Very tough one for me. 7 obvious options for the 6 picks (but in what order?). http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4508561

Spoiler alert: I lost badly.

Obviously, Huruey's strategy was sound. Any other ideas?

My picks in order:

• SEA
• Indonesia
• Antarctica
• Australia
• Caucasus
• C. America

I love Huruey's picks, I wouldn't have thought of them I think but they are one of the best options on that board.

I probably would have gone 1. Scandanavia, 2. Argentina, 3. Southeast Asia, 4. Indonesia, 5. Caucasus, 6. Antarctica. I don't usually like 3/4/5 with 5 as a counter because you risk getting two territories right there together while the opponent gets one. It is a good idea with my earlier picks though. I would pick like this against most players with a rating below 1900. Against very good players, I would probably have changed them up a bit. I figure I'll get 1 and 2 and also a territory to counter southeast asia. Most decent to good players will pick first turn bonuses early like ACL Tears did here. If I get Caucasus, I would hit with 7 first turn to Southeast Asia. If I get Indonesia or Southeast Asia, I would hit with 7 first move to Antarctica. That is one board that there are a lot of ways to pick and many options. I think my way would be one of the best options though, along with Huruey's idea. His would definitely work better against top players, mine would probably be a bit better against decent to good players.

Arun, your picks make no sense to me. Can you explain why you would pick Caucasus 5?

As a potential counter to India/Indonesia. I like to swap my opponent as I suck at early combat :/

Also, why do you pick wastelanded S. America?

Yeah, I shouldn't have tried for a first turn bonus as neither of the 2 were safe. But with the picks I made, I put myself in a bad spot. We chatted about it a little. And if we had both made Huruey's picks (much more possible on a board like this), the guy who gets first choice is in serious trouble!

Arun, I would only pick those against a guy I think would pick Antarctica, Australia. Many players would. It's the perfect counter to them.

And you should never counter your 1/2 picks, you're guarenteed to get one of them. With your picks, there is a good chance of you getting 1/2/5 which would be devestating. If you wanted to put 5 in Argentina to counter your 3 and 4, that makes sense, I used to do that when I was about 25 in the ladder. I haven't done that as much lately because sometimes it will backfire and you will get 3 and 5 together or 4 and 5. That would be better than yours though. What if you get 2 and 3 and 5? Or 1 and 2 and 5? There's a good chance of that happening. That's the reason your picks are not good. At least you've gotten better lately though, I remember when you used to hover about rank 100 in the ladder :)

Clearly, picking Antarctica/Australia as 1 and 2 was a mistake (which was a nice learning experience). But I would have trouble picking a wasteland territory as #2. What if your opponent doesn't cooperate and try for the first turn bonus? You don't have any information about where he is that way. Huruey's picks were great, but he had a potential problem if he ends up with both Australia and Argentina (his 4 and 5). I was looking for a good way to counterpick Australia and Argentina as my 5 and 6 picks but didn't come up with anything great.

ACL Tears, I would only do it against people that I felt confident would focus on the first turn bonuses. Against a very good player, I would not pick it. Especially against Julkorn or Zibik since they hardly ever pick first turn bonuses even when they are safe. I would probably go something along the lines of 1 in Scandanavia, 2 in Southeast Asia, 3 in Indoensia, 4 in Antarctica, 5 in Australia, 6 in Argentina against many players. And then hit toward Cauc. first turn with 8 if I ended up getting my first 3 picks. That's how I would pick against some players, Against many of the very good players and a few decent to good players if I think they might not go for the first turn bonuses.

Another possibility of picks I see that would probably work better would be: 1. Scandanaiva, 2. Caucasus, 3. Antarctica, 4. Australia, 5. Argentina, 6. Southeast Asia. Still potentially risky if I got my 4 and 5 but that is not very likely at all.

I can't Huruey getting both his 4 and 5 in Australia and Argentina. Let's say his opponent picks 1 in southeast asia and gets first pick. Then he gets Caucasus, plus Antarctica (since that moves up to his second pick after Cauc.) for sure. Then he will get either Australia or Argentina. Or if he's lucky, he'll end up with his 6 pick and his opponent will be in Australia/Argentina. I can't see many people picking Caucasus as a 1 or 2.

* I can't see Huruey.

I agree that it would have been unlikely for Huruey to get his 4 and 5. My first iteration was very similar to his, except that I had Indonesia instead of Caucasus as #2. That would have been better than what I ended up doing but not as good as his picks.

Yeah, games with more than 1 first turn bonus are often very hard to pick, especially if there are counters on both of them.

Is noone even a little bit interested in scand/greenland?

Yes. How would you have ordered the picks? I guess another option is to just ignore the whole situation with the counters and first turn bonuses. The opponent probably is very cautious to start and can't expand too fast.

1.scand 2.greenland is very powerful on this map (do i need to explain why? None of you even mentioned it =/) The only way it loses is it gets countered in europe by someone with a FTB, or the opponent gets scand.
Is someone going to pick ant/austraila/scand/greenland/europe? Yeah perhaps. Perhaps I should be picking that.
Is someone going to pick scand/ant/australia/sea/indo? Yeah perhaps. Perhaps I should be picking that.

You're right. Scand/Greenland is very good. I'm confused though by your second part. What would you do with the rest of the picks? The tricky part for me is that there are 2 FTB's that can both be countered.

Hmm, I didn't pick it because I would want a presence in both first turn bonuses and a safe pick in Scandanavia. That would be a won position except against people who don't pick first turn bonuses. Your picks would be better at the top level I think. See, I still have to learn on picks :)

Yeah, you can't cover both FTB with Scan/GL, but they also can't get both FTB with their picks either. They would most likely do AA one since SEA is countered better. So you could just take Argentina with Scan/GL, or you could take Indonesia. Would counter SEA and Aus, but not AA. Plus if Scan is taken, you don't end up with GL, Argentina.

Although if they get Scan #1, I assume they get AA/Aus (you get GL/SA), so your 3rd spot would be safe (maybe SEA in that case).

You can counter both FTB by picking indonesia, sea, caucasus 3 4 and 5