nu4e t44s' guide to 6 player default.

[Nuke this]

Hi guys.

As the title suggests here is a guide to winning 6 man default matches. The main point of this article is to point out the relative offensive strengths of each of the six superstates by showing which cities are most likely to be taken by whom.

General Overview:
As any of the six states you should be trying to work out how you can best score points on your opponents. As obvious as that sounds, it is advice often ignored or learnt the hard way after several defeats. Playing too defensively or too slow in a default scoring game is not maximising your chances of winning. The most important moment in defcon is the first two minutes of defcon 1. If you dont have bombers in the air and silos open (or a reason for them not to be), submarines in position or moving to position, you will not win. If you find yourself screaming SPEED UP!!!! at defcon 1, this guide is for you. 6 Player default is a race for who can get the points fastest. Identifying which mega-cities and city groups will be targetted when and by whom is invalueable information to ensure you get there first, either as rightful owner or as a spoiler, and come out number 1.

That being said, games and people are unpredictable, tactics come in and out of vogue frequently. Even six player games can degenerate into quasi-diplomacy games with many (trusting and helpful) alliances. Players may choose simply to smash your offensive (and defensive) capabilities thus denying you points. Noobs, elites, backstabbers, CPUs are all factors in an unpredictable game of defcon.

2-3 mins, instant strike
Bread and Butter mega-citys:
Cairo, Mexico, Leningrad, Moscow, Tokyo/Seoul. All of these citys are spoken for. Depending which super-state you are, you have exclusive rights to take these citys if you choose so!!.

*As Europe, placing 3 suicide silos on the border to 'cap' Lenningrad and Moscow 120 seconds into defcon 1, beating the Asian bomber/sub wave. Russia will only be able to destroy your silos in a minimum of 3 nukes away (based on sub placement, increased by silos launches. Bombers extremely ineffective at destroying your silos due to AA in defcon 2).
*As Asia, place a single silo next to Cairo to claim it. This will beat a European bomber run, or even Silo run. As Europe, if Asia has not placed a sui-silo, place 3 silos at border to claim Cairo, beating even a perfect bomber run and indian subs. Silos can also be used to have a chance at east coast African citys (or Kinshasa).
*As North America, you have a fair amount of luxury to bomb mexico using bombers as nothing can get there faster from any other nation.
*As Russia, you have a very high chance of getting Tokyo/Seoul and other citys with either a sui-silo or more conservative submarine use.

2-20 mins, first wave
Contested Mega-cities, by Country:

North America: New York, San Fransisco, Los Angeles
*NYC: South America has the higest chance of scoring NYC due to proximity. Most effectial is submarine usage in lower-North Atlantic. However, an aggressive Europe may beat SA to the punch if they commit heavy naval forces. Africa has an outside chance of scoring NYC, with well guarded submarines in an empty North Atlantic, or Silo use from west Africa. [Overall Chance Distributon: SA 50%, EU 35%, Afr 15%]
*San Fransisco & Los Angeles: South America clearly has the best shot at getting these points, but Russia could be a spoiler with unchecked submarines creaping into an unguarded shoreline. Particularly if NA decides to push south to take west coast South America, it's far from definate points. Asia is an outside spoiler, but slower movement of subs puts them at a far greater launch distance. [Overall Chance Distribution: SA 50%, Russia 30%, Asia, 20%]

South America: San Paulo, Lima, Santiago
San Paulo: Some would say Africa has a monopoly over this target, but it would be wrong to assume this. Africa has to invest a LOT of naval force into the southern Atlantic to claim these points (early) and the city may remain untaken for period of time. Africa can launch submarines very successfully against San Paulo. Europe and North America can act as spoilers for these points, with clever and gutsy submarine usage or a direct silo strike. A Silo strike can be very sucessful if Africa neglects these points for a 2nd wave strike. [Overall Chance Distribution: Africa 80%, NA 10%, EU 10%]
Lima: While this city may not be taken in the 2-20 minute range due to its isolation, every country has a chance at claiming this city. North America has the best chance due to proximity, but may not be able to penetrate too deeply into South American defenses. Asia has a good chance if subs are sent directly to lima (or even a carrier or two flying bombers into a mostly unguarded region!) Russian navy, ambitious EU and Africa can act as spoilers for this prize. [Overall chance distribution: NA: 60%, Asia 25%, EU/Russia/Africa 5%]

Africa: Kinshasa, Addis Ababa,
Kinshasa: Should be taken by South America, as they have a decent room to strike with submarines. Navy clashes could delay or prevent a launch however, leading to EU stealing the points. EU has a fair chance at taking Kinshasa thanks to a usually undefended west coast (confirmed of course by scouting) allowing a bomber strike, submarine launch or 'lop sided silos' to get it. NA has an outside spoilers chance by getting gutsy submarines onto the west coast and hoping not to be taken out by any of the three regional powers, plus having to beat SA there. [Overall chance distribution: South America 70%, EU 20%, NA 10%]
Addis Ababa: Asia should get the points through proximity, but an extended radar range due to the 'horn' plus ocean make this more defendable. EU has a spoilers chance if aggressive. [Overall chance distrubution: Asia 80%, EU 20%]

