A guide on my Africa 8 player escalate strategies.

[The-Swede]

In an effort to fill 5 games of this that i hosted; I decided to write some of my short theory on this game. The 5 games i hosted are 3/path so adjust my theories accordingly. They are mercenary so also adjust accordingly for other settings. You can find the games by visiting my profile, feel free to friend me as well, i send out invitations to all my games. This will cover some of my theory on escalate in general but more specifically as tied to this map and these settings. I am also going to assume you have general knowledge of this map when explaining.

Just to jump right into things, so as not to bore you with broad general theory, here is my suggestions on the first 1-3 turns:

The Parachutes on the map each supply +1. They are neutral but they are also only 1 man so they make for the easiest way to get a card on the first turn as well. This will make them high priority, hopefully yours as well. With the reinforcement settings being used it just further makes them high priority as stacks of men that are acquired there can easily be moved out if you also own a aeroplane.

With 8 players, and especially if everyone in the game has read this article, the parachutes will be eaten up quickly. So what should you do if you are one of the last acting players? Well, perhaps the hunt for parachutes has left week points on the map. You are obviously limited to where you have dropped, and should also look closely at any command where you own more than one region. Highest priority should be given though to where you have the easiest chance of getting a card. I would even opt on attacking a none bonus neutral tert that will result in you losing the 1 man you advance into it on your next turn if your only option is to go 6vs3 or more somewhere else. Or you could just drop men and end your turn. Though i do admit to be bold myself and will usually, though not always, take a first turn 6vs3 rather than just dropping my men and taking my first action on turn 2. Though i fully understand it is not the best strategy. But with 8 players and escalate there will be a short window where all the action will go down and you will need all the cards you can get to be there when it does. A late acting player in this game could also consider looking for weak parachutes. Does the parachute only have 2 men defending it? I would target that. I would not target it if it has 3 men defending it unless you have another connecting territory you can reinforce into it if it is won at high cost.

You may be a late acting player who has had the misfortune of being targeted heavily, though it is less likely on this map as most people will be going for neutral parachutes on their first turn. But perhaps someone before you decided to go for a command on the map, one that you dropped heavy into, and so he targeted you first. Or perhaps just the misfortune of being the first target of different people in different commands. The temptation may be just to drop men and end turn, but you should resist it! Do you have an easy vs1 attack anywhere? Take it. A vs 2 attack anywhere? Take it. Try to get a card as easily as you can each turn, and stay alive everywhere you can, but understand when a person is commited to something and give up on it, hopefully before puting even a single man there. Also consider attacking out of a command someone else is gunning for as a way to get a card and also keep your men alive in that area of the map.

I was hoping to get a lot further than this. I will edit my OP at some point in the future and explain more of my theory. I was not expecting it to be such a task For now i have added the following advice to temporarily finish this little guide of mine until i have time to complete it:

1. The most important thing is to get a card each turn, and try to get some parachutes or small commands to build strength so that you don't become a target in a mercenary game where people may take KO options which don't result in the ultimate win, or even cashing a new set from the KO

2. Stay alive in as many areas of the map as you can.

3. When things look like they are about to start escalating try to evaluate who could become potential target for you on your next turn and start positioning your troops.

4. If you have no more commands you want to aquire and it has not escalated yet then you should look to the troop/card counts and figure out who the strongest players in the game are. If possible try to target them in some way for your easy card that turn.

5. Aeuroplanes. They can hit any Parachute and from the parachutes you can attack out into different areas. It gives you the best pathworking come time to KO people. It is always a good idea to get ahold of one and build a stack there. If you also own Parachutes it makes it very easy to reinforce your stacks from your parachutes to your plane the turn before you are expecting escalating action.

6. Prepping weak players for a KO is a strategy if you don't think anyone will steal it from you.

7. It is Mercenary, you don't need to win the game to win the points. If you have a shot at a few KO's you should take them. Who knows what will happen before it gets back to your turn.

9. I will try to complete this in a more thorough manner later

 

[brianstheman]

Swede, a good read. Thanks for putting this out there. I'd be interested in your viewpoint on acquiring the Conflict Zones.

 

[The-Swede]

I feel like taking an entire conflict Zone is a bad idea with these game settings because of a few reasons:

People perceive you as being more powerful than you are. Your deploy looks larger than what it is. People like being clever and your giving them a chance to cripple you with little effort in a lot of scenarios. The zones that can be defended by holding just 1 spot on the main map and the parachute, like harrare, still need to be defended with 2 borders now instead of one. The men in the parachute become useless as attacking options now as well because your defending it from its only connecting main map region. You now can't attack out into other areas of the map with your parachute stack by going through the conflict regions because you now occupy all of them. It's extra due diligence maintaining it. It has the potential to lose you men on a turn. It makes you spread you men thin, your better of spreading in a manner ready for attack.

 

[The-Swede]

There are a variety of other games that are just 1 or 2 people away from starting. Just go to my profile to view them all. One game in particular, which i have 3 of them hosted, are Balkans 9 player, escalate, unlimited, anywhere... which i think plays very nicely on that map as everyone can usually manage to find a command somewhere and it escalates quickly and can be fun for the one who manages to take it down. All in all a pleasant game with a high chance of managing to find a command somewhere and then a shot at running the board. I have a few other games to choose from as well as a lot of 6vs6 games with 1-3 slots available on my team. An easy 6 UDO's if your team wins.

 

[riskRPM]

Cool! Now I am certain I am in over my head! FUN!

RPM

 

[The-Swede]

Cool! Now I am certain I am in over my head! FUN!

RPM

Haha. This is one of the more complex maps you could have joined but it's a great one. The main thing in this game is

1. Get cards (with as few losses as possible)
2. Stay alive in as many areas as possible
3. Staying within the context of the last two points you should try to aquire some parachutes or small commands and an aeroplane if possible (because it gives you great paths of attack for the endgame)

You start off with few men and regions and you must be careful in how you deploy and attack that allows the most room for bad dice. So go for the 6v1 attack option, not the 6vs3 even if you want the other region much more or it even has important game impact. This game will escalate very quickly you want to be alive and holding cards to be in the window of opportunity where you will take your shot to run the board and win the game or take it to a delayed endgame stage with some other players.

 

[The-Swede]

Though we know the soundest way we can also develop our own style and takes risks as we choose. For example in the game that you joined i started with the first turn. I did not have the greatest deploy. I had no reasonable paths to a parachute that would guarantee i could take and hold it to my next turn (i could attempt to go through conflict zones and take Sierra Leone). I also owned 1 region of the small 3 region command of South Africa. The other 2 regions were owned by another player. Instead of deploying some on Guinea and taking a conflict zone for an easy card i decided to deploy all in South Africa and attempt to take one of the South Africa regions. I chose to take the region that was not the plane and leave the other player the plane. That way his first turn action would be to attack a parachute from his plane and possibly leave the command for me. That is indeed what he did and come turn 2 i should be able to take the small command of South Africa. This was a riskier play. I did have plans to stop my attack if my initial 6vs3 ended 4:3 or ended 5:2 and then 3:2, hoping he would choose not to bid for South Africa still in that case. I basically made a play that took a region that would surely be attacked on that players first or second turn and turned it into a gain, as i should now pick up that command and got a card on my first turn. (i planned to try one 3v1 attack on the conflict zone for a card if i failed)