I would like to improve my own picking skills by hearing different ideas on how to pick different games because I think there is always room for improvement on warlight, and I'm sure others would like to improve too. I will pick games with low rated ladder players so that you don't just copy one of the best player's picks and say that is how you would pick. If anyone else would like to add games that you found interesting on picks, feel free to, just be sure to add the number next to it. I'll just add random games and we can talk about how we'd pick.

Game 1: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4468661
Game 2: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4450996
Game 3: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4421701
Game 4: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4367654
Game 5: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4500504

I'd like to hear some of your opinions on picks before I add mine :)

Game 1

1SA 2Ant 3East china 4West china 5CA 6India

A safe ftb is 99.99% of the time the best option, SA covers CA, Ant, and africa combo, so 1 pick for sure. China combo is next, if i dont get my 1 or 2, i can get east china quickly, the rest is pretty self-explanatory

Game 2
1West Russia 2Central Russia 3West Africa 4East Africa 5)SA 5)Ant

Central Russia as 1st bonus is probably best choice here. Once again, if i dont get my 1,2 i can lay back on a west africa bonus, which also covers SA.

Game 3

1Ant 2)Aus 3)East China 4)India 5)CA 6)Scan

Aus combo is pretty safe and can be taken in 2 turns, China is quite a strong pick here and covers quite a few territories, quite self explanatory as well.

Game 4
1)West Russia 2)Central Russia 3)Ant4)Aus 5)SA 6East Africa

Central russia as 1st bonus is easily best choice here. If you dont get your 1,2, seems like a fast bonus (ant) would be the next best choice. rest is self explanatory

Game 5

Starts are interesting. It would depend on who i play with.

VS Noob
1Ant 2SA 3East China 4)WEst China 5CA 6Cas

Assuming my opponent is a noob, which i refer to stats, i'd play a gamble and risk that he didnt pick Aus. Rest is self explanatory

VS Pro
1Ant 2East China 3)West China 4)West Africa 5)Central Russia 6)Cas

I'm playing a gamble again. By getting Ant, i will break up the possibility of my opponent getting a first turn bonus, Ant here also covers 3 likely starts, SA, AUS, and East Africa. And if my opponent assumed i went for the ftb and tried to counter it 3,4,5 style, theres a chance he gets Aus and SA.

Game 6: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4520990

not a difficult game for me, but the picks here are quite interesting.

I will get to this later, but that was some blockade of Algeria in game 1.

Game #1: SA - Ant. - Scan. - CR - CA - E. China

First two are the FTB, Scan is very safe. Central Russia is also relatively safe. 1-2-5 won't happen so no triple pick if I get CA, and E. China would be safe because getting my 6th pick requires my opponent to pick 3 of the others.

Game #2: Scan. - CA - E. China - CR - Ant. - Greenland

I ignore SA and Africa here. The first three picks are generally safe. CR is a fighting pick. Ant. is nicely covered. Greenland seems weird, but the sixth pick means that there is no WR pick.

Game #3: CA - Scan. - E. China - Ant. - Aus. - Indo.

CA and Scan. are safe bonuses, E. China is in the middle of the fight, Ant./Aus. is decent, Indo is a counter to E. China and Ant/Aus.

Game #4: SE Asia - E. China - SA - Ant. - CA - WR

Seems weird, but I like the pairing of SE Asia and E. China. Obviously I don't pick the Russias, but those can be reached by SE Asia. Indo is subpar and wouldn't really be picked.

Game #5: SA - CA - Ant. - E. China - CR - E. Afr.

CA, E. China, CR, and E. Afr. are quick bonuses in the order I desire them. SA 1st and Ant. 3rd will cover the FTB, so no need to pick Aus.

Here's how I would pick them:

4421701
1)Antarctica
2)East Africa
3)East China
4)Central Russia
5)West China
6)SE Asia

4468661
1)Antarctica
2)South America
3)East China
4)Central Russia
5)West China
6)Scandinavia

4367654
1)East China
2)South America
3)Central Russia
4)West Russia
5)East Russia
6)East Africa

4450996
1)South America
2)West Africa
3)West Russia
4)Central Russia
5)Caucasus
6)West China

4500504
1)East China
2)Indonesia
3)Antarctica
4)South America
5)Australia
6)South Africa

game1:
1 SA
2 CR
3 South Pole
4 CA
5 EC
6 Scandinavia

game 2:

1 Greenland
2 Europe
3 WA
4 EA
5 SA
6 Antarctica

game 3:

1 ME
2 Antarctica
3 Australia
4 CR
5 EC
6 Scandinavia

game4:

1 SA
2 Antarctica
3 Caucasus
4 EC
5 EA
6 Scandinavia

game5:

