Some of you may know or remember the player Phakh Gokhn - currently he is a little inactive.

Phakh Gokhn https://www.warzone.com/Profile?p=4731303447
Coffee Man (alternative account) https://www.warzone.com/Profile?p=86139925513

And as some of you may know, Phakh Gokhn has been for some years a part of HAWKS too. It is now a little more than 1 year ago that Phakh Gokhn was in HAWKS.

It has been a special time with him :) . Adjectives that come to my mind... cringe, exhausting and certainly nerve-wrecking from time to time.

The connection I had to Phakh, made me wonder if in the Big Bang Theory Leonard Hofstadter thought in the same way about Sheldon Cooper. Indeed, he was convinced that sleep is just unused time

and he also tried to get into my mind with thought transfer.

He liked to show up all the flaws I have and I more than once thought about to just get rid of him :P. You see I like to see parallels here, but until now I never experienced a person coming closer to Sheldon Cooper irl actually.

Occasionally he also did videos:
Unbelievable his HAWKS video is already more than 2 years old. It has been one of the rather cringe things: https://youtu.be/VoOUHoPwU40

But looking back it makes me smile actually. You may think about him what you want. Especially in the strategic/ more elite part of the Warzone Community he was not often taken serious (I mean I fully understand, it is not easy to take him serious all the time). Probably he has been misunderstood to some degree as well. Tho I think he had some good points and is actually a really smart person. But he had some aloof, whimsical, overexaggeratedly annoying way of representing his views and probably his mind goes over my imagination as well. (You may get a picture of that later.)

Without Phakh Gokhn the Hawks Clan wouldn't be what it is right now - a great clan ;) - He has contacted a lot of awesome players, that are now part of HAWKS. Taught players and (more or less) given incentive to organize the clan, too. So I am actually thankful for the time and the experience. Although I don't want it back again.

I have been asked and want to share one of his intensive works he has gifted the HAWKS Thread. And now I want to gift this to the Warzone Community. I find some points really interesting and might also give you incentive to think about it. However, to this day I can't say that I understand all of this points, although I tried. I formatted the text a bit more, than as it is in the Hawks Clan Thread. Maybe it is easier to follow now.

The following entries are written by Phakh Gokhn. I don't take the responsibility for the correctness of the content. Neither I can support youin going through this points to evaluate your skill. I wish you a happy reading!



Edited 12/17/2022 16:11:48

This thread contains skill evaluation criteria made by Phakh Gokhn. All the listed points are practical and can be applied in real games to increases odds of winning. Nearly every point is dedicated to a very particular ability, therefore they should be easy to understand. More complex points include explanations or examples, so this criteria could help you improve your skill level by just reading this material.



Each criteria points is meant to be graded in both the ability to practically show the skill and ability to explain in theory why said skill is useful and when to use it. You get 25% for partially answering the questions, another 25% if your explanation is fully correct, additional 25% if you somewhat apply this skill in your games and final 25% if your application of skill is flawless.



Due to high amount of points, it would be time consuming to verify every single point, therefore when asking questions, only the most meaningful points will be selected. Also a few games might not be enough to showcase all the various understood points well, so if you don’t show knowledge of a particular point through evaluation games, additional questions might be asked or you might be asked to provide links to some of your older games.



Each criteria point has a skill level assigned to it. Currently existing levels are:

• Beginner – 4 points
  
• Intermediate – 8 points
  
• Advanced – 12 points
  
• Expert – 16 points

Higher assigned skill level usually means that this point requires more calculations, prior knowledge and in some cases has less opportunities to be used during games or is in general not a commonly known skill. Just because the skill is rated in a certain high category, it doesn’t mean that you cannot understand it. Each and every player reading this should pay attention to all the skill levels as he might find useful information there.



You can take this test individually to grade your abilities or use it as check list during your regular games as a way to remind yourself of all possible beneficial tactics you could apply. Alternatively you could apply for grading process. During it you will play a few games on templates either given to or chosen by you directly and afterwards you will receive some questions regarding your gameplay and some hypothetical scenarios to analyze.



Total amount of points:

(Criteria Category) (Total Points) (B) (I) (A) (E)
General play             1528       16  26  46  43
Various Settings         972        11  31  30  20
Various Cards            568        5   24  15  11
Team Games               184        0   7   8   2
------------------------------------------------------
Total                    3236       32  88  99  76

(Beginner – B, Intermediate – I, Advanced – A, Expert E)

General play section is always included in the evaluation criteria. Setting, card and team criteria points are included based upon if they’re in the evaluation game’s template.



As player can select his own individual template or select from a variety of suggested templates, here’s the complete list of all criteria and amount of points assigned to it.

(Criteria Category) (Total Points) (B) (I) (A) (E)
Fog                      84         1   1   2   3
Random Distribution      32         0   2   0   1
Commanders               36         2   2   1   0
Multi Attack             76         1   4   2   1
No luck                  56         0   2   2   1
Base Income              8          0   1   0   0
Income per Territory     12         1   2   0   0
Army Cap                 40         0   2   2   0
Luck                     200        0   1   4   9
Kill Rates               16         0   2   0   0
Attack/Transfer Only     28         0   0   1   1
Local Deployments        116        1   2   4   3
No Split                 68         0   2   3   1
Overridden Bonuses       20         2   0   1   0
Custom Scenario          4          1   0   0   0
Commerce                 56         2   3   2   0
Setting Combinations     64         0   2   4   0
Map Settings             56         0   4   2   0
Reinforcement            36         0   3   1   0
Scouting                 56         2   3   2   0
Blockades                172        1   6   2   6
Order Priority/Delay     48         1   0   1   2
Airlift                  80         1   5   3   0
Gift                     52         0   3   1   1
Diplomacy                76         0   1   3   2
Sanctions                20         0   1   1   0
Bomb                     28         0   2   1   0
Team General             124        0   4   5   2
Team Cards               60         0   3   3   0

After the grading process is completed, the participant receives these things:

• Total score, Additional score from other main categories, percentage of maximum available points.
  
• Individual Grade (B, I, A, E) for each individual setting/card.
  
• Comments about incorrectly answered questions.
  
• Suggestions of move improvements in grading games.
  
• Overall suggestions of what the player should study the most in order to improve in game.

Edited 12/17/2022 20:16:22

GENERAL PLAY

Beginner Level

1. Checking settings page.

2. Checking statistics page.

3. Ability to perform mathematics in real time.

(add, subtract, divide, multiply; can be done with calculator).

4. Understanding what each setting stands for.

(for example local deployment means that you can only deploy bonus’ income within bonus’ boundaries).

5. Knowing how to use game history.

6. Knowing how to check territory connections.

7. Finding which territory belongs to which bonus.

8. Calculating how many picks in total all the players get.

9. Identifying wastelands.

10. Keeping track of held cards.

11. Spotting all opponent’s visible territories.

12. Knowing which territories connect across the map

(For example Hawaii connecting to Japan on Medium Earth map).


13. Keeping track of where your armies happen to be on the map.

14. Finding shortest path from territory X to territory Y.

15. Finding out minimal amount of armies needed to take down a territory.

16. Noticing which picks were lost to opponent during picking stage.

Intermediate Level

17. Calculating bonus takeover speed.

(In how many turns can you take the bonus)

18. Finding income per territory ratio.
(Bonus income divided by territory amount)

19. Calculating defender and attacker loses during the attack.

20. Finding out territory take over cost.

(Defending stack*defending killrate + 1 if 1 army stand guard is on)

20. Understanding concept of delay moves.

21. Prioritizing move order.

(which moves should be first and which should be last).

22. Identifying bottlenecks.

(a one way corridor between territories with no alternative routes).

