If you say, "Then the Boss arrives, and it's Game Over"... it means you're not understanding the basic idea here.

This is why I said, at the beginning, to think of the Boss as your friend. Don't waste your time fighting him. You can lay out "treats" to guide him a certain way (if you think about it for a minute and try a few experiments, you'll figure out how he decides to move), but don't waste time fighting him.

He can't do much by himself, just break one territory at a time. Sure, he'll break a few of your bonuses if he gets to your territory. But as long as you recapture them behind him, the worst he can do is take down one or two of your bonuses.

If your game isn't solid enough that you can survive losing a bonus or two, the Boss isn't your problem.

If the Boss arriving is destroying you, it means that you have done one or more of the below:

1) Allowed the Boss's faction (AI) to grow so strong that they're capable of taking you down.

Solution: Break that AI's bonuses. Don't let them have any income.

2) You are wasting all your armies fighting the Boss.

Unless you can produce 100+ turn, this is pointless. You can't stop him or hurt him, anyway.

Solution: Use your armies to expand, instead. While the Boss breaks one bonus, you could capture two others.

3) You're allowing him to do more damage than he should, breaking one bonus after another.

Solution: "Mop up" behind him and reclaim those bonuses by deploying 1 or 2 armies here and there.

Bottom line:

Ultimately, it might be just a question of Warlight skill. You have to be strong enough to dominate the other AIs and keep expanding; otherwise, yeah, you will lose. But that's just because the Boss is the last straw breaking the camel's back, not because you were WINNING and DOING GREAT but the Boss ruined it.

I'll repeat my advice:

* Play hard. Capture as much territory as you can, break your enemies' bonuses.

* The Boss is your friend. Don't fight him. He can hurt your enemies as much as he can hurt you.

At worst, he's a sloppy messy friend, like a friendly dog who wags his tail and breaks everything.

Act accordingly.

In response to Richard Sharp, You said,"If I can't follow the advice of what is laid out here"? I have followed the advice, its just not working. Lack a basic understanding of warlight. I could never have bet the crazy level if i lacked a basic understanding? Please don't insult me. I am a beginner to warlight, and realize I have a lot to learn. You say I haven't followed the advice given here. Here's the advice. Don't attack the boss. I avoid him, and he pursues me. Next advice the boss is your friend. I run from him, he follows me, and then I come around back to mop up after him, which is advice I am taking. He turns around, and spawns 40 armies. The advice i got said once he moves in a direction he stays in that direction. I haven't found that to be turn at all. I watched a how to win video on you tube. In that video the guy moved toward the boss, and the boss headed for Mexico. I took his advice, and moved toward the boss. The boss didn't head to Mexico. He turned and wiped me out. I found your attitude a bit condescending. I want your help, but lose the attitude, or keep your advice.

Edited 6/17/2016 17:19:41

My apologies if I sound condescending. For some context, I had trouble beating the Crazy Challenge (multiple tries), whereas I was able to defeat the Boss every time I tried (3 times), including the time when everything went wrong (see the pics I posted earlier). So you may be a better Warlight than me, overall. I'm just not sure what else to add!

One guess: I think you might be missing the advice not to follow him *too closely* - if he's turning around to fight you, you must be immediately behind him. Always leave a territory buffer if you can afford to.

Another possibility is that the Boss's programming has changed since I played the level (which is likely to be the case). Although the posts I've seen suggest that, since the changes, the level has become much *easier* than before.

Finally, I forgot that the Boss spawns armies - that's definitely a wrench in the works. Still, if you are in a good position and have decent production, 40 armies shouldn't cause you to lose the game.

Maybe you can make a video of your playthrough, or post screenshots? Otherwise, I'm not sure how to help.

One other thing I'll add: I never used the Blockade cards against the Boss (pointless, unless he's in a corner or some such). I used them to block off Europe, instead, which bought me time to consolidate America and/or spread into Asia. Maybe that will help!

M Poireau, you were not the one being condescending. It was Richard Sharp. I edited my post to explain that. I must not be responding correctly. I just played again and got farther then I ever had before. They start you with two blockade cards. So I guess that might be the secret to winning. Have you posted any of your wins on youtube? One thing that must have changed is this Boss is not friendly at all. He chases you down. Regardless, weather he is close to you or not. Whats with him starting with 400 armies? Why does he get such an advantage. His ability to spawn any number also seems like way to much of an advantage. One blockade was 135 and he broke through, and one was 75, and that didn't even slow him down. How strong do the blockades have to be?

Edited 6/18/2016 03:15:11

Poireau, it definitely got easier. I lost my first three attempts and they weren't even close. Finally won on my fourth attempt after reading some of the advice here.

Jump forwards to after the level was tweaked and I've won 5 of 6, all relatively straightforward. In the original version, I won in 22 turns despite getting the boss to go into Asia. After I have won in fewer turns despite the boss never leaving NA, bouncing between Canada and US (and thus killing the bonuses).

My friend who just started playing Warlight a couple days ago (and struggled with the strat 1v1 level) beat this on his first try following the advice laid out here. (It helped that the boss pointlessly attacked the his blockade two turns after it was laid... twice in a row!)

Straightforward approach... expand in all directions from the start, expecting him to move towards New England/Eastern Canada. Have some armies in Greenland while working on securing NA and moving into Kamchatka from Alaska. Deploy a few armies around the boss the attack the spot where he just was (don't bother trying to 'lead' him anywhere) as your last move to reclaim it and minimize his expansion. On the odd turns he 'spawns' then just take them out the next turn... if you don't have enough income to do so then you are doing something wrong since it slowly builds up (seems to be a reinforcement card based on turn number). By around turn 12 or so you should control all of NA (less the boss) and then steadily expand through Europe and Asia. The other AI are generally too weak to offer any real defense. By around turn 18-19 you should be making ~100 income and just need to mop up the other two continents. At that point you can think about using the blockades with all 100 armies assuming you are confident where he will go. Don't waste them if there are too many avenues for movement for him.

Never attack him, never put stacks adjacent to him. Keep any stacks a turn away or so, and move them first turn if they happen to be adjacent.

Taft... he is a 400-army stack. With the now standard settings he will kill 240 armies (400*.6). Putting a 135 in front of him is just wasting 27 armies to kill 95 of his 400. Just not worth it, the armies would be much better spent on expansion.

Only use the blockades to either keep Europe or Asia quiet (so Kamchatka and Japan for Asia) or when you have sufficient income to turn a 100 army stack into a 500 one that will kill 350 of his 400.