Hello,

Have been a long time member of Wargear - am a huge fan, but brand new to posting on forums.

Any rate, having played a few boards, I am currently keen (have been for about 2,000 games so far!) on the Invention board, particularly in the latest format. sirdakka and I play it an unhealthy amount.

We have each found very different reactions to diplomatic negotiations on different boards. Some boards, such as Colossal Crusade, particularly lend themselves forming alliances, particularly in games with lots of players. Other boards, such as Wargear Warfare, can be won without the need for alliances at all.

The Invention board seems to represent an interesting middle ground - there are multiple ways to win on that board, so skilful play (and it is a difficult board to master!) tends to be enough to win most of the time, with alliances only really being formed when a player eliminates another and therefore has a second capital...However, it is such an obvious time to form an alliance that there is no real need for secret messaging.

There is also a downside to secret messaging - some players can feel manipulated, especially when they support an alliance, only to lose out to their ally. This sometimes leads to resentment, possibly because the player would rather get angry at their opponent/ally, rather than admit that they have been outplayed on a complex board with lots of dynamics.

As a completely seperate point, I also feel that alliances are, "good form" when being used to catch a runaway leader, but, "bad form" whan used as a fundamental strategy to win a game. This, of course, depends massivley upon the board.

What do people (is that the right way to ask a question on a forum?!) think about having an option to create a game with no secret messaging allowed...a bit like selecting the fog level, you could select secret messaging? After all, if we were playing around the kitchen table, secret messaging would not exist if you had to stay at the table and whispering wasn't allowed!

Happy gaming, keep safe and gargle plenty of bleach!

Linking to the other thread on the same topic where the discussion is taking place:

www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/5057/Options_to_create_game_with_no_secret_messaging

Atkins wrote:

As a completely separate point, I also feel that alliances are, "good form" when being used to catch a runaway leader, but, "bad form" whan used as a fundamental strategy to win a game. This, of course, depends massively upon the board.

This is a good perspective.

Not to sound like a broken record because I've mentioned this a few times before in these forums, but when people ask me to ally with them I always respond something like this..

As a general rule, I do not participate in formal alliances. On the other hand there are often times where alliances are "implied." For instance in cases where if two players were to attack each other it would hand certain victory to a third party.