted he running way and making a late 2 attack for an even better result.
But there i already had too much. He needed to waste armies to match my income, in which case would be impossible for him to hold both fronts.

It was a gg, and i think myself and piggy will be able to show lots of more high level games. I have the feeling that piggy commits a lot to the game, and think through most of the turns, and this games are always full of movements and tricks to learn.

And its an honor to be mentioned here as a high tier defeat of yours piggy. I know you could have bring a good victory if you wanted.

Piggy, I'd like to thank you for doing this. (Although I don't remember making the question). I learned a lot from both sides of the analysis, and I hope others did too! ^^

Dear Piggy,

First of all thanks for your advice :) It`s really helpfull.
I have a question that is bothering me for a while now (it doesn`t have a gamelink):

What is the best to do in the situation that you can see two of the three territories you need for a bonus (for example first turn of single-player lever 2). Let`s say I place 8 armies on Argentinia. What is the best to do?
1. attack both territories with 4 armies.
2. attack Brazil(or Peru) with 8
3. attack the one of the above with 5. so you are sure you will take it over and you have armies left to take over the other territories next turn.

I`m not asking this because of level 2, but because I come along of this alot in multi-player games and I mostly use option 1, but it gives you two territories to defend, while they don`t have that much armies on them.

^there are normal settings, nothing weird. (if it makes a lot of differents, please give your opinion on both 16% luck and 75% luck.

Thanks in advance,

Min34

Dear Min,

It depends on what is going on on the rest of the map. Option 1 is best if having leftovers is a good thing and flexibility at the start of next turn isn't important. Option 2 is best if you think you will bump into someone in N africa or Venezuela. Option 3 is best if flexibility is important at the start of next turn. These answers assume 16%, I think option 3 is a little better with 75% but I can't be sure.

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Dear Piggy,

Is there anything specific you feel I did wrong in this ( http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3745784 ) game against Eeyore? I felt I played fairly well, but I am sure I made some mistakes as well. Do you think my odds of winning would have significantly increased had I not failed the 3v2 on turn 1 in SEA?

Dear Veldiryn,

Eeyore countered two of your picks with one of his, East China makes it very hard for you to hold indonesia and SEA. He was able to punish you for making the predictable (but fine) first turn bonus picks without having to take a risk with xinjiang, caucasus or middle east. If you were not in SEA and indonesia it is still a fine bonus. This situation is common, when there is a chance of taking SEA first turn, you can take EChina without risk, and counter SEA if the other person takes it. Sometimes when a player finds themselves unchallenged in a SEA first turn bonus they will take hong kong, incase their opponent is there.

You should have gone for South America before indonesia because you can complete it in 2 turns. You should have used your reinforcement card on turn 5.

You did play well, you kept trying to pop africa which is the only thing that could save you, and you didnt push into china when you didnt need to and avoided a counterattack etc.

Getting SEA first turn would hopefully have led you to go for south america, and you would have bumped into eeyore before he went to hong kong, you might have completed south america a turn before west africa and had a nice stack advantage there but in the end hong kong has so much control over both your bonuses. Eeyore only need keep enough on nigeria to keep you out and the rest can wreak havoc in SEA indonesia, so he has the advantage.

Thanks for the question,
Piggy

"You should have gone for South America before indonesia because you can complete it in 2 turns. You should have used your reinforcement card on turn 5. "

While that would have let me get 12 income after turn 3, I wasn't sure if that was actually worth it because it'd also have meant 12 income till turn 5 instead of 16 after turn 4.

Is that necessarily better? In the past I've always tried to prioritize moving at least one territory per turn in the long thin bonuses since otherwise it postpones when they can be completed no matter how many spare armies you have.

Whoops, wrong forum account. Veldiryn = me.

The total number of armies you would have to deploy is the same either way, but if you do SA first you get access to 4 of them a turn earlier and 4 of them a turn later, you also get to make better use of leftovers, but youre right both ways are good.

I think you could have known after turn 1 Eeyore was in EChina because its the only asian bonus you havent checked. The cost of taking hong kong is low and the pay off is either that you have a ton of safety because he isnt in asia at all, or you you take the most important territory on that side of the map and stop him completing his bonus.

You should note that the inefficient long thin bonus is another disadvantage to the SEA first turn bonus. People see a FTB and instantly decide that it is the most important thing on the board, but often there are many downsides, after weighing them up you can see in this case SEA was not the best thing on the map. I think Wafrica, EChina, SAmerica, Eafrica, SEA, Indo looks nice.

Dear Piggy,

What would you have done during turn 2?

Based on picks, I had his Scandanavian Penis pegged, and was lucky enough to complete my Asia Combo. I thought he had completed the bonus on turn 1.

I only wanted to deploy 5 in Russia to
1) Avoid Tipping that I had a bonus (which would have told him exactly where I was)
2) Avoid giving him the impression that I already had a higher income (thinking that I put 100% into attacking him)
3) Try to get a card piece (I didn't with my 3v2 attack)

The reasons why I didn't deploy all 8 was:
1) 3 reasons above
2) I figured I was still going to have a 50/50 chance at breaking him if I attacked full force depending on where I guessed he would deploy.

Thank you,

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3756600

Game Link Usually helps.

John

Dear John,

I had his Scandanavian Penis pegged

You sure did.

To take a first turn bonus (FTB) you made a 2nd pick that sucked. Most bonuses worth 4 income have 5 territories, but Middle east has 6 making it cost approx 3 more armies and 1 turn to complete. You gave up efficiency, in exchange for early income. Then the very next turn you give all that income back to pay for the inefficiency of middle east, leaving you with no advantage over a traditional combo like CA/SA. If you had missed one of the 3v2s first turn you would have the disadvantage of middle east, without the extra 3 income to help complete it. SEA/ME was a bad combo in most respects for that reason. Its redeeming feature is that for as long as you dont spend anything trying to take ME you will retain the advantage of high early income. So it is clear you should have picked a different 1&2 if you didnt intend to use your early income in murmansk.

I would have gone all 8 in murmansk and probably attack Norway with 11 first move. I choose Norway because even if he guesses my moves, if i get first move its still 11v9 which works fine for me. It isnt a massive deal, you had a higher income, bigger stack and control over his only bonus by turn 2 so you were going to win easily either way. I shouldnt be expanding while a very important battle is being fought.

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Dear everyone,

I won't be answering any more questions in this thread. I thought I would use these questions and answers to make a set of rules or guide to playing strat 1v1 but I have decided that won't work. All the players I play with are getting worn out and moving on, and I think I will end up going with them.

Thanks for all your questions, I enjoyed answering them,
Piggy

i like the pic.

Well this is the last and the most successful ask thread with the most posts too, good job dead piggy.

Dear Piggy,

There are probably a ton of obvious things I did wrong in this game; I've been in a funk lately. Could possibly set me right and say what I could've done better in this game?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3902570

dear sollux captor, the thing you did wrong was posting on a thread which he said he wouldnt answer any more questions on

Ah okay. Thanks. I'll remember that for my next ladder game. :)