Dear Piggy,

Why didn't fizzer name the new forum Custom Ladders In Tournaments so it would read CLIT Development?

Kind regards,

-Wally Balls

Oh god, so much spam.

This is a thread for players who want a second opinion on their 1v1 games from someone who has played a lot of them. Please post questions relating to 1v1 games and a link.

Dear General Arun,

You triple picked! Im sure they werent your best bet, because after the first turn you have to expand into North and South Africa, which are both rubbish. There is also a decent chance you will miss one of your 3v2s to take east africa and end up with no advantage at all. If you had decided not to triple pick, where would you have gone? I will hold off talking about improvements until you do, I think that will be of the most help to you =)


I eagerly await your answer and thanks for your question,
Piggy

Thanks for your quick response Piggy!

I probably would have gone Indonesia, Thailand, East Africa, West Africa, S. America, Mexico.

Alternatively, perhaps I could have triple picked elsewhere-S. America, Mexico and Antarctica.

Dear Piggy

Can you analyze my loss in this game?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3531953

Basically I lost without really a fight.

Thanks, tagg

ah he got you with the old triple pick :D

yep, he sure did...

tagg,

you lost for two reasons.

1 - he knew where you were likely to be and put huge armies on his forwarded bases, so he'd mess u up when he found you. you didn't seem to care where he was and were just expanding as normal 4v2 4v2.

2-you forfeit too early. he definitely had an advantage right there but you should have played it out for another turn or 2. maybe put a blockade so he can't get through to australia, and then try and take your bonus in africa and break his middle east bonus the next turn. depending where he puts his armies, you might be successful.

But actually the biggest error was that you forgot of quitting the game instead of surrendering:/
This way you would have been booted and then you could have complained saying that you were supposed to win that game because you are the best player ever.
Billy is pretty good in this lame stuffs, you have to learn from him a lot...
As everybody of course!:/
lol

+1

3 things tagg:

- picks: 1/2 ant cluster 3/4/5 scan cluster 6 china or (preferable picks for me) 3/4 scan cluster 5 china 6 souhteast asia, gives you safe bonus somewhere and allows you to access russia much faster
- you knew after a few turns where your opponent started = go through japan slowly
- after you areoverpowered block one front. strike hard greenland and proceed slowly through japan, if he does not counter this threat he'd be in big trouble

Sze gives good specific advice, but really, why not plan to counter the other first turn bonus? If he goes 1, 2, Scan Greenland then you can at least get something in that area and prevent his rapid expansion. Asia is much more open and offers a good bit more income than the south, so having something that can reach it before expansion is complete is pretty essential. I lost a similar game in a RR before, and I've learned to never let Asia be completely open unless it's full of wastelands. Most of the income in Asia is easy to break, but you have to get to Asia before your opponent has Egypt, Myanmar, Shaanxi, etc in order for that to work.

Also, you were absolutely not out of the game yet, since you were close to attacking Greenland. A blockade in Thailand or Malaysia could secure that flank while you draw his attention to defense enough for you to stabalize in Africa. He had an advantage, but it was not a stable advantage, and you had nearly the same income.

dear piggy why is this thread so stupid

As for the picks, i didn't expect him to cluster in Scand, so I picked Mexico because i was expecting him to pick both Antarctica and Scand. I probably should have gone through Japan on turn 6. But I think by turn 9, it will be too late, since it will take 5 turns, that is, by attacking Hawaii Japan Khabarovsk Chita Western Siberia. I was also a little unlucky on turn 1 (not getting Antarctica on turn 1).

Thanks guys for the analysis.

Dear Tagg,

Why did you lose? You didn't. You were in a slightly worse position but were far from lost. Your opponent took a lot of risks (3v2s and risky picks) that paid off every single time and you made conservative picks and lots of 4v2s. Despite this you managed to keep up with his income the whole game, congrats. I think your picks were great.

In expanding games it is important to know when to stop expanding and simply deploy and attack with your entire income. You want to do this a turn before you hit your opponent. Your mistake was to keep expanding in all directions. At the start of turn 7 you know roughly where he is (scand Gland russia and caucass) or you would have hit him somewhere. To calculate when you are going to hit someone is difficult, I usually try to map their expansion in my head. A good rule of thumb is to assume they spend 4 turns on their first bonuses, then they expand towards you at the rate of 3 territories every 4 turns.

At this point you should have asked yourself where do I want to hit him? you have to pick; canada, africa or asia. Africa is the worst choice because he will beat you to egypt and keep you from entering his bonus and completing E africa. Canada is bad because he will beat you to Nunavut. Asia is a good because you will have thailand, stopping him from getting to australia or completing SEA. So don't take west US and dont take south africa (let alone east africa). Instead try to steam roll him through asia. Dont be afraid to go through the wasteland, it will cost you 7 attackers and caucass and C russia will surely fall. You do not need to go through japan, thats too slow.

I could talk about what to do when youre losing on turn 10, but my wall of text is big enough =)


Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Dear General Arun,

Ah! So much better than a triple pick. You have covered both the north and south and will have great expansion and attacking opportunities later in the game. 3 double picks is almost always a decent strategy.

So now I have to criticise them? Well if you get your 1 and 2 picks your first bonus (indo) will be easy to take by the end of turn 2, but after that you will struggle. SEA will take until turn 4 to complete and your last bonus is going to be for fighting with.

Incase you don't get your 1 and 2 picks: thailand has an advantage over indonesia because from thailand you can capture malaysia firs turn and sit on it (or blockade it) and deny your enemy a starting bonus. So I think your 1 and 2 picks are the wrong way round.

If you want to stick with 3 double picks in a row I think your first one should be central russia, caucasus because its a lot more income once completed and is more easily defended that it first appears once you take pakistan.

Your 3/4/5 picks are for fighting not expanding (unless he has the same 1/2 as you, in which case safety isnt so important) Brazil/E africa are the most aggressive 3/4 picks, only 1 move away from every single decent southern bonus and each other which makes them ideal for suprise attacks.

I am not sure of your level, I hope that was helpful =)

Thanks for your question,
Piggy

Dear Piggy

Thank you very much for your advice! I think it will be helpful as my picking strategy should make more sense now.

I'm sorry I didn't reply earlier-I was on holiday and I couldn't find access to a computer and I didn't think of using my smartphone :/

Thanks again.

Arun

Dear Piggy, in this game i thought i had good picks, http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=3587188
What happened. Should i have expected him to be in East Russia?
sincerely confused, Magician

@ Magician,

Why did you not go for E. Russia on turn 3 or 4? If you hadn't moved into C. Russia, you would've been able to take him by surprise and have extra armies. The main reason that you lost was because of losing your position in Russia.

Rather than attacking him in C. Russia, you should've ran away and outmaneuvered him while gaining more armies per turn in other regions.