Welcome to Turn 10 of The Impaller versus The World, a game that everyone gets to participate in! For more information about the game, view this blog post.

Here's how the game started, for reference:

The winning item from last time was number 9. Deploy 1 to Itseqqortoormiit, 1 to Kangerlussuaq and 13 to Argentina. Attack Nuuk with 3. Attack Iceland with 3. Transfer 2 to Danmark Havn. Transfer 1 to Kangerlussuaq. Attack Colombia with 2. Attack Brazil with 29.

Here's what we did:

Here's the outcome:

• The Impaller: Deploy 12 to South Africa

• The World: Deploy 1 to Itseqqortoormiit

• The World: Deploy 1 to Kangerlussuaq

• The World: Deploy 13 to Argentina

• The Impaller: 5 armies transferred to Venezuela from Brazil

• The World: 3 armies captured Nuuk from Kangerlussuaq. 1 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.

• The World: 3 armies captured Iceland from Itseqqortoormiit. 2 attacking armies killed, 2 defending armies killed.

• The Impaller: 1 army transferred to Colombia from Brazil

• The Impaller: 1 army transferred to South Africa from Kenya

• The World: 2 armies transferred to Danmark Havn from Svalbard

• The World: 1 army transferred to Kangerlussuaq from Danmark Havn

• The Impaller: 21 armies captured Novolazarevskaya from South Africa. 1 attacking armies killed, 1 defending armies killed.

• The World: 2 armies failed to take Colombia from Argentina. 2 attacking armies killed, 1 defending armies killed.

• The World: 29 armies captured Brazil from Argentina. 0 attacking armies killed, 1 defending armies killed.

• The World recieved an order delay card and still has a blockade card. 4/6 order priority, 2/4 reinforcement, 10/19 blockade.

Here are our options:

1. Push Impaller out of South America and blockade Antarctica (use Delay Card)

   Deploy 5 to Siple, 7 to Argentina. Use Delay Card. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn and 1 from Nuuk. Attack Colombia with 7 from Argentina, and attack Venezuela with 28 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

2. Push Impaller out of South America and blockade Antarctica (no Delay Card)

   Deploy 5 to Siple, 7 to Argentina. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn and 1 from Nuuk. Attack Colombia with 7 from Argentina, and attack Venezuela with 28 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

3. Take Greenland, attempt to push Impaller out of South America, blockade Antarctica (use Delay Card)

   Deploy 5 to Siple, 1 to Argentina, 6 to Kangerlussuaq. Attack Colombia with 10 from Brazil. Transfer only to Colombia with 1 from Argentina. Use Delay Card. Attack Qaanaaq with 7 from Kangerlussuaq. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn. Attack Venezuela with 18 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

4. Take Greenland, attempt to push Impaller out of South America, blockade Antarctica (no Delay Card)

   Deploy 5 to Siple, 1 to Argentina, 6 to Kangerlussuaq. Attack Colombia with 10 from Brazil. Transfer only to Colombia with 1 from Argentina. Attack Qaanaaq with 7 from Kangerlussuaq. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn. Attack Venezuela with 18 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

5. Break out through Australia, blockade Antarctica behind, attempt to push Impaller out of South America (use Delay Card)

   Deploy 9 to Scott, 1 to Argentina, and 2 to Brazil. Attack Colombia with 10 from Brazil. Transfer only to Colombia with 1 from Argentina. Use Delay Card. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn and 1 from Nuuk. Attack Tasmania with 4 from Scott. Attack Colombia with 20 from Brazil. Blockade Scott.

6. Break out through Australia, blockade Antarctica behind, attempt to push Impaller out of South America (no Delay Card)

   Deploy 9 to Scott, 1 to Argentina, and 2 to Brazil. Attack Colombia with 10 from Brazil. Transfer only to Colombia with 1 from Argentina. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn and 1 from Nuuk. Attack Tasmania with 4 from Scott. Attack Colombia with 20 from Brazil. Blockade Scott.

