Hello, I am very new to this site and I am looking for players who are very good or better at Espionage since I was told that it is very similar to Stratego/Sabotage/Sabotage Rush. I consider myself to be very good at the game. I wish to play anyone who knows what one is doing in the game and will be a real challenge for me. :) I do not want to play those who are below very good since I can win easily against them. I hope to have some very good games in Espionage with very good or better opponents. :) If there are masters at the game, I would like to play them some games. :) You have to know your strategy and tactics if you play me. :) I am also on itsyourturn.com and playing Sabotage and Sabotage Rush. Sorry to say this, but if you are not very good, please do not challenge me.

I have 2 small espionage games and 2 fast espionage games waiting in the lobby... Please accept if you want a good challenge! :)

yup agreed.. volcanos change the game considerably . it would be a nice option...along with the unlimited side to side motion it will be interesting to see it on this site as well. as for 4 vs 5 i prefer to ahve the 4 but really it all depends upon the situation. and your playing style.

Some very good points here and Grenv's especially.

I would like to see a bigger board and without volcanoes. They are just too restricting.

4 vs. 5
Only time and experience will give you the indication of which are probably better; I certainly know which I prefer!

I think perhaps you are thinking about 5's incorrectly. They are strong, but they must be used defensively more than offensively. 4's are better offensively as you mentioned. Any 4 can attack literally any non-bomb piece if it is backed up by a sapper. Why? if the enemy 5 recaptures it, the sapper is there to take it off the board. teams of sapper + 4 and spy + 5 work well together, as the spy identifies the potential sappers lying in wait.

this is why so many people value their 4s to their 5s.. i prefer to trade off my 5s for my opponents 4s so that i dnt have to worry about sappers. to me 4s are = value to 5s... this also frees up my sappers that i dont have to waste on killing 5s...in a trade off. you cant beat an opp taht has his base surrounded with bombs if you have no sappers and its an even game.

*writing note to self* Self, keep a sapper for last! lol

Thad, if a mine would explode after anyone landed on it, then all you have to do is throw some poor 1's at them. The sapper gains value by being the only anti-mine piece. If you lose your sappers you must win every other piece and make the last move in order to win, so keep your sappers!

they have this feature on another site that i play a similar version of this game. There are good and bad things about this. it eliminates a BIG factor of the game and it woulde totally change the game. in the other game you play totally blind 100% no REoncs or SPys.. ande the gmae would become totally random, if anyone is interested in knowing that site.. www.deepmachines.com/bigbattle

I know that mines stay on the board unless removed by a sapper. But wouldn't the game be better if they were removed when any piece encounters one? In other words, if a piece (other than a sapper) steps on a mine, the piece is removed AND the mine is also removed. This would make the game more challenging. Also, the way it is now, if you lose all your sappers and your opponent has his HQ surrounded, you can't win.

I would like to see a SuperEspionage version. Combine a spy + sapper, which each player has one of. Combine a spy + 5, which each players one of.

Throw away two of the one's in exchange.

I like grenv's idea!

First with so few games completed, you will see the ratings do many funny things.

Second - When you win against lower ranked players, you rating may not change. Actually, with so few games complete, you could actually LOSE points when you win a game against a lower ranked player (But Fencer made it so you actually never lose points, even if the ratings formula says it should)

Third: You rating is also rounded/trunkated. So even though you think your rating has stayed at 1700, it may have actually been 1700.0, then 1700.2, then 1700.4

why is it that now that i am at 1700 rating points i cna go no higher even though i have won 2 games since i have been 1700...? what has to ahppen to get over 1700?

they are sorta symetrical as in shape...

Well, looks like we were wrong about our assumptions on volcano placement. I had thought that they were always placed symetrically with respect to your opponent. In other words, if you looked at the board upside down, the volcanos were in the same places. But that's not the case. Take a look at this board. The volcanos are not symetrically placed.

