Well, how about a quick mafia retrospective since I don't think Wandering will be able to do one this time. I will try to keep this brief since I think most people can see my strategy anyways but I'll give a brief outline of the facts after a little intro here. (Ok I lied. It isn't brief.)
As you know, I love this game. I just love it. I just love all the new strategies that pop up in this game and how a player has to take the lessons from one game and adapt them to next. So what works one game, may not work the next but with a tweak, that strategy could win in the next game. I love the unpredictability that can occur in this game. A sure win can quickly turn into a sudden lose in one day. Look at the last game, Hang 'Em High Mafia. It seemed like the mafia would cruise to victory but in two nights and a day, the mafia was suddenly decimated and the game went to an easy townie victory. There have been a lot of great plays in this game.
I love the Pale play in Mafio - GX, where Pale had the last remaining rival mafia member hit the mole in his mafia who had a bomb attached to him, killing them both. There was also the Magician's trick as the player with the Magician's ability used it to switch with other townies, thereby forming a rock-solid alliance and utilizing the role in a way I never thought possible. 18 Days had a great run where he pulled double duty as the godfather in two consecutive games running the first game to it's limit but just falling short by getting voted out on the last day and then getting a fast victory in the next game. 18 Days showed the brilliance in voting out one's own mafia.
I have also had the privilage of being involved in some great plays of strategy. But I must say that of all the games I have played, I feel that this is hands-down, the best I have ever played the game. How well did I play this game? When I got home on Wednesday and saw the results of Day 3 and the beginning of Day 4, I layed out a blueprint of how the next 3 days would play out and for the next 3 days, everything went according to plan. So, now, here is my story:
Pregame:I receive my role:
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You are the Brother Role.
You will do anything to protect your sister that you love...including joining the Mafia.
Although the Mafia doesn't know it, you are member of the Mafia. You will only win the game if the Mafia wins, and if you can keep your sister alive. If your sister is the last townie alive you will save her life and get a perfect win.
If you die then your sister dies and vice versa.
One more thing. If you are investigated by the Detective you will revealed as the Brother Role, but your sister will find out you are truly a mafia agent. Then you two may have to figure out how you want to play. But remember she will not win the game unless the Townies win...and this is a prize Mafia after all.
Interesting. But what is the point of being mafia if I don't know the rest of my mafia? I'm going to be a high priority target by the mafia. Shouldn't they know who I am? What to do.
Day 1Well, if I don't want the mafia to wrongly hit me, I better get some protection. But how? Obviously, you can see what I decided to do with my first post in day 1. And I get a bite. Stevey the investigator contacts me showing he did investigate for me. I've found the investigator. Great start already. However, Pale now knows my dirty secret. Stevey shows me the result of his investigation of me. I tell him that while I am willing to believe him since I revealed my role publicly, obviously all anyone has to do is say the investigated me and claim to be the investigator. He sends me more proof including the infamous townie mole warning that Pale sent. Meanwhile, Spak has decided to be lenient. Since I my sister now knows I am mafia, he will give me the name of the godfather and it is up to him what he wants to do. Excellent. That will save some time searching for mafia members.
I was now connected to the mafia and the mafia knew who the detective was. Easy kill, right? Well, no. We still had the bomber, killer, doctor, witness and vigilante to find. But, now we didn't have to waste time investigating people since we had the detective on our side and I could point out other people to investigate and keep him from investigating mafia players. I choose Darkheart at random. I was really conflicted since I also thought about voting for Bustin98 and Nuclearspeed but incredibly, my instincts came through again. Darkheart starts collecting a lot of votes. Suddenly, I'm getting messages from Darkheart saying he's the bomber and is going to blow me up. After, confirming with Spak the rules for the bomber, I'm happy to know he can't blow me up. Plus, the bomber tells me he is allied with the townies. Now he has to die.
But good fortune continued to smile on me. Sister Mary LeFever contacts me and reveals she is the vigilante. Unbelievable. It's day 1 and I've already found the vigilante and bomber. The only threat left is the killer really. I think about how I want to get rid of the vigilante. Maybe use her kill on a townie role and then sacrifice her on another townie. Still, will it be suspicious to Pale if the Vigilante makes those kind of moves? Might he call me out in the day thread? And then I see Sister Mary LeFever vote for the bomber. Should I save her? Nah. The death will look accidental and I get rid of two birds with one stone. Still, I watch the vote. It is a close one and I almost have to switch my vote to avoid bomber death. However, with thatguy not around for 3 days, I decide to leave the vote as is and let him go.
