The way you presented the topic, it seemed as if you were implying educational value.
And yes I do believe there is educational value in the use of blockades, most certainly. Or do you believe that if you never used a blockade before you would make a better decision than after having used it in various ways on multiple occasions?

And even if I am a holistic person, I do believe that of course it is possible to achieve better or more accurate results with a heuristic reduction, if you have the necessary data and processing power requiered for the task you are applying it on.

@DP, in our first game, are you talking about the turn 6 blockade?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=5645080 good blockade

@voodoo

You made a whole thread about luck determining the outcome of top strat 1v1 games in which you argued vehemently with lots of different people who all thought you were wrong. So you were the second off the top of my head. An example of the attitude that something besides a huge number of choices by the player are the primary determinant of the outcome of the game.

Edited 7/20/2014 01:50:56

Piggy, I disagree in your interpretations of a good or bad blockade. They seem rather arbitrary to me.

@lolowut Yes, I believe that train has left station now.

Edited 7/20/2014 01:54:29

The less data and processing power you have the more general your assertions have to be. So mine are pretty fucking broad. They will be refined over time, as exceptions to the rule get turned into new rules. I dont think theyre currently too general to be useful. If you do theh perhaps start bringing up the exceptions and I can start addressing them.

@ Pooh

yes I am. It is risky because hes using armies for the blockade that might get killed by a first move from gnuffone, that needs to be recognised as a good thing, especially because JV is losing. It is of appropriate size to hurt gnuffone but not so big that JV cant expand nicely in caucasus. JV hasnt waited until hes blockading in scott and thereby eliminating himself from the south and doing what gnuff would expect. It is not used to achieve a strategic aim, its purely tactical. These things all are good.

Okay

I will start with what you did:

I have started trying to use it in a different way.

1. Use it as soon as I can
2. make it small, 1-3 armies is ideal
3. dont use it somewhere that i cant afford let the enemy take
4. gamble that the territory i play it on will get taken this turn
5. Stop the other guy from going through it by keeping the pressure on somewhere else. it takes an attack of 19 to break a blockade card played on 3 armies in one turn. And the attacker will lose 7 of them.

1. Ignore this point. Its ridiculous. Use it when the other prerequisites are met. When you forsee a better opportunity of the usage of a blockade card somewhen in the future, it might be better to delay its use.
2. Ignore this point. Its not even ridiculous anymore, its plain stupid. Make it as small as neccessary, but dont use an "ideal" number, since an ideal number is arbitrary.
3. Ignore this point. Even if you can afford letting the enemy take the territory, respectively bonus be taken, it might be a good decision to still blockade if a good opportunity presents itself.
4. What is that supposed to mean? Clarify please. The way i read it, its the opposite of what you might have meant. Gamble that the territory you play it on will not get taken this turn makes more sense. If that is the case, its an incorrect advice. Sometimes you might have to gamble would be better. If not, ignore this point. Its stupid.
5. Ignore the latter part of this point. It just gives an example on the effects of taking down a blockade on an army stack. Be sure to exactly know how a blockade card works, before you read this valuable guide of advanced knowledge on when to use a blockade card.
Considering the former part of the advice, its not precise. There are circumstances in which a taken down blockade can be intentional by you. Ergo, ignore this point.

The educational value of all this is almost none, quite the contrary, if you follow this guide as it is, it will be harmful for your game.

Edited 7/20/2014 02:16:17

"Yes, I believe that train has left station now." Dont worry about it, noone reads these threads anyway =D

I think you underestimate your influence on the community there.

I still remember the advice Odin gave me in a game when we were discussing the Blockade card. it went something like this "If you have to use a blockade to stop your opponent....you probably already lost."

Not to derail the train that has already left the station...

Do abandon cards have a place in Strategic alternatives?

Typically, abandon multiplier is 1/2 of blockade multiplier. Is that sufficient since it happens prior to account for the action occurring before first transfer/attack?

@JV that sounds right from my experience, at least with strat ME 1v1 settings if you are considering a big blockade. I think the blockade card is the least useful card of them all. There are some situations where they can have limited impact in your favour, but mostly using the card does not help much. If the blockade ratio were at least 500% instead of 351%, then it *might* be more useful in strat ME 1v1.

Can't find it now but that game where me and moto 'beat' gnuff had a good blockade in Antarctica early doors.

Not sure you could say that won the game alone but it was among a number of things that, had we not done it, would have lost us the game.

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4986456 very good blockade

Edited 7/20/2014 08:48:44

What about the sneaky counter-pick blockade, any examples of that around?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=2931060 good blockade
http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=2498782 good blockade?
http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=6042135 good and bad?

It's not easy to find good blockades. When people think to use them they are already under serious pressure. Another thing is that often when you use a blockade to relieve yourself from some pressure you are relieving the opponent of some pressure.

Edit:
http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=1444093 Good blockades
http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=1288441 Good blockade

Edited 7/20/2014 14:19:23

Hey guys,

just wanted to share 2 blockade examples from my games:

1) http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=6615325

I believe this use of "blockade" card was pretty good, beacase it let me focus on offensive ideas instead of defending my bonuses.

2) http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=6606049

In the second game, my enemy used abandon on '3' (turn 4), which i found a pretty good use of this card. (blockade-like-style)

What ya guys think? ;)

Cheers,
Doni

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=2931060 good blockade

I think this fits what I was looking for. This game was won on that blockade in Indonesia imo. Up until that point Ace has a chance to win.

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=6660466 good blockade

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=6620469 bad blockade

I robbed myself of income, he never had a chance to complete Scandi, I did a have a chance to re-complete it at the end however.

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=6649268 terrible blockade

I tried to be too clever. I gambled on him not attacking immediately. If I thought about it a bit more I would have realised he thought he had the armies per turn advantage because he didn't know I had double picked Central Russia.