This should probably be in the FAQ, actually. Would some experienced gunboaters like to collaborate together on some answers to "But how can I communicate without talking?"?

@ATC: including this a section in the FAQ is a great idea.

One of the simplest pieces of advice is offer is: always check the Orders log at the bottom of the page. It provides a list of all the movements orders submitted for every country/player. Sometimes players offer support holds or support moves that might not show up on the board (because they failed) but were entered to signify/symbolise/initiate cooperation and goodwill.

Good point, I forgot about the order log!

I've been thinking about listing failed supports on the main board page, but haven't hit on a way to do that nicely yet.

If we were ever to move to an SVG map, we could easily add tooltips to the map to show unit orders too. That would be cool.

\o, (experienced gunboater here).

ATC: In regards to your "contentious" statement... I think it's simultaneously true and not true. In some ways, gunboat is the raw "true game" - there are pieces on the board. Those pieces can take certain actions. Those pieces and their actions are the things that determine whether you win, lose, or draw the game.

Communication (of any kind) simply helps you modify what those pieces do - so it both helps (in that most humans are more practiced at communication, after all, we all do it daily), and hinders (in that communication is actually *not* the mechanical game part which is what causes you to win or lose).

Drop the majority of that communication, and you're left with "just" the game mechanics - which is a very deep pit of theory just on its own. I think it's easier to learn the basic game mechanics in gunboat because you don't have to worry (as much) about that level of human communication... but the mechanics aren't everything, because the game requires communication and cooperation, even in gunboat.

On to gunboat specific tips, +1 to everything else ATC said, that's pretty much what I would have said, plus:

In gunboat games, it can be even more important than non-gunboat to take the "guaranteed" options when you have them, rather than taking the guesswork options. This helps you form allies too, because predictable forced options are what your allies want. (ATC: That's one of the reasons my F2F play is overly conservative, too much gunboat.)

Apart from that, there's endgame gunboat - knowing stalemate lines and counting SCs and who's heading for a stalemate line is absolutely key.

In a WTA game, because you need to know when any single power is threatening to solo, at which point *all other powers on the board* can and should be breaking for the stalemate line. This applies to you even if you think some other power is just going to kill you - it doesn't matter if you die in the attempt to form a stalemate line, because the solo threat is going to solo if you don't.

For PPSC it's the flip - once there's a power looking like they're almost guaranteed to solo, you should flip to collecting as many SCs as you can, and everyone else is going to as well.

Gunboat openings are... fraught, but extremely important. Depending on what country you are playing, the openings can very much determine who's going to ally with you or not. E.g.: Turkey & Russia commonly bounce over Black Sea, but if you're wanting to propose the R/T juggernaut, it can be worth taking the hit as either party of *not* moving to Black.

Also you can and should be reading your opponents in gunboat, just as you would in a press or F2F game. Order sets are extremely informative - is that player tactically clever? A risk taker? Unreliable? Just bad at the tactics?

ATC: Re: failed supports, why not use the same icon indicator as for failed moves (an X further back along the bar), and display the line in either red or maybe gray?

@ATC: is there any possibility of introducing an option to manually select the page you want to skip to on a forum thread? (Rather than having to click the 'next page' arrow ceaselessly). This would be especially for Mafia games but could also be useful for the philosophical discussion pages.

Thorfi: Failed supports are intentionally not shown on the small map for readability. They are drawn on the large map.

WJ: I'm not intending to make changes to for forum for a while, I'm afraid. I can stick it on the todo list though.

ATC: Hrm. Do they really cause that much of a readability problem? I'll take your word for it though. Otherwise... Maybe just display the single season's orders below everything?

"This applies to you even if you think some other power is just going to kill you - it doesn't matter if you die in the attempt to form a stalemate line, because the solo threat is going to solo if you don't."

On the flip-side, why should you care whether or not they solo if you're sure to die in the process? I'd rather not die and maybe they get a solo than die for sure but stop the solo. If the choice is between dying for sure and a solo for sure... well, then it depends on who I like more.

Tasnica: Well, I guess it depends on whether you care about points and ghost rating or other rating or not. For WTA you get the same points for a loss to solo as survive. Zero. So there's no value in surviving.

Tasnica: Also, rarely is it as poised as that - it's more like, one power is up to 13-4 SCs, and if the board doesn't rally they *will* get to 18, and if you're one of the existing powers, odds are you might risk losing an SC or two before others figure out the stalemate line needs to happen. Or sometimes there are small powers than can be safely eliminated without failing to hit the stalemate line in time.

But certainly in a WTA game if you're not the board leader, if you just sit on your units and don't even try to stop a solo, zero points is what the outcome will be.

@ATC: No worries, thanks.

@wjessop, if you use the arrows to select a page, the url changes from just viewthread= to threadid=...&page-thread=... At this point you just type in the page number you wish to visit and it will take you directly there.

For example the current mafia thread is http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?viewthread=1266590#1266590

If you use the forward arrow to page 2 you get...

http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?threadID=1266590&page-thread=3#threadPager

you can easily change the 3 after the page-thread= to visit any page.

@mrh: thank you! That's helpful, good to know

Thanks, that is helpful. I figured as much but was not sure if it was a regular parlance. I wonder how many people check the logs?

jlsart: In my experience, I would guess some do, but not most.