What‘s alexclusive‘s clues?

I‘m often asked to share general gameplay advice, which is a difficult thing to do because the players asking me have verying skill levels and weaknesses. I end up only giving advice when I have a specific game at hand from the individual player, because then I can point at the reasons why the player lost the game. That, however, is a time-consuming practice which I cannot really afford anymore. Therefore, I decided to create this thread with a collection of pieces of advice that can be generalized, based on example games that shall help players across many experience levels. I hope for that approach to be more efficient, because more than one player will benefit from each post and I will also be able to respond to questions and feedback centrally.

I also want to encourage others do drop their own advice in this thread or create their own threads, please just don‘t take it personally if I correct you when you are wrong. The purpose is to improve at the game after all, not to feed your ego. I also request you to challenge what I say in the same way if it doesn‘t make sense to you; it will allow me to explain it better or correct myself if necessary.

I hope to write episodes approximately weekly, but I cannot promise a certain frequency. If I don‘t pay enough attention and the thread gets locked, I will create a new one and reference the old one on top. If you find this thread helpful, please link it on your clan server; I decided to open it to the general public and not limit it my community. Stay tuned for the first episode!

CONSEQUENCER

Episode 1: Surprise a superior opponent

When an opponent consistently beats you more than he loses to you, more likely than not, it‘s mainly becuase he is superior to you in skill. As your general approach to the game has failed, this situation requires you to think out of the box and apply strategies beyond what you normally do.

The key to beating a superior opponent is to be unpredictable and do something he doesn‘t see coming. It‘s completely fine if this goes at the expense of a high degree of safety in your position, because playing it safe is exactly what is not working for you, trying to beat the master at his own game. Why play chess against Magnus Carlsen if you can start playing checkers instead out of nowhere? Warzone is a game that lets you do something of that kind.

Leaving first turn bonuses aside, many templates have small bonuses that can be completed turn 2 with their own pick alone and bigger bonuses that can only be completed turn 2 with a connecting outside pick at hand. However, sometimes situations arise when the best bonus on the board can only be completed if you invest all your three picks. This is an option that is usually not considered by top players because it reduces your map coverage to a normally unacceptable level and makes your position vulnerable to nearby picks.

This is where the surprise effect plays in your favour. If you opt for a tactical option your opponent has not at all considered, you can compensate an initial disadvantage, if any. In the described example, this is especially true on templates with maps so small that map coverage is easy to accomplish, especially if they have a globe-like functionality where the east and the west are connected, like on Battle Islands V in the example game below.

Now, take a moment to consider this and check out the game. You will find that my opponent Rufus, arguably the best player of all time, has had no idea what I was doing until the very moment he bordered me. By that point of time, it was too late to react and the game was effectively over.

Looking forward to your comments!

Reference game: https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=32908411

Mastery stuff. Well done!

I think it's terrible advice.

You won the game against Rufus because he's a washed up player.
He dropped the ball against you, he already knew what bonuses you didn't have thanks to the reco card. So he had to know you were coming from the south. But he got greedy and expanded into bonuses that weren't safe.
So that game is a bad example.

Let's be honest, if you're playing a good opponent and they haven't considered your picks, then most of the time it's because your picks suck. If your picks were good enough to threaten their position, then they would have considered them.

There's a somewhat similar strategy to yours that can work. It's to assume your opponent is going for the very best picks on the board, the optimal strategy. And then to plan your picks accordingly. If you know where he's going to pick, you might be able to find a strategy to beat him. So you wouldn't pick the "best picks" for yourself, but "the ones that work best against those best picks". There's a risk this strategy will fail if your opponent picks differently but it can be worth a shot.

But doing something completely unexpected? It's the opposite of a good idea for me.
Warzone is a psychological game too, and sometimes you don't play the same way depending on whom you face. A lot of players have opponents they're scared of, they see their name and they start playing differently and try new things because they don't think they can beat them the regular way. And that almost never ends well, because those "new things" are usually bad ideas.
And for picks, if you leave the best picks to your opponent because of your strategy, you're bound to end up with inferior picks.

Edited 10/8/2023 09:59:31

call it alexcluesive instead lol
when might a surprise attack fail?

I may have surprised you in https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=35138131 by picking a non-wastelanded bonus in a swapped picks game and then not noticing I had Hawaii.

Was surprised in https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=35680414. By turn 5 I knew they had Africa but by turn 7 was too late to do anything about it. Thought they would have had presence in Asia.

Wasn’t expecting triple pick in https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=32451984.

There is a QM BIV game that I remember playing and lost because of opponent triple picking, but can’t find it.

@rakleader

What do you believe was the latest turn at which Rufus could've turned the game around had he realized in that moment what I was doing?

@DanWL

I played badly in that game, but it's still a bit comparable because you applied a strategy I hadn't seen coming. Very well done!

@π

The concrete "surprise attack" I described is likely to fail if your opponent either sees it coming (especially risky on this template due to the reconnaissance card) or has a nearby pick which spots you. You make yourself dependent on the surprise momentum.

