My personal strategy

[Almathea]

hi, letting you know what part of my Spy strategy is going to be

i will be the leader of a little club called the Al's Question Club.

each round (beggining really informally) I will pose a question to the Burg - specially crafted to see reactions.

for example, Round 1 will be "How much game analysis and scum finding do you think you have done so far?"

then I will tell people how pleased I was with results of the question, so I take 2 people in and we devise another "tough" question.

then I will say that I love these people I took in <3 and jokingly call ourselves the "Question Club". Each round a tough question will become eagerly awaited by the Burg.

with the question club I will form tight spy-citizen spy hunting bonds - in other words, I will form partnerships with citizens so think I am trying really hard to find spies.

with the Question Club I will have lengthy AIM chats about players!

we could really use a "club" like this to our advantage! Make questions out so that we have really good answers, and some people are caught out and we can turn it against them.

[Pete]

Well, I think discussing our early strategies is a good idea (obviously things will constantly be changing, I guess the only sure fire thing you can say about my strategy is that is always flexible)

I have asked the host and he allowed me to say this to you guys. I am a player from the United Kingdom, this means that my time zone is very very different to all of yours. Most of the game for me will be played at 2am in the morning, and due to one situation or the other I will not be able to be on all the time everyday.

Don't think however that I will be less able to play the game or anything like that, I will be able to strategise and get into peoples heads, in fact I rate myself kinda highly in that sense (just you watch, because I said that I'll be like the first one out or something ).

However, I will be relying on you, probably more then any other spy has had to rely on their team before....but again, this works two ways, I am someone you can trust and rely on to do my job. I am a member of this team and I will do my best to make sure this team wins even if I have to go and sacrifise myself (but I wont be doing that nillly-willy )

SO THEN, With that said, lets get down to my initial strategy.

- In my belief, in the first few rounds, it is very easy to start or succumb to a snowball effect and the elimination of any one person. I feel that inactivity or less-activity-then-others may cause my name to come up, as such, I will want to talk to as many people as possible and truely try to form a relationship with them based on something outside the game (actually, I will need to check this with host, is it allowed for us to talk about things we like, eg favourite shows or teams or such??) and if thats not possible at least have a lengthy conversation without it being cliche. That way when people start throwing their weight around (you ALWAYS seem to get those people who like to throw their weight round early and randomly blurt names out at the beginning with a hope of knocking someone out) if they do bring my name up, it will be easily deflected by the other person saying 'hmm I dunno, I'm not sure about him' and that will cause the (*ahem* excuse my language here) prick to give up and select a different target.

- I also want to form a cliche, a group of people that like hanging out in the same chat room together and although we all will state clearly its not an alliance and we cant trust anyone in that room, secretly everyone will have it in the back of their minds that perhaps, just perhaps they can trust that cliche. If we do make any decisions it will be firstly consulted within that cliche. I am perfectly aware of the riskiness of this strategy, but no spy in their right mind would make such an obvious play and the double bluff issue isnt even in play. This isnt the mole, we arent trying to look like spies. I want people to think of me as a player, but not a competitor...or a threat.

- This is a big one. DO NOT BE AFRAID. (This applies to me...AND YOU! ) You will get the smart alec's that think they know everything about this game in the first few days and will post a detailed analysis on who everyone is and who the spies are. Worst case scenario is that he actually gets someone right....do not be afraid that this guy is suddenly the smartest and biggest threat out there. They got lucky, someone is bound to have one of us as their intial group of spy targets because odds say it will. Don't panic, and also as a side note, dont be afraid to question his logic, because after all, nine times out of ten (or even 99 times out of 100) their logic will ultimately come down to an initial gut feeling, and his 'truth' will be exposed.


I am open to criticism, I much prefer telling me my ideas are cr*p then saying they are good. If you think anything I'm doing or am planning to do is wrong or will jeopardise a plan you have later on...PLEASE tell me. I am someone who almost gets a perverse pleasure out of being wrong
Though, as a P.S I haven't quite decided my persona yet, but I think I might go with stubborn arrogant guy, I want you to all know that isn't the real me

[Almathea]

its clique not cliche! lol

yes groups that (begin) highly informal but really there is a bond between you all.

like take your timezone as an example, in the first one or two episodes whoever you end up speaking to most - make them your clique

form some bond with them, have a private joke, name the chat room with them something funny (but use it every time) give them a sense of belonging!

but, like my question club, never make it a formal. this is my club, we are voting this person etc just make them your scum searching buddies (accuse them too)

if we all have little cliques we can use them as tools and get better ideas of where we stand with people!

cant wait to play with you! stay on for a while post loads, im gonna be gone soon!

