This thread can be used to post interesting or difficult boards you had in strategic 1v1 on Medium Earth, and discuss which picks are good/the best and why. Only post finished games.

For new players, this could help a lot to better grasp the importance of making good picks. Like it or not, but a lot of games are decided by picks!

I thought this was an interesting board:


All the 3-for-4 bonuses have a wasteland.
Africa has no wastelands.
West and Central Russia + Caucasus are available.
Indonesia + Australia is a nice combo.

What would be your picks?

sa wafrica wrussia crussia caucasus eafrica.

Did you just screencap and upload a cropped pic to an image hosting site? I would be happy to add to this thread, but I can't work out how to screencap *ashamed face*.

1 SA 2 west africa 3 indo 4 australia 5 antarctica 6 central russia

5 - wastelanded antarctica? guessing you'd consider countering SA and/or aus to be incredibly important? (just making sure the wasteland wasn't an oversight)

Piggy's picks might be more long-run solid, but from time to time I like to use agressive picking strategies. Here I estimated the probability of opponent picking 1/2 indo/aus, probably with follow up sa/west africa/east africa is relatively high. Also based on starting positions if that was the case he'd surely go first for australia which would give an immediate win. The only downside is risking getting 3+5 or 4+5, but that's only possible if opponent picks same as me or 1/2 sa/west africa, 3/4indo/aus 5/6 russia.

Its obviously for the sneaky counter on Australia, which will be the opponents first bonus to try to complete 90% of the time.

but that's only possible if opponent picks same as me or 1/2 sa/west africa, 3/4indo/aus 5/6 russia.

What if he picks 1 Indo, 2 SA, 3 WA, 4 AUS, 5 WR, 6 EA?
50% you end up with australia+ant with knowledg for thhe opponent.

Did you just screencap and upload a cropped pic to an image hosting site? I would be happy to add to this thread, but I can't work out how to screencap

I guess he tok a screen picture when he had the game in fullscreen. Then uploaded it to an Image hosting site and posted it here.
To take a screen picture there is this Print-screen button (usually labeled: PRTSC), simply click the button and save the Image on your computer (one way to do this is, open Word, paste (the picture) right click the picture-save as Image). I assume you know what to do from then on :)

i prefer using paint instead of word :/

It would be nice if you could take a starting map like this from a finished game and use it as a template. Then you could play out these scenarios to test it out. Like the discussion though.

i would probably go for 1 west africa, 2 indonesia, 3 australia, 4 east russia, 5 south america, 6 west russia.

curious sze's pick, and i think he's right, would catch people off guard. atleast i would have fallen for it.

@ Tigger: I use ScreenHunter 6.0, it's free and easy to use. Then upload to an image hosting site, tinypic.com in this case, but there are many.

In the game I picked W Africa first, assuming S Am would be the most obvious #1 and avoiding the first pick chances. S. Am #2 followed by E Africa. Like this I have a shot at Africa or, If I don't get E Africa, I will be in between 2 enemy bonuses. I also feel very comfortable bordering from the start so I don't mind that. If I get both Africa, I can transfer first turn and go all in on Nigeria.

Last 3 picks were: W Russia, Central Russia and finally Caucasus.

@ Zwe: I think "1/2 sa/west africa, 3/4indo/aus 5/6 russia" is a very common way of picking these days making Antarctica a risky choice, however, knowing the picking patterns of your opponents can be a huge deal here. It's definitely it easiest way to a quick win and not many players have the balls to play like this!

Chaos: what's your reasoning for totally ignoring the early +9 australia/indonesia combo? you would take very long getting there, very hard to break, while most likely your opponent would have a foot in africa or russia to stall your expansion.

that was my initial thought as well, but if not in africa, I can expand safely and have more good bonuses, and if in africa or S am, the aus/indo combo is slow and relies on heavy commitment, leaving few spare troops to fight with, a path I felt comfortable taking.
One thing I wanted to avoid, was having half of the aus/indo combo, so I opted not to pick there at all.
Try to focus your picks on positions where you feel comfortable in.

sa. w africa. c russ. w russ. j russ. indo. cauc.

or

w africa. e africa. c russ. w russ. cauc. indo.

or

c russ. w russ. w africa. sa. e africa. indo.

when I don't know what I want to pick I just go with whatever looks good at the moment.

@Timi: Would you ever make those picks? They seem odd to me, for quite a few reasons.

It looks to me like you can't decide if you want aus+indo (in which case why not make them 1,2?) or you want SA+Wafricc (in which case why not make them 1,2). Also if you get your 1,2,3 you wont know if there is someone in aus, but someone picking indo, aus, crussia, wrussia will know you are in indo for certain if you get 1st pick, and will get their favourite combo, uncountered if they get 1st pick.

Why is everyone so into the aus/indo bonus? compared with eurasia it has a slight income advantage, and safety but 0 expansion. What will you do once you complete indo/aus and your opponent has completed wrussia, crussia? Will your 1 income a turn give you enough of an edge to achieve anything?

@Piggy:
1. To prove Sze wrong :P

2. Reduced risk to get Australia withoug indo & intel (if he goes for aus/indo 1&2 i either screw him or get intel on both & SA safe)
But the picks i mentioned i'd only do against someone I expect to pick aus&indo 1&2. (Like poker: Play the player instead of the cards)

anybody has interesting board to share and discuss?