23. Identifying strong and weak positional points for bonuses.

(Positional point is when from one territory you can attack 2+ different territories in another bonus. Strong point is beneficial to you, weak point is something which can be used by opponent)

24. Finding 1st turn bonuses.

25. Understanding map coverage.

(Further apart picks allow more opportunities for expanding or targeting opponent).

26. Ability to concentrate expansion efforts.

(Avoiding overexpansion)


27. Identifying opponent’s minimum income.

28. Deciding when it is worth to defend.

(For example on standard kill rate, if you lose 100% defenders, they only kill 100%*0.7 of their value in return, so in other words if you lose your defending stack, you’re the one losing more armies).

29. Deciding between expanding or engaging the opponent.

30. Launching a surprise attack.

(For example targeting bonuses which were lost during picking stage).

31. Understanding the concept of counter attack.

32. Counting opponent’s visible moves.

33. Finding the means to successfully gain card pieces.

(You need to capture at least one territory per turn to get card pieces.)

34. Identifying the least useful cards when forced to discard them.

35. Understanding how move order goes.

36. Knowing the difference between main and back up picks.

(You get back up picks if you lose main picks)

37. Anticipating opponent deploying additional armies to his stack and adjusting attack/defense size accordingly.

38. Safe picking.

(Picking bonuses without weak points)

39. Pick stealing.

(Determining where opponent goes and trying to pick those picks as well)

40. Pick countering.

(Picking in a way to prevent opponent from taking bonuses)

41. Relative safety.

(Bonuses which become safe to pick due to nearby wastelands)

42. Detecting player activity based upon unusual size neutrals.

Advanced Level

43. Calculating leftover amount.

(Attacking stack size minus territory takeover cost).

44. Understanding the concept of chain expansion.

(Using leftovers for cheaper expansion).

45. Calculating total takeover cost of bonus.

(All territory cost within bonus combined).

46. Finding income per cost ratio.

(Bonus income divided from bonus cost).

47. Calculating bonus payback time.
(How many turns it takes for bonus to generate more than it cost to take said bonus)

48. Identifying efficient bonus clusters.
(Many valuable bonuses close to each other).

49. Identifying bonus regions.
(Groups of bonuses separated by bottlenecks).

50. Calculating relative income per territory/income per cost/payback cost time.

(If you happen to already have some territories in the bonus, it means that taking remainder of bonus is cheaper when starting from scratch)

51. Value of starting bonus versus other bonuses.

(You already get 1+ territory with x+ free armies in your starting bonuses, plus other bonuses can start with mini wastelands if other players don’t pick them).

52. Understanding how move order works.

(For 1v1 if goes A1 B1 B2 A2 A3 B3 B4 A4 ...)

53. Determining move order based upon game history.

54. Determining how many hidden orders player made based on game history.

55. Counting opponent’s hidden income based upon hidden deploy orders

(Each hidden deploy order must be at least 1 deployed army)

56. Masking your own deploy and move orders.

(Orders which opponent can see go first, order which cannot be seen by opponent go last.)

57. Guaranteeing region presence during picking stage.

(for example if you lose 1st pick, you get 2nd and 3rd picks in 1v1 games.)

58. Using last regular pick + initial back up picks to verify if opponent is in the region and also to get at least one pick there.

59. Calculating net income gain.

(If you lose 5 income while opponent loses 7 income, then during the turn you gain (-5)-(-7)=2 net income. If you gain 4 income, but opponent gains 5 income, you lose 4-5=-1 net income.)

60. Understanding positional situations during picking.

(If both you and opponent get a pick nearby and you both can counter each other’s bonus, then it’s a stalemate. If you get one pick near opponent’s 2 picks and neither of you can get either of bonuses, you’re winning because only one of your picks got stalled, while opponent has 2 of his picks stalled.)

61. Managing stack preservation.

(if you lose 100% of your stack, you’re losing more armies than opponent does, so you need to look for ways to ensure that your stack does not get destroyed).

62. Concentrated effort attacks.

(going 100% against specific target)

63. 1 army tapping.

(You can take down 5 defending armies with 8 army attack, but if you lose 1 army attack first, you can take 5 defending armies with only 7 armies like this: 1vs5+6vs4.)

64. Understanding rounding mechanics.
(For example 5 defending armies kill 5*0.7=3.5=4 armies, so for each defense of 10x+5 armies you kill 0.5 additional armies)

65. Choosing between attacking from one place versus attacking from multiple areas.

(If you attack same area multiple times, you lose additional armies, because same defending armies get to defend multiple times)

66. Knowing how to increase pressure.
(The more territories opponent has to defend, the easier time you have breaking his bonuses)

67. Breaking bonus versus fully taking bonus.

(To break bonus you only need to take one territory, to fully take bonus you need all the territories. Breaking bonus is far easier in most cases than fully taking it.)

68. Determining opponent’s most likely to defend area.

(Opponent is most likely to defend his least guarded, or most valuable bonus, so going for less important area can increase your chances of successful attack)

69. Ability to minimize bonus weaknesses through expansion.

(If bonus is countered by territory X, it makes sense to expand to a bonus with territory X in order to prevent opponent from getting there first).

70. Ability to infiltrate bonus region.

(If you cross the bottleneck before opponent can secure it, he becomes less capable of stalling you.)

71. Making initial starting bonus take over plan.

72. Using custom scenario or other means to plan personal moves.

73. Giving opponent false expectations.

(If you deploy most your income to same bonus for an extended amount of time, opponent might get used to it, so then you can use that as opportunity to do something else)

74. Evaluating different expansion plans.

(For example on 1v1 ladder template these plans can be: +5 income bonus in 2 turns; two +3 income bonuses in 2 turns; +6 income bonus in 2 turns; +4 and +3 income bonuses in 2 turns; targeting safe income bonuses surrounded by bottleneck or wastelands)

75. Tracking opponent’s income.
(if opponent deployed +15 income one turn and only +8 income next turn, it means he used +7 income for expansion elsewhere or he’s moving towards ambushing you. After opponent deploys low long enough, it’s safe to assume that he has taken additional bonuses and has even higher income)

76. Tracking whether opponent successfully takes any territories and gains a card piece.

77. Carefully managing card use and card piece gain in order to avoid hitting card limit.

78. Not defending territories which you don’t have to defend.

(For example you have a territory in a bonus with a wasteland and opponent is near. In most cases you should not defend that territory, unless it’s the last remaining territory in the region)

79. Determining the most likely starts for the opponent.

(based upon bonus value or best expansion plans)

80. Launching ambush attacks.

(Move towards opponent while being hidden by fog.)

81. Understanding circumvention maneuver.

(You have territory A and border opponent’s bonus’ territory B. Right now it’s stalemate. You can move around territory B until you get into positional advantage and become able to break a bonus)

82. Knowing fall back maneuver.

(You can no longer hold your position, so you transfer your defending armies towards a spot where you could amass more armies).

83. Knowing hunt down maneuver.

(You identify opponent’s stacks which keep running away from your bigger stacks, so you keep attacking them with your stacks with first orders until the stacks get destroyed)

84. Understanding retaking maneuver.

(Opponent has a big stack on territory X, which you cannot stop, but you can deploy small army stacks around it and after using some delay moves let opponent take territory Y somewhere else, while you take now empty territory X for yourself)

85. Knowing evacuation maneuver.

(Opponent is to take out your stack and you got no areas to transfer to, so you take neutral territory instead)

86. Understanding dodge maneuver.

(Instead of transferring your stack away, you move sideways from opponent’s bigger stack with intention to be able to defend your stack better next turn)

87. Knowing delayed explosion maneuver.

(You have deploy an army stack in territory X, then use some delay orders and issue many tiny attacks to all of opponent’s territories followed by one big attack at the end. The likely scenario is that opponent already hit you from all directions, lost all his armies and you can take all his undefended territories now. If you issue the big attack first, you run a risk of not having enough surviving armies for the little attacks).

