One Man's Spy... The End

Parksey wrote:Really enjoyed this game, though feels like ages ago I got eliminated.

The rules and structure were quite well-thought out for a first attempt, and there were lots of checks and balances.

Only real drawback is that there's nothing really in the thread, so once you are out, you can't really follow anything. All the gameplay and drama takes place elsewhere.

Secondly, and this is probably a personal thing, but I felt that the Verify power was slightly overpowered, and that the Spies left the game too early. In bigger teams, Verify would be more balanced, but in teams of five, it meant we were never going to last more than a few days. With the early turns, I made Bravo move and verify, which I imagine was the tactic for the other two as well. It meant that on Day Three, we basically had between Rula and Qikz. I would be surprised if any Spy lived long enough to actually do any sabtoaging.

Next time, I would maybe rework or remove the Verify power. I'd try and figure out a way that Spies were encouraged or pushed sabotage or do other neferious thing. It would be better if the Spies were unmasked due to detective work, bad tactics or messing up somewhere, rather than a power. That's just my view as a Spy though - others might be glad they had the power.

And being a Spy was... exhausting. I was in at least five or six different conversations and the way I'd structurd Bravo meant it all went through me (I'm not sure how fun this is for the other players, as it's quite passive, but felt necessary to safeguard info and protect leaks).

I was actually really busy at work as well. I was in the office and it was the week I was going for promotion, with three interviews. So, Moggy, I was actually busy when I was PMing you - I wasn't actually buying time or busy in my actual team and was trying to reassure you that I would reply later on. I thought that was actually less sus, as it is what I would have said had I been loyal.

But, yeah, there is a lot of activity going through the Spies and it was hard to keep up during the day. I did enjoy the de facto role of team leader, though also felt very similar to being at work.

Regarding Rula/Qikz, I don't think Moggy named Rula in his PM. I remembered a conversation in the Charlie chat which seemed to suggest Rula was the spy (think it was when Mommy was discussed as coming forward to Moggy). I relayed that back to the verified players, but we were aware that it could be false info being fed to us (I was trying to do this in the Bravo chat) - didn't realise Dan had leaked Moggy's name to Qikz).

Fairly early on I had Roon verified, and I had guessed Dan was loyal, though had to keep him at arm's length at times, just in case. Preezy was very quiet but then Verified next. We had a core group of three or four fairly early on. Unfortunately for Rula, I didn't feed him any info at all, just in case he was the spy - sorry about that!

Though he did play a part early on, as the trustworthy first leader. I was choosing the leader via random dice rolls and only informing people late on with the role and decision. I thought that would eliminate leaks and planning if we had to pick the Spy as a leader. Any discussion of plans in the main team chat often contained red herrings and misinformation.

As I mentioned, if we didn't have the Verify power, I would also have had to take a risk trusting members of my team. I would have still gone for Roon and Dan, but Qikz would have had more chance to infiltrate and mess us up. I know Charlies quickly took verified Chet elsewhere, which was ultimately the safest move.

But, yeah, overall I thought it was a great game and really well-planned, for something OB presumably thought up himself. I didn't just enjoy it due to being a Spy, but also liked the structure of the game. Reminded me a little of the early days of Tribe versus Tribe too, which I also really enjoyed.

Roonmastor wrote:The missed nuke still changed the game by locking the Alpha team to one spot, which is why we chose A7 in the first place.

Why did Alpha never go to A4 and get the world shield?
Why did Alpha never fire their homing missile?

On the spy coup, I thought about it on my walk out for lunch just now and I think you could have achieved it by turn 3, but it would rely on bulletproof trust levels in an environment akin to those seen between the Traitors on The Traitors.
(Missile fire two, vote off last one within the team, but just needs timing to get every team locked down at the same time before people abandon their own teams when player count drops)

I'd have been raging at that!

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Roonmastor wrote:The missed nuke still changed the game by locking the Alpha team to one spot, which is why we chose A7 in the first place.

Why did Alpha never go to A4 and get the world shield?
Why did Alpha never fire their homing missile?

On the spy coup, I thought about it on my walk out for lunch just now and I think you could have achieved it by turn 3, but it would rely on bulletproof trust levels in an environment akin to those seen between the Traitors on The Traitors.
(Missile fire two, vote off last one within the team, but just needs timing to get every team locked down at the same time before people abandon their own teams when player count drops)

I'd have been raging at that!

Ah yes, I meant to remember to tell you that you completely misunderstood the fourth tile powerup . From memory, I think Dan had it spot on. It was just a radar that flashed up for everyone when a team landed on their fourth tile, informing where everyone was at the end of that turn, and where the ultimate powerup was. There was no missile defence involved! I think a couple of missiles were fired on that turn and that they simply missed their targets.

Alpha used their homing missile on Turn Eight. They hit Rocsteady and destroyed his forcefield. I think Roc equipped three forcefields over the course of the game.

Edit - the nuke was a good decision, just unfortunate it didn't hit while they were on that tile, as it would have killed everyone (regardless of forcefield status).

