RiskyBack wrote:

Yes BD, but you are a genetic freak when it comes to Online Risk so I exclude you.

Purple is the color of you and Wonder Woman and I don't really enjoy being beaten by either of you anymore.  I now have "You have been eliminated by BlackDog" emails go directly to the same folder as the "You have been eliminated by Yertle" and "Your map has been reviewed" emails......stuff I try to pretend never happened.

lol

Quick edit, as that "lol" seemed a little poor comment. One thing I remember doing to improve was, well, is, as I'm constantly doing, reviewing some games (can't review all of them). Mainly those games that finish with a "surprising" ending or where I won without having built a clear and solid advantage throughout the game (i.e. those where I get the "lucky turn" and can eliminate all-in-once).

And, obviously, I now and then view the games of some of the strongest players, like Dud for instance =P

About a month ago I hit just above the 2800 number (Ecko recommended I take a screen shot) and took a nose dive as I altered my basic strategy.  (I think I dropped almost 1000 pts in a few weeks).  Alcoholism immediately set in (or was it already there?). 

Truth is, I was getting bored with my play and probably boring the players that played with me.  I don't expect my pts to get back up there anytime soon but then again, AA is paying dividends...

;)

Ah! You answered the call! =D

I miss the first times when the map "suddenly" turned black... And I miss also the (much fewer) times it turned red ;)

I'm finding myself for the first time of all my playing on ToS and WG that I actually have a two digit standing overall and a single digit standing on multiple boards. I credit this to an extremely and wonderfully dynamic scoring system and it has really got me into working on improving my strategy on boards and getting good on them. It has also spawned some great rivalries, for instance ,between me and Kommismar on 4play, Kit-chan on Steal the Bacon, and Uncle Buddy on Appamattox. This has really increased my enjoyment factor but has also encouraged me to stay on a few boards like others said but I'm willing to play 10 or so other boards so not that much. 

But really the thing I credit the most is having a private office with a window in the door that I've blacked out with fabric and a lock that you can't unlock and has to be opened everytime with your key. This results in no one knowing if I'm in my office and if I am no one knows what I'm doing. Also my wife misses me a great deal since I'm working a great deal of late nights at this new job that hopefully will eventually pay me... "it's only been two years honey of working three nights a week at the local internet cafe... really eventually I will make money... and no I don't play games on my computer."

Last but not least convincing my boss that 'Wargear' is an excellent research website that just has an odd name and that they should pay for my membership.

Seems to sum it up.

kinetix wrote:

Tell us about your experiences and 1 thing that you have learned to help you become a better player.

Well, a few tips to improvement.

Never use the A or T button to attack especially in games with fog on. Even (and especially) with big fights like 40 vs 30 units. Check history at every turn and try to deduce unwritten or unexplicited things if fog is on. Never play while drunk.

ecko wrote:

Never use the A or T button to attack

fully agree!

also never go into an alliance if you hold grudges... your satillite territories will keep you alive if you keep them alive... never count someone out untill they are eliminated... never do something if you can force someone else to do it for you...

ecko wrote: Never play while drunk.

I repeat... never play while drunk.

KrocK wrote: never do something if you can force someone else to do it for you...

This is about the only thing I miss about playing standard risk-like boards. PM-free manipulation.

ecko wrote:

kinetix wrote:

Tell us about your experiences and 1 thing that you have learned to help you become a better player.

Well, a few tips to improvement.

Never use the A or T button to attack especially in games with fog on. Even (and especially) with big fights like 40 vs 30 units. Check history at every turn and try to deduce unwritten or unexplicited things if fog is on. Never play while drunk.

Eh, I almost exclusively use A and T for attacking. I definitely agree with the never play drunk though. That's cost me a couple games.

I don't pay as much attention to Global Ranking so I don't think I really have any good or different tips for moving up that ranking but here are a few of my thoughts...

Don't "grind".   You'll just get frustrated and annoyed.  Set smaller "goals" to achieve and others fall in to place.  For something like moving up the Championship Point ladder set a goal to get a CP on a certain number of boards or a certain number on a few boards (shooting for 1500 can be a daunting task and can really feel like a "grind", so caution that).

Play boards you like.

As far as winning a game, KrocK said it best, don't do something when someone else can do it for you.  I tend to only break bonuses of the people that I have to (usually those with a turn right after mine).  Related to that, try and not be someone else's pawn, but do keep players in check.

Don't appear to be in the lead.  It's usually best when someone else has more bonuses than you as then they are the target rather than you.

I'm not big on always attacking the highest ranked player.  Knowing who knows how to play a board is good, but always look to win and not just be the person that too out the top ranked player, it can be very detrimental to your game if you try to single out a person and let someone else run away with the game.  Disregard this if playing BlackDog, always attack him :).

Know when to strike, many games are finished by that big elimination run so set yourself up to make that run and not someone else.  This means being careful who you attack, watch cards carefully.  This is a pretty big one IMO.

Watch the History, it can show a lot of information, even in Fogged games.

Have patience, don't always think you have to get a card (especially early in a game).

If you are looking for straight up Global Ranking, then playing games with more players makes sense.  Winning and losing 7 player games is much better than winning and losing 2 player games.  Relax if you lose a game, start another :)  Winning 1 game can cover losing 2-3+ games if playing more than 1vs1 games.