Fencer, perhaps you can enlighten us on what volcano positions are possible, please? ;-)

Thad

there are tricks to getting in in that situation. it all depends on where your base is and what pieces you ahve left.. if you ahve less pieces than you have moves..e.g. you have only two 5s and your playing the fast version that means that you have to move both of those pieces. than i can work my way around you b/c your forced to move. so ill sacrifice one piece to get to your base...one will get through. but getting the sappers is another challenge. no experienced player will let them go that easily so taht situation will almost never happen!

Yes but if you have both 5's to your opponent's none, you no longer have to worry about an attack on your castle. Retreat your 5's to either side of it and whatever comes at it you can win by attacking first. Just remove all sappers in swaps ahead of time and the game is yours.

a tip for beginners dont assume that b/c a rank is worth more you shouldnt protect it vs a sacrifice.. e.g. if you have a 4 and its protected by a sapper and you assume that your opponent wont trade his 5 for your 4 you are sadly mistaken. with all that said i dont want you to fall into the trap of you thinking your opponent wont attack b/c he thinks your 4 is protected by a sapper.. and it really isnt. b/c if he attacks your 4 with his 5 and it was a bluff on your part your down a 4 and in very big trouble.. many feel that the 4 is the most valuable piece on the board.. but it really isnt its all in the sitation.. ive seen 3s used very well.. so dont assume that b/.c you have both your opp 5s adn he has only 4s left that you got the game in hand! b/c you dont!

be careful while taking notes. especially if you copy paste your notes each move.. i copied and pasted moves from a game but it was from teh wrong game somehow it copied and pasted moves from a different game!

Thanks Summertop. That helps.

When you move forward, your next turn may not be backwards. You must wait another turn. Then you can.

I'm new to this game. I've noticed sometimes I can move backwards. What determines that? I may have missed it in the rules and was just wondering if anyone could explain it.

grenv, what a super idea...!

i like that idea as well

its just like making notes .. but in an easier way

i like what you suggested with the second board. it can be a pain to track pieces.. basically though i do not worry about teh juggling of pieces it is mainly used as a distraction from teh real plan.. so when a piece moves that i dont know..e.g. when you get into the gmae more you can use psychology to analyize a situation such as ... if i jsut attacked you with a 5 and you had no idea that it was a 5 until it was just then revealed to you. i would watch your next move to see what piece you jstu moved more than likely it was a sapper. so ill track this piece BUT then comes the tricky part you could pull the swap! where you adjust that piece with anohter "?" piece. now i have to track 2 pieces this cna go on and on.. so you just have to save your spys and dont be so aggressive with them. without eyes you cannot fight! it can get quite intense at times... hang in there. remember though you ahve to knwo when to be the aggresor and when to be defensive only a good mixture of both will help you win!

I think we need a "dark spy" piece. When it crosses the 5th rank, all of your opponent's spy data gets turned back to "?"

BBW, a capture should reveal exactly what was captured. After all, it's a battle and to the victor go the spoils.

You should definately know what you captured. A captured pieces board would solve that. It would provide enough information to make the game more fun without giving away anything to make the game less fun.

All I want is an easier way to keep track of what you already know.

It would not be changing the strategy at all - it would just help the players who do not have the time to study the board, keep going through past moves to see what has already happened, etc...

Also the suggestion of knowing which pieces you captured is also a good idea. (If you capture a ? with a blind attack, then it should show a ? as captured - not reveal any new information that you can not already get by spending a lot of time going though the board.)

Espionage is a fun game, but I quickly learned I do not have the time to put into each game to play it with 100%. All I'm asking for is an easier way to keep track of things, and I believe most others are also.

I agree... A small and large version with no volcanos would be great!

Part of the strategy is attacking what you know and keeping your pieces hidden from the enemy. Blind attacks are reckless unless the odds are in your favor. What many of your are suggesting would ruin the game. Instead of changing the rules to make the game easier change your strategy to work around the rules...

how about if we can "mark" the enemy piece with whatever we think it is? This could be done by selecting the mystery piece and then selecting the type. They would need to be different than the ones that have actually been revealed to tell them apart.

Nothingness - I'm interested on how you keep track of the pieces in the notes - as it is now, every time your opponent moves a piece, you have to update the position - so lets say a pieces was at A1, and they just moved it - you have to update the position of that piece. (If it was labled someway, you would never have to update the piece location.)