Herdanos wrote:You know when we used our homing missile on you. I literally PM'd you!

Rocsteady wrote:I thought you might have had 2. I don't remember getting one at all

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Herdanos wrote:You know when we used our homing missile on you. I literally PM'd you!

Rocsteady wrote:I thought you might have had 2. I don't remember getting one at all

Unfortunately, you lost it forever by moving all the way to tile X from tile 5. The homing missile was on tile 6.

It wouldn't have been that bad if you'd at least landed the nuke by doing that, but the UP got moved to B7 on that turn, so you just missed it. Team Charlie was by far the most unlucky team throughout the whole game, what with missing the homing missile, the nuke, your missile shots at Bravo, and not to mention the Stalin-esque purge Moggy carried out earlier on .

Mommy Christmas wrote:

aayl1 wrote:Dan deleted a big long post where he said Cora and Drummy are working together.

At the end he said Brvao should blow today and Charlie blow tomorrow. I'm cool with that.

This is a barefaced lie. I've being f5ing since 3 minutes to nine this morning.

Rocsteady wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Roonmastor wrote:The missed nuke still changed the game by locking the Alpha team to one spot, which is why we chose A7 in the first place.

Why did Alpha never go to A4 and get the world shield?
Why did Alpha never fire their homing missile?

On the spy coup, I thought about it on my walk out for lunch just now and I think you could have achieved it by turn 3, but it would rely on bulletproof trust levels in an environment akin to those seen between the Traitors on The Traitors.
(Missile fire two, vote off last one within the team, but just needs timing to get every team locked down at the same time before people abandon their own teams when player count drops)

I'd have been raging at that!

Ah yes, I meant to remember to tell you that you completely misunderstood the fourth tile powerup . From memory, I think Dan had it spot on. It was just a radar that flashed up for everyone when a team landed on their fourth tile, informing where everyone was at the end of that turn, and where the ultimate powerup was. There was no missile defence involved! I think a couple of missiles were fired on that turn and that they simply missed their targets.

Alpha used their homing missile on Turn Eight. They hit Rocsteady and destroyed his forcefield. I think Roc equipped three forcefields over the course of the game.

Edit - the nuke was a good decision, just unfortunate it didn't hit while they were on that tile, as it would have killed everyone (regardless of forcefield status).

You strawberry floaters, I had assumed that was Bravo

Roonmastor wrote:What was on square 1? I think that was the only power up we didn't collect.

Herdanos wrote:What kind of games does Ob Bob like? He likes a secret sexy PM circle. He likes behind-the-scenes alliances and shady shenanigans. So of course he's built the game he'd love to play. Ob would thrive in this game. We all need to play like Ob would play.

...

Remember, this is Ob Bob's game. We must all play it as he would. Anyone not PM-ing others surreptitiously isn't playing right.

Herdanos wrote:Ah that's it - the reason I trusted Qikz (I knew there was one ) was because he stepped up to be our internal leader and submit our actions on a turn when everyone else was offline. At the time it just felt like a very non-spy thing to do (as surely they'd also stay quiet and just have us miss a turn).

Though once he was killed we quickly realised he'd used his turn as leader to waste a few of our power-ups.

EDIT: here's the original draft of the deleted post from page 7 (turn two) that Aaron saw but Mommy didn't. After seeing the fallout I opted not to correct anyone in case the distrust between the two of them became somehow beneficial. However I told all of this to Qikz at the time, which would surely have lessened the likelihood of Mommy being bothered
The version Mommy will have seen will have been tweaked - at the time I wrote it, it seemed like the Charlies would become the Blower for Turn Two, but by the time it came round to posting it, Roon was in the lead (I presume the Charlies surrendered that lead for fear of inadvertently outing Moggy?) so IIRC I adjusted accordingly.
Oh and the irony of me calling for Qikz to be blower on Turn Three

Herdanos wrote:Here's what we know.

Remember the most recent AYAW? DML ran a game where the ability to create a seer circle was nerfed and the metagame changed at random. DML has been vocal in the past about how he hates the seer circle and players acting like they understand the mechanics and making predictable choices as a result. We should have expected these features from our gamerunner.

What kind of games does Ob Bob like? He likes a secret sexy PM circle. He likes behind-the-scenes alliances and shady shenanigans. So of course he's built the game he'd love to play. Ob would thrive in this game. We all need to play like Ob would play.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Each of you has been placed into one of three teams:

Team Alpha
Moggy
Jenuall
Tomous
RetroCora
Mommy

Team Bravo
Preezy
Herdanos
DarkRula
Qikz
Roonmastor

Team Charlie
aayl1
Parksey
Drumstick
Rocsteady
Pedz

So we know that...

One of Moggy, Jenuall, Tomous, Cora, and Mommy is secretly loyal to Team Charlie. And aayl1, Parksey, Drumstick, Rocsteady and Pedz all know which one that is.

One of Preezy, me (though for the record, it ain't me babe), Rula, Qikz and Roon is secretly loyal to Team Alpha And Moggy, Jenuall, Tomous, Cora and Mommy all know which one that is.