7. Move into Caucasus, attempt to push Impaller out of South America, blockade Antarctica (use Delay Card)

   Deploy 5 to Siple, 4 to Ufa, 1 to Argentina, 2 to Brazil. Attack Colombia with 10 from Brazil. Transfer only to Colombia with 1 from Argentina. Use Delay Card. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn and 1 from Nuuk. Attack Eastern Kazakhstan with 4 from Ufa. Attack Colombia with 20 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

8. Move into Caucasus, attempt to push Impaller out of South America, blockade Antarctica (no Delay Card)

   Deploy 5 to Siple, 4 to Ufa, 1 to Argentina, 2 to Brazil. Attack Colombia with 10 from Brazil. Transfer only to Colombia with 1 from Argentina. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn and 1 from Nuuk. Attack Eastern Kazakhstan with 4 from Ufa. Attack Colombia with 20 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

Click here to vote

You should interpret the stars as follows:

• 0 Stars means "I don't care" or "I'm indifferent to this item."

• 1 Star means "I'm positive we should not do this."

• 2 Stars means "I don't think we should do this."

• 3 Stars means "Maybe we should do this."

• 4 Stars means "I think we should do this."

• 5 Stars means "I'm positive this is what we should do."

Use this thread to discuss strategy. Feel free to suggest new options and if there's enough demand, I'll add them for voting. Have votes in before the end of the day Saturday (July 9th) and check back Monday (July 11th) for the next turn!

Big thanks to Eitz for picking this up!

Thanks, Eitz!

• Taking Greenland this turn is now non-negotiable.
• We may want to start into Canada as well, so we can take it in four turns
• I'm not

I like number 4. Like fred said, we have to take greenland this turn. It makes no sense not to! I also don't think the delay card is recquired for this turn to be successful.

• I'm not sure we can take South America in one turn, but the threat may be enough to get him to put armies out of position. I love the idea of him having 20 armies in South America with a blockaded Mexico and 20 more in Antarctica with a blockade as well. However, he may fall back this turn so he can take South Africa, which is why
• I think we need to send a good chunk of armies into West Africa this turn.

We have a lot of objectives to work on here, so it's really a case of prioritizing them. Some of them are much better done this turn then later. I think the priorities go something like:
1) Greenland
2) Hold on to South America
3) Threaten his bonuses
3a) Get into Africa
3b) Get into Australia
...
3d) Get into Western US
4) Prevent him from getting Antarctica
5) Start working Canada

Am I missing any? Misprioritizing?

I think it was a mistake to give up Antarctica without replacing it with Greenland in the same turn, this leaves us 5 armies short now. The only good thing is that our stack in Brazil is keeping him on his toes nicely.
So we got 12 armies to spare, with 6 needed for taking Greenland safely, that leaves us another 6 to work with.
I like the idea of moving into Australia and blocking the way behind us. That renders his stack in Novolazarevskaya useless and buys us the time to take Australia in 3 turns. However, the blockade will be rather weak (11), unless we gamble with a 6er attack in Greenland and risk not taking it, which would free another army for the blockade (=14 blockade), but i wouldn't recommend that.
Taking (and holding) South America does not seem worth the effort. With Antarctica blocked, and him not being able to take SA in one turn, we should move our stack of 28 to West Africa to block that bonus too. We can always double back later if needed.

So here is what I suggest:

This turn:
Deploy 6 to Kangerlussuaq.
Deploy 6 to Scott.
Attack Qaanaaq with 7 from Kangerlussuaq.
Attack Nigeria with 28 from Brazil.
Attack Tasmania with 4 from Scott.
Blockade Scott with the remaining 3 (=11 neutrals).
Move 2 from Danmark Havn to Kangerlussuaq.

Turn 11:
Income 17 -> Take South Australia and Eastern Khazakstan with 4 each, attempt New Zealand, Georgia and Western Khazakstan with 3 each.
Either return to Brazil with 26, or move on to Chad to threaten East Africa

Turn 12:
Income 17 -> Ideally complete Caucasus and Australia, or whichever is more likely by that time.
Make sure South America and West Africa are not completed by Impaller.

