Ask the masters!

[LordAdef]

Hello MajCom,

I made this thread in order to collect information for a tutorial dedicated to Newbies. Every Vet is invited to colaborate. I might get all the information here and build a propper tutorial.

As in Chess, I am parsing MajCom into "Opening", "Middle game" and "Ending". For now I am not touching team games, only singles. Maybe in the future if things go well and people enjoy it.

I chose to begin by asking a couple of questions which I find relevant. I count on YOU Experienced MajComers to help out.

Let's Jive

 

[Chilly]

A few ways I can think of:

1) Timing of when you are turning in sets. If you have an early three card set and are relatively weak, it might be a good idea to turn it in and get those troops out on the board. It also makes you less attractive to try and kill for your cards. On the other hand, if you are doing well, hang on to the cards as their value may go up (escalate, escalite) and you may avoid getting attacked.

2) If you get into a war with big stacks, it might be useful not to put all your men in big stacks. Spread them out slightly so each appears smaller. Big stacks are an indicator that you might want to run the table. Spreading them out lowers your perceived aggression. In the process of spreading these stacks out, try to do it in a way that they can all still attack though.

3) If your opponent has a big stack next to your border, consider putting your big stack one territory back and leaving just a "1" or a "2" next to theirs. This is also a way to do "diplomacy" without "doing" diplomacy. You essentially are saying that I won't attack you (because I cant) unless you take my small border country. But if you do, you've opened up the top of my can of whoop-a$$ and I might not stop at just retaking my territory. Of course, with a little discussion and considering the relative value of command bonus vs. the value of a card at that point in the game, you might decide to just trade that territory back and forth in order to get a card.

 

[Dalinar]

3) If your opponent has a big stack next to your border, consider putting your big stack one territory back and leaving just a "1" or a "2" next to theirs. This is also a way to do "diplomacy" without "doing" diplomacy. You essentially are saying that I won't attack you (because I cant) unless you take my small border country. But if you do, you've opened up the top of my can of whoop-a$$ and I might not stop at just retaking my territory. Of course, with a little discussion and considering the relative value of command bonus vs. the value of a card at that point in the game, you might decide to just trade that territory back and forth in order to get a card.

That's one of my favorites.

 

[namelochil]

How about my last question, how do one put this suggestion into practice?

I think the word "pretend" is a little misleading here. The idea is that you can take advantage of your opponents' preconceptions in order to make yourself look less of a threat than you actually are. This requires you to, as dalinar says, "get inside your opponents' heads."

Chilly makes good points--especially the third one. But I'll add one more:

Most new players (and many experienced players) are absolutely obsessed with commands--they really seem to think that the one and only way to win the game is to take and hold commands. This is silly; and it's easy to take advantage of. One way to do this is to almost take a command.

For example, in Classic Evolved game, you might take over most of North America but leave one or two territories to some other player. As the rounds go by, just keep building up your troop level and deploy your troops so it looks like you'll try to take the command next turn... but you never actually take it. Another option is to take the command, but leave one or more of your borders undefended (i.e. only one troop); another player will proudly break your command and think that, in so doing, they've reduced your threat level.

Again, the point is that, for many players, you're not a threat unless you're holding a command.

Of course, this doesn't work against cleverer players--you're not going to be able to 'trick' chilly into thinking you're weaker than you are. Against such players, there's really no pretending, per se--if you want to seem like less of a threat, you have to actually be less of a threat or, at least, a less immediate threat; chilly gave three good tactics for doing this.

As for "pretending to be strong when weak," the only thing I can think of is putting all of your troops in one big stack and saying crazy things in the chatter like "don't mess with me or I'll suicide you." This won't win you friends, but it may keep you in the game for a while.

 

[LordAdef]

Wow, what an amazing inputs!

Allow me to make one personal observation and please correct me if I'm wrong:

1. I find leaving comments to myself in the Chatter quite usefull. That doesn't work in Team games thow, but in Singles I am writting strategical objectives or already acomplished ones.

I know this may seem completelly useless for Vets but I reckon it should be a suggestion for beginners to organize their ideas. What do you think?

 

[Sebrim]

it's not a bad thing. I know some people do that, even vets. Moreover it's a perfect way of explaining your strategy ideas if you have to have somebody else play your turns for a couple of days.

In team games, it definitely is just as useful. The more information your teammate has about your ideas and goals, the better he can plan his game and vice versa

 

[DeadGirl]

1. What are the first things to do to become a good player?

Learn never to attack 3 v 2 or 2 v 2. The first mistake I always see cadets and munitions inspectors make. That's just simple math. Secondly, to keep up your troop and territory count without appearing overly powerful, until the time arrives to strike. (More relevant in escalate games, in which you wait to steal someone's cards and snowball. Really the only way to win in escalate.)

2. How can you study MajCom from the archives? What (and how) to look in a game in order to study it.

No thoughts on this one.

3. Is it advisable for a Newby to stick to a specific map?

I would say no, part of the fun is playing different maps, but it might be advisable to stick to the classic maps for the first several games. 12 Domains, Nukes and Conflict Africa were hella confusing for me when I first played them, but now they're my 3 favourites.