Don't say GG until the game is completely finished.  Never stop playing until the game is completely finished.

That's all my "secrets". :P

AdamN wrote:

I'm finding myself for the first time of all my playing on ToS and WG that I actually have a two digit standing overall and a single digit standing on multiple boards. I credit this to an extremely and wonderfully dynamic scoring system and it has really got me into working on improving my strategy on boards and getting good on them. It has also spawned some great rivalries, for instance ,between me and Kommismar on 4play, Kit-chan on Steal the Bacon, and Uncle Buddy on Appamattox. This has really increased my enjoyment factor but has also encouraged me to stay on a few boards like others said but I'm willing to play 10 or so other boards so not that much. 

But really the thing I credit the most is having a private office with a window in the door that I've blacked out with fabric and a lock that you can't unlock and has to be opened everytime with your key. This results in no one knowing if I'm in my office and if I am no one knows what I'm doing. Also my wife misses me a great deal since I'm working a great deal of late nights at this new job that hopefully will eventually pay me... "it's only been two years honey of working three nights a week at the local internet cafe... really eventually I will make money... and no I don't play games on my computer."

Last but not least convincing my boss that 'Wargear' is an excellent research website that just has an odd name and that they should pay for my membership.

Seems to sum it up.

Am I not funny or does nobody get my humor?

AdamN: It'd be funnier if the rest of us didn't have the same office setup. 

My experience fairly closely follows BD's model, albeit with lower score thresholds. For a while, I was racking up points getting extremely decent at a couple of maps (Gauntlet and Highlander were two easy ones for me), which is how I cleared 2000. After that, I started to get bored, varied my map selection a little bit, then started falling down to Earth. Toss in that I've reduced my game volume significantly (I was entering every tournament on the site at one point and had 40+ games going; I'm now down to about 20-25 and staying away from new tournaments) and it probably means I've plateaued a bit, at least until I work up the nerve to get my game count back up.

Honestly, getting anywhere near the top requires a tremendous amount of work. You have to maintain a high enough game volume to get points quickly and overcome the occasional streaks of bad luck. You have to be willing to watch the histories of your games (especially the ones you lose) to tease out winning strategies. Then you have to be willing to specialize a little in certain boards and be ready to defend your rankings in them. After a while, it gets a little exhausting.

Yertle wrote:

I'm not big on always attacking the highest ranked player.  Knowing who knows how to play a board is good, but always look to win and not just be the person that too out the top ranked player, it can be very detrimental to your game if you try to single out a person and let someone else run away with the game. 

I fully agree on this and I would even add that I do the opposite.

I mean that, when I have a choice between attacking several players, and when there is no good reason for attacking one or the other, I will target those with a very bad ranking (or those who have attacked me for no good reason, but this is a good reason in itself for attacking them). Same, when I have lost every hope of winning.

The reason is that I prefer the game to be won by Djembe (I would lose 17 points) than by Genesis (I would lose 100 points). It's even more important if you have a rankng of 1000, as the difference would be between losing 8 points or 100 points. At the end of many games, saving so many points when you lose will pay and help you to get or keep a better ranking.

Alpha wrote:

To build off of BlackDog, maybe, a high, a low, and daily average GRS would be interesting for both monthly and all time.

Great idea. I fully support that.

Toto wrote:

Same, when I have lost every hope of winning.

At the end of many games, saving so many points when you lose will pay and help you to get or keep a better ranking.

Don't do this, this means you aren't playing to win.  This is not a good strategy.

Yertle wrote:

Toto wrote:

Same, when I have lost every hope of winning.

At the end of many games, saving so many points when you lose will pay and help you to get or keep a better ranking.

Don't do this, this means you aren't playing to win.  This is not a good strategy.

I am always playing to win. But sometimes you have to decide if you will attack Green or Purple, just to get a card for example or because you have no more hope with 2 territories, 1 card and 3 armies. If they have more or less the same number of armies and the same bonus, a similar position on the map, who will you attack ? Will you toss a coin ?

I would add, helping the best ranked players will compensate as most players will target them first, as I experienced it having to wear this target of a good and experienced player on my back.

Toto wrote:

Yertle wrote:

Toto wrote:

Same, when I have lost every hope of winning.

At the end of many games, saving so many points when you lose will pay and help you to get or keep a better ranking.

Don't do this, this means you aren't playing to win.  This is not a good strategy.

I am always playing to win. But sometimes you have to decide if you will attack Green or Purple, just to get a card for example or because you have no more hope with 2 territories, 1 card and 3 armies. If they have more or less the same number of armies and the same bonus, a similar position on the map, who will you attack ? Will you toss a coin ?

This is different from what was previously said.  Besides you should still play to win, in which being very weak and unworthy to take out (ie not a lot of cards or hard to get to) can be very beneficial and payoff in the long run, so again it goes back to patience and sometimes it's best to not take cards.

I fully agree that sometimes it's best not to take cards, especialy when you have few armies compared to the value of a set.

Watch the History, it can show a lot of information, even in Fogged games.

Especially in fogged games.  In a game with full fog, ALL you have is the history. 

Anyone remember that "Extremely Foggy Texas" tourney?

BD

I'm out of the top 10 for the first time ever.. but I saved money on my car insurance!