... but that is why I'm asking how you do it - maybe I'm missing an easier way.

Maybe we need 2 boards, one game board as it is now, and one with our own labels. As the opponent moves on the game board, our labeled board gets updated automatically. So if I replace a ? with a 3 on my board, if the player moves the ? piece, on my board the 3 is moved to the same square.

We need to see what pieces have been captured. Also, The game notation needs to show that an attack was made in that turn. It also should show what the outcome of the attack was.

When you are playing multiple games, you just can't remember everything. Also, if I blindly attack an opponent and win, I have no ideaa what rank I just killed. Some examples...If my "5" attacks and wins I only know it was not a bomb (Mine). If my sapper attack and wins, was it a Bomb(Mine) or a "5". Inquiring Minds Want To Know!

that would be confusing especially when pieces start getting moved around alot...youll have 13,1,5,6,8,22,30 all next to each other thats way to many numbers. ill jsut keep my note taking ways... 1,2,3,+3,-4,R,S,X,X,1,5,etc.... much easier..

I'm finding that a player that has more time to track the game, track the pieces, etc... will do a lot beter in this game then someone who does not have the time to study the board.

What I would like to see is an easier way to keep notes about pieces. Here is my idea.

Once the pieces are placed, each "?" piece will be given a number. The piece in A1 with get #1, the piece in B1 will get #2... and so on. Then the you will be able to keep track of pieces a little more.
So in ThomasBarnes example, if your 4 piece attacks the ?13 piece and loses, then in your own notes, you can write ?13 = 5 or mine.

Otherwise, you would have to start tracking, changing your noted every time that piece moves somewhere else, etc.... again to the point that the person who has the most time to study the board will do beter.

Also if the suggestion of having an option of the submit/notes field be moved ABOVE the game board after a move ever gets done, it would be easier to make notes while seeing the board, instead of now looking at the board, scrolling down writing some notes, scrolling back up to look at board, then back down to write, etc...

No t to mention that a 4 will loose to a mine as well... I think the only certain you have is when a 5 attacks and looses... it was definitely a mine in that case...
But I agree with Kevin: it's fine the way it is. This is a strategy and memory game after all, so "automatic revealings" would take some fun out of it...

There should at least be a captured pieces pile like in chess.

If a 3 attacks and loses it could be a 4 or 5 that it attacked. But even so, that's part of the strategy - why not add more and more helpful features to make the game easier until we might as well let the game play itself?

If you want to keep track, make notes for yourself.

If a 4 attacks a 5 and loses, shouldn't the 5 become revealed? Also if a 3 attacks a 4 and loses, the 4 should be revealed, shouldn't it? It can be "only one thing" so why not?

This then means, indirectly, Spies must be more valuable, since knowing what you are attacking can have a big payout.

in stratego this was teh general rule. but in this version if you attack a same ranked general you win and only he is removed from the playing board!

I thought when pieces of same power attack each other both are removed. So if 5 strike 5, the striker wins in the way it is done on here? I thought ties were both removed.

A game option for No Volcanos would be superb. They block up the game and make attack very difficult.

Im aware of the volcanos permutations but why am i only seeing 4 different setups?

Fencer, you are AWESOME!!

Mahalo (Hawaiian thanks),
Thad

I had to look up the proper spelling for the plural of 'volcano' since I've used it two different ways here myself! Looks like both 'volcanos' and 'volcanoes' are both acceptable, at least according to dictionary.com. ;-)

The volcanos are always placed symetrically so that each player has them in the same positions. There are 10 squares in which they can be placed (in any of the ten squares in the row on 'your' half of the board farthest from the edge). The formula for the number of ways to choose two squares out of ten is 10!/(10-2)!x2! = 10x9/2 = 45 ways.

does anyoe know abou thow many different volcano setups there are? in each version? i know ive had all 4 in a block in the center and have had them blocking thre whole center up down up down... and have had an off set on the sieds with the middle.. any others? i think that there should be soem other volcano setups.there are almsot infinite possiblities.