Typically, I win about 60% of the time. Results from my latest foray into Defcon? 25%, and nearly 0%. There were four games, and I won the last one I played. Had I opted for sleep, which was debated heavily before joining that last game, it would have been a total loss.
Special thanks to Mr. Roboto and Feud for keeping the tension going! And to the rest of those that were involved. Each game was great.
Game Uno: Survivor.
As Europe, I was prepared to take on the USSR and then move on into the Atlantic. At Defcon 4, radar shows that Africa (Feud I beleive) has strangely decided to place all six silos on the northern border. With 12 subs in groups of four well within striking distance, all six and a couple radar were summarily removed by one of those groups of 4 moments after Defcon 1. I issue a proud statement of "Africa is dead, enjoy everybody". Noticing that the USA and S. America have naval units much too close to mine near Iceland, I pull back everything and launch bombers to help remove encroaching battle ships. I did this with the thinking that those two (not allied) would go at it and I could then move in and reign supreme in that area. Oh what a mistake in judgment. It seemed that Mr. Robot, who could see most of my unit placement thanks to his African ally, had decided to sidestep the USA and go directly for me. A tremendous wave of bombers laid waste to much of Europe, leaving only my navy, a few silos, and two airbases to keep me in the game. Africa pitched in of course, with several of his bombers. Then it was announced everybody should "enjoy" Europe. Hehe.
I had sent a group of carriers above Greenland only to have them chased out by the USA, taking advantage of my situation. I was also briefly allied with Mr. Roboto (south America), resulting in the white board markings for my new allies. Not sure if they made use of that. As you can see, I only managed a meager 29.7m kills. The 20 nukes left were from one group of subs I didn't move soon enough to use.
Game Two: Default, 3v3, North vs. South.
The tables were turned, or so I thought. This time I was Africa and Mr. Roboto and NWO were Europe and USSR, respectively I think. I was too trusting of the way the alliances were set up, suspicious of S. America in particular, and thus kept my navy spread around the lower portions of my coast. Defcon 3 relieved those suspicions when KFC (S America I believe) took on USA and Europe in the Atlantic. I started to back him up and we quickly took control of those waters. As usual I began my assault on any installations I could find in Europe and Russia, leaving the USA alone. Before I realized it, the game was coming to an end and I had not tried to hit very many cities. D'oh! I could have done much better in this game as my alliance was super tight and well coordinated, but I focused to much on 'breaking' Europe's defenses to score enough points.
I never noticed until it was mentioned that Feud had placed his silos in Alaska. I had seen this tactic before, but in a straight line formation that proved a horrible mistake. They were easy targets and as Russia had a radar near them, not hidden. In this game, I'm not sure how effective he found it to be. He managed to get fourth just behind me in third.
Game Three: Another Default 3v3 game.
This time, Mr. Roboto and Feud were on my side, and the alliance was as solid as the previous game. I was South America. Europe, can't remember who that was, think it was Feud, proved himself extremely valuable by removing the threat of Russia quick in the game. I made the same mistake in this game as earlier and focused too much on installations. Thus when I looked up to begin my real assault, my team mates had left almost nothing for me to shoot at. Coupled with this, Russia had defected and further reduced any potential for real points. Hmm, should I defect and take on the USA, ripe with cities full and gleaming? I decided against it and clicked the people button, surveyed the numbers in the scoreboard and tried for a team victory (I was in last or 5th at that point). I managed to at least gain a team win by taking out the biggest cities left in India and Tehran.
I seriously was shocked at the almost complete absence of well populated cites! I was able to spread my nukes around enough to get the 61.6m in this game.
I knew that I had made critical mistakes in timing in all of the above games. Once I committed to another game, forsaking a couple of hours of sleep, I resolved to not let that happen again.
Game Four: Another Default 3v3 Game.
Random placement had put me in the USA. Not my favorite territory to play as, but that's the game. I pride myself on my naval abilities, typically being the player with most of his navy left at the end, but this game was a roller coaster in the water. I put everything but 4 battleships and 4 carriers in the Pacific. I reasoned I could hold off Europe's navy with my four airbases in Canada. Europe was tough and smart not to engage me directly, leaving my to use up bombers in waves aimed at his wester coast. With South Americas help, I was able to retain my carriers in the Atlantic. The Pacific was a different story.
My generic approach is to place 2 or 3 groups of 4 battle ships in front of 2 or 3 groups of 4 carriers, then launch all bombers from the carriers at Defcon 3, in a 'V' formation flanking the battleships, the sending fighters ahead to extend radar range and take out other units before they can attach. I always micromanage fighters against bombers, bombers against battleships, and battleships against fighters. This is nearly always effective against pretty much any setup. Normally, the other guy has his in groups of five with battleships up front and doesn't use his carriers or doesn't use the effectively. This time was different. Russia had a sizable fleet near Alaska, but my strategy quickly removed that threat with minimal casualties. Over confident, I let my guard down and left my fleet to regroup and recover its planes. Just As most of my bombers where about to land on my carriers, a barrage of fire begins to rain down on my battleships. It seems, either what was left of the Russian fleet or his Airbases, or South America had returned the favor to me. I was taking heavy loses and had to act quickly. Retreating my battleships, or what was left of them, I began sending out every fighter I had, meticulously targeting and re-targeting any and every bomber spotted. I managed to bring it to a draw of sorts. I had nothing left at the end, but he/they had only battleships left, certainly few if any bombers. Of course, with no protection in the pacific, subs emerged and began nuking the west coast pretty bad. Had I not been able to reduce the bomber threat over the pacific to only a handful, things might have turned out different.
In the end, I was more focused and determined to win. I paid close attention to the amount of cities left throughout the game and made my move not too long before the victory timer. Making the effort to get my silos in sync, I targeted Europe and Russia west to east and took out every installation I could see simultaneously working on population centers. In less than a couple of minutes I went from dead last to first. I also had four subs over Russia that were timed good enough to lay waste those poor cities there and in Siberia.