88. Understanding surprise hit maneuver.

(You expect opponent to take neutral territory X, so you attack it with extra armies first to prevent opponent from taking it.)

Expert Level

89. Being able to deploy all the expansion armies in one go.

(For example 12 armies takes 2 army neutral, then it becomes 10 and takes 4 army mini wasteland and becomes 6, then it takes two 2 army neutrals in one go. For territories which will be taken last, full amount of needed armies is used, for territories which will be taken before that, territory cost is used instead).

90. Calculating needed deploying effort.

(To take bonus X you’ll need Y armies and you got Z left overs, so the total effort cost will be Z-Y)

91. Calculating income per effort ratio.
(Bonus income divide by total effort cost)

92. Using bonus measurement methods.

(like income per cost, income per effort) while dealing with bonuses which already have an opponent in them. (Opponent could deploy income to them)

93. Using custom scenario or another method to precisely model opponent’s most likely expansion options.

(Which territories with how many armies opponent has during any given turn for any likely plan)

94. Being able to force opponent to defend an already broken bonus.

(Once you become able to retake full bonus, opponent might get forced to defend it with additional force)

95. Preventing opponent from being able to take your already broken bonus in one turn.

(defensive version of previous point)

96. Syncing your moves/card use with your move order.

(For example if you have 2nd move order now, you move to territory X and next turn you use your 1st order to issue a deadly 1st order attack).

97. Identifying opponent’s use of cards.

(If you were supposed to have 1st order, but opponent moved first, he used order priority card. If you had sufficient amount of delay moves, but opponent still got last order, he might have used an order delay card).

98. Keeping track of when opponent will be able to play the next card.

(Applies to all cards in game. If opponent has multiple cards, it means he can play them any time, even if he just used one of that card.)

99. Identifying good situations for opponent to use his cards.

(If opponent has 2nd move order, he might use order priority card, if he’s not defending a bonus, he might have blockaded a territory in it, which you haven’t seen yet.)

100. Optimizing delay moves.

(Precisely identify how many move orders opponnent will have, which move order (1st or 2nd) he has and based on this information find better ways to use some of your leftovers)

101. Being able to create artificial delay moves.

(For example using 1 army transfers among defending stacks, using 1 army taps on opponent’s stacks or using 1 army transfer as your first order when you have 1st move order)

102. Maximizing defensive/offensive potential.

(For example 2 defending armies kill 1 army → 50% kill ratio and 5 defending armies kill 4 armies → 80% kill ratio. The idea is to deploy +1 as long as either while defending or attacking that 1 added army also increases amount of killed armies by 1 as well)

103. Calculating army net gain.
(For example my income is 20, opponent has 25 income, I kill 50 armies while opponent only kills 40 armies. Net army gain is 20-25+50-40=-5+10=5. Consistently sustained army net gain is more important than income net gain!)

104. Calculating long term defending stack survival.
(I got 5 income, opponent has 6 income. His defending stack is 10, my attacking stack is 15. 1st turn: (10+6)*0.7=16*0.7=11 attackers killed, (15+5)*0.6=20*0.6=12 defenders killed. 2nd turn: (16-12+6)*0.7=10*0.7=7 attackers killed, (20-11+5)*0.6=14*0.6=8 defenders killed. 3rd turn: (10-8+6)*0.7=8*0.7=6 attackers killed, (14-7+5)*0.6=12*0.6=7 defenders killed. 4th turn: (8-7+6)*0.7=7*0.7=5 attackers killed, (12-6+5)*0.6=11*0.6=7 defenders killed. by the 5th turn Defender has lost his defended territory)

105. Detecting forced stalemate.

(For example both players have 7 income. Attacker has 4 armies, defender has 3 armies. If defender loses his territory, he loses a bonus. 11*0.6=6.6=7, 10*0.7=7 armies. Both players can kill and deploy 7 armies, so as long as attacker keeps attacking, he forces a stalemate. Let’s say defenders decides to use +1 deploy somewhere else for expansion. 1st turn: Attacker kills 7, while defender kills 9*0.7=6. 2nd turn: Attacker kills (11-6+7)*0.6=12*0.6=7 armies, defender kills (9-7+7)*0.7=9*0.7=6 armies. 3rd turn: Attacker kills (12-6+7)*0.6=13*0.6=8 armies, defender kills (9-7+7)*0.7=9*0.7=6 armies. 4th turn: Attacker kills (13-6+7)*0.6=14*0.6=8 armies, defender kills (9-8+7)*0.7=8*0.7=6. By the 5th turn defender has lost his territory. Because of this defender cannot deploy at any given time any of his armies elsewhere but to his defended territory, therefore attacker can after some time can issue any other activity, like take a bonus and go threaten defender elsewhere and there’s nothing that defender can do about it).

106. Understanding expansion cancellation maneuver.

(If you know that opponent will take neutral territory X with bare minimum required armies, you can out delay your opponent and take that same territory with bare minimum required armies as well.)

107. Knowing the distraction maneuver.

(On turn X, you appear at opponent’s border in territory Y. Opponent probably will defend hard and hit that territory. In the meantime you were moving a large stack towards a different opponent’s area. During next turn you start to border opponent at another region in territory Z. Now opponent has a useless stack in X, didn’t do much and is unable to defend against Z).

108. Knowing the sidestepping maneuver.
(Territory A connects to B and C. B connects to D and C connects to D. You have A, while opponent has C and D. You need to take either C or D to break opponent’s bonus. Your stack is in A and opponent’s stack is in C. When you have 2nd move order, you move to B, while opponent’s stack remains in C. Next turn you use your 1st move order to break D. Because opponent’s stack is in C and he has 2nd move order, he cannot come in time to protect his bonus).

109. Knowing the Trojan Bonus technique.

(You have A and B territories, opponent has C territory, all territories interconnect. A belong to bonus X, C belongs to bonus Y. Y bonus is more valuable than X bonus. You make a big stack in B, use delay move orders, allow opponent to break X and on your last move order take now empty C, thus breaking Y bonus. Because Y was worth more income, the opponent is the one who lost the income, not you.)

110. Understanding surprise transfer maneuver.

(Opponent with his stack is turn by turn taking a trail of your undefended territories. At some point he will have to take territory X. Because you’re not defending opponent has low amount of initiative to deploy something himself. In the meantime in territory Y, which is behind X, you were amassing a big stack. When opponent is about to attack X, you use 1st move order and transfer from Y to X. Opponent hits your stack and loses his whole stack.)

Expert Level Continued

111. Knowing tiny counter attack maneuver.

(Similarly to pervious point, you transfer armies to X territories. The difference this time is that you also have some armies in X already, or just deployed them there, so after some delay moves you can retake opponent’s territory, because his stack by that time has already suicided into your transferred stack).

112. Understanding The desperado maneuver.

(you have territory A and C, opponent has territory B. B connects to A and C, A doesn’t connect to C. A belongs to your bonus. C has some of your armies. Opponent has a big stack in B and threatens to break your bonus. You use your 1st move order and suicide your C stack into B, because it cannot be transferred into A. Because of this you enable your A stack to survive.)

113. Knowing the rap setter maneuver.

(Opponent cannot defend against you, so he’s going to try to dodge you. You hit opponent’s expected destination with a heavy first order attack. You make some delay orders and attack the original opponent’s position with small attack. Opponent will hit your trap and lose his stack and after that if possible you should clear his presence in that region.)

