Tips and tricks on chaos games?

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Singy
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Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#1 Post by Singy » Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:14 am

Considering a classic-chaos game is about to start felt it might be best to have a thread for advice for chaos games. I can only give a first impression as a new player but hopefully correcting my misconceptions will be a great way to start of the conversation : P

The first thing that comes to mind is analysing where you start, some starts are less crowded then others which I imagine that affect your chances of getting destroyed on the first turn. So ranking the starts purely on that:
  • S rank (No neighbours): London, Tunis
  • A rank (One neighbour): Edinburgh, Liverpool, Brest, Paris, Belgium, Portugal, Marseilles, Naples, Symrna, Ankara, Warsaw
  • B rank (Two neighbours): Holland, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Spain, Rome, Venice, Greece, Sevastopol, St. Petersburg, Sweden, Norway, Denmark
  • C rank (Three neighbours): Constantinople, Moscow
  • D rank (Four neighbours): Triest, Budapest, Rumania, Bulgeria
  • F rank (Five neighbours): Serbia
Sorry if I missed any. But this seems pretty accurate, we here in the Balkans are the powerkeg of Europe as always. Best of luck to whoever gets my homecountry of Serbia! (and as you can see, I'm not saying that out of patriotism. They will really need it! Xaxaxa)

gimix
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Re: Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#2 Post by gimix » Sat Apr 17, 2021 9:10 pm

I never played a Chaos game, and I probably never will :eyeroll:
But your analysis is interesting. Only, having no neighbours means you won't be immediately defeated, but it also means you have no possibilities of immediate growth...
Take Tunis. You need a fleet of course, but where will you go? Will the Neapolitan or the Spaniard be happy of leaving their home to you?
I hope some Chaos experts will enlighten us
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PRINCE WILLIAM
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Re: Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#3 Post by PRINCE WILLIAM » Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:49 am

As in the normal game of Diplomacy, this is the point where your diplomatic skills come in. Can you persuade Rome to work with you and take Napoli or Portugal (Marseilles is also an option there) to get Spain and what can you offer them to achieve the deal?
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Singy
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Re: Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#4 Post by Singy » Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:05 pm

As in the normal game of Diplomacy, this is the point where your diplomatic skills come in
Basically. It seems to be even more reliant on it then normally as in the early game there is no breathing space, especially in certain locations. That's why I rank London and Tunis so highly. Instead of worrying about your neighbours you can safely offer support to someone who's receptive to you, allowing you to build a working relationship with that one player.

(Arguably the A ranks are better in this as they can support instantly, but that also means they have natural enemies who can expect an attack from them and cut that support)

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Re: Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#5 Post by teccles » Sun Apr 18, 2021 5:05 pm

In my (one game of) experience of Chaos, building an early alliance is both crucial and surprisingly easy. Crucial for obvious reasons. Surprisingly easy because it's so valuable to both players - after one partner helps the other to two centres, the other is highly motivated to reciprocate, as a two-centre power you've built trust with is immensely valuable.

So, I'd rank highly powers who have neighbours they can make trades with to get to two. In the game I played, a fleets-only Denmark and a landlocked Munich worked great, for example, quickly taking the other German centres. I wonder whether the isolated powers actually struggle a bit here, and it's better to have around two neighbours to get rolling in this way.

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Re: Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#6 Post by Yonni » Sun Apr 18, 2021 9:34 pm

Never played chaos. I joined - I'll let ya know after the game ; )

Looks like we only need 3 more @teccles, Prince Williams, and gimix

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Re: Tips and tricks on chaos games?

#7 Post by captainmeme » Mon Apr 19, 2021 8:07 pm

The likes of Smyrna and Portugal are definitely more powerful than Tunis and London. Part of Chaos is about surviving the early game, but the midgame is just as deadly - if a close neighbour is able to consolidate their region before you can, you're very likely screwed. Places like Turkey and Iberia are fantastic because they're relatively easy to lock down and start sending units out of, plus they're quite difficult to invade.

Places that are further from other SCs to start often have difficulty consolidating a region, since they have to wander a distance to get them. London in particular is actually not great because basically every fleet that gets knocked out of Scandinavia, Lowlands, or Britain will retreat to North Sea and take a shot at your home if you walk out to try to get something.
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