8 player freestyle speed games

[topper]

Anybody got any tips on the best way to win freestyle speed games , seems to be alot of people specializing in these games , is it all about timing ?

[oggiss]

End in the last seconds, try to get as big sets as possible. So you should develop yourself a fast way to cash - deploy - attack - end turn, some people can do that in the last 5 seconds. that's how you get a big set and you can earn like 20 more armies that way, even more sometimes. If you have for example europe to defend then don't end until the others have ended.

[Matt Hardy]

End in the last seconds, try to get as big sets as possible. So you should develop yourself a fast way to cash - deploy - attack - end turn, some people can do that in the last 5 seconds. that's how you get a big set and you can earn like 20 more armies that way, even more sometimes. If you have for example europe to defend then don't end until the others have ended.

that is a mean tactic

[BaldAdonis]

End in the last seconds, try to get as big sets as possible. So you should develop yourself a fast way to cash - deploy - attack - end turn, some people can do that in the last 5 seconds. that's how you get a big set and you can earn like 20 more armies that way, even more sometimes. If you have for example europe to defend then don't end until the others have ended.

that is a mean tactic

So is killing everyone else in the game.

[Metsfanmax]

Waiting until the end is definitely not cool.. but you'll lose if you don't, the way everyone plays freestyle.

My advice is, just don't play freestyle. It's not really educational or fun.

[Riyanna]

Freestyle is allright in a casual game, goes quicker. It would be better if one person could move at a time, but in any order except for those allowing back-to-back turns. Even still the potential for abuse is there.

[friendly1]

Well, 8 player individual freestyle escalating (no fog of war) is pretty much the king of games in my opinion (the most points available in a game and the most difficult to win at consistantly), but there are several items players should know about:

1. Your internet connection speed must be adequate. Games are won and lost in a portion of a second, dial up players can win at these games, but not consistantly especially if experienced players are playing.

2. Almost every turn is decided in the last 12 to 30 seconds. If you don't enjoy this style of playing, i'd recommend not playing this type of game. However please stop bitching about playing this way, it is absolutely a requirement to be successful to be able to make moves in the last seconds. Anyone who is not able to, or chooses not to will never be better than marginal at this type of game.

3. Units matter, continents do not. Your goal in this style game is to survive to your next card trade in. As it is escalating, the card trade ins change a great deal, especially with 8 players. So you want to lose the minimum amount of armies possible while still gaining a card each turn.

4. Experience matters. I'm sorry, but you simply need to play quite a few games to get to understand about when moves are good or not, and when takeouts or steals are appropriate.

In my personal experience I have found Scott-Land, Prankcall, Naato, Buizerd, Oggiss, Dui, Enelra and when he plays, Poo-maker to be both excellent and frustrating to play against (I'm sure there are many others, my apologies guys and gals, these are the people I remember off the top of my head)- watch how they play and try to understand why they make the moves they do. And understand these players tend to win a good percentage of the 8 player freestyle games they play, it is not luck.

One final note, if you see friendly1 in these games, dont worry about him at all, he's terrible and never wins!!! Dont bother attacking him, concentrate on the other players...

[topper]

thanks alot for that , friendley 1 , thinking maybe speed freestyle is abit to intense and manic for my style of play , i have played 1300 + games on this site , but never had much luck in speed freestyle , was wondering where i was going wrong , now i begin to see the light , and think maybe i wont go there . good luck on the battlefield , i took a look at your clan site , interesting , do you guys ever play battlefield or any of mods using its engine ? one of my favorite waste of time ! best regards topper

[oVo]

To say that eight player freestyle speed games are intense is an understatement and I've only done it with no cards on W 2.1. With everything going at once, it's hard to keep up with all the constant changes... which can definitely drive you nuts after awhile. Eventually, if you're doing well, there is no way you can finish your turn in five minutes and all you can do is go for it, then continue in the next round. Definitely have a drink close by because now you are stuck in front of your monitor until the game ends but it's as entertaining a game as you'll ever play.