114. Knowing how to vaporize your stack.

(You got a stack surrounded by opponents’ armies and you see no good use for your stack. If your stack gets destroyed you lose 100% of it and only kill 70% in return, therefore you keep using 1 army taps until your stack is gone. This way you exchange your armies with opponent at 1:1 rate).

115. Having realistic expectations for opponents attacks/defenses/ambushes.
(You should consider what opponent knows or suspects about you. You should also understand opponent’s situation. Based on these factors you should be able to predict his decisions with high accuracy and act accordingly).

116. Opponent’s analysis based on his previous game examples.

117. Expecting opponent’s decisions based on psychological analysis.

(For example opponent could defend his least defended spot the most or he could defend everything evenly, both of which are weak to concentrated 100% attack against most reinforced spot at the time. Opponent also tends to reinforce spots closest to his other spots, so you can break bonuses by hitting more remote areas. Opponent could get used to your attack pattern, if you hit him in same territory twice, on 3rd turn you can hit another territory by surprise.)

118. Knowing precise attacking/defending numbers/ratios.

Here’s a list of important numbers (y=defending armies, x=attacking armies, result is always rounded up):

a) Minimum defense: y=0.6x+1
b) Equal loses while defending: y=0.8571x
c) Equal loses while attacking: x=1.1667y
d) 100% defenders killed: x=1.6667y
e) 100% attackers killed: y=1.4286x
f) Successful counterattack (1 army stand guard version): y=1.04615x+0.49231
g) Successful counterattack (simple version): y=1.04615x
h) Bare minimum counterattack (1 army stand guard version): y=0.97248x+0.58716
i) Bare minimum counterattack (simple version): y=0.97248x

(All numbers have been found through use of mathematical equations, full formulas will be available in strategy guide at a later date)

119. Mapping all potential starting pick strategies using custom scenario or another tool.

120. Evaluating picks based upon their functionality.

(How many regions are covered by this pick, how many picking strategies include this pick, what’s the bonus cost, how soon the bonus will payback, what are positional advantages or disadvantages of the bonus).

121. Determining the most important bonuses based upon previous point.

122. Making back up plans/picks for the worst case scenario where the most important pick or picks could get stolen by the opponent.

123. Applying sneaky picking strategy to guarantee presence in X region.

Let’s say that opponent is likely to make 5 picks in region X and you want presence there, yet you want to dedicate your first few picks elsewhere. You can make 3 picks elsewhere and put 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th pick in the region X, at least one of those picks is going to clash with opponent’s 4th pick as his first 3 picks cannot steel everything. If opponent pushes your 4th (7th ordered) pick too, it has no other place to go but to 8th, spot, which as result guarantees you at least one pick in 5 picks area.

124. Knowing advanced sneaky pick strategy.

It’s similar to original variation, except instead of using something like 4th - 8th pick, you use 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th picks to guarantee yourself presence. If you lose your 7th pick, your 4th start goes to 8th pick and your 5th start will 100% be chosen before opponent’s 5th,, because he already had 1st move order on 4th start, so now it’s your turn to have 1st move for your 5th start. If you get your 7th pick, your 5th start goes to 8th start which is somewhere else, therefore opponent’s 5th start is unobstructed and this way you guarantee yourself at least 1 pick in opponent’s region. Both this and previous point can apply to any 2+ pick region.

125. Creating branching picking strategy.

(What happens if you lose 1st pick? What happens if you lose 2nd pick? What happens if you lose 2nd and 3rd pick and so on… The goal of this approach is to ensure low odds of bad start due to some stolen picks.)

126. Adapting to opponent’s play style.
(For example, if Opponent only goes for delayed attacks, attack/dodge him with early move orders. If opponent only makes concentrated attacks, use many tiny attacks against him. If opponent only cares about breaking your bonuses or defending bonuses which are not broken yet, try to fully take opponent’s already broken bonuses)

127. Knowing when to expand towards the opponent and when to expand away from him.
(Seeing many turns ahead of how much income opponent stand to gain if unobstructed and how much income you have to gain. If opponent has more income than you and fighting him is not an option, you should generally expand away from the opponent).

128. Ability to play competitively while having less income than opponent.

(Finding means to stabilize the situation and turn things to your favor).

129. Being able to use multiple different picking/fighting/expanding strategies and switching them around to make opponent unable to predict your decisions based on current or previous games.

130. Using same playing approach for a while just to switch it at a convenient moment to catch opponent off guard.

131. Ability to successfully combine all of the above points.

Classification: (B)-Beginner, (I)-Intermediate, (A)-Advanced, (E)-Expert

INDIVIDUAL SETTINGS:

Fog Settings

132. (A) Using history to determine opponent’s stack size on heavy/dense/complete fog.

(If you lose 100% of your X attacking armies, opponent has at least X/0.7 defending armies. If you lose 8 attacking armies out of 10, opponent has 8/0.7=11 or 12 defending armies; 10 attacking armies kill 10*0.6=6 armies, so now opponent’s stack has 11-6=5 or 12-6=6 armies.)

133. (I) Setting of false alarm on dense or light fog.

(Moving towards opponent with only bare minimum attacks, like 3vs2 attacks.)

134. (E) Setting false expectations on light or dense fog.

(For example deploying all armies without attacking neutrals and only attacking neutrals when you have piled up enough armies to successfully take bonus in one go, or taking a neutral territory which enables you to take a bonus in one turn, but instead of doing that next turn attacking opponent at full force. The point of these is to make opponent think that you’re not going to attack him hard or are not going to defend with heavy force while in the mean time that’s exactly what you’re doing or vice versa.)

135. (B) Using history to remember where wastelands are.

136. (E) Setting false neutrals on complete fog.

(Taking neutral territory and then leaving permanent amount of armies which is equal to supposed neutral amount. This way you’ll know if opponent takes it, but opponent won’t know if you have that territory)

137. (A) Using expected neutral territory costs to detect incorrect leftover amount on complete fog.

(This almost always means that you just took opponent’s territory and he knows that you’re near him).

138. (E) Using pick conflicts to determine move order during light or dense fog games.

(Find there your and opponent’s same order pick clashes. If it’s 1st, 3rd, 5th pick and so on and you won the pick, you had 1st move order during picking. If same happens with 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on pick, you had 2nd move order. If opposite happens, then instead of 1st move order you had 2nd move order or vice versa. Keep in mind that the order is based not on actual pick order but the order in which you got your final picks.)

Random Distribution

139. (I) Determining the areas where opponent can realistically be.

(The more time passes, the more territories the opponent should take, so tiny clusters of fogged territories become less likely to host opponent).

140. (I) Expanding with intent to maximize map exploration.

(Moving towards centers of fogged areas or towards best starting bonuses).

141. (E) Using binomial coefficient to determine likelihood of opponent stating in X bonus.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_coefficient)

Commander

142. (B) Understanding that commander is always worth 7 armies, that other armies defending him die first and that if commander dies, you get eliminated.

143. (I) Using commander for efficient expansion.

144. (B) Finding the safest place to hide commander from opponent.

145. (I) Putting priority on opponent’s commander.

146. (A) Finding effective means to use commander in fighting opponent.

Multi Attack

147. (B) Navigating the map while avoiding unnecessary transfers.

148. (I) Finding shortest path to break maximum amount of opponent’s bonuses.

149. (A) Casting a multi attack net.
(Territories connect like this: A – B – C – D – E. Opponent is threatening to take them all. You can launch one attack from A to E and another attack from E to A, this way you maximize the odds of successfully retaking lost territories if one of your 2 stacks runs into trouble.)

150. (I) Taking the long route to circumvent opponent’s most well defended territories.

