Bonuses

[Donald Fung]

Let's say you're in a big flat rate game where there are only 2 players left at around equal strength. Let's say your opponent holds a 10 troops bonus and you have the ability to take over a 10 troop bonus but might not be able to defend it well. Is it better to destory your opponent's bonus or take a bonus for yourself?

In case you don't get what I'm talking about here is an example:
http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=5737045

[SirSebstar]

always kill your opponants bonus. cause if you dont kill his, and he kills yours. you are 10 armies behind already

[medgar20]

always kill your opponants bonus. cause if you dont kill his, and he kills yours. you are 10 armies behind already

This.

Once your own bonuses are compromised, you need to drop all of or as many of his as possible. If a player can break every bonus and establish a lead in territory count it's extremely difficult for the other guy to come back from.

[neanderpaul14]

always kill your opponants bonus. cause if you dont kill his, and he kills yours. you are 10 armies behind already

What he said. I can't count how many times an opponent of mine took his own bonus instead of breaking mine. I then delight in shattering his bonus.

[stahrgazer]

Yes. If your bonus would be well protected and away from his, it might be worth expending a few troops that way, but generally, take the other guy's bonus as soon as you can. Even in the situation where your bonus would be well protected and away from his, he's a turn ahead of you, meaning, if you stop to take your bonus first, he's already getting his bonus armies on the next round, which gives him more to fight thru to break yours, and he'd likely begin by eliminating the terrs you were hoping to attack him from "next round." Now, if his bonus is 2 and yours would be double that, it might be worth it to take your bonus first - but, again, only if it's well protected.

As a general rule, there's only one situation where I don't go after an opponent's bonus. That is in team play, when the bonus is the same or less as a player deploy (likely 3, if he's that close to being elim'd) and I have the choice of taking "mr bonus's" teammate out, or breaking the bonus. In that scenario, I generally opt for taking the teammate out; the double-turn it gives my team and the "permanent" nature of eliminating an opponent can even outweigh the bonus troops being more than 3, depending on the game scenario. If the bonus is more substantial, or the player bonus could result in substantal losses for my side (such as he's about to attack a string of 1's with a stack) I'm back to "break that bonus!" first.

[knubbel]

in this game you will win if you break every bonus next turn. don't care about your own bonuses. Also important: don't fortify to defend your bonuses, fortify to the borders to be able to attack hard next round. All your armees on Greenland, Levant and turkey are useless at the moment.

[Crazyirishman]

If you drop on that stack on turkey, you could easily go through all of his 1's and break all of his bonuses

[medgar20]

Yeah yellow didn't take advantage whatsoever. Didn't break Europe and released a 30 stack for the sake of stopping a bonus of 4.

edit - just checked. Again you move a 30 stack somewhere it cannot do anything. Get those 30 stacks to the front line!

[Donald Fung]

problem is it's chained so if you messed up, you messed up hard to go back unlike unlimited and adjacent is even worse lol

yeah yellow surprised the hell outta me when he broke into Africa and had enough to break into Europe through Iberia but didn't do it I'm trying to keep my Europe bonuses though, I need it to stay ahead of him in troops.

Round 33 is one of the farthest I've ever played up to and this will probably go on to round 50 at least at this rate

[nippersean]

Concentrate Donald! You need to attack your opponent and move your redundant positions to where they can do the same. Attack, break bonuses and don't leave them (your troops) where they aren't supposed to be - you've really had plenty of guidance. What's the difficult bit? Please post and I'm sure you will find help.

[knubbel]

why don't you attack SA? your 29 armees on guineas are there for few rounds now. don't stop attacking if you have >4 armees on a country that can attack. if you play well you will win this game in round ~40. there is no need to play 50.
another thing: It is possible to break EVERY bonus of your oponent next turn if you don't get shitty dice. Try it!