@alex: Rufus gains the intel he needs turn 4, by process of elimination he has to know where you are. And he has the chance to play accordingly turns 5 and 6. But he does not. And after the turn 6 disaster, it's difficult to reverse the game.
So that's not a case of winning against a superior player by surprising him, it's a case of winning against a washed-up player because he wanted to play RT and was too lazy to take the time to review his intel.

If a player is better, constantely beating you, it is better to figure out what in detail he doing better and then becoming better yourself. Ask the player what was the difference.

Do not try to ask yourself with which surprise you can beat a better player, if you have a lower skill. Ask yourself what to do in order to become more skilled yourself.

In most of the cases a surprise strategy is turning out worse. This is an extreme example maybe about how far you can be off from a valid surprise strategy:
I remember a player that I constantely have beaten in a few turns already. At some point he tried to surprise me. He then picked wasteland bonuses. The reasoning has been, that I wouldnt pick the wastelands, to surprise me and he would have more time to grow. In a later stage the plan was to catch up and he would have beaten me.

@rak: you're right, but also wrong.
Obviously you do not win so easily, if the opponent is not only superior (and this is what the advice was about), but also plays perfectly.

So In that sense, it is indeed good advice to sometimes pick and play surprisingly in the hope that it encourages wrong decisions/mistakes by the opponent. And the fact that it worked in this game is proof enough, since Rufus just lost sense of danger in this game and when he realized, it was too late. That's pretty much exactly what a surprise is in this game.

@rakleader

I'll only reference Beep Beep's comment here, I think that covers it well.

@LF

You are totally right, I'm taking back my advice to pick wastelanded bonuses in order to have more time to expand. My bad!

Optimal play is a mixed strategy in WarLight, so always going for the most obvious move is erroneous. Switching to suboptimal strategies in order to abuse a weakness in your opponents play is a viable strategy.

However from a completely practical point of view, I believe that giving an ordinary player the advice to play unexpected is the worst possible advice I could give them. My clan mates excel at surprising me with their picks. You will find way more unexpected variation at the "ordinary player" level than at the top level. This can then lead to a lucky punch but at the end of the day it is just bad. So yeah, I'm with raklaeder on this one.

can i surprise a superior opponent by surrendering turn 1?

Going for a "surprise" like blind counters or make or break picks will not improve your skills and it will make you lose games you might have won otherwise. Of course, if such a counter works, it will be great. But banking on it in order to beat an in your perception stronger player seems bad

I agree to some extent with the critical comments in the sense that this is surely not a strategy you can apply every time or a solution to everything. I just want to encourage people to look out for these kind of opportunities because it can be very rewarding, as shown in the example game above. Norman is also correct in saying that you need a pretty high base skill to pull something like that, even though you should remember that not every game is against a player like Rufus.

If you tried a surprise strategy and it didn't work out, I'll be happy if you drop it here for analysis!

I would say it applies to probably 2% of the best Warzoners in the strategic community. You need to really know what you are doing. I am just afraid the average/above average player is mistaking it.

However, if you wonder, if you shall surprise your opponent with a risky picking strategy, because your opponent will make perfect picks. What stops you from making this perfect picks as well? At picking stage your chances are 50/50.

LF, how often do you see a board where the "perfect picks" are clear and independent from what your opponent picks? Especially the last aspect is rarely true, because at least there are counters against obvious strategies (or strategies that are so apparent that all good players will consider them while picking). Rak has already suggested further above that blind counters could be a viable alternative. Would you say my strategy in the game against Rufus depended on him going for the alternative 6-triple himself to be successful?

However, if you wonder, if you shall surprise your opponent with a risky picking strategy, because your opponent will make perfect picks. What stops you from making this perfect picks as well? At picking stage your chances are 50/50.

Good players love intel though. The ideal game is low income and high intel.
So if you can reduce intel that's a good thing for the weaker player.

rock, paper, scissors!

Episode 2: Three connecting picks on French Brawl

On French Brawl and Yorkshire Brawl, when you have three connected picks where A borders B, B borders C, but C doesn't border A (as my picks 1, 2 and 3 in the reference game), conversely to popular belief and intuition you gathered from other templates, you should not prioritize the central pick (B) and instead prefer the connecting picks (A & C) around it.

Why? On most templates, if you have pick B against A & C, you can just deploy +5 (or your other base income) and hold your position, neutralizing (permanently preventing them from completing their bonus) two of your opponent's picks along the way by utilizing only one. That's winning.

On French or Yorkshire Brawl, however, if you deploy enough to defend for sure in such a situation, you will generally not take any income and stay at 4 while your opponent can take income without any risk as he can't lost both A and C at once. Conversely, if you don't defend, he can kill your B territory with only a +1 deploy, tapping with 1 and and then attacking with 3, wiping you out of the entire area. This is what happened in the reference game. This scenario puts you in a very difficult, mostly losing position.

Generally, connecting picks help you on FB and YB. But if there are more than two, prioritize wisely!

Reference game: https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=35684068