The only thing I can recommend is playing the maps you're most familiar with, since knowing the territories without having to constantly study the map is a big plus. Most of the strategies you use on the other formats will still work, but you have to be quick to impliment your schemes because everything happens faster and sometimes the move you intended is no longer available, as nobody's waiting around for you to decide what to do. Except that hovering maniac who's hoping you finish quick so he can pounce on your bonus.

[supersmashbros]

i wish this game was like world conquest. nice and fast

[RashidJelzin]

Nothing really to add to what friendly1 said-- which was pretty basic, but should suffice for beginners not to be crushed and make stupid moves when they play more experienced people.

I shall try to describe a pretty simple, yet demanding tactic that I often employ.

What you always should have an eye on is the card counts-- usually there's one big pulp who's got the same number of cards, and a few who are either ahead or behind the mainfield. I know some people do employ tactics like skipping cards (and not in order to gain more armies, but to get on par with their target), but I prefer ALWAYS getting a card and being ahead of the mainfield.
This way, you can avoid being a target, since you're most likely one of the first to cash-- which seems disadvantegous at first, but not in the long run. You may look like a target with 3 cards when others are at 5, but keep in mind that during round 5 or 6 (when the mainfield hits 5 cards for the first time), there will always be a race to get the highest amount of cashes-- which more often than not results in one or two people missing a card because they were too greedy and slow.
You may get only a max of 6 or 8 armies out of your first cash, but at the same time, you'll be one of the first guys to cash the second round of sets-- and by that time, some people most likely will have missed a card when racing the others in the mainfield.

So when its your turn to cash a second time (best possible situation is when you have the pole position in cards), you will have a cash of at least 25 men-- (since the value has gone up 8 times) often enough this amount suffices for killing another player who is at 3 cards (do keep in mind to kill the low stacks first in order to save yourself armies in case he holds a 3 card set-- if your target holds a 3 card set and sees 2-3 of his 5 or 6 territories being killed, that are not a 1, he'll most likely cash-- if not, he's either trying to screw you, plain slow as a snail or not holding a set-- but most of the time, it's the latter).
Before you start with killing him, make sure you are adjacent to every single of his territories-- being not so will result in someone blocking the kill and you being basically screwed. If you are touching him everywhere (and I don't mean that in any sexual way...), then you have a couple of options to draw from:
1) if he didn't drop his armies yet, he may hold a set-- kill his small armies first and look if he reacts-- if he doesn't, be quick about the kill
2) if he did drop his armies, he doesn't hold a set-- or is just plain blind. Him dropping his armies means he cannot cash any possible set-- you're perfectly set up now. Now, you need to drop carefully and be sure you have enough guys to take out any territory of his-- do the calculations BEFORE you drop, and then be quick about it. Also, watch who else is possibly holding a set and waiting to steal (which is another tactic)-- if you can, kill the territory last which only you can kill (as in, being the only one having enough guys to kill it), which most of the time is the biggest stack. Though, it may happen that someone may cash his set and tries to jump in to steal the kill-- this is why you have to pay attention to the game log at the same time as killing your target-- and this is one of the few things you'll be able to do only after you have played those settings more than a couple of times.

In 90% of all situations, it is very disadvatageous to kill another player and be stuck at 1,2,3 or 4 cards-- you're just making yourself looking tasty with those 4 cards and the inability to cash them before next round.
There are, of course, exceptions to that rule, but they heavily depend on the situation. The tactic I just described is one for the more aggressive player-- which I don't employ all of the time. There is a wide variety of strategies, and I try to vary my game-- sometimes I set up for 2 pair, double kills, double cashes, traps to steal or I just wait to steal.

In my opinion, you can call yourself an expert on these settings if you are able to see moves of others beforehand and switch your tactic from one moment to the next-- and there are very few I have witnessed who are able to do so. There are lots of players who win their fair share in these games, but most employ the same tactic over and over again-- once you figure them out, it's not hard to keep beating them. There is specifically one player who relies a lot on his speed-- he is, indeed, prolly the fastest player on the site, but depends, in my eyes, far too much on it.
Scott- Land, Prankcall, KingofGods and poo-maker are, in my opinion, on the very top of this game because they have figured it out-- completely.

