Bussing: When is it Logical to Consider?

[OceanWind]

Never bus*. If you can get away with not bussing, that's the ideal scenario. Most town players aren't particularly skilled at lynching mafia. Even if you feel that a partner of yours is getting wagoned, it is best to not panic and hop on. Having additional players on your team alive is immensely beneficial especially if you can strategize well and all push in different directions for maximum chaos. Even if it looks like they are getting lynched, they may always be able to talk themselves out of it. You never know unless you understand how the town players think and how determined your partner is. Often when mafia are getting wagoned, a VI townie will hop on with a weak vote and then attention gets diverted from mafia onto that townie.

The thing about interactions with mafia is that once a player flips red, the town will be analyzing the flip for whatever information they can get. It's not going to be as simple as "who pushes this player the hardest." It'll be complex and may come down to "was this player buddying someone?" "did this player look like their posts were manipulative towards someone?" "Did these players always vote together" and so on and so forth. The real challenge is in figuring out interactions with your partners that clear you upon their lynch, not necessarily bussing them into the ground.

*There are times where if you can tell that your partner is doomed and outmatched by the town, then it makes sense to bus them alongside the other townies.

[SilverWolf]

I had a game where I voted w my buddies and was cleared by that as people think scum won't do that. I say vote how you would as town. If the person looks scummy and you know they are town, vote them like you normally would. Unless you want to keep them around but don't avoid wagons for that reason alone. Have a good reason for it.

[ika]

this game is a good example of ideal bussing. our partner was basically doing nothing the entire game and so when we started to try to bus him towns actually defended him.

[SilverWolf]

Oh yeah, that game just ended. Town wouldn't help us bus our worthless buddy. Oh well, we won anyway. LOL

[Espeonage]

Defending is scummy, bus everyone.

[Performer]

Oh yeah, that game just ended. Town wouldn't help us bus our worthless buddy. Oh well, we won anyway. LOL

LOL...oh man

[Untrod Tripod]

Bussing is for chumps.

Always be bussing

Wheeeee

I've had a lot of success with bussing, but I've also had a lot of success with not bussing so

it's good to be able to do both

[RadiantCowbells]

Bussing is trading off a member of your team for towncred.

It's a trade off and like other trade offs you need to be able to assess the value of both of these things.

[Not_Mafia]

Bussing should be done if you feel like it

[Espeonage]

Serious though. It's so ingrained in me that I have to lynch scum that I lynch scum whenever I can.

[Persivul]

In a 10:3 game:

If you don't bus D1, town needs 6 out of 8 votes to lynch scum D2.
If you do bus, town needs 6 out of 9.

That difference is a lot bigger than it might appear.

[IceGuy]

Basic scum strategy guide: If you can do something without losing the game, you should do it in some games and not do it in other games.

[pieguyn]

usually I'll criticize the reasoning behind pushes on flipped scum just as I would any other push. if someone's reasoning is really shallow, and it doesn't look like they really care that much about pushing it or if the conclusions they're drawing make no sense, then it's likely someone is making a scum push even if it's bussing as opposed to pushing a town player (scum know that they are correct, not why they are correct). outside of that, though, I used to have an awful tendency to never, ever, ever, consider the possibility of scum bussing unless I saw a really obvious reason for it. now, I usually just assume that some people will elect to bus just because they prefer to with no deeper reason.

I don't like bussing unless it's necessary, and I personally will never* bus if it's just me+1 other scum alive. having two scum in the game allows a lot more breathing room than just being by yourself where you essentially don't have control over anything. the major exception is if it is for strategic reasons. the main thing I can think of is a mini normal a while back where Boon and I had planned out how we'd navigate the endgame and specifically knew how we would be able to win after the other was lynched. (spoiler: both of us survived)

[DiamondSentinel]

In a 10:3 game:

If you don't bus D1, town needs 6 out of 8 votes to lynch scum D2.
If you do bus, town needs 6 out of 9.

That difference is a lot bigger than it might appear.

Well you can't argue with the numbers.

[BROseidon]

Bussing is trading off a member of your team for towncred.

It's a trade off and like other trade offs you need to be able to assess the value of both of these things.

It's terrifying that RC makes intelligent posts like this and then plays the way he does.

[RadiantCowbells]

If you're criticizing my scum play, I have yet to lose a game as scum on site or even be lynched in one.

If you're criticizing my town play, I note that you as town couldn't catch me as scum... but I caught you as scum when I was town.

[Ythan]

Consider

bussing at all times.

[BROseidon]

I'm saying you play like a crazy person, but talk about the game like an incredibly smart player

[RadiantCowbells]

Maybe playing like a crazy person is an incredibly smart way to play the game?

[BROseidon]

Probably. I still think that fully optimized mafia is just a bunch of naked votes.

[RadiantCowbells]

Hard to get reads on people from a bunch of naked votes

[BROseidon]

Also harder for scum to manipulate the day phase.

[BROseidon]

I guess you would also have PR-related stuff.

[Zachrulez]

In a 10:3 game:

If you don't bus D1, town needs 6 out of 8 votes to lynch scum D2.
If you do bus, town needs 6 out of 9.

That difference is a lot bigger than it might appear.

Well you can't argue with the numbers.

The numbers are a lot more important in a nightless game, and yet there are people that exist that think bussing is a good idea in that kind of game too.

[RadiantCowbells]

still not sure if that was meant to be an insult