"Stay in Second Place"

by Bryant Durrell
October 14, 1998

So we all know the basics of multi-player strategy, right?

"Always attack left."
I thought I'd take the time to write up some of my multi-player strategy, in the hopes of bringing Dennis out of hibernation or at least getting some discussion going. There are a lot of decisions to make in multi-player, and I could talk a lot about why I do the things I do, but I figured I'd start with my most valuable principle:
"Stay in second place."
My thanks to Brad Solberg for many fine hours of Shadowfist. Without Brad, I could never have evolved my game to the level it's at. He also deserves much credit for the methodical approach of picking a position and aiming towards it all game long.

I. Why?

Why would you want to be in second place? What's the good in that? Well, first place people are targets. If you're one site from winning, you can bet that every turn, your opponents will be watching you for the potential to win. If they're smart, they'll assume you can win on not much Power. At the very least, they'll be saving denial to stop your winning bid.
On the other hand, last place people are also targets. In a three person game, it's possible that the middle player will need to help you defend yourself in order to avoid allowing the first place player a win. In a four player game, though, the bottom rung on the ladder often has glue on it. You're an easy target and there are generally a couple people out there who won't win by taking your sites -- so why should anyone want to save you?
Thus, fairly obviously, the best place to be is second place. You can hang out, you can help stop the leader as needed, and you will often go unnoticed as people pay attention to the bigger threat.

II. Where?

OK, this is all very well and good, but isn't it the case that games will often fall into that overly-familiar state where everyone has four sites and it's all about who flinches first?
Well, yeah -- a whole article could be devoted to that particular endgame. And in that case, the question of who's in first place is generally in dispute. Further, it's a sure bet everyone is watching everyone and you won't have a chance to slip in. So you don't want  to wind up in that situation.
Let's define this a little more. Your ideal situation has:
  1. one or more people at four sites
  2. you at three sites, and
  3. one or more people at two sites.
In the endgame, it's OK if everyone has four sites, as long as you keep yourself rationed. In general, though, you want a wide range of positions on the board. Someone should be strong, and someone should be weak. More on why this is so when I talk about winning the game.

III. How?

The basics of this are obvious: don't play or take that fourth site. However, that's a very passive approach and Shadowfist isn't a very passive game. If that's all you're doing, you don't have a good chance of winding up at the ideal situation. For best results, you need to gently guide the rest of the players towards your desires. I'm going to assume a four player game, at this point, for two reasons. First of all, this works better in four player games. In a three player game, it's too easy for one person to run away with the game. Secondly, it'll keep the examples more straightforward. That said, the next technique you'll want to consider is attacking to the right. Yes, really. By doing this, especially early on, you accomplish a few things. First and foremost, you'll weaken the poor sod to your right, who has to fend off one or two other eager players before his or her turn comes around again. You also strengthen at least one of those other players. Voila; you're closer to your ideal board position. Furthermore, you've turned everyone's attention on someone else, giving you more time to build your personal position. As a nice side benefit, the other players may think you're insane. Or at least think you're a bad player. Bonus. Encourage this.
When you're pulling this trick, it's usually best to put a fair amount of damage on a site. If you just kill characters, the other players won't necessarily see it as an opportunity. If you ding a site just a little, they may not follow up. If you do, say, four points of damage to a site, it becomes a serious target.
The weakening technique isn't restricted to attacks to your right, of course. You can attack to your left just as easily; while you won't weaken your target as much, it's a little more subtle. It also may give you a better position in the endgame.
You can also "mistakenly" assist an attack you shouldn't have assisted. This is risky, as you might wind up with an enemy for the rest of the game. On the other hand, if you can pull it off, it's another way to artificially strengthen someone. Also, keep an eye out for the chance to refrain from action -- don't intercept someone when you should, for example. That's much less risky and produces the same effect. In general, be careful who you strengthen. You'll be very unhappy if you make the wrong person too strong. It's best if you can pick the person with the weakest deck, and build him or her up. Otherwise you run the risk of helping someone else to the win, which isn't as satisfying as winning yourself.
Burn for Power. If the Ascended steal it away, you've helped tilt that balance a bit more. If you get to keep it, you can use it to attain your ideal position, whether that means a large site structure with plenty of Trade Centers or a bunch of powerful characters in the smoked pile.
Sometimes you'll find yourself at four sites, for whatever reason. It's easy enough to arrange to lose a site, but it's kind of tough to do so when everyone's at four sites. If you're in a game where  everyone's at four, you might want to give up on this whole concept and just play the staredown game. On the other hand, you might think it's worthwhile to go down a site to keep attention away from you. There are easily a dozen or so cards that will get rid of a site for you. Don't use Orbital Laser Strike, though, or people will look at you funny. Arcanoworms can work but it's a weird way to do it; still, you can pass it off as a way to deny the site to anyone else. Same goes for Inexorable Corruption.
Glimpse of the Abyss and Who's the Big Man Now!? are interesting here, since they give you a benefit, but they will get people in the habit of asking you how close you are to victory. The flip side of that is that people won't remember how close you are unless they ask. All in all it's a good tradeoff; it's also easier to use those two cards more than once.