1 CR
2 EC
3 Antarctica
4 SA
5 Australia
6 EA

Game 1 for me:
1. South America
2. Antartica
3. Scandanavia
4. East China
5. West China
6. Southeast Asia

I've got to agree with the other 4 who have picked so far, the first turn bonus is too tempting to pass up. I picked my 3 in Scandanavia because it has easy expansion plus it leads to Greenland and Canada long term. I am not planning on getting my 1,2,3. Most games I would get my 1 or 2, 3, + 1 more. My 4 is in East China because I like it more than Central Russia in this game just because it fits better with my picks after it and it is not at a disadvantage to Central Russia at all, my 5 in West China because I can either counter East China or possibly use it to combo East China and then move to Central Russia within a couple turns. My 6 is in Southeast Asia because if I get it, I won't get East China and West China, and it is a good counter to them.

Kantos's picks are good but not great. There is too greater likelihood that he would get Central America and Antarctica, while the opponent gets South America which would put him at a big disadvantage.

Falker's picks are good, however I don't like him leaving Scandanavia open like that. My picks would beat his this game because I would have Scandanavia safe and he would have nothing safe.

Peace's picks are good except I don't like his 5. Same as with Kantos. There is a decent chance his opponent will pick the first turn bonus and end up with Scandanavia or Central Russia, which would leave him with Central America. If he gets Central and Antarctica and his opponent gets South America, he will probably lose.

Pulsey (Mr. Multiaccount) has good picks too. There is a good chance he ends up with his 1/2, 3, and 4. If he ends up with 5, he has to hope he got first pick because most players would pick Argentina before Antarctica in that scenerio.

So to sum it up, All 4 picked good, but there are better options out there. I would not advise picking Central America in this case since it will often backfire. Thanks to all four of the guys who picked these games though, they did a good job! I'll look at the others later.

Game 2 for me:
1. Antarctica
2. South America
3. Caucasus
4. East China
5. West China
6. East Russia

I picked 1 and 2 in Antarctica and South America because Antarctica is one of the safest bonuses here and is easy to hold. I picked South America because then I have control over West Africa and Central America, and if I don't get it, at least I have intel of the opponent. My 3 is in Caucasus. I know some people won't like this and I can understand why but sometimes you have to pick risky. There is a 99% chance a good opponent will be in West Russia, Central Russia, or Scandanavia if I don't pick there. I would hit Ufa with 4-6 first turn to check if my opponent is there. If they are not, I would most likely hit Moscow the next turn or possibly move to Arkhangelsk. My 4 is in East China because that leads to Indonesia and West China long term and is a rather safe bonus. 5 in West China to counter East China. 6 in East Russia because it can counter East China and West China easily. This was a tough game to pick on.

Pulsey's picks are decent, easily countered by mine and Falker's picks though. It is obvious Central Russia is one of the best bonuses on this map and that is why many good players would pick Caucasus either as a later order like Falker did, or possibly like I did. Good picks though, if the enemy is not in Caucasus, Pulsey will probably be in at least even position after picks.

Peace's picks are okay, I don't like them much though. He picks safe picks but will not have much intel on the enemy and the people with combos will be in much better shape than him. He spreads the board well though, except for low coverage in Africa/South America. I don't like his 6 either. His 6 should go in South Africa to counter Antarctica easily.

Falker's picks are very good. The only thing he risks is getting one of the Russias plus Caucasus which would be terrible for him. With his picks against mine, we would both be in a very even position, with me having a very small advantage by knowing he is in South America.

Kantos's picks are good. If his opponent goes with Africa, they are screwed and he should win. His picks would completely fool me this game and he would probably end up with a decent chance at beating me. Same with Falker I think. I think he needs to win it somewhere around Turn 6 or 7 though, if it goes on too long, his opponents will be able to expand more easily than him, and if they fight too early, his opponent might get a bonus before him. I should start picking like this occasionally.

Thanks for the picks again everyone!

ops its seem I forget that SA can be South America or South Africa

game1
South America
game2
South Africa
game4 and 5
South America again

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=4527708

Interesting game in which I used the custom scenerio builder to build it up like Game 2. I used my picks, while Master Race got Kantos's. We both played fast and weren't paying much attention so I'm sure there are some errors you will see but neither of us made a major mistake I think. He managed to win the game, despite having bad luck when taking Greenland. Turn 3 was another turn where luck hurt someone, this time it was me (It wasn't as bad as his failing to take Greenland though). We pretended like we had those exact picks and didn't know where the opponent was. In the end, he ended up winning a close game where we both predicted the other a few times and failed to predict the opponent a few times. I think his picks would win well over half the games with opponents of the exact same skill level because despite bad luck on Greenland, Master Race still managed to beat me and I didn't play a bad game. I think with Falker's, he would have had a better chance of winning than I did, but I still like the Europe/Greenland pick. Good idea with it Kantos!