151. (I) Finding and defending most bottleneck like territories.
(Minimze the odds of opponent braking high amount of bonuses)

152. (A) Leaving tiny stacks within bonuses to counter opponents who try to take all the bonuses with minimum required amount of armies.

153. (E) Performing “train stopping” maneuver.
(You determine area where opponent will most likely go through and take it first order. Then you make some delay move orders and issue later orders for your stack. Opponent will most likely hit your big stack first and be stopped before doing any heave damage)

154. (I) Using attack + transfer maneuver(s) to get extra delay moves.

No Luck Cycle Move Order

155. (I) Choosing likely picks in advance before clicking “begin” button.

156. (A) Lowering total pick amount to lower picking speed.

157. (I) Determine shortest mouse/hand (for phone) path to make all the picks as fast as possible.
(This includes begin and commit buttons)

158. (E) Determining whether to go for slow or fast approach.
(Fast approach is good for getting 1st pick, 3 picks of 5 first picks, 5 picks of first 9 picks and also getting 1st move during 2nd turn. Slow approach is good for getting 2 picks out of first 3 picks, 4 picks out of first 7 picks and also getting first order during 1st turn.)

159. (A) Ability to quickly adapt to random warlords or cities distributions.

Base Armies per Turn

160. (I) Not running out of armies on 0 base income games.

Extra Armies per Territory

161. (B) Calculating at what point income per territory value exceeds base income value.

162. (I) Treating territories like they were a bonus while dealing with the opponent.

Army Cap

163. (A) Finding most efficient ways to avoid hitting army cap.
(For example: expanding, suiciding stacks into opponent/wastelands)

164. (I) Determining whether opponent has hit army cap.

165. (I) Preventing opponent from eliminating his stacks, so that his income stays low.
(Basically not targeting his stacks and keeping your stacks away from him)

166. (A) Keeping 1 army neutral on 1 army stand guard setting for repeated 1 army taps.
(This helps to kill off unnecessary armies.)

Luck Settings

167. (I) Calculating combined success odds.

(If an attack has 80% success rate, executing 3 such attacks will have 51.2% success rate).

168. (A) Calculating odds of different scenarios.

(If I have 80% chance to take A and 60% chance to take B, Taking both A and B is 0.8*0.6=0.48, taking only A is 0.8*0.4=0.24, taking only B is 0.2*0.6=0.12, taking neither is 0.2*0.4=0.08)

169. (A) Preparing countermeasure plans for scenarios of unfavorable luck.

170. (A) Understanding the concept of Binomial distribution

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_distribution).

171. (A) Understanding luck setting mechanics.

(https://www.warzone.com/wiki/Luck_Modifier)

172. (E) Calculating generalized cost of attack.

(On 16% luck setting weighted rounding 3v2 attack has 80% to kill 2 armies and 20% chance to kill 1 army, which splits plan into outcome A and B. In outcome A attack is a success and generalized cost is 2*0.7=1.4. In outcome B you need to attack remaining 1 army with 2 armies and lose 1*0.7=0.7 armies. Outcome B overall costs 1.4+0.7=2.1 armies. Generalized cost is 0.8*1.4+0.2*2.1=1.12+0.42=1.56), 0.8 and 0.2 represent the likelihoods of A and B scenario.

173. (E) Making attacking comparisons.

(If we take the previous point example, instead of 3v2, we can start with 4v2, this way there will only be one scenario and generalized cost will be 1.4. Usually the lower the cost, the better using 4 army attacks might only save 1.56-1.4=0.16 armies, but over time this cost can add up to significant saves.)

174. (E) Using tools or other means calculating defense/cost scenarios.

Looking back at previous 2 point examples, 2 defending armies have 60% chance to kill 1 army and 40% to kill 2 armies, while 1 defending army has 30% to kill 0 armies and 70% to kill 1 army. Let’s respectively call 2 defending army outcomes C+D and 1 defending outcomes E+F. This brings us these scenarios:

I A+C: 0.8*0.6=0.48 odds. Total army cost is 1
II A+D 0.8*0.4=0.32 odds. Total army cost is 2
III B+C+E 0.2*0.6*0.3=0.036 odds. Total army cost is 1+0=1
IV B+C+F 0.2*0.6*0.7=0.084 odds. Total army cost is 1+1=2
V B+D+E 0.2*0.4*0.3=0.024 odds. Total army cost is 2+0=2
VI B+D+F 0.2*0.4*0.7=0.056 odds. Total army cost is 2+1=3

Overall territory cost is 1*0.48 + 2*0.32 + 1*0.036 + 2*0.084 + 2*0.024 + 3*0.056 = 0.48+0.64 + 0.036+0.168 + 0.048+0.168 = 1.12+0.204+0.216 = 1.12+0.42 = 1.56. Odds of getting 1 army killed are 0.48+0.036=0.516, odds of getting 2 armies killed are 0.32+0.084+0.024=0.428, odds of getting 3 armies killed are 0.056.
Calculating cost for 4v2 scenario is much easier as there are only 2 available scenarios. The cost for 4v2 attack is 0.6*1+0.4*2=0.6+0.8=1.4

175. (E) Calculating average takeover speed.

(For example in order to take a bonus you need to take two territories of 2 armies each. You use 3v2 attacks and odds of one attack succeeding are 80%. Your odds of taking bonus in 1 turn are 0.8*0.8=0.64, odds of taking it in 2 turns are 1-0.64=0.36. Average takeover speed is 0.64*1+0.36*2=0.64+0.72=1.36)

176. (E) Preparing a proper size stack for chain expansion.

(For example territories connect like this A-B-C. Each territory has 2 neutrals, 1 army stand guard is on. 4 army attack is 100% success against C neutral and one territory kills 1.4 armies if it gets killed in one go. 4+2*(1+1.4)=4+2*2.4=4+4.8=8.8=9. So in order to take 3 neutral chain with ~100% chance you need 9 army initial attack.)

177. (E) Adapting income per cost and income per effort formulas to luck environments.

Luck Settings Continued

178. (E) Finding optimal attack size for expansion or fighting.

To complete bonus A worth 6 income, you need to take 3 territories of 3 armies and one territory of 4 armies. Luck setting is 16% and weighted rounding mode is on. Initial plan is 3*3v2+6v4. At start it’s important to check each individual attack’s success and failure scenario:

• 3v2 success: 80% odds, 1.4 general army cost.
  
• 3v2 failure: 20% odds followed by 60% of losing 1 army and 40% of losing 2 armies. If 2 armies is lost, another 1 army deploy is more or less forced, so each failure you get forced to deploy 0.4*1=0.4 armies and overall army cost becomes 0.8*1.4+0.2*(0.4+1.4+0.7)=1.12+0.2*2.5=1.12+1=2.12, failure cost is 2.12-1.4=0.72 or 1.56-1.4=0.16 if you want to ignore the 40% risk of deploying extra army.
  
• 6v4 success: 60% odds, 2.8 general army cost.
  
• 6v4 failure: 40% odds. 6 armies can only kill 3 or 4 armies, so in this case they killed 3 armies. Remaining 1 army has 0.7 general army cost. Overall general army cost becomes 0.6*2.8+0.4*(2.8+0.7)=1.68+0.4*3.5=1.68+1.4=3.08. 4 armies can kill at most 3 armies, so you don’t need extra deploys when trying to attack again. Overall failure cost is 3.08-2.8=0.28

After this it’s important to look at scenarios with higher initial attack:

• 4v2: 100% odds. 1.4 general cost, failure cost goes from 0.72 to 0.
  
• 7v4 success: ~98,2% odds, 1.4 general cost.
  
