Free For All Game Strategy Recommendations

Well, I cannot speak for everyone in the “first” FFA game on these boards.  As America I had no alliances, I just knew who my biggest threat was and my second biggest threat.  I negated my second biggest threat (England) by making any assault on North America so bloody expensive that he’d never do it.  I took out my first biggest threat (Japan) without help.  I didn’t need any alliances because the other players on the board were doing exactly what I wanted them to do without my helping them.

Though, in the end, Japan did attempt to form an alliance with me in an effort to stop Germany.  It ended up giving me Tokyo and the German player stormed off in a huff (mainly because he kept trying to get Japan to throw his air force away with suicide runs on my fleet (which only had a 50/50 shot of hitting per fighter and those fighters all had to be declared BEFORE the battle and many of my craft were battleships, thus requiring at least 3 fighters be designated for relative assurances of sinking them, 4 or 5 to be absolutely certain.)

However, no.  Free For All games, in every game after day two, are generally speaking, games where you are free to attack anyone, anywhere for any reason; to form and break alliances as you see fit.  It’s a true test of your character.  Will you honor your agreements or will you betray your allies?

As they say “But Natasha, if you cannot betray your friends, who can you betray?”  After all, the enemy EXPECTS you to betray them!

And that is what makes them fun, and dangerous.  It takes more then numbers crunching, it takes charisma and tactical genius and that’s why some of the better players lose, and some of the lesser players win in FFA.

@Hobbes:

@ncscswitch:

That has been my argument since the first FFA game no the boards… that by BY DEFINITION an alliance precluded the FFA aspect of the match.

Seriously… If you have an alliance it is NOT a Free For All (FFA).  So ANY discussion that involves alliances is, by definition, a BS discussion for a FFA game.

I thought Free For All meant that the player is Free to decide his course (which includes making agreements with other players).

And the best agreements between players are those that don’t even need to be spoken: both sides reach a mutual understanding just by looking at the pieces on the board.

I believe that’s how almost all the agreements in my games have been made.  Once I remember asking another player for a non-aggression treaty to achieve a greater objective for myself.  But in general, the “agreements” I have made with other players have been unspoken.

Case in point is the issue NCSCSwitch referenced above.  England and I had a mutual understanding.  If he invaded he would be crushed like a bug with my defense.  However, as long as he did not move against me in the North Atlantic, I wouldn’t force the issue with him which allowed him to focus on Germany and me to focus on Japan.

I actually attempt to work with the most powerful person on the board to destroy the others.  Except in the most recent game, I cannot for the life of me convince Germany to work against someone else, so he’s basically destroyed himself and me (Russia) allowing Japan and England to build up unchecked while he and I pussyfoot around with infantry stacks.