Message text I wrote this, hope formatting ends up ok and people find it useful Any thoughts/disagreements welcome.
King Me is fun game in which working out what your opponent is doing and disguising your plans is quite important.
This post discusses some of the tactics. (note this is For the basic game, shoot to the moon is different)
The game has no online private notes page, so external notepad or good memory is useful
Yes/No decision on endpieces
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You get limited No votes, so using them wisely becomes important. Tracking how many no votes opponents have left is useful, but the history doesn't give it (only the most recent piece is in history) so take notes if you want
A No vote gets rid of a potential opponents piece reducing their points
There are two tactics you should follow unless you have a specific reason not to
1. If it is your piece vote yes
2. If is not your piece, vote no if you can
1.The only reason to vote no on your own piece is if you think you are behind another player. You will lose 10 points, and still be behind that player, plus you will use up one of your no votes. Other players who don't have the card will gain on you. In essence it is a hail mary play which you hope you have enough time and no cards to make up the self harm you have caused. Typically this is only useful in earlygame when your pieces have had bad starting position
2. There are several reasons you may want to vote yes when it is not your piece
a. you think someoone else is likely to vote no for you.
b. you think you can win anyway.
c. you are out of no votes
a. saving your no vote for later is a powerful tactical advantage as you will have no votes left and your opponents will not. this puts you in control as opponents with no remaining no votes have to accept whatever happens. In order to determine whether someone else is likely to vote no for you, you need to consider who moved that piece previously and how many no votes they have left and the sort of tactics the person uses.Note if you guess wrong the game is over and most likely you didn't win
b. winning without the ten points for the last row is hard, this occurance would therefore be very rare, posssibly only if no one has the end piece
c. you are not in control of situation and need to accept what comes
What to move: Moving into the castle
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Moving a piece into the castle will prompt the decision choice above, potentially ending the game, but also the only move that can substantially alter the balance
1. moving your own piece into the castle
2. moving your opponents piece into the castle
1. moving your own piece into the castle gives you the potential 10 points which is significant, but also gives your opponent the chance to vote no to eliminate one of your pieces. Thus depending on outcome could be good or bad. if everyone has the same piece (it happens) then how strong your other pieces are becomes important. if you are in a weak position, moving your own into castle would lose you the game. if you think you are in a good position, the main risk is someone else voting no, which costs you the piece and 10 points, while potentially not hurting them at all, causing a balance shift not in your favour. So you should do this probably in the following cases
a. When you think opponents who don't own the piece will not or can not use a No vote. This is obviously either later in the game, when No's have been used up, or early in the game when you are trying the bluff of people assume it is not your piece and that you will vote No yourself, so they will keep their's for later
b. When you think you can get multiple No votes on your piece. Although it is preferable that opponents use their No vote on other pieces (not yours),a couple of games won early due to the bluff may see multiple opponents use up No votes. In the 4 player game, each opponent has 3 No votes, so there are 9 possible opponent No..using up 3 on one piece may be an acceptable loss
c. When you are out of No, you can either wait around for your opponent to make their own decision on which piece to castle, or try desperately to move a piece of your own there in the hope that your opponent won't/can't use their No. If your opponent hasn't been counting, they may think you have a No and will use it on that piece.
2.moving a piece not your own into the castle is great if you intend to use your No vote. Some opponents will lose a piece ..and therefor points,while your pieces are unimpacted. Obviously picking the piece which is owned by multiple opponents is even better. some of your oppponents may vote No as well, reducing the number of potential No to be used against you. If you intend to vote Yes the move is risky but there might be several reasons you would do it
a. you think at least one opponent will vote No,using his No vote on a piece that isn't yours. If you are wrong it could be game losing
b. When you are out of No vote, so you want to make people think you are doing 1c) above
c. if you think the piece belongs to noone, and your other pieces are strongly positioned
What to move: other moves
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Now, if you don't want the game to potentially finish on the move, you will need to move a piece from one level to the next level.
If you move your own piece, your strength goes up by one while your opponents strength either goes up by one or stays the same, but your piece gets closer to the top and potential elimination. Thus to get the benefit without substantial risk, moving your piece from the bottom ranks is better as further from elimination.
However it also potentially tells your opponents that it is your piece. One tactic would be to leave your bottom most piece where it is for as long as possible, so that opponents will think it is not yours. moving one of your pieces from rank 4 to rank 5 may make your opponent think it is not yours so even though they could castle it and eliminate it, they may not. You might be able to try for the bluff and hope they don't No vote when you castle it on your next move.
moving a piece that is not yours will potentially strengthen your opponents and not impact you but will leave that piece closer to be eliminated if you have enough No votes. Moving near the top is therefor better than moving near the bottom. You may want to do it to make people think the piece is yours
now the more advanced tactic is using the fact of four pieces maximum per level to your advantage. Forcing people to move closer to the top of the castle increases the risk of their move, hence reducing likelyhood of a non optimal move from them.
another thing to consider is how to encourage your opponents to move your piece for you giving you a stronger position. I will let you work out how to do it
the game plays very different depending on the number of opponents
Anyway, this is already long for the basic game. If there is interest i will do one for the King Me variant
--- Message edited by redpanda |
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