• 7v4 failure: ~1.8% odds. Similarly to 6v4 situation general cost becomes 0.982*2.8 + 0.018*(2.8+0.7) = 2.7496+0.018*3.5=2.7496 + 0,063 = 2.8126 and failure cost is 0.0126. Failure cost decreases by 0.28-0.0126=0.2674.
  
• 8v4: 100% odds. 1.4 general cost, failure cost goes from 0.0126 to 0.


Now let’s observe the initial 3*3v2+6v4 plan, there are 4 ways to look at it:

a) Failure cost: 3*3v2+6v4=3*0.72+0.28=2.16+0.28=2.44
b) Success odds: 3v2^3*6v4= 0.8^3*0.6=0.512*0.6=0.3072
c) Initial income gain: (Success odds)*(bonus value)=0.3072*6=1.8432
d) Improvement cost: 0 (no extra armies deployed)
Initial profit: 1.8432-2.44-0=-0.5968

After knowing initial situation, it’s time to begin optimization process. There are 2 routes:

A route is to increase one 3v2 to 4v2,
B route is to increase 6v4 to 7v4.

A Route:
a) Failure cost: 2*3v2+6v4=2*0.72+0.28=1.44+0.28=1.72
b) Success odds: 3v2^2*6v4= 0.8^2*0.6=0.64*0.6=0.384
c) Initial income gain: 0.384*6=2.304
d) Improvement cost: 1 (3v2→4v2)
Initial profit: 2.304-1.72-1=-0.416
Improvement: -0.416 - (-0.5968)=0.1808 (Switching one 3v2 to 4v2 is a good idea!)

B Route:
a) Failure cost: 3*3v2+7v4=3*0.72+0.28=2.16+0.0126=2.1726
b) Success odds: 3v2^3*7v4= 0.8^3*0.982=0.512*0.982=0.502784
c) Initial income gain: 0.502784 *6=3.016704
d) Improvement cost: 1 (6v4→7v4)
Initial profit: 3.016704-2.1726-1=-0,155896
Improvement: -0,155896 - (-0.5968)=0.440904 (Switching 6v4 to 7v4 is a good idea!)

0.440904 is more than 0.1808, therefore route B is better for optimization.

Now we have 3*3v2+7v4 army attack. We have again 2 routes:

Route A for increased 3v2
Route B for increasing 7v4

A Route:
a) Failure cost: 2*3v2+7v4=2*0.72+0.0126=1.44+0.0126=1.4526
b) Success odds: 3v2^2*7v4= 0.8^2*0.982=0.64*0.982=0.62848
c) Initial income gain: 0.62848*6=3.77088
d) Improvement cost: 2 (6v4→7v4; 3v2→4v2)
Initial profit: 3.77088-1.4526-2=0.31828
Improvement: 0.31828 - (-0,155896)=0.474176 (Switching one 3v2 to 4v2 is a good idea!)

B Route:
a) Failure cost: 3*3v2=3*0.72=2.16
b) Success odds: 3v2^3= 0.8^3*=0.512
c) Initial income gain: 0.512*6=3.072
d) Improvement cost: 2 (6v4→8v4)
Initial profit: 3.072-2.16-2=-1.088
Improvement: -1.088 - (-0,155896)=-0.932104 (Result is negative, therefore switching one 7v4 to 8v4 is an unprofitable idea!)

It was shown that 7v4 increase to 8v4 is expensive, therefore now we only need to keep checking if further increases to remaining 3v2’s increase plan optimization:


a) Failure cost: 3v2+7v4=0.72+0.0126=0.7326
b) Success odds: 3v2*7v4= 0.8*0.982=0.7856
c) Initial income gain: 0.7856*6=4.7136
d) Improvement cost: 3 (6v4→7v4; 3v2→4v2; 3v2→4v2)
Initial profit: 4.7136-0.7326-3=0.981
Improvement: 0.981 – 0.474176=0.506824 (Switching another 3v2 to 4v2 is a good idea!)

And time to check final 3v2 replacement:


a) Failure cost: 7v4=0.0126
b) Success odds: 7v4= 0.982
c) Initial income gain: 0.982*6=5.892
d) Improvement cost: 4 (6v4→7v4; 3v2→4v2; 3v2→4v2; 3v2→4v2)
Initial profit: 5.892-0.0126-4=1.8794
Improvement: 1.8794 – 0.981=0.8984 (Switching final 3v2 to 4v2 is a good idea!)

After the optimization is complete we come to conclusion that changing 3*3v2+6v4 to 3*4v2+7v4 is an improvement, which in long term save much more armies than the 4 needed armies for increasing attacks.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Important note #1:
don’t miss the hidden average +0.4 army deploy hidden within standard weighted random 3v2 attacks. It’s one of the main reasons why 3v2 attack in general is bad in standard luck games.

Important note #2:
It’s already assumed that 3v2’s and 6v4’s were in place. If you have to make deploys to reach initial 3v2’s and 6v4’s, you should also use income per effort ratio.

Important note #3:
To make explanation shorter I only considered taking bonus in 1 turn. Same planning can be done to find out whether taking in 1 or 2 or X turns is more profitable (due to existence of leftovers).
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !


179. (E) Knowing general shortcuts for making quick army optimizations.

This requires knowing attack’s failure cost X, success odds Y and bonus income Z. By default improvement step cost is +1 deploy. If Z*(1-Y)+X>1, it’s likely that it’s worthwhile to increase attack’s size by 1.
Let’s say you use 3v2 attacks. One such attack has 80% success rate and 0.72 failure cost. Let’s say we’re targeting a +6 income bonus. Let’s apply the formula: 6*(1-0.8)+0.72=6*0.2+0.72=1.2+0.72=1.92; 1.92 Is almost twice as much as 1, so increasing 3v2’s to 4v2’s is beneficial.

180. (E) Applying luck analysis while fighting opponent.

(For example calculating stack’s long term survival odds.)

Kill Rates

181. (I) Ability to adapt to non standard kill rates.

182. (I) Knowing how to play when offensive kill rate is higher than defensive kill rate.

(Hunting opponent’s stacks with first moves, avoiding delay moves.)

Transfer/Attack Only

183. (A) Finding good uses for transfer only.

(For example transferring to risky spot when opponent has first move).

184. (E) Finding good uses for attack only.

(For example you’re not sure if opponent will take you X territory and you don’t to split your armies without a need)

Local Deployments

185. (B) Finding shortest transfer path.

186. (I) Ability to expand efficiently.

(For example you target furthermost territories first)

187. (A) Knowing when to expand to bonuses with wastelands.

188. (A) Ability to expand towards opponent.

(If you expand away from him, it will take longer and longer for your newly reached bonuses to become useful)

189. (A) Foreseeing incoming unfavorable changes.

(On local deployment settings, situations tend to change slowly, so if each turn situation is getting a bit worse, you must react to it before situation gets to bad.)

190. (E) Properly timing transfer reinforcement.

(It often takes multiple turns for initial transfer to travel all the way to the front, so if you just keep transferring in same direction continuously, you risk achieving over kill in one front area and a critical army shortage in another.)

191. (A) Properly timing attacks to break stalemates.

(If you got 1st move order, you hit opponent’s stack before he can attack or run/transfer to your own stack if you’re in critical condition. If you got 2nd move order perhaps you wait or hit 2 stacks at once as only one of them can be transferred to during opponent’s first order)

192. (E) Dealing with or avoiding stalemates/bottleneck stand offs.

193. (E) Maintaining continuity of your controlled region and disrupting opponent’s regions’ continuity.

(2 disjointed regions are weaker than 1 united region.)

194. (I) Using tiny low army attacks to take opponent’s undefended territories to see what lies behind the front line.

(Opponent could be hiding a surprise stack behind fog.)

No Split

195. (I) Effective creation and use of 1 army transfer delay moves.