[Donald Fung]

why don't you attack SA? your 29 armees on guineas are there for few rounds now. don't stop attacking if you have >4 armees on a country that can attack. if you play well you will win this game in round ~40. there is no need to play 50.
another thing: It is possible to break EVERY bonus of your oponent next turn if you don't get shitty dice. Try it!

I got crap dice. I suicided all my troops except those guarding Europe on him.
Me deploying on Algeria was a mistake, I was trying to X something out but pressed the deploy button lol my intention was to deploy on China and get into Oceania and Mexico from there.

[medgar20]

I'm trying to keep my Europe bonuses though, I need it to stay ahead of him in troops.

I got crap dice. I suicided all my troops except those guarding Europe on him.

Your thinking here is flawed. By trying to be cautious and protect your bonus, you're actually harming your chances of winning for one simple reason - you're using 120+ troops to protect a bonus of 11. It's simply not worth it on a map this size with the game as it stands

To illustrate the point, what you have to realise is that in 1v1 every 3 territories you take, you get 1 additional army but your opponent also loses one. Therefore every three territories is essentially worth a bonus of 2. With so many 1's on board, a 30 stack could take 15 of those easily unless you get horrendously unlucky. So you gain 5 armies on territory count, and your opponent loses 5. You've effectively gained 10, almost as much as your European bonus is getting you. And that's with just one stack, you have four of them.

[stahrgazer]

His N. Am is wide open. deploy china and go up, quickest route, to get to NA, then go down, thru SA and over toward Oceana. With any dice luck you can break his bonus and, once in Oceana, take it over. If you pause to take bonuses before you break all his, you will extend the game and likely lose it.

Attack strategically where you can with your other stacks (ex. Turkey), and move the dead ones (ex. Morocco) to the front lines

[knubbel]

why don't you attack SA? your 29 armees on guineas are there for few rounds now. don't stop attacking if you have >4 armees on a country that can attack. if you play well you will win this game in round ~40. there is no need to play 50.
another thing: It is possible to break EVERY bonus of your oponent next turn if you don't get shitty dice. Try it!

I got crap dice. I suicided all my troops except those guarding Europe on him.
Me deploying on Algeria was a mistake, I was trying to X something out but pressed the deploy button lol my intention was to deploy on China and get into Oceania and Mexico from there.

don't blame the dice!

[Donald Fung]

Well check the game out now, I broke every single one of his bonuses but he got into Europe so I don't care about that anymore.

[stahrgazer]

*shakes head*

Don't ask for help if you're not going to follow what ppl say.

[Donald Fung]

*shakes head*

Don't ask for help if you're not going to follow what ppl say.

I tried my best to follow what you ppl said.

[knubbel]

now it looks good. just continue breaking EVERY bonus EVERY turn and you will win very soon. And don't forget to attack as much as possible (if you have 4 or more armees on a country).

[stahrgazer]

I tried my best to follow what you ppl said.

No, you didn't.
I don't see the suggestion to split forces by deploying on/attacking from guineas, leaving Morocco, and moving additional forces in front of a stack that you were already more than, for Europe.

I see a quite detailed suggestion to deploy on attack from china to the US, then down and over, not stopping until all bonuses were broken; attack from the levant stack for that area; then fort to move morocco to the front lines (which, btw, would've prevented the 21 now on guineas)
I see additional suggestions, not as detailed, to move Morocco to front lines.

Instead, you decided to split your forces and move what was left of Levant to add protectection to europe's 27-stack from opponent's (then) 23-stack; leaving Morocco where it was.

Your split enabled him to get a stronger foothold back in SAm, Africa, and Oceana, and now you'll be too afraid of moving Morocco because he can sneak behind you with his 21-stack if you do, because that prior move you didn't move Morocco like several ppl suggested.

And europe is even less protected than it was, because you'll have to split forces to take moskva, break S. Africa, break oceana...

You haven't lost the game at this point, but you can't say you did what was suggested

[knubbel]

I tried my best to follow what you ppl said.

No, you didn't.
I don't see the suggestion to split forces by deploying on/attacking from guineas, leaving Morocco, and moving additional forces in front of a stack that you were already more than, for Europe.