I send all my mafia members a report on the day and hit recommendations with Nuclearspeed being the top of the list. Nothing against him but it's best to hit players that don't attract much attention. If those players have a powerful role, they could last long in the game and ruin things late game. Bustin98 tells me that he is not sending in a hit. He's doing an investigation. I can't beleive it! Change the order. Change it fast, we don't need to do an investigation. We investigate by whacking people and finding out their role in the morning. But it's too late. His investigation? Golden Phoenix who was killed by the killer that night. It is agreed to do hits from then on.
DAY 218 Days seemed rather eager to attack me. It was easy to convince stevey to investigate him. Turns out 18 Days is the killer. Jackpot. Last threat has been found. But how can I work this to our advantage. I'd like to use the killer's kills for awhile if possible. In other games, the killer has been blackmailed by the townies. Forced to vote with them or get voted out. Would 18 Days do the same thinking he was being blackmailed by the townies? Let's find out. After checking the profiles to see who still hadn't logged after the first days night actions, I saw Zach was the only who hadn't been on for Day 1. If anyone else checked the profiles, they would know that Zach had a very good chance of being a townie. Of course, I knew for sure. So, I approached Zach and let him know what was happening with 18 Days. The plan was to blackmail 18 Days to perform a hit on ThePerm. (If that had happened, so long doctor) My only real reason for hitting ThePerm was his vote for me on Day 1. I don't like getting voted for. Plus, if the killer decided not to go along with the blackmail, the only person he could really kill who knew about it was Zach, the townie with some proof in his favor. Win, win.
Getting home from work and reading through the Day 2 threads, I realize some things. Although he is incorrect about a couple points, Vudu has somehow figured out that I am mafia. Plus, he voted for me. So, that is the hit for the night. Second, Bustin98 and KashogiStogi are talking way too much in the threads and giving out explanations for things that show they have more knowledge on the subject then they should. With Kashogi already getting suspicion from Pale, this has got to stop. Fortunately, Pale is to busy trying to vote out stevey now and I couldn't be happier. With me defending stevey and even claiming that I believe him to not be guilty, all I have to do is let Pale kill him off one of these days and no one will listen to Pale anymore. That takes care of my sister. I vote Mario to save stevey and get rid of another player who had the gall to say I was mafia. The mafia takes the chance not to hit the killer. Bustin goes down. I don't like it but it's not a surprise. He talked to much. In my mafia report, I outline that from now on, we just post we vote for only. If we must give a reason, one sentance only. If someone questions us, we answer by one sentance only. But we start clamming up.
DAY 3In an effort to locate the witness and the doctor, I continue my strategy of players that don't attract much intention. I suggest Crimm to stevey. stevey agrees. Crimm is a townie. Nuts. With the godfather dead, stevey will most likely introduce himself and the townie alliance will grow bigger. Plus, Zach knows stevey is the detective since I told him at the end of Day 2 who stevey was to save him from the vote. However, stevey doesn't want to reveal himself. He thinks, from a message Spak sent him, the townie mole would be shown as a townie if investigated. Of course, I absolutely agree to that idea. Therefore, it is determined that I contact Crimm. Suddenly, it hits me. I can gain control of the voting. I can control an entire townie alliance and pick it apart at the same time. Every townie I talked to, I let them know the story about the townie mole and why I can't reveal important roles yet. This way, the alliance never knows who the allaince consists of. So, when members of it get hit by the mafia, the rest of the allaince never knows and assumes things are fine. The only person who could wise up to that is stevey. But once he's dead, no one but me knows who the alliance is made of. This way, I can keep the alliance growing from growing too large but always picking off a member when needed.
Even better, I can include my mafia members into the alliance. I start with a vote on KashogiStogi for the day. The plan is to vote out the killer which the whole alliance knows is 18 Days. But first, I tell the alliance, I want to vote Kashogi and make him sweat for a bit and maybe reveal his role to me. I even use a silly explanation of why I think Kashogi is mafia. I try to play it up that I don't know Pale knows I'm mafia and make Pale think I am trying to trick him into voting for a townie. Of course, later when we switch votes, I tell everyone that Kashogi said he was a townie and I believe him. I step out for the night but everything seems to be progressing nicely. We get our revenge on the killer and we move closer to controlling the day's vote. The hit is Shyguy. He's a good player and may catch on to mafia players later so it's best to take him down. Plus, he's part of a list that is growing smaller of possible suspects for the doctor and witness.