[Pete]

When I said I liked to be proved wrong, of all the things, you question my spelling? *Sigh*
Though yes, the more cliches we as spies can create the better, obviously the cit's will try and do it themselves, but it cant hurt to speed the process along now can it?
It would be great to be able to talk but, we are only allowed to use AIM so I guess this forum is our only tool.

Oh, and does anyone think we will have a sixth spy joining us? It seems very likely, but trying to second guess our Omniscient host will only get us in trouble.

[Donald]

- No idea on how many spies we'll have. It looks like in a past game (Spies 5?), the spies didn't know each other, so it's possible we may have a spy we don't know and can't talk to. Hopefully we'll get a fifth, though, the more the merrier!

- I really like the idea of forming "clubs" and "cliques" and "cliches" One of Sam's reasons for making everybody anonymous to each other in this game is because we are more keen on keeping our friends alive. If we form cliques with other players, we become friends, and then they don't want to lynch us. As previously mentioned, if we spread out and form cliques with different players, we can have more and stronger influence over many different players in the game. We could then use the cliques to our advantage by implanting suspicions on a player we want to exile, even getting our friends to publicize those reasons for us, so they get the blame later (but be aware they may come back to AIM convos from previously).

- I think something we need to keep in mind, is to not look too organized when the game starts. Start playing out as though we just found out whether we were a citizen or a spy. i.e. if you didn't have a game-plan before you found out recently you were a spy, you should probably wait a little into the start of the game to let anybody know you have a plan, or before you start executing your plan. If you are somebody who had a plan before you knew you were a spy, go ahead and start as early as you like.

The point of that last bit is you want to be consistent with who you are and how you prepare for and play the game. Otherwise, somebody might realize later you had been preparing a few days ahead of time, and realize you may have received your spy role early.

[Almathea]

my question club was intended for be neing spy or citizen! so im gonna start early!

[Pete]

I agree with Donald not trying to look organised but, at the same time, friendships and cliques need to be formed very early on if they are likely to stay strong for a long time. Obviously they will only work up to a point but by then the game would have shifted a new direction anyways and we can think up a new plan from there.

[Almathea]

im gonna make sure my clique is not lookin organised

my first question is going to be something along the lines of "do you think you have worked hard enough with limited information so far? do you think you can this early on?"

then ill say wow that was a terrific question it shed light on so many things, so ill ask my friends to help me come up with a better one but manipulate the conversation in such a way that it becomes like a task for us

after the "success" of question #2 ill go back on for 3, 4, 5 etc, somewhere along the line ill make a chat room and give us a "cute" name like "question club te he" all in the name of giving us a sense of belonging!

[Jaya]

I like the question club idea. I'm not sure that I have a personal strategy aside from trying to talk to and get to know as many people as possible.

[Jason]

This sounds like a splendid idea, it ought to get you enough exposure as a helpful citizen to avoid early suspicion, just don't let it get you TOO much exposure...

- This is a big one. DO NOT BE AFRAID. (This applies to me...AND YOU! ) You will get the smart alec's that think they know everything about this game in the first few days and will post a detailed analysis on who everyone is and who the spies are. Worst case scenario is that he actually gets someone right....do not be afraid that this guy is suddenly the smartest and biggest threat out there. They got lucky, someone is bound to have one of us as their intial group of spy targets because odds say it will. Don't panic, and also as a side note, dont be afraid to question his logic, because after all, nine times out of ten (or even 99 times out of 100) their logic will ultimately come down to an initial gut feeling, and his 'truth' will be exposed.

Agreed, in fact, if anyone nails us really early on we should probably keep them around for a long time just so that nobody makes the connection of "Hey, this mother fucker suspected these guys and now he's dead."

[DC]

I kind of like the quote Jason posted above, from Pete - especially the "nine times out of ten their logic will ultimately come down to an intial gut feeling" - I think that happened a few time this game.