Game 3:
1. Antarctica
2. East Africa
3. East China
4. Central Russia
5. West China
6. Scandanavia

I hope to get Antarctica, and if I don't, I can move there from East Africa. If I do get Antarctica, I have good expansion there and in East Africa. After that I have my 3,4,5 to cover Asia and my 6 in Scandanavia because it is pretty safe.

Pulsey's picks are decent, Australia combo is not the best option here though, there is a halfway decent chance (roughly 30% chance) you can't take it Turn 2 which would be very bad. East China is a good third pick, Southeast Asia is a decent 4, and his 5 and 6 are pretty good.

Peace's picks are okay, same as with last game. He picks Impaller style meaning he spreads the board with his picks. That used to work much better than it does more recently. The reason people used to pick like that was because picking agressively will sometimes backfire such as mine would have last game against Kantos. Picking safe won't do that as much, but also will put you behind against most good pickers.

Falker's picks are very good, identical to mine except for 6. I like my 6 pick more though.

Kantos's are odd. Middle East? Very rarely do I see that used for anything but a counter or for a Southeast Asia first turn bonus. The 4 income to 6 territory ratio is just not worth it typically. After that it is decent picks.

Thanks for the picks again guys!

the chances of you getting Aus on turn 2 is much higher than 30%, jsa :P

oh, read it wrong. nvm

Thanks for doing this. I had exact picks as you JSA on game 1. Game 2 I saw very similar except I wouldn't have done Cauc 3rd (would have done CR, WR then it). I like what you did there though. Game 3 I had AA, EA, EC as well..definitely think that is best way to play that. I had CR, Scan, then WC.

Game 4 I like:
EA
AA
Cauc
SA
CA
EC

I like EA a lot here with WA being so far away. It can also hit AA. I take Cauc to counter Russia, hoping they invest two picks there. AA is to control SA. If I don't get EA, I get Cauc still plus AA/SA. CA is in case they take AA/SA, I need a counter there still. EC is nice safe spot and still counters CA/SA in case they went that route.

Game 5:
CR is great here with Scan/WR hosed, WC/Cauc counters further away.
EC is my #2 since SEA is hosed and insurance on not getting CR
I cover the FTB with my 3-5 (SA, AA, Aus)
WC is my 6th in case they get EC. If they somehow triple the south, I have good income anyway

Game 4:
1. Antarctica
2. Australia
3. Southeast Asia
4. East China
5. Scandanavia
6. East Africa

I like the looks of Australia/Antarctica here. And I think Southeast Asia/East China is the best combo after that. Scandanavia is a good 5 and East Africa looks like the best 6.

I can't complain about Pulsey's picks, except his 5 would be better off in Southeast Asia or East China or Indonesia. He just decides to go for a different combo than I do.

Peace's picks are very good. I haven't been too impressed with yours so far, not that they were bad, just that they weren't great or creative but your picks here are another example of a good place to make your base and are less expected than Russia or Antarctica.

I don't know if I agree with Falker's picks here. They are devestating if the opponent picks Russia 1/2. But if the opponent tries to cover the board, Falker could be stuck with East Russia + 1 more Russia pick which would completely screw him.

Kantos's are good, he risks getting countered by Central America if he decides to go for South America though. He uses my earlier idea with Caucasus.

I like Chris's here as well.

Not much to say on this game, I think everybody picked it pretty good.

Many thanks for this post. It helped me a lot in the upcoming games! Make more topics please, e.g. the use of cards, blockage for an example.

Sorry for game 1,

JSA:My 6 is in Southeast Asia because if I get it, I won't get East China and West China, and it is a good counter to them.

Why can't you get South America, East China then Southeast Asia? I thought even when you've got your 6th choice, there's still a chance where you have been assigned for 4th choice.

All the possible picks for strat 1v1 are...

123
124
125
126 - 2nd pick only
134
135
136 - 2nd pick only
145 - 1st pick only
234 - 2nd pick only
235 - 2nd pick only
236 - 2nd pick only

146 is impossible. If you get first pick then you can't get 6th pick. If you get 2nd pick then your opponent can't take both your 2nd and 3rd picks, making 146 impossible. 246 is impossible for the same reason.

At my own picks for other games: I seem to switch from spread to combo and back quite often. I like spreading my picks more, but I probably play better with combo picks >.>

Thanks Peace for the list, this is a very important piece of information and now I have figured out the logic behind ;)