196. (I) Avoiding formation of over kill stacks.

(stacks with way more armies than necessary).

197. (A) Finding optimal expansion options.

(For example both 3 and 4 territory bonuses can only be taken in 2 turns if you start with only one pick in them)

198. (A) Clearing opponent’s stack trail.

(If you outdelay opponent, you can let him move his stack and then retake his previous territory with 2 army attack, if you can continuously out delay opponent, you can keep his presence permanently down to 1 territory.)

199. (A) Finding way to increase held territory count within opponent’s territory.

200. (E) Performing trailer maneuver.

(For example you border opponent. You deploy very little near his border and then transfer to same place a big amount of armies during first move order. After that you make some delay moves and issue attack from your small stack. Firstly this helps to minimize odds of opponent performing a successful counter attack or you suiciding into opponent’s massive transfer/deploy. Secondly it prevents opponent from sneakily retaking your territory from another spot. Thirdly it allows you to keep your main stack closer to other more important areas.)

Overridden Bonuses

201. (B) Quickly finding bonuses with the changed value.

202. (B) Finding bonuses which bonus icon is not directly shown on the map.

(Use map page, or click a territory and find to which bonuses it belongs or use statistics search)

203. (A) Understanding difference between various bonus systems.

(When X is territory amount Y is the income, these systems could be something like: Y=X-1; Y=X; Y=X+1. Some systems make small bonuses more valuable, some make bigger bonuses better, some make certain size bonuses useless and so on...)

Custom Scenario

204. (B) Understanding where and how to observe game’s custom scenario or how to make your own custom scenario.

Commerce Games

205. (I) Efficiently using first tier of armies.

(If first 10 armies cost 1 gold and next 10 armies cost 2 gold and so on, it’s best to deploy 1 gold armies as deploying high amounts of them can be expensive.)

206. (A) Saving up high amount of gold for a surprise attack.

(It’s risky because due to army cost tiers you can actually end up losing income/armies in the proccess)

207. (B) Knowing how to place a city.

208. (B) Finding best location to place cities.

(Safe, far from opponent, potentially a bottleneck…)

209. (I) Deciding whether or not to stack cities on top of each other.

(If you cannot protect a territory in near future, don’t place cities there, even if it’s cheap)

210. (A) Deciding between expanding, building cities or attacking opponent.

(use income per cost ratios and etc...)

211. (I) Keeping higher territory amount.

(More territories means cheaper cities.)

CARD SETTINGS
(General use of cards are included within other point scores. If your general card use is bad, expect ~25% to ~50% point reduction for any relevant card category)

Reinforcement Card

212. (I) Understanding how much armies will be given for a reinforcement card worth a progressive amount of armies.

(For example its value is tied to amount of turns passed.).

213. (I) Using reinforcement’s value to determine how many territories opponent has.

(when value is tied to territory count).

214. (A) Deciding whether it’s worthwhile to get reinforcement.

(Taking territories for card pieces costs armies and could result in a failed defense or missed offensive opportunity).

215. (I) Deciding between using reinforcement immediately or saving it for a later surprise or potential better use.

Spy, Reconnaissance, Surveillance Cards

216. (I) Finding a territory which borders the highest amount of other bonuses.

217. (B) Finding the biggest bonus or superbonus.

218. (I) Making sure to avoid going to a scouted area without a good reason, If scouting card has long duration.

219. (A) Picking a good time to use scouting card.

(At turn 1 when there’s no risk of running into opponent, it’s often wiser not to use scouting cards)

220. (A) Identifying the spot in most need of scouting.

(strong positions near you, bottlenecks and so on...)

221. (B) Not scouting the same place frequently without a good reason.

222. (I) Making correct conclusions based on the fact that there’s no opponent is scouted area.

(If opponent had option A and B for the start and he’s not in A, it means that opponent is probably in B)

Emergency Blockade and (Regular) Blockade Cards

223. (B) Calculating how many neutrals will appear after blockading your territory

224. (I) Calculating how many armies will be required to take down the neutral and how many armies opponent would lose in the process.

225. (I) Finding optimal area for a blockade.

(Emergency blockade goes in front of likely opponent’s attack, regular blockade goes near bottlenecks or most remote bonus territories.)

226. (A) Correctly identifying most likely territory to be attacked with the most likely opponent’s army amount and choosing emergency blockade size correctly.

(If opponent is attacking with 20 armies, you need to kill all 20 armies, so you need 20/0.7=~29 size blockade. Normally emergency blockade doubles army amount, so you’d need to blockade 29/2=~15 armies.)

227. (A) Calculating proper blockade size to discourage opponent from taking the territory.

(Let’s say blockaded bonus value is 5, it is a bottleneck which shields a total of 10 of your income, so if opponent is to take down blockade he quickly gets that advantage. So opponent stands to gain 15 income advantage from breaking wasteland. Safe value to discourage the opponent is double the loses of his gain, therefore opponent would need to lose 30 armies if he tried to take down the wasteland. 30/0.7=~43. Standard blockade value is 4, so you’d need to blockade 43/4=~11 armies. Keep in mind if opponent already has a big stack nearby like ~25+ armies, he might have no good use for it and might still decide to break the blockade, so you might want to make your blockade bigger in those cases.)

228. (I) Using blockade and emergency blockade cards to gain card pieces.

229. (E) Using blockade or emergency blockade card to hide your presence to stop opponent from following you.

230. (E) Baiting opponent into taking down multiple blockades.

(If territories are connected like this A-B-C, you could leave small blockades on A and B, making opponent think that he can easily reach you. On C territory you leave a massive blockade, so by the time opponent sees it, he has already wasted a large amount of armies.)

231. (E) Calculate how many net armies you stand to win or lose.

(for both scenarios of blockade getting attacked and getting ignored) if you use if you use blockade and whether alternative approaches (like counterattack) are more profitable.

232. (E) Making opponent think that you’ve given on a region by leaving a blockade and then catching him by surprise using a counter attack.

(expensive, could backfire).

233. (E) Knowing the poking maneuver.

(Using low amount attack from spot A followed by transfer only from spot B. If opponent doesn’t defend, you take the territory. If opponent uses counterattack or a blockade, transfer only prevents you from running into trouble.)

234. (I) Using emergency or regular blockade to get rid of negative income.

235. (I) Using emergency or regular blockade to get rid of unnecessary armies during army cap games.

236. (E) Using blockade card to set a trap for opponent’s multi attacking stacks.

237. (I) Repeatedly hitting wasteland or blockade, until it disappears to either make way towards opponent/get income or get rid of useless armies during army cap games.

Order Priority and Delay Cards

238. (A) Correctly deciding whether or not to use delay moves together with order delay card.

(You only need if opponent uses order delay as well. Otherwise it’s better to find a better use for delay moves.)

239. (E) Identifying when to use 2 order delay or priority cards at once.

(For example if both players play 1 order priority card, then nothing changes, but if one of them uses 2 order priority cards instead, he will be the one to get the first order.)

240. (B) Correctly identifying which moves should happen before order delay card being played and which moves should happen after that.

241. (E) Using order priority card for delaying purposes.

(For example before order priority card being played move order is B A A B, but after it being played, the move order becomes A B B A. As you can see A gets both the first and the last move order after order priority card is played.)

Airlift Card

242. (A) Using airlift card as infinite first order transfer.

(You can have as many airlifts as you want before opponent’s first order hits)

243. (I) Using airlift to evacuate losing battle.

244. (I) Combining leftovers for airlift use.

245. (A) Using airlift to avoid bomb card use.

246. (A) Using airlift to avoid showing income.

(Often is not worth the use of an airlift card).

