Welcome to Turn 1 of The Impaller versus The World, a game that everyone gets to participate in! For more information about the game, view this blog post.

The winning item from last time was number 4: Place 5 in South Pole (Antarctica). Attack Scott (Antarctica), Siple (Antarctica) and Novolazerevskaya (Antarctica) from South Pole (Antarctica) with 3 each. Attack Peru (South America) from Argentina (South America) with 4.

Here's what we did:

Here's the outcome:

• The World: Deploy 5 to South Pole

• The World: 3 armies captured Scott from South Pole. 2 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.

• The World: 3 armies captured Siple from South Pole. 1 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.

• The World: 3 armies captured Novolazarevskaya from South Pole. 2 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.

• The World: 4 armies captured Colombia from Argentina. 2 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.

Note: The above list contains all orders we saw. The fact that there are no listings beginning with "The Impaller:" means we did not see any attacks or deployments by him.

Here are our options:

1.) Goal: Get into Panama as soon as possible in case Impaller suspects us in South America and loads all his armies to take Panama and causes us to fail our attack. Also, attack Norway with our last order because suspect he may be there and merely delaying to attack until this turn.

Deploy 8 to Colombia. Attack Panama with 9. Transfer 1 from Siple to Argentina. Attack Norway with 4.

2.) Goal: Delay our attack into Panama until our last move while setting ourselves up for additional attacks in West Russia next turn.

Deploy 8 to Colombia. Transfer 1 from Siple to Argentina. Attack Arkangelsk with 4. Attack Panama with 9.

3.) Goal: Use just enough armies to take Panama since we assume Impaller will only attack it with 2 armies. Use our additional income to take 2 additional territories in West Russia, which will very likely allow us to get that bonus next turn.

Deploy 4 to Colombia and 4 to Murmansk. Transfer 1 from Siple to Argentina. Attack with 4 from Murmansk to Arkangelsk and 4 to Moscow. Attack Panama with 5.

4.) Goal: Take Panama with the majority of our income, as we believe it is not likely that Impaller attacks it with more than 2 or 3. Position ourselves to possibly take West Russia next turn, but relying upon a 3v2 (80% chance) to take Moscow.

Deploy 5 to Colombia and 3 to Murmansk. Transfer 1 from Siple to Argentina. Attack with 4 from Murmansk to Arkangelsk and 3 to Moscow. Attack Panama with 6.

5.) Goal: Take Panama before Impaller with all our income and move into position to take West Russia soon.

Deploy 8 to Colombia. Attack Panama with 9. Transfer 1 from Siple to Argentina. Attack Arkangelsk with 4.

Click here to vote

You should intrepret the stars as follows:

0 Stars means "I don't care" or "I'm indifferent to this item."

1 Star means "I'm positive we should not do this."

2 Stars means "I don't think we should do this."

3 Stars means "Maybe we should do this."

4 Stars means "I think we should do this."

5 Stars means "I'm positive this is what we should do."

Use this thread to discuss strategy. Feel free to suggest new options and if there's enough demand, I'll add them for voting. Have votes in before the end of the day Thursday and check Friday for the next turn!

I do not think he has scan and it is obvious he missed his central america bonus. I say to go with #5 to insure he doesn't get that bonus, we can go to Arkangelsk to set up West russia for next turn.

Even if we decided to hit Norway, we'd probably get overtaken if he was there. If he isn't there, we wasted our troops and turn on getting our own 4 bonus.

Defo no.5 we got good luck this turn

I think #2 is even better than #5 - Impaller can't have a bonus, and if he attacks Panama with 2, we gain advantage of ~one more army (micromanaging <3).

WOW -- what a perfect result. Home run! Looks like we'll deprive Imp of a bonus and the benefit of all of his first deployment. A huge set-back.

Why no consideration of working on South America this turn? We already hold two territories there and have one army coming up to Argentina. We could deploy 3 to Argentina this turn and attack Bolivia with them. With the additional army next turn we'll be in position to finish SA before WR. Or we skip Bolivia and go for Venesuela now (4 for the bust and 5 to slide over to Venesuela). The bust should be last move (why not let the neutral take one of his out).

