Africa... causing disconnects since v1.0

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The Wombat
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Africa... causing disconnects since v1.0

Postby The Wombat » Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:15 am

It seems to me Africa is the lonely continent no one wants to play... not only does it seem to have the hardest coastline to protect... its at the center of everything just asking to be nuked and Cairo is like someones rear being hung out to dry. This poor continent needs to be balanced out somehow otherwise we shall continue to see valiant efforts go wasted and many flat out disconnecting upon recieving the African destination.

Thoughts?

My suggestion is Make Cairo a lot smaller than it is so its not such a major city left out to dry.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -GEORGE ORWELL
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xander
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Postby xander » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:36 am

You can win as Africa, it just requires a different strategy. You almost have to ally with Europe, China, or South America to win (or all of them), and a decisive first strike is necessary. Generally, I play most continents very conservatively, and play very defensively until the endgame. With Africa, it is an all out first strike, and hope to survive to the end. Also, Cairo isn't generally worth defending :)

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Postby Spacemonkey » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:40 am

Africa can be very strong (excluding Cairo) as all the missiles from silos have to come from the top, so you only really have to defend from one way.

Anyway, the new 1.2 patch has different city populations modes, which will change the size of Cairo.
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MadSeven
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Postby MadSeven » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:21 am

xander wrote:You can win as Africa, it just requires a different strategy. You almost have to ally with Europe, China, or South America to win (or all of them), and a decisive first strike is necessary. Generally, I play most continents very conservatively, and play very defensively until the endgame. With Africa, it is an all out first strike, and hope to survive to the end. Also, Cairo isn't generally worth defending :)

xandert


The "have to ally" is exactly what bothers me about Europe; you "have" to ally with e.g. Africa or Russia. What if these "have to allies" are aware of your "have to" situation and simply say "no"?
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Postby xander » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:26 pm

MadSeven wrote:
xander wrote:You can win as Africa, it just requires a different strategy. You almost have to ally with Europe, China, or South America to win (or all of them), and a decisive first strike is necessary. Generally, I play most continents very conservatively, and play very defensively until the endgame. With Africa, it is an all out first strike, and hope to survive to the end. Also, Cairo isn't generally worth defending :)

xandert


The "have to ally" is exactly what bothers me about Europe; you "have" to ally with e.g. Africa or Russia. What if these "have to allies" are aware of your "have to" situation and simply say "no"?

I didn't say that you had to, I said that you almost have to. It is possible without allying. However, if you are in a 6 player game, I find it very hard to believe that you can't find one ally out of China, Europe, and South America. Hell, if you can't find an ally in a 6 player game, no matter what continent you are playing, you are pretty much screwed anyway. As Africa, if there are no alliances, you have as much a chance of winning as anyone else. If people are allying up, and they are all against you, it doesn't matter what continent you are on -- even Europe can't stand against all 5 of the other continents.

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Postby Feud » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:45 pm

Honestly, I've had some of my greatest victories from Africa. Most of the time I do not do an all out first attack, and I try to ally with either SA or Asia. Yes, it has a hard coastline to defend, but it really just requires you to play a more conservative naval game. Just yesterday I won a game where I was Africa, after beating down SA, I set my sights on Europe, and won by a 70 point spread (it was a six player game, no teams allowed). I"m not trying to boast, just to point out that Africa is very winnable, it just requires a differant stratagy then most.

Anyone who "flat out disconnects" becuase they got Africa is a coward, and has all the sportsmanship of the kid who won't play a game unless he is picked first.
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Postby Nutter » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:53 pm

I actually enjoy the challenge of playing africa as it do ideed require a slightly different strategy than other continents. But I've seen africa do quite well in both diplomacy and regular games, hell I was even lucky enough to win the beta tournament with it. Africa is the dark horse nobody expect much from which can be a great help :)
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Postby The Wombat » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:15 am

This wasnt a post for everyone to stroke their e-penis about how well they play Africa the fact is the Continent is at a strong disadvantage compared to the other 5.
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Postby GeneticFreak » Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:14 am

strong disadvantage? Africa is THE only place you can bomb every other continent with airbases alone!
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Postby xander » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:31 pm

GeneticFreak wrote:strong disadvantage? Africa is THE only place you can bomb every other continent with airbases alone!

Indeed. You can also hit Europe much more easily than from any other continent -- the nukes go almost straight up, with only a little curve, and are hard for European AA to take down. Every continent has advantages and disadvantages, you just have to know how to use them. In my experience with Africa, which is not that extensive as I can't play that often, a strong first strike and the proper strategic allies can make Africa quite easy to play.

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Feud
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Postby Feud » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:23 pm

The Wombat wrote:This wasnt a post for everyone to stroke their e-penis about how well they play Africa the fact is the Continent is at a strong disadvantage compared to the other 5.


No wombat, "the fact is" that you suck at playing Africa, and you get pissy whenever people disagree with you.

Africa's disadvantages are neither greater nor less then those teh other regions face, they are just differant.

Normally I don't mind people complaining about this kind of thing. But you decided to be vulgar about it.

Go cry into your juice box, it's the only one who cares.
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Postby The Wombat » Sat Nov 04, 2006 1:26 am

No I don't have trouble playing as Africa I am speaking from a simple strategic standpoint and saying Cairo is hanging out there and in Survivor games (which I tend to play) a major city being left to easy hits really hurts. I was not arguing against people who make valid points such as Africa's ability to bomb any other player I was poking at people stroking their e-penis, yes I'm sure the people posting here are the best of the best at Defcon and YES we all can we as Africa. My point is it has an unfair advantage and I am just looking to balance the game out.
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Postby xander » Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:03 am

Hell, in survivor mode, I tend to ignore all of the big cities for defence. Everyone is going to target them, they will be reduced to nearly zero. It happens. However, people tend to forget about all of the little cities, which means that they send fewer nukes at them. Defend those cities from incoming nukes, and you will have 40-50 M survivors. Now all you have to do is nuke the hell out of everyone else.

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Postby KungFuAlex » Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:08 am

I like playing Africa, everybody seems to underestimate it, and I can strike suprise into my enemies when I do launce a big salvo at them :P

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