One of aayl1, Parksey, Drumstick, Rocsteady and Pedz is secretly loyal to the wonderful, phenomenal, fantastic Team Bravo and Preezy, me, Rula, Qikz and Roon know who that superstar is.

Here's what I think has happened: Cora and Drum (whether the rest of their team-mates know it or not) have obviously come up with a strategic allegiance where they'll alternate for Blower. Now, on the face of it, that isn't necessarily a problem for anyone. It just means the "ultimate powerup" (I'm going to call this the UP from here on) will constantly move back-and-forth between tile A7 and tile X (because the Alphas were the blower first, due to Moggy taking the role in contentious circumstances yesterday).

However!

Drum hasn't factored in Cora's masterstroke. We know teams can take two moves per turn. So if a Charlie is the Blower on the current turn (turn two) then the UP will revert to square X. Then, if an Alpha is the Blower next term, as per their strategic alliance, the UP will move to A7

...which is exactly where the Alphas will be.

Turn 1 - Alphas move twice - A1 to A3
Turn 2 - Alphas move twice - A3 to A5
Turn 3 - Alphas move twice - A5 to A7

Because Drumstick has surrendered fealty to Cora so early in the game, the Alphas are on course to claim the UP in the very next turn!

But Herdanos, surely the Alpha who is secretly loyal to Team Charlie won't allow such a plan to come to fruition?

How can they scupper it? The plan is solid. The only thing they could do is sabotage the movement should they be chosen as Team Alpha's leader that day. Not moving two spaces forward would then be revealed to the others and they'd kill their spy, gaining an advantage potentially as overpowered as the UP itself.

But at least they'll be telling Team Charlie of the danger they face?

Perhaps. Charlie have a spy within Alpha's ranks, so we must operate on the basis that Charlie likely know what Alpha are planning - unless, Alpha are canny enough to split their lines of communication, and keep alternating players in the dark, so as to give their plan the best chance of coming to fruition. Probably using one of my beloved yet dastardly so-called "comrades" as a trusted conduit.

Remember, this is Ob Bob's game. We must all play it as he would. Anyone not PM-ing others surreptitiously isn't playing right. We should all be trying to smoke out the traitor in our midst. If you aren't, why? Are you the spy? (Or are you just busy in real life? Huh? Huh? Sorry.) If there's a player not currently PM-ing you, ask yourself: what are they hiding, and why are they hiding it from you?

Any one team gaining the UP at this stage is ruinous for the other two. (Unless it's Team Bravo, in which case I promise we will usher in a new age of glorious harmony, with a full amnesty for all - and a recognised win for us ) I bring forth this conspiracy to light as an honourable citizen of the, uh, Dome of Deception. I hope that this will encourage all players to recognise that we must agree here and now to truly alternate the position of Blower. I would therefore, as a gesture of faith, vote for Roc today, to ensure the UP moves back towards Tile X, on the condition that Qikz is made Blower for Turn 3, to ensure Cora's dastardly ploy cannot come to fruition.

Otherwise...

Qikz wrote:I couldn't believe you didn't clock on to why I was pushing so hard for you to keep Rula alive as the spy.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Oof, I feel just about as seen as I possibly could be . You're spot on.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:In summary, I love being in a team of buddy bros who aren't Wolf Scum and I love dastardly diplomacy via PM/WhatsApp so I really enjoyed this one.

Dual wrote:My highlights:

- Dan inviting XXXXXX into our secret PM group
- Dan forgetting to submit our kill PM in time
- Dan sussing Lagamorph and sending the kill PM with minutes to go
- Discussing how long to keep Qikz in the game (he was basically the 6th Grinch at one point)
- Ob Blov inviting me to the PM circle

Herdanos wrote:

Qikz wrote:I couldn't believe you didn't clock on to why I was pushing so hard for you to keep Rula alive as the spy.

You say that, but there were others also urging caution here - and they were right! So it wasn't necessarily evidence you were a rotter.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Oof, I feel just about as seen as I possibly could be . You're spot on.

I mean, you've been pretty explicit before.

...but enough about your private messages. You've been quite clear in the past on the style of game you like:

Subject: [Game thread] TRIBE VS TRIBE

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:In summary, I love being in a team of buddy bros who aren't Wolf Scum and I love dastardly diplomacy via PM/WhatsApp so I really enjoyed this one.

Also, on the subject of old games, I looked up the last time I made a similar PM cock-up, and it looks like I might be in good company?

Subject: The Deadzone

Dual wrote:My highlights:

- Dan inviting XXXXXX into our secret PM group
- Dan forgetting to submit our kill PM in time
- Dan sussing Lagamorph and sending the kill PM with minutes to go
- Discussing how long to keep Qikz in the game (he was basically the 6th Grinch at one point)
- Ob Blov inviting me to the PM circle

Because Drumstick has surrendered fealty to Cora so early in the game

Herdanos wrote:Also, on the subject of old games, I looked up the last time I made a similar PM cock-up, and it looks like I might be in good company?

- Ob Blov inviting me to the PM circle