IV. Winning!

At some point, chances are you'll want to win the game. You must have a plan for winning on three points of power. If you're smart, you'll have a plan for doing this when you start your turn with three sites and nothing else on the board. I'm going to leave such plans up to you, but I will point out the classic play a site, Golden Comeback trick. Or, perhaps, Monkey House for an extra point of power, play a Butterfly Knight, play a Pump-Action Shotgun. It's doable. You may be able to start from a better position, and if you can, it's a  bonus -- but winning from a three-site standing start is, in my  opinion, one of the keys to tournament success.
You've got to know when to take your best shot. This is probably the hardest thing about winning. You should have remembered your plan for the entire game, and you should avoid premature moves. You should have been focussed on setting up your plan: getting the right sites down, getting the right cards in your hand, and getting the right cards in the smoked pile.
Equally as important, you should be watching the other players. How much denial have they used? How much might they have left? You don't have to count cards, but try to avoid asking to look through smoked and toasted piles, because when you do that you draw attention to  ourself. Keep a wary eye on unrevealed sites. Notice who's been acting confident, and remember when they stop acting confident. Eventually you'll have the situation you want, and you'll be pretty sure that the other players are low on denial. (Or you'll realize that someone else was stronger than you thought, and you'll be desparately trying to win before they can. Nothing's guaranteed.)
You're at three sites. If you've been attacking right, then the strongest player is directly to your left. This is the easiest thing to arrange, but note that the other two players will have had a turn each to replenish their supplies of denial. If you managed to put the strongest player to your right, then you're in hog heaven, since you can just wait until he or she makes a failed attack and soaks up everyone's denial.
With luck and skill, there's also someone weaker than you around. (Remember we talked about this earlier?) This is important because you may want to sneak in and grab the first site easily. Unresisting targets are the best.
Do keep an eye out for the opposite possibility, though -- you might be better off taking the first site from the leader, and passing it off as a public service. This really depends on the flow of the game. Taking the first site from the leader is better if he or she is to your left, because you can point out that you're the last person who can do anything to prevent the win! If you can convince the other players to use up their denial to help you take the site, you're amazing and you should be writing this article.
(By the by, Year of the Rat allows you to finetune this *precisely*. It's really useful.)
Now: take the first site. If at all possible, do it without showing that you can take another site. I.e., if you're using Golden Comeback as per the plan above, play the fourth site before you play the Golden Comeback, just in case someone has something that'll screw it up when you play it. Sure, it's not likely that Difficulty at the Beginning will show up, but I lost a tournament game at Gencon once to a Cry of the Forgotten Ancestor. You never know.
Next: take the second site. Easier said than done; you'll have nobody on your side this time. Still, if you've picked the right time, you should be able to pull it off. There's not much to say about this -- if you haven't thought about how to take the final site in a game of Shadowfist before you read this article, you should go back and play a bunch more games first.
Finally: relish in the surprised stares of your opponents. Offer another game.

Last modified: October 2, 1998.
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