Turn 13:
Income 22 for sure, 27 with a little luck

first: it is pointless go into canada this turn(taking canada bonus requires at least 4 turn). Same amount of turns is needed if we go into canada from Quaanaaq in the next turn where we would have available units left from attacking it with 7 this turn.
second: I don't see reason for blocking anything. At the "S. America & Antarctica battlefield"(they are connected) we have more available units and teritories than The Impaller. So eventually we should win there. So Why blocking anything. We will stop him from taking bonus with life force next turn(17 income).
third: I don't see which battle here requires OD card. And we will need it next turn for sure, to stop him taking Antarctica bonus.

This is my suggestion:
Turn 10:
Deploy 6 to Kangerlussuaq.
Deploy 4 to Argentina.
Deploy 2 to South pole.

Attack Colombia with 24 from Brazil.
Attack Qaanaaq with 7 from Kangerlussuaq.
Attack Bolivia with 4 from Argentina.
Move 2 from Danmark Havn to Itseqqortoormiit.
Move 1 from Nuuk to Itseqqortoormiit.
Attack Venezuela with 4 from Brazil.

Turn 11:
We would put at least 17 in Scott, use order delay and beat him at soth pole. Go into canada. Proceed fight in S.America... and so on...

No prob guys, happy to help =)

The reason I've made all of the options include using the blockade card is for the simple fact that the current situation we have down in Ant is the perfect setup for what the Blockade Card was designed for. If we don't take advantage of that, we may never see another chance as good as now to use it and I think we really stand to benefit from the extra boost it'll give us to the neutral we leave behind as well as free us up to focus our attacks where we want them over the next couple of turns.

Diabolicus and Zaeban: I've added your suggestions to be voted on as per your posts.

Fred: If you have anything specific you'd like to add, pls detail it out and post it.

Result of last turn net +1 gain and a loss of 5 income -- despite drama, loading up on Brazil unneccessary.

I agree with Eitz that the blockade is the obvious course of action. I forgot it's percentage boost, but I think a stack of between 16 and 21 would be sufficient. What does 5 yield us?

I agree taking Greenland is essential. We have time to work on Canada afterwards. The extra 2 in Greenland can join up with the stranded 1 and try to take that spot in Canada in 3 turns. If we decide to Go for Canada that should work out timing wise.

I see no point in a delay card. On the contrary we have a chance to net up nicely if we attack first in SA. Depending on what we blockade with, we either have 1 or 2 left after putting 6 into taking Greenland.

With 29 armies, we have to try and take SA. Imp will use his 12 to prevent us. Defending with 18 is a bad choice as it's insufficient to stop the stack. He might try it anyway, but I doubt it. That leaves Defending Columbia and/or trying for Argentina. I think Imp will probably put 12 into Columbia, 1st move slide the 5 in Venesuela over to reinforce, then use a delay (card or lots of smaller moves out of that stack in Antartica (which he knows is unneccessarily large, or both), and then attack all 3 spots in SA with 2. I would do the same thing, except I would be more sparing with the attacks with 2 (I might forego them all together).

If Imp follows this plan, our best move would be a first move big attack into Columbia. We get whatever he deploys there plus the defensive crush on the transfer if were first (or the elimination if were not).

I like going with no more than 4 on the blockade (total 5) so we can attack with 30 -- better number than 29. 31 would be even better, but I don't know if blockading with only 4 is enough.

Those are my initial thoughts, but I want to keep thinking about it.

I still don't see use of blocking card and I am strongly against it. Do you want to defend S.A. bonus with it ?
If we have S.A. bonus together with grenland we will not need blockade to defend. We will have enough force to defend it anyway.
What Duke suggested is similar to my moves and I like it. Only difference is in blockade card.
Blockade card:
1) As it work to block him, it will block us also. Why would we want that if we are stronger at the battlefield, as it is the case?
2) We will still have to defend S.A. bonus from north.
3) We are going away from s. africa(assume his next bonus) and e. africa(his present bonus)
4) We can not use our force from S.A. to enter africa since we will need it to defend from C. America

Anyway, if we block our self from him he will have a chance to start spread and take bonuses. We should win this anyway, whatever we move(if it makes sense :)), but why let him spread and take bonuses when we can keep the fight here.