The risk of waiting to go to Venesuela is that Imp goes for a block in Venesuela next turn. He will know we started in SA and will be looking to get a block to counter our hige gain in CA. That risk is only real to the extent he has the armies to try it.

He's going to be scrambling to get more income asap next turn when CA goes bust. The only bonus he could possibly get this turn with only 5 income, and having used 5 income last turn to try for CA, is India. Even that one would be tight, if he's in India and he got lucky and took a territory only losing 1 (and he doesn't have to put any armies into CA this turn), then he'd only need one 3x2 this turn to get India. If he's not in India, failed to expand in India first turn, then he doesn't complete a bonus this turn either.

I'm not saying focusing on the SA bonus is the right choice now, but it should be an option.

I also like #3 because like R I don't think he's in Scan. But there's another varient that helps bridge #3 and #5. We only really need to add 3 to WR to be sure we can take it next turn:

Deploy 5 to Colombia and 3 to Murmansk. Transfer 1 from Siple to Argentina. Attack with 4 from Murmansk to Arkangelsk and 3 to Moscow. Attack Panama with 6.

We're still assured that our 8 income will be sufficient to take WR next turn and we get a 6 attack on Panama last turn which gives us 60% odds of taking out a 4 (which is 2 more than the max I could see him having there given he only has 5 income). But it's good to have a bigger stack busting just in case and to deter him from trying to take it right back.

I agree this is an excellent result!

I would personally go after West Russia before South America, since it's very likely SA would be under threat from Cuba, whereas our opponent may not be anywhere near West Russia. Going after a bonus that we're immediately going to have to defend isn't as productive. Although, given we have the early army advantage, SA could still work.

We're definitely ahead now, but we need to capitalize on that lead. And not just this turn - but over the next few.

I really hate #5. There's virtually no chance we need 9 attackers. It sucks away so many armies that we can't get WR or SA next turn, which let's Imp get to parity with us if he gets India this turn.

If you think about it it is a very bad decision to go to Scandanavia as there is 4 territories to be taken there for 3 bonus and in russia we have 4 more territories to attack for a bonus of 4

Fizz -- The more I think about it the more I agree that WR is better than SA for our next bonus (he might be coming from EA too). To be certain we can take WR next turn with 8 income we need a minimum of 8 in Murmansk. We can then either send 7 from Murmansk to Arkangelsk (which lets us jump back in the event he's hiding in Scan) or send just 4 from Murmansk to Arkangelsk. It doesn't matter so long as we put an extra 3 in WR this turn so we can take it with all 4s next turn.

I think that would seal the deal for us. We'd parley the extra 3 armies this turn into a +7 next turn.

It's a small point but, by putting no more than 5 in Colombia, Imp won't know if we got Antartica 1st turn or not.

REGL -- no one is suggesting Scan. I don't think that's even an option.

@Duke Thought I saw someone suggest it :/

no one is suggesting Scan. I don't think that's even an option.

The first option has us attack into Scand. I don't like it either :)

Last move Pink suggested it. Not sure if he was serious though. He might've been trying to help Imp win ;)

Speaking of which I don't know the Impaller very well But he is posting on this forum ATM How do we know he isnt looking ?

Kalash -- it was described in the post of the previous turn, but Imp is one of the most upstanding people here on this site and respect goes a long way with him. He knows that if he looks he's ruining the entirety of this whole variant. I don't think he'd do it.

Duke, I probably should have added in an option or two for South America, I agree. I'm swamped on a large project at work that it time sensitive and didn't put as much energy (evident, I'm sure) into this turn as the previous couple. I can still add it in later if there is support for that option.

Ok Ruthless it wasn't an Accusation I was just wondering as I do not know him very well.

I probably missed something but how can you guarantee that the opponent The Impaller cant read all this?

We can't guarantee, but he's a cool guy and we believe him.