Advanced Tactics & Strategies2

General Advanced Tactics

If you are strong, appear weak. If you are weak, appear strong.

As a strong player, people will want to attack you for fear of losing, so your best defense is to organize your armies in such a way that you seem less formidable, yet without losing any actual strategic advantage. If however, you are a weak player, you may be seen as an easy target, and you need to use all means necessary to not be pecked out of the game. Experienced players know that attacking the weak player is often a fatal move, IE: let sleeping dogs lie, because while they may have no ability to win the game, they may very well be able to influence it strongly, and often that is your only defense as the weak player. So, use the chat if you must, let them know that while you're a nice guy, being bullied won't be tolerated. Delivering this in the right tone is the art of the game. Sometimes you'll illicit attack or elimination just for speaking up...but if you were to be annihilated anyways, at least you tried.

I myself will do this even on 1v1 games to varying degrees, though usually I am trying to act in a way to completely discourage my opponent from trying their hardest. If I am winning, I will demolish them in every way to break their spirits as well as their bonuses. If I am losing, I will let them think they have the game won, and have no reason to pay attention to what they are doing. I'll post "gg" in the chat very often when I have hopes of winning, hoping that that one little act may very well, make them sloppy enough to give me the one opening I need to crawl back from certain death. Now, in any individual game, this may very well be a waste of time, but as an overall strategy, it may just increase your win rate by a few percentage points...and who knows, in say a massive tourney, you may use it, and win 700 points. - AAFitz

The Removed Stack Defense

Lets say A borders B borders C. You own A and B. Your opponent has a large stack on C. Putting a large stack of troops on B would instigate and create border tension, making them nervous. Putting a large stack on A, and small one on B would say,"sure you can cross my border but prepare to get taken out once you do". I use this all the time and have noticed that when I want to protect a border against more experienced players, they would rather take out a stack then put themselves up against one. - Badorties

When you have a command which has 5 regions. 4 of them border regions of other commands (and other players) and 1 being in the center of you command. And you have 8 troops to defend this command (8 + 5 (1 for every region) in total). You can chose to put 2 extra troops on every region that borders the hostile regions. But its sometimes better to put 8 troops in the center spot, and leaving only 1 on the border regions. When the enemies break your command, you can easily complete it again with those 8 troops in the center. And many players will hesitate on breaking, because then they would open up the route for those 8 to pass towards them. Thone

Out of Striking Distance

Often times players will amass large stacks of troops. These stacks only have power if they directly border you, otherwise they are useless giants. Lets say regions A, B and C are connected in a path. Your opponent controls A and B and you have C. There are 100 troops on A, 2 troops on B and your 10 troops on C. Even if taking B will net you a command, it puts you right against the 100 stack. As long as there is an opponent buffer between you and a large stack, it will render it useless for that turn. Don't relax your guard though, it's only one reinforcement away. - Afus and Badorties

Team Advanced Tactics

Troop Swap

The sequence of the players during team games is important. If you have a border with another player, but your teammate has to play before him, you can send your troops to your teammate for 1 turn. And he can give them back. That way you use the same troops on 2 locations. But pay attention on doing this. If reinforcement is path, and the player behind you can break the path, your teammate won’t be able to reinforce you again. - Thone

Focus Kill

When you’re playing 4 against 4 on a small map, where almost nobody has the chance on taking or completing a command, try to focus on killing one player by assaulting him with the entire group. If you do so, your opponent team loses 3 reinforcements. Make sure they can’t do the same to your team. - Thone

1 vs 1 Advanced Tactics

A Field of 1's

Sometimes players are too focused on completing a command. They have a command that gives them a +2 bonus and they secure it with 10 troops on each entrance, leaving many regions with only 1 troop defending it. When you have a stack of 12 troops that you could place anywhere (or perhaps a reinforced stack), sometimes you can do more damage by taking a series of regions defended with 1. The chance of breaking the command that is secured with 10 is rather small, but taking over 6(9) regions with your 12 troops is much larger. - Thone

Diplomacy Advanced Tactics

Turn Order is the Upper Hand

When two people agree on a diplomatic agreement and reinforcement type allows for flexibility (path or anywhere reinforce), the first person in the turn order almost always gets the better end of the deal. The way MajCom treaties are made to end between the end of the last player in the rotation's turn and the start of the first in the rotation's turn. In other words, at the start of a round. So player 3 could be forced to guard their border against a potential threat from player 1 at the start of the next round, whereas player 1 would be able to leave that border unguarded for the round before the treaty ended. The last round of the treaty is, however, one-way in that the second player in the rotation must guard his borders whereas the first is free to pillage as he so pleases without fear of any border incursions. I have always taken this into account but never before verbalized it, and perhaps many have not picked up on this finer point of diplomacy: The first person in the turn order gets a full extra turn of protection and freed up armies. They also have easier renewal options if the time comes to do so, whereas players following them do not have the option to renew on the last turn, they must plan two turns ahead of time if the believe the treaty to be advantageous in the turns to come, and even then Player 1 can deny them and decide for himself on the next turn, adding that aspect of continued uncertainty for the following player in the turn order. - TheyCallMeSquirtle