[Shatners Bassoon]

Great points guys,but is it possible to win with drop downs against the top players?


Ive had a degree of success against lesser players without using clickable maps and hotkeys and can usually reach the end game against better players but when it comes to the crunch i'm too slow.

So,are clickable maps a necessity against the top dogs or am i just too slow?

[poo-maker]

Great points guys,but is it possible to win with drop downs against the top players?


Ive had a degree of success against lesser players without using clickable maps and hotkeys and can usually reach the end game against better players but when it comes to the crunch i'm too slow.

So,are clickable maps a necessity against the top dogs or am i just too slow?

Nope, clickable maps aren't needed to win, but they sure help... I only started using clickable maps a couple of weeks ago. Scott has never used it (he is still using a touchpad ). And as far as I'm aware, Prank doesn't use clicky maps either.

[Bruceswar]

Great points guys,but is it possible to win with drop downs against the top players?


Ive had a degree of success against lesser players without using clickable maps and hotkeys and can usually reach the end game against better players but when it comes to the crunch i'm too slow.

So,are clickable maps a necessity against the top dogs or am i just too slow?

Nope, clickable maps aren't needed to win, but they sure help... I only started using clickable maps a couple of weeks ago. Scott has never used it (he is still using a touchpad ). And as far as I'm aware, Prank doesn't use clicky maps either.

I thought Prank just upgraded to clickable? I know you and Skiller use it.


A note... 8 Man Freestyle games are not for the weak minded or weak at heart.

[RashidJelzin]

A note... 8 Man Freestyle games are not for the weak minded or weak at heart.

Lmao-- what's that supposed to mean? Everyone can play it-- Oggiss for example is definitely pretty weak minded, but does win once in a while.

[Plutoman]

To say that eight player freestyle speed games are intense is an understatement and I've only done it with no cards on W 2.1. With everything going at once, it's hard to keep up with all the constant changes... which can definitely drive you nuts after awhile. Eventually, if you're doing well, there is no way you can finish your turn in five minutes and all you can do is go for it, then continue in the next round. Definitely have a drink close by because now you are stuck in front of your monitor until the game ends but it's as entertaining a game as you'll ever play.

Hell yes, they're intense. I just recently played my first speed freestyle 8p escalating game, and got down to the final two. One of the hardest games in my career here, but I have to say, I enjoyed every minute of the hour and a half speed game ^^

Especially with the chat, you tend to get more talk during a game like this, with the pro players. Makes the games all that much more enjoyable.

While you may not win, I do recommend them for the fun factor ^^

Classic is a good map to play, and the strats suggested are good. Use blocks on escalating, if someone is near a weaker person, around all his territories, block away some, so they can't be reached without going through another large stack.

My only suggestion that I haven't seen (though I might have missed it)

[Bruceswar]

A note... 8 Man Freestyle games are not for the weak minded or weak at heart.

Lmao-- what's that supposed to mean? Everyone can play it-- Oggiss for example is definitely pretty weak minded, but does win once in a while.

First off Rash nice star! 2nd what I mean is people tend to get intense at times and sometimes will use strong language. You need to have a pretty thick skin. Not that these players are mean, but they are so intense sometimes that others may think they are being mean. In fact all they want to do is win. If they cannot win then they would like to see a mistake free game. If someone yells at you in a game like this just let it roll. It is only a game and they will forget about it after the game.

[Tazza]

What I've found with these is it's all about being quick and picking the right time to attack/eliminate. Discounting the fact that Ive won once out of about 30 of them, what I've realised is;

-The quickest players win
-You need to be patient and wait until people or most unsuspecting! Most important thing probably

Which I am terrible at, and which scott and PM are great at .

[Kemmler]

don't play Rashid, Skiller, Scott or poo.

[Top Dog]

Shatners Bassoon wrote:Great points guys,but is it possible to win with drop downs against the top players?


Ive had a degree of success against lesser players without using clickable maps and hotkeys and can usually reach the end game against better players but when it comes to the crunch i'm too slow.

So,are clickable maps a necessity against the top dogs or am i just too slow?

Yeah your too slow to compete with me ;-D