I've just finished a game on a complicated little board, Wargate SG-1.

I disliked the board, even though I won.  I was surprised other folks appeared to think it was fun -- this made me wonder if maybe I played it wrong, or if I had genuinely figured out a dominant strategy that just happens to crush the joy out of playing it.

Board: http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Wargate+SG-1

Game: http://www.wargear.net/games/view/524931

Basic things to notice

a) the bonuses are complicated

b) there are several attack paths that offer advantages

c) there's a fair amount of fog when you're playing

d) there are essentially no bottlenecks -- everything connects to everything within one or two steps. 

e) continents overlap -- the same territory may be in one or more

f) there are a couple hidden continents that don't match the same rules as the ones that have visible addresses.

My thoughts:

EARLY GAME:

The aim in the early game is simply to stay alive; if you have some extra clout, use it to prevent another player from winning, but you're basically just hanging out until the card bonuses get high.

There are continents you can compose by holding an address bloc on the right, and all its corresponding glyphs, and wow, the bonus from those looks amazing... except it is just plain not going to happen.  The only bonuses worth going for in the early game are the +1 for holding the address bar, and maaaaaybe the secret bonus.  My experience was that another player knew I was trying for the secret bonus and broke it up, every time.

I got fed up with having to pay attention to the continent bonuses tab every time and developed my own shortcut: If I can see the address, the bonus is broken.  If I can't see the address, I check to see if I can see glyphs of different colors that correspond.  If all the glyphs I can see for an address I can't see are the same color, I take one of 'em.  Boom, bonus broken, usually as easy as taking a territory with one guy on it.

I avoided taking the DHD because it actually granted too much vision; I could see the stuff I cared about without it, and NOT seeing stuff reminded me what I ought to worry about on any given turn. I viewed taking it as a waste of 1 dude per turn, cause the guy you leave behind is guaranteed to die.

MID-GAME:

You reach mid-game when somebody attacks the Earth Glyph at the top of the circle.  This makes the four character bonuses vulnerable for the first time.  These are pretty much the only bonuses on the entire board that you can capture and effectively hold, thanks to a defense bonus.  Holding these keeps you alive in the mid-game, and lets you stack up troops somewhere safe (and less visible than the rest of the board).  You'll need those guys for the late game.

From here forward, your strategy depends on the other people in the game.  You need to stay at least as strong as the other player(s) who have character bonuses; and since they have the same feel about you, this becomes a game of everybody balancing and attacking whoever they think is strong. Unless you can eliminate all remaining players on the same turn, you are not going to win in the mid-game.

LATE GAME:

You can tell it is late-game because there are two of you left.  If there are three, then sorry dude, you are still in mid-game.  If and only if there are two players in the game, it is now FINALLY time to shift from "stay alive" mode to "kill" mode.  Hope you have cards and hope the other guy doesn't.

So, am I approaching this wrong?  Is there a better way? One involving less patience and less reliance on cards?

So with the caveat that I think I've only played this board once, and lost, this seems like a pretty sound strategy. Not just for this board, but for many boards.

• Don't try to take bonuses that others can see and take away from you.
• Make sure that others don't run away with bonuses.
• Wait and bide your time to strike.

Basically a complicated version of http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Steal+the+Bacon

As for taking the DHD. Do you think it is worth taking the DHD the first turn to leverage your extra units from your character? Or better to just leave them there till the mid-game?

Korrun wrote:

As for taking the DHD. Do you think it is worth taking the DHD the first turn to leverage your extra units from your character? Or better to just leave them there till the mid-game?

Ask yourself, are you gonna earn it back, plus another guy, before mid-game? And knowing yourself, are you going to put those guys back on defense before you absolutely have to?

My view is: you move any guys (up to 4), you are guaranteed a loss of at least one (the dude left on the DHD), so to make it worthwhile, I have to see my way to at least that many plus another (+5) in earnings between first move and mid-game.  How will you do this?  By taking 5 additional addresses on the first turn?  No way.  By holding one extra address for 5 turns?  Not with 3 extra dudes you're not.  By holding a whole address-plus-glyphs continent?  *makes skeptical face*. 

If you have some larger, hyperaggressive strategy like, I can eliminate a guy on turn three and most definitely get his cards, or happen to notice that a bunch of addresses have just 1 guy guarding them... hey, play it the way you see it.  But I guarantee that if someone comes for the Earth glyph and kicks off the midgame while your character is unguarded, you will lose.