I am pretty selective in the games I take over. I limit my take overs to games with noobs who have played so bad they don't deserve a free win or to high quality games. Even then I try and make sure the country I take over cannot be easily stabbed.
In general I found that if a country is in a weak position or has lost more then 1 center during the time it took the original play to get booted the rest of the neighboring countries are going to continue attacking you no matter what. There is a point where Cd's turn into a feeding frenzy and you have to be very careful you know how to recognize it before joining an open game.

Fair enough - it just really drives me crazy when I get invited to a game only to be attacked by the player who invited me. That is less of a feeding-frenzy and more of a con to increase the pot before the game ends.

The only CDs I buy into are the "HALP LIVE GAME SOLO STOP NEEDED PLZ!" ones on the forum. Those are almost guaranteed draws.

those are the bestus, festus

Countries you've taken over should not count towards your GR and statistics, just a thought. It should only influence your points.

Wait, really? I thought taken over countries still count towards win/loss/survive/draw?

As far as I know, anything on your profile counts toward GR, taken over games included.

Disagree dD, I think that if you can take over a game and manage not to get destroyed by everyone you deserve the ghostrating as much as you do the points.

oh, they count alright

Yeah, I'm resolving never to take over any more countries. And I'm going to have to figure out if I'm also willing to abuse the technique of inviting somebody into a game to increase the pot, only to take them out and get their points. It seems pretty smart. I'm through falling for it myself though.

By should, I mean it doesn't, but it would be better if it did.

It should count for GR, but joining a CD should give you some sort of bonus, and CDing should carry a penalty apart from the getting defeated

@swordsman - Why *shouldn't* the person calling on you to takeover the CD then subsequently attack you? You should survey the board positions more carefully before stepping into a CD in future, and only take over those CD positions where you think you have a reasonable chance of rescuing something.

If someone made you this offer:

"Please will you take over the CD country in my game? If you step in, I promise to be your ally for the rest of this game!!!"

... then in my view that would be metagaming, and should be discouraged. But that's what you seem to expect. I don't get your point at all.

It's perfectly ok for someone to put a call out for players to take-over a CD in their game, and then go on to stab them. I don't see the problem, other than that you've carelessly allowed yourself to be stabbed in the occasions you mention, and you're feeling grumpy because someone out-played you in each case.

Stop moaning.

@Jamiet

I don't think you even comprehended what I'm complaining about.

I'm not complaining about being stabbed per se. I'm not complaining about taking over countries that have bad board positions to start. I'm not complaining about countries that are beyond rescue. I'm not complaining about being out played.

I'm complaining about being asked to join games and then immediately attacked by all players including the ones that asked me to join. It's clear to me that in such a case, I was asked to take over only to inflate the pot with points.

Also, welcome to my mute list.

Only take over CDs where the position, if left empty, will result in a win for someone. then you know you have built in allies to help you stop the win and you can be part of the draw.

I agree with both sides of the argument. I've taken over CD countries 3 times. Twice I came away with a win because I take over games where the CD'd country had a strong position and then left the map. Once, however, I was dealt a survival because the game had 4 countries remaining: me (playing Russia), France England and Italy. Italy was moving for the solo and France wouldn't stab him for anything to force the draw but he continued to pummel England even though the guy was going to help force the draw.

For the record, I'm done taking over CD positions as a general rule as well because I don't know the nature of the players in the games and France was the biggest idiot I've ever encountered to give someone the solo instead of taking a draw.

I do tend to agree with swordsman, though, because it's a ridiculous notion to have someone ask you to take over a CDing country only to attack them outright, unless they were already attacking you or they stab you later in the game.

Yeah Ninja, it's different for somebody stab a few turns down the road, or to continue an attack they were already doing. I agree with you.