Beggar thy Neighbor for Fun and Profit

[CrazyStraw]

Ok, assume you're playing in a group of cut-throat swindlers who would just as soon stab you in the back as look at you. Another word for these folks would be 'friends'. Everyone is playing to win.

It's the last round of a close game. You are in last place so you get first pick. You draw a weak empire, one that probably won't get you the win. If you get one of the top powers you have a good shot at winning.

Who do you pass the weak empire to? (answer below)











You pass it to the next guy to draw; i.e. the second-to-last-place guy.

Conventional wisdom says pass the weak power to the top guy to try and bring him down. But if you are trying to win, your best bet is to give the card to the next guy who will be drawing even though it will hurt a guy that isn't a threat to you.

The reason is found in considering that guy's move. He can't keep what he draws. If he gets a good empire, he shouldn't be giving it to a player above him so it will come to you. If he draws a bad empire, you are not a threat so he will push the empire to a higher player. And he won't know how badly you have or haven't hosed him over, so he he's not likely to preemptively be looking for revenge.

That means you have 2 in (# of players) chances to get a strong power and the guys at the top will still likely get passed a bad/mediocre empire. This can backfire in a 3 player game, but the more players in the game the safer this move is.

That's your snippet of Machiavellian goodness for the day.

[TrimChris]

Sounds good. I'm glad to see this post isn't called "Bugger".

[RPGPundit]

Its an interesting theory, though I'm not very sure it adds up.

There are a couple of factors to consider:

1. There are only so many weak empires in a round. Failing to give the weak empire to the first place player means his chances for winning are vastly improved. Your strategy sounds like a good strategy for not turning out last, but not a great strategy for winning.

2. Pure human revenge. You've just passed a total burn to the guy next on the ladder after you. He's lost anyways, no hope in hell of winning. Then on top of that he gets the British. At this point, he'd be likely to want to throttle you, and its highly unlikely that he'll use rational thinking to decide who he wants to give the card to. He may just say "screw it, the game is over anyways", and give the british to the first place player. Or, if he's still using a modicum of sport, he may just give the brits to the player immediately above him in points, rather than to you who are immediately below him.
Likewise, if he were to draw another poor card, he may just level things out by going for mutually assured destruction. You gave him a crappy card, he'll give you the second-crappiest and let the higher ranked players all even out with good empires.
Revenge is a powerful force.


RPGPundit

[TrimChris]

Revenge actually won't be any motive at all. No one is allowed to look at the empire given to them by another player until all of the empires are passed out.

[boylermaker]

Yeah, if I got passed an empire by the guy immediately below me, I'd assume it was a pretty good one, and he was just holding out for the all-or-nothing hope of getting the Brits.