Okay, let me answer these by posting a rambling wall of text and just braindump. Will they be answered in there somewhere? :amii
My mind runs a mile a minute at the start of these games. I always end up silly high on the post-count, even when I am purposefully trying not to. I like a bit of cross tribe banter at the best of times. And I know that turns some people off but I've had my fun and that's all that matters, Father.
I generally operate best as half of a partnership where I can do a braindump like this to them in full trust, and they will talk me down from the worst ideas I come up with. Like today - I was under the impression that everyone who finds the thing would get the thing - just a matter of whether we'd share it around. I was constructing all kinds of plans where I'd just publically post the password and we'd all have higher amounts to bid with and we'd see what happens. I had a thread all queued up and ready to go for about four hours! Thanks god I waited and then didn't - I'd have looked like a right plonker.
Mad scheme II. Use the 40 and the 22 and get immunity. Get voted out this round while Mario is inactive. Go to another tribe, be immune, and grab theirs too. Of course again in these tangents I tend to forget I'm not the only one playing here, and I'm not necessarily the lead in anyone's stories bar my own. So of course it turns out I've missed that Smash Ball & the ladies have it instead. Not the worst place for it to be, at least they were upfront about it. I do wonder if I'd had my head on when I moved tribe would I have been quick enough. Ho hum. And of course the other two tribes are likely long found too.
Like I no longer am considering either of these, but just a glimpse into what my brain was tossing around today in the long open spaces between Aussies going and US peeps arriving.
--
Okay, strategy. I think in Survivor there's an optimal gamestyle where you play the onion inside the onion inside the onion, and if you do it well enough, you steamroll the opposition and then you win because you have also been making sure you have the most respect/connections within your group which now make up the majority of the Jury. Very dull, very paint-by-numbers. Arsenal always try to walk it in. Statistically smart but boring.
In Arena, there's a kind of counter-intuitive logic that says you want to be on the most batshit tribe. The one with the close votes and the dramatic flips and the 3-2-1s - at least you do early - and that's because of the mutineers. In two tribe Arena you get the returnee in the first round and already you are a more appealing option for the next returnee. There are places to hide in the numbers. And that momentum gains because later when a mutineer has choice between the 8-person tribe or the 4, well now it's obvious where to go. Long story short, crazy is good.
But that is two-tribe Arena. And this game is three. I suppose the pattern will likely repeat if conditions are right, but the effect will be less dramatic because it sounds like we always get two winners out of the duels, and they aren't allowed pile into the one tribe. (Three in first round maybe? w/e)
So I think I try to play a touch fast and wild. Not to intentionally stir up fake drama and be seen as too risky to ally with, but when opportunities present, I'd probably say the plays that have bigger chance of blowing up are the ones to try.
--
Friends & enemies, best to worst;
Definitely the one I've spoken with the most. He and Richter seems to have been reaching out to everyone pre-pick. At least the Twins told me they came here partly because they also had spoken with Squirtle/Richter. So they are both social. I can't say yet if they are more industrious than the rest of us or just less jaded
I do like squirtle, I've bounced ideas and rambling off him a lot today
A little exhausting but #2 right now. It's hard to converse when she is already doing both halves of a convo without me though. But she's eager & clever & was upfront about finding the Smash Ball. I did try a little social manuvering with her - pre-pick to see if we ended up joining a tribe "together", setting up how the eager beavers might be already together, and some sharing of info around that advantage. We're in a good place, I think? She's kinda latched on to my mention of Squirtle/Richter though - she's hinting to that as a preferred foursome whereas I have no real solid clue just yet.
Solid is a good word. Dependable comms. I don't really know what he actually thinks about anything or anyone though? But it's only Day 1, that can come later.
I guess if we set up a traditional alliance, the ones so far are where it would fall as it stands.
I like Marth too. I was thinking of him as an ace-in-the-hole kinda relationship. I made the same pre-pick pitch to him as with the twins. We're not exactly running with that yet, but it's a start. I also like how I said something like "okay, lets get your shitty anime backstory over and done with, lay it on me" and he replied with "idk who tf I am, I just picked this rep cos they were hot" actual lol at that.
Ike is also here. Need to speak more with.
I did fuck around with Falcon here and there, and I've spent the day waiting for an answer to my first message. None has been forthcoming although he has been online more than once :/ I hope he didn't take my banter the wrong way, but it's a possibility. Now I'm caught in one of those situations where talking/thinking about it can make it a reality even though it isn't anything at all until I do. Hrmmm. I will continue to wait.
--
Sandbags & training.
I'm a fan of this twist and the maths around it. Typical Conner
It reminds me of the card game High Society a touch. I'm quite good at that, though it's obvious different in a few key areas.
My first thought is definitely not to bid on the immunity-shield any time soon. I could probably do with an early duel here. A lot of benefits to that - change of scenery if you survive, put in a stomping time so that people are less eager to send you again. or worst case, get out of the game early before I've spent weeks pouring hopes and dreams into another mid-Jury slot.
After that, I've two conflicting trains of thought.
1) Don't touch the other two bags either. Just save all attacks for down the road for now. Not forever, but at least a round or three until I figure out who likes who. Having a full choice of attacks later opens a lot of doors. The specific amounts on some of the low & middling cards are nearly as important to keep as the high-value ones.
OR 2) Go for the shared comms one immediately with a middling bid. When I land in with two reps from other tribes, give them their passcodes. Find out if it worked for them (and where the things are now) or if they landed elsewhere already.
the trouble with #2 is that the Twins pitched me the exact same idea
And they also pipped me to the item. Goddamnit. Maybe we are more similar than I thought.
--
One other thing I wanted to mention but missed was Yoshi
I don't love the egg "strategy". What do you mean I have no input on your vote and can never have that? And you also won't tell me who does? Bullshit I say - what's in it for me?
On the other hand it's so stupid I kinda do love it. *IF* he sticks to it and this isn't a cover. If he breaks it I would hate it. Yet I'm also inclined to do everything I can in my power to make him break it.
Reminds me an awful lot of Sammy, and while I'm trying not to let that cloud my judgement, it kinda is too. He said he's leaning to come to Blue if he has first choice. I don't think I'd like that. Buuuuuuut, as I said at the start - the goal of the first few rounds in Arena has to be to attract as many mutineers as possible. Beggars can't be choosers.