I see a quite detailed suggestion to deploy on attack from china to the US, then down and over, not stopping until all bonuses were broken; attack from the levant stack for that area; then fort to move morocco to the front lines (which, btw, would've prevented the 21 now on guineas)
I see additional suggestions, not as detailed, to move Morocco to front lines.

Instead, you decided to split your forces and move what was left of Levant to add protectection to europe's 27-stack from opponent's (then) 23-stack; leaving Morocco where it was.

Your split enabled him to get a stronger foothold back in SAm, Africa, and Oceana, and now you'll be too afraid of moving Morocco because he can sneak behind you with his 21-stack if you do, because that prior move you didn't move Morocco like several ppl suggested.

And europe is even less protected than it was, because you'll have to split forces to take moskva, break S. Africa, break oceana...

You haven't lost the game at this point, but you can't say you did what was suggested

I don't agree with this one. he reinforced his fronts after doing mess for two turns. He also says that he will fort from morocco next turn, remember its chained... He did not follow everything (there are lots of details you could do better) but with his last turn he did at least the most important steps.
europe is worse protected than before, but everyone recommended this and it is indeed better like this.

[stahrgazer]

He did not follow everything (there are lots of details you could do better) but with his last turn he did at least the most important steps.

I disagree that he did the important steps; he left his largest stack (30) in the back rows (Morocco), in order to fort a smaller stack (10 or so) so he could overtake europe, despite everyone telling him not to worry about europe, and to move his STACKS to the front lines. Now the opponent moved into an area that that large stack would've protected, so if he moves it now, he loses all (which he may, anyway).

Also, the advice was given several rounds ago, based on the map at that time, so it took him several rounds to do those "most important steps" you refer to.

[Donald Fung]

He did not follow everything (there are lots of details you could do better) but with his last turn he did at least the most important steps.

I disagree that he did the important steps; he left his largest stack (30) in the back rows (Morocco), in order to fort a smaller stack (10 or so) so he could overtake europe, despite everyone telling him not to worry about europe, and to move his STACKS to the front lines. Now the opponent moved into an area that that large stack would've protected, so if he moves it now, he loses all (which he may, anyway).

Also, the advice was given several rounds ago, based on the map at that time, so it took him several rounds to do those "most important steps" you refer to.

acutally you were wrong. I had a choice of moving either a 30 stack from Morocco or a 30 stack from Moskva and i choose Moskva. Both would be a waste, I don't see a difference plus I need to get into NA more badly than Africa.

Edit: yeah this turn I missed a few spots (ex. Moskva and parts of Africa) but yellow has no bonuses, low territories, and low on cards that all he has left is the 21 stack and I have a 30 next to him. If I do win this, it will be by far the highest amount of points I obtain from a single game.

[Donald Fung]

so unlucky... look at all the effort I put into winning this round and look at what the game did to me I want my points! All I need is one (4 letter word)en troop!

Well thanks a lot for everybody who posted here, you guys taught me some good stratz

[stahrgazer]

Both would be a waste, I don't see a difference plus I need to get into NA more badly than Africa.

I gave the advice several rounds ago; yellow had gone, you were up.

When I left the advice, you could've deployed all on china (which already had 23 or 26, I forget exact amount), hit 2 russian terrs then been in Alaska, and had a clear string of 1's all the way thru the opponent's bonuses. Essentially you needed to take about 20 1's to break every bonus, which would've left you ample to take another bonus, and protect it, in the Oceana area.

That round, you chose to deploy some in Africa to hit S. America and attack a bit with the stuff near levant, and move what was left there (far less than 30, it increased your Europe stack from - I think 27 to around 53) up against your opponent's stack of 26. The attack into SA left that with the string of low numbers and not moving Morocco then left you vulnerable, besides the fact that by not tearing ass thru the opponents singles you left him tons of terrcount so that he could mass up again.

At any rate, I see you lucked out and won anyway - Congrats.