247. (B) Choosing the most remote/useless stack for airlifting.

248. (I) Combining airlift with counter attack measures.

249. (I) Optimizing transfers in local deployment games for an airlift card use.

250. (I) Getting armies close to action during army cap games, so that they could be destroyed faster.

Gift Card

251. (E) Using gift card to prevent opponent from getting card pieces.

(You need to be sure that opponent won’t be taking territories anywhere else during that turn.)

252. (I) Using gift card to gain card pieces.

253. (I) Gifting opponent a negative bonus to lower his income.

(Keep in mind, if you have a gift card, opponent might have gift card as well and he could use it to gift the negative bonus back to you.)

254. (A) Using gift card to halt opponent’s multi attacking stack.

255. (I) Using gift card to either get rid off or/and give opponent some useless armies during army cap games.

Diplomacy Card

256. (I) Using diplomacy card to stabilize a losing position.

257. (A) Taking neutrals near opponent using first moves in order to prevent him from expanding or getting card pieces.

258. (A) Chaining diplomacy cards to make opponent make unnecessary deployments.

(Opponent could deploy extra armies not expecting you to play another diplomacy card)

259. (E) Combining diplomacy card with some risky play.

(Perhaps opponent could punish you for the kind of moves you’re making this turn, therefore if you use diplomacy card now, you prevent opponent from doing that.)

260. (E) Canceling opponent’s expansion by entering one random territory in a bonus which cannot be seen by opponent.

(By the time he sees you, he already has taken additional territories in the bonus and due to diplomacy card there’s nothing he can do about your territory.)

261. (A) Chaining diplomacy card with the use of blockade card.

(You could save some armies behind the fog, so that final transfer to blockaded territory would be unexpected).

Sanction Card

262. (A) Saving up negative sanctions cards for increased later effect.

(If sanctions card can double your income, 3 such cards can increase your income 8 times!. Warzone has 10000 income limit for sanction cards)

263. (I) Avoiding unnecessary overstacking of sanctions card.

(if one sanctions card reduces income by 50%, second sanctions card played at the same time would only reduce 25% of original income’s value)

Bomb Card

264. (I) Using Bomb card to demolish large blockades/wastelands.

(Needs good reason to be performed).

265. (A) Using bomb card in anticipation of opponent’s “surprise” deploy.

(For example you only see 1 of opponent’s territory, or maybe that territory is a bottleneck or belong to an important bonus).

266. (I) Not using multiple bomb cards on the same territory during same turn without a good reason.

(One bomb card reduces army count by 50%, 2 bomb cards reduces army count by 75%, which is only 75%/2=37.5% army reduction per 1 bomb card.)

SETTING COMBINATIONS

Multi Attack + Local Deployments

267. (I) Not taking all the neutrals around the bonus in order to be able to launch big multi attack stacks directly from the bonus.

268. (A) Planning in advance precisely needed army stack sizes for expansion or breaking opponent.

Multi Attack + Commanders

269. (A) Using commanders for infinite expansion loop.

Multi Attack + No Split

270. (I) Identifying “switch” territory structures.

(A connects to B, C and D, but neither B or C or D to connect any other of mentioned territories. You can take B, then A and after that must choose between C or D to attack.)

Army Cap + Commerce

271. (A) Keeping army amount near 0 and applying diplomacy cards and other means to stall opponent for a long time in order to build up enough gold for a massive army deploy.

AI GAMES

272. (A) Understanding how AI functions.

(AI avoids using concentrated attacks, splits its defense forces, doesn’t anticipate heavy deploys, overexpands and so on…)

TEAM GAMES

Most Important Stuff
(These are not graded normally, instead, they use 0%-100% rating which affects your whole score. If for example you get 50% for boot avoidance, your remaining score gets halved)

273. Reading team chat.

274. Avoiding frequent committing before boot time.

275. Seeking to optimize moves/picks with team mate’s decisions.

276. Responding to criticism by either using legit counter points or changing issued moves/picks.

277. Properly understanding English language.

278. Avoiding getting booted.

279. Complying to any relevant team competition rule.

280. Being respectful to team mates.

281. Not giving intentionally bad advice.

282. Surrendering when the game is clearly lost.

Team Game General Strategy
(General strategy applies as well)

283. (A) Understanding how mirror picking works.

(All team players pick same territories)

284. (I) Understanding how pick stacking works.

(If you pick territory X as your 1st pick and 3 other players pick same territory as their first pick, you only have 25% chance to get your territory.)

285. (E) Knowing how to effectively reach honey comb structure.

(All players remain relatively close to each other while covering whole map, so when there’s a need, they can put 100% effort towards X spot or 100% help another player.)

286. (A) Understanding how move order works in team games and how it get be determined by using history.

287. (I) Ability to see when team mate needs help.

288. (A) Identifying overall income of each opponent.

289. (I) Ability to 100% single focus on one opponent.

290. (A) Knowing the exchange maneuver.

(Bigger Opponent A is crushing you from one side, so you 100% focus on smaller opponent B in another place. Whatever A gains by fighting you, is negated by you taking something away from B)

291. (E) Ability to maintain positions in unfavorable situations.

292. (A) Ability to avoid getting eliminated.

293. (A) Force punching through bottlenecks.

(Player A holds the position while other team mates keep transferring him armies so that eventually bottleneck would get punched through)

294. (I) Efficiently distributing split bonuses.

Team Game Card Specific Points

295. (I) Gifting territory to the team mate whose the most capable of helping you.

(Who is not already forced to dedicate most of his income towards another important objective.)

296. (A) Gifting territory to opponent B, when opponent A is about to take your bonus.

(This prevents opponent team from getting the bonus.)

297. (A) Gifting territory to an opponent B with whom you have diplomacy to prevent opponent A from advancing over you.

298. (I) Using sanctions or diplomacy card to help focus on the weakest opponent or to help preventing strongest opponent from being able to interfere with your plans.

299. (A) Deciding whether to use spy card on a player or use it on neutrals.

(If spying neutrals is enabled.)

300. (I) Determining which opponent deserves to be spied the most.

MAP SPECIFIC STRATEGY

INSS Bonus Structure
(For example Gotham map by Lionheart)

301. (I) Understanding how the INSS bonus system works.

302. (A) Using cards combined with some negative bonuses in order to get higher 1st turn income.

Landria Bonus Structure

303.(I) Avoiding adjacent bonuses while picking.

304. (A) Using cards combined with some negative bonuses in order to get higher 1st turn income.

305. (I) Setting 1st turn bonus trap.

(You identify fist turn bonus and during 1st turn move into it to prevent opponent from getting it and also potentially forcing him into some negative border penalties.)

306. (I) Expanding with intention to minimize bonus border amount.

Who is phakh gokhn tho!

I have no idea how to do points and all that, but I understand ~99% of the things raised here. This is an amazing list of many different useful skills to have in this game, and reminds us all that this game has some deep strategy. For me, this was a great recollection of memory. I remember, many years ago, learning all of this from forums and singleplayer levels, particularly World War 2320.

I would like to suggest a point be added here. I'm not sure what it should be called, but it involves gifting a territory to a team mate with less expansion options. This can be seen in the singleplayer level on Hururey;s Castle.

Here's a real game example of this move - https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=31519504

^ 295.

not enough detail: eg "280. Being respectful to team mates." should be broken down into at least 5 further sub-skills

but i can see that you tried, so C+, good job!

To get a B grade next time, aim to give more detail. think about the different aspects of something and list them all out.

I should have called the Thread Phakh's Roommate Agreement

Wow! That is some really amazing and helpful information!

I have a question: is #296 and #297 what some people call "gift blocking"?

292. (A) Ability to avoid getting eliminated.

This is a really useful skill.