Europe: London/Manchester/Paris

L/M/P: Europe doesnt have many mega-cities and this cluster adds up to 27.9 population. Africa stands the best chance of taking the points with submarines best poised to take the points. North America could take the points if Europe has NO interest in taking the Atlantic (which is bad play) or is badly defeated in a naval confrontation, but Africa can still strike effectively with bombers. Russia is an outside spoilers chance with suicide bombers taking the 'high road' and using the radar cleavage of the north sea to 'squeeze one out over england'. Especially effective if Europe does place a significant navy in Atlantic. Alternatively if EU is completely innept, Russia could steal the points from aggressive submarine invasion. South America can spoil with an aggressive naval placement in north atlantic (wiser to avoid, as a 4 way navy battle hands the match to asia/russia!) Alternatively fast silo launches stand an outside chance of claiming it. [Overall chance distrubution: Africa 40%, NA 40% Russia 20% South America 20%]

Russia: General Population

The general population of Russia is a two way tie between Asia and Europe. Asia can claim a lot of points here (and can also watch carefully if EU claims Moscow/Lenning or not) and easily claim the general population. If Europe dedicates a lot of nukes to the task there are many points to be made here.

Asia: Bombay, Teheran, Hong Kong.

Bombay: Africa has the best chance here due to proximity, but relative ease to defend may make this city unworth attempting to take (until later in the game). Russia can have a crack but risk either silo launches or well spotted bombers to take the city. Worth each contingeancy sending some bombers and hoping silos are in east asia. [Overall chance distrubution: Africa 60%, Russia 40%]
Teheran: Not a huge amount of points but a significant and surprisingly overlooked city! Russia should take, with African 2nd, EU spoiler [Overall chance distrubution: Africa 20%, Russia 70% EU 5%]
Hong Kong: Hard city to take early, as it is probably the 2nd most remote city in terms of kill time after santiago. African Subs, NA subs or SA subs could sneak and take this 8.8 million strong mega-city, but Russia has a good chance with either aggressive naval action, clever sub usage (sneak right up to the coast) or bomber runs. [Overall chance distrubution: Russia 40%, Africa 20%, NA 20%, SA 20%]

This completes the section on mega-cities (and also this particular session on me working on the guide). Hopefully as any of the super states you have a clear idea of what cities you should be aiming for and what forces you should put there.

Stay tuned for the following sections:

-Chance distribution guide: likely point outcomes per super-state (descriptive, not scientific)
*-Fleet Placement
-Post mega-city tactics
-Good alliances, Bad alliances, dumb alliances
-When to defend, and how best to defend
-Identifying the good players, the bad players, the ones who just want to ruin your game, and beating them
-Other 6 player specific tips n tricks



=nu4e t44s=

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[trickser]

This is definitly a good guide. And a good Strategie involves hitting many of the megacitys early. But i warn you, dont try to get every megacity. You will have to stretch your forces, the other players have about 5 times your units, and they will happily smash them in a random encounter.

Being a local force and dominating "your" ozean is a valid strategie. A mix of first strikes on metropoles and local force works best for me.

While this is a good strategie guide, you also have to know tactics, and the builtin Defcon tutorial explains rock, paper, scissors.

So what will these empty posts give us? Come on, nuke this!

[Pox]

This is definitly a good guide. And a good Strategie involves hitting many of the megacitys early. But i warn you, dont try to get every megacity. You will have to stretch your forces, the other players have about 5 times your units, and they will happily smash them in a random encounter.

Being a local force and dominating "your" ozean is a valid strategie. A mix of first strikes on metropoles and local force works best for me.

While this is a good strategie guide, you also have to know tactics, and the builtin Defcon tutorial explains rock, paper, scissors.

So what will these empty posts give us? Come on, nuke this!

Disagreed, bunching your forces close to home is not always the best approach... rarely when you have a country like russia, SA or NA where you can hit just about anything if you want to. As long as you keep your spread fleets in odd places, they usually don't get countered.

[Nuke this]

Yes fleet placement and 'spreading your forces' is a very important issue, as having too little or too much in an area could prove ineffective. I will try to build a section on this latter.

Most importantly with fleet is ensuring your carriers survive from first wave to second wave to third wave strikes, and having them in position to take obvious Megacities, followed by untaken megacities and general population.

Take Russia for an example of fleet placement in 6 man.

-I tend to send 3 subs south of Alaska, sending a scouting battleship in defcon 5, and a carrier in a secure position (deployed in defcon 4) to scout for radar and other ships in the pacific. Aim is to take SF/LA hopefully before SA, its a risky move.
-Send a battleship along china's shorelines, sending a single suicide submarine to tap coastal hong kong.
-Send a small fleet of about 4 battleships 3 carriers down to South America and hope to pick up Mexico, Lima and Santiago through poor defense.
-Rest of fleet, subs above Russia to make an impact on the area.

Sending any fleet away from home is risky, but you hope it's a calculated risk. Sometimes the odds dont work in your favor and your fleet is taken out by some defensive work.

When i talk about the fleet section i'll also talk about how you should use your fleet to 'box out' opponents scoring chances. Best example is North America seizing control of NA-> Tip of West Africa, effectively cutting off Europe from SA, African subs from EU, SA navy from EU etc etc. Sometimes it is worth having a naval battle to exert control of an area.

Thanks for the encouragement trickser, i was a bit pissed that i wrote this with no replies so far

[Blackbeard]

Thanks for the encouragement trickser, i was a bit pissed that i wrote this with no replies so far

When you're so thorough, there's not a lot to add