4. Do you frequently study your position in between turns?

Actually no, I usually sign on in the evening when I'm drunk and take all my turns in one fell swoop. But that's just me.


I think these two questions are important as well:

Still generally: when NOT to look for a card?

Don't ever look for a card in escalate games when another player can feasibly take you out. You're just helping them win. If you're behind in an escalate game you want to turtle and not take cards, and just wait and hope for the chance to take out an even weaker player later.


Handling Reserve deployment: how important monitoring players Reserves is and how to take advantage of it.

If you are early to act in an escalate game you often don't want to take a card. Being the player to cash the 15 or 20 troop set is always nice, although it can be trumped by other considerations (if you need to cash to stay alive.) You often want to wait for 5 cards to cash in order to get the higher troop count, or if your main rival has 3 or less cards and you make a set with 3 you can instantly cash to punish them and seize the advantage (it's not likely they have a set themselves to strike back.) A general rule of thumb is that you want to time your cashes so you're always strong enough not to be taken out, but not so that you appear excessively strong so that everyone has no choice but to attack you. Try to time a cash for the first time you can take someone out and start your snowball.

In flat rate and escalite games cashing strategy is much less important and plain old map strategy is more important. I prefer those games because escalate games can often devolve into something of a lottery. (Next player to hit a set wins.)


PS. LordAdef your English is actually great. English is technically my second language as well so I can usually detect people who make common mistakes but I wouldn't have guessed you're not a native speaker!

 

[LordAdef]

PS. LordAdef your English is actually great. English is technically my second language as well so I can usually detect people who make common mistakes but I wouldn't have guessed you're not a native speaker!

Thanks DeadGirl, you're very kind.
Good that you touched the language subject. It reminds me that language is in many cases an extra layer of difficulty when you don't command English propperly.

I believe it's hard for them to deal with Diplomacy and Team games, where you need to keep in constant communication mode.

I speak Portuguese and in fact found another Portuguese speaker here, called "Brazilian".

 

[Dalinar]

Just thought I'd update this with something I do that I rarely see others do: out of game messages about in-game diplos. Often times I've found it would be helpful to have someone respond to a diplo either before my turn is over or a partner's turn is over, so I message people "Hey I sent you a diplo, please respond in game _______". Generally, people are on every 24 so I can safely assume they read and are refusing it if they don't respond within the time window.

 

[Cardinalsrule]

Obviously, just sending a message saying "look in game" isn't cheating in any way, shape, or form, but there IS a rule against 'out of game diplomacy', so I'd be careful in advocating out of game messages.

I know that you are a 100% stand-up and well-respected player, and I'm not in any way accusing you of doing anything wrong, but TECHNICALLY there's a rule there being at least bent.....

 

[Dalinar]

You're right, I'm very careful not to mention any in-game details (even if in-game I said they need to accept the treaty or be wiped out). However, now that you mention it, it might not be a good practice to start widely since it could be a slippery slope. It's dancing on the edge on the rules, but I never felt like I was violating their spirit as I did it.

Maybe I start a suggestion that pm alert could be sent from in-game, that is all I'm after basically

 

[Bluebonnet]

You're right, I'm very careful not to mention any in-game details (even if in-game I said they need to accept the treaty or be wiped out). However, now that you mention it, it might not be a good practice to start widely since it could be a slippery slope. It's dancing on the edge on the rules, but I never felt like I was violating their spirit as I did it.

Maybe I start a suggestion that pm alert could be sent from in-game, that is all I'm after basically

heck i do it all the time.

just say "diplo in game. prefer response before i move"

the rest leaves unsaid except for the treaty. either accept or i will marching through.

 

[LordAdef]

Hi Dalinar, very nice topic raised. I never broke any of these rules but I must say I didn't know that such off game diplomacy rules existed. I do write my partner something like "hey, left you a message in the chatter.... Game.....". I think I learnt that from you. It's a good tip when we need your partner to assess something in the position so you can sort out together.

 

[th-child]

but there IS a rule against 'out of game diplomacy', so I'd be careful in advocating out of game messages.

Hm, I wasn't aware of (or have forgotten) that. I write out of game messages regularly (not often, but regularly -- whenever I can't wait for the other player's turn). I'm quite sure that most of the time I'm just asking them to check out the game chat, but have I ever broken this rule by saying anything else...? Quite frankly, I have no idea.

I know the spirit of the rules, i.e. "Cheating can generally be defined as using an unfair advantage against unaware opponents", and I don't think I have ever done that, but to write a detailed message about a game to another player? I honestly can't remember, but my gut feeling is I am probably guilty.


So. It's good this came up, I'll take extra care in the future.

 

[Cardinalsrule]

I wasn't really meaning for this to become a "thing", maybe I didn't need to bring it up at all. 99.99% of the people who use the message system outside a game are doing it completely innocently, as Dalinar, gtivan, and th-child, etc. do. But, it's the 0.01% that can be problematic, and there HAVE been cases in the past year when it was used less than innocently.

 

[LordAdef]

But you raised a valid point!

It's all being registered for the tutorial, which is the purpose of this thread, please bring it on!