I come home and somehow 18 Days has managed to survive. Good for him. Fortunately, no further mafia loss is incured as we hit the same target. Still, once again we miss a chance to get rid of an extra townie. Reading over the Day 3 thread and the start of Day 4, I see it there in fron of my eyes. ThePerm is the doctor. I send him a quick message asking why I have the feeling he is the doctor. I then check my messages. (I'd get like 20 messages a day.) Stevey confirms that ThePerm is the doctor. I'm glad to see that I was able to figure it out before logging on. At the same time, I really was wishing 18 Days had gone through with the blackmail. ThePerm suddenly sends me a note saying he is not the doctor but a townie. Stevey investigates ThePerm to try and convice him of our honesty anyways. I'm glad because it means a waste of an investigation and the alliance continues in manageable numbers. I try to figure out how to best work out all that has happened.
Day 4And this is the solution. My famous blueprint. I sent my mafia a copy each. I even sent it to some players who were out of the game and wanted to know what was happening. I even let the host know. The only copy I have left is the message I sent to TVMan. Here it is:
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Here's how the next few days are going to go:
Day 4 - Killer (18 Days) dies in vote, doctor (ThePerm) dies in mafia hit
Day 5 - Detective (stevey) gets voted out because everyone will think he killed the doctor, townie gets killed in mafia hit
Day 6 - Accusations fly as to who is responisble for the detective's death. If things go right, Zach is voted out. If they go wrong, Pale is voted out. Townie dies in mafia hit.
That leaves us with these two outcomes:
Great outcome:
Athrun Zala
KashogiStogi
Khushrenada
oohhboy
Pale
Patchkid15
TVMan
That leaves us one townie death away from victory. Best of all, if we vote myself out that day, I take Pale with me. With a townie hit, the game is won. Mafia 2 and Townies 2. Mafia breaks tie. This is the outcome I am hoping to reach.
Still doable:
Athrun Zala
crimm
KashogiStogi
oohhboy
Patchkid15
TVMan
That leaves the mafia two townie deaths away from victory. The vote and a hit.
Obviously, my recommendation is a Nuclearspeed hit on Day 5 and a Crimm or Zach hit Day 6. Of course, finding out the Witness may change things. Best of all, I'm going to tell the alliance today that Stevey investigated you and you were found to be a townie. When stevey is exhonerated as the detective after his death, you and Kashogi should be looking pretty good townie wise, especially with Crimm and Patchkid still around to vouch for your innocence by the detective and you have my voting record of trying to frame Kashogi.
This is the strategy I'm pursuing and it appears to have a good chance for success. Day 6 is the greatest variable but that's because it is so far away.
Best of all, I am working on a contingency plan with 18 Days in case he escapes the day's vote. Right now, he is certain that the mafia is just myself and Stevey. I'm not letting him think any differently. Just make sure you and Kashogi can avoid arousing his suspicion in case the deal breaks down.
Basically it isn't neccesary to go into what happened the rest of the days as things went pretty well. I did have to change the Nuclearspeed hit once stevey found the witness. And I didn't expect the killer to get a hit when he was voted out. But the contingency plan I worked with 18 Days paid off. Best of all, it removed Zach who had become an enemy of the allaince. Athrun Zala obviously became the guy I wanted to set up in place of Zach. Due to the hit of Zach, my townie numbers were off and all we needed was a Day 6 not a Day 7. I never did have to confirm TVMan's innocence. Instead, on Day 5, I told Crimm and Patchkid that stevey investigated Athrun and confirmed him to be mafia. I also got stevey to post that Pale and Athrun were mafia. Again, this helped in Day 6 when I asked Crimm and Patchkid to vote Athrun out.
I'm not sure if there are any other questions people would like to ask. If there is a detail about something you were curious about or wondered why such and such happened, just ask and I'll fill you in.
I'm not posting this story to get the most votes for the prize. I suspect I may have won that already also. Instead, I just wanted to share with you the strategy I used in this game. In the past few games I played, a lot of people were upset with the unbeatable townie alliances I created. But I just knew, if given the chance, I could also show how they could be stopped by the mafia. Obviously, this strategy isn't going to work for everyone. I was always afraid that Pale would expose me at any time throwing everything into disarray. He waited until it was too late. If the detective was anybody but stevey, I probably would have lost his trust a long time ago. But, Pale voted for stevey every day and I was able to use that to keep stevet from talking to Pale. Plus, I coached stevey a lot to make sure he did look guilty like mafia. It suckered everyone.
So, yes, if we were to play this game again and give everyone different roles, we'd most likely end up with a different result. Still, my hope is that the strategy used here today will be processed by everyone and further refined in future games. Perhaps some one will get a new idea of how they could expand one aspect of what I did and find a whole new strategy from it. But at least it shows that you can never be safe who you trust in this game. And maybe it will make it harder for townie alliances now opening up new strategies to combat the present weaknesses.
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