Zaeban -- you need to show your work and explain how we have the ability to stop him from taking Antartica without a blockade. I don't see it and your repeated assertions without back-up do nothing to shed light on the mystery.

Denying him that +3 bonus is easy and cheap with the blockade. It's so obvious that we built it into our assumptions when we decided to not defend Antartica against Imp's stack attack (leaving him with 19 armies out of position).

Read my first post.

I just looked more closely at Zaeban's sugegsted move and it is similar to what I am considering:

Take Greenland, Blockade Antartica and Attempt to Take South America [with or without the delay card)

Deploy 4 to Siple, 2 to Brazil, 6 to Kangerlussuaq. Attack Colombia with 22 from Brazil. Attack Qaanaaq with 7 from Kangerlussuaq. Transfer to Kangerlussuaq with 2 from Danmark Havn. Transfer to Danmark Havn with 1 from from Nuuk. [DELAY CARD?]. Attack Venezuela with 8 from Brazil. Blockade Siple.

I went back and checked, blockades are 3.51%. So adding 3 will leave 14 and adding 4 would leave 18. Tough call. I could go either way. If we go 14, then I would add the extra one to the attack on Columbia to make it for 23.

BTW: HAS SOMEONE CHECKED TO CONFIRM IMP DOESN"T HAVE A REINFORCEMENT CARD THIS TURN? AFTER TWO WEEKS I HAVE NO IDEA. IF HE DOES THEN NEW PLAN.

I actually like that a lot Duke, except that I would for sure go with at least +4 for the blockade as I just don't think 14's gonna do a whole lot to him when he already has 20 there if he doesn't put another man on. I think it makes it too juicy an opportunity for him to crack the blockade (gives his trapped stack something useful to do instead of turning around back to Africa), take Antarctica and be on our border in S America. This is also why I made it +5 in my #4 to blockade it to 21 to make it far less appealing to him. Ironically, other than numerical values, your idea is almost identical in move structure to Option #4 and I could definitely find myself agreeing with you on Impaller's likely intent of putting 12 on Colombia and shifting from Venezuela and those values potentially needing to be tweaked. I also agree with you that it wouldn't be necessary to use the Delay Card if we're planning on going with this turn option as it will be more important for us to get the first move to Colombia and anything after shouldn't matter much if Impaller acts as we suspect he might.

Not sure about the Reinforce Card, will look into it.

Why is it noone likes the idea of gaining between +10 and +15 armies income the next 3 turns while at the same time denying Impaller Antarctica, South America and West Africa?

Diabolicus: we simply don't have the armies to repel his stack of 20 in Antarctica at this point in time. We only make +12 per turn right now (+17 after we take Greenland) so there's just no mathematical way we can do everything you're suggesting we do without the +351% boost that the Blockade Card offers us.

The point of getting Brazil wasn't to take South America. It was to deny him room to expand. We needed an entry point to Africa. Now we have it. Even if we can beat him in both spots in South America, we won't get the bonus this turn, because there's still the neutral in the center. And he'll border us on two spots in Central America. If we expect him to put a bunch of armies in South America - and I think we do - then why not trap them out of position, while we move a big chunk of our Brazilian armies towards Congo? I think I'd move about 15 armies from Brazil to East Africa, take Greenland, and blockade the western side of Antarctica. It's also worth noting that he may actually retreat some of the Antarctica armies, knowing we're likely to blockade, so he can take South Africa next turn.

I agree on the likely retreat to SA. I considered it as the only possible rationale for Zaeban's plan of foregoing the blockade. Basically you bet that Imp will retreat enough troops to make defense a possibility. I still don't like it because it bets on Imp not heading sending all or nearly all of the stack south (which I think is still a very viable option). Also even if he sends a smaller number like 15, we'd still be facing a bigger stack attack next turn (possibly augmented with a card).

Seems like Imp has been droppign 12 every turn for awhile now. I think he gets it this turn or he got it and cleverly deployed just those 5 elsewhere to work on another bonus.