Separation strategy. Does this works?

[Realeo]

Me and my Indonesian friend loved to have internet game of mafia. We are like 15 players, and they are this duo that if these two duos become mafia, they're literally untouchable.

I asked how and they told me the separation strategy.

We had setup:

11 VT
1 Cop
3 Framer Mafia

Cop innocent is obviously innocent.

The separation strategy is like this:

The three mafia during N0 talk (the two duo + third mafia) will try to figure out who is the weakest link. The strategy is simple: both two mafias must accuse the weakest link, while the other two never accuse each other.

What I realized is 1) this guy did a good job of "implicitly" doing the strategy. I had been mafia twice with them and I didn't notice that I am in a plot 2) this guy sometimes decided to play classic mafia--to deny any possible meta 3) The third guy is not necessarily the weakest link, one of the two duos can be the weakest link.

Does this separation strategy work?

My mind went, "Wait. This may actually work. People may assume one people bus the weakest link, but no one will see 2 people bus the weakest link?"

[hitogoroshi]

Generally on ms all of these grand gambit strategies won't work past a day or two because we just in general assign pretty low weight to leading an early scum lynch after a couple of days.

A well-executed bus probably takes you out of the limelight D2 and maybe D3, but it's pretty rare to give someone a whole-game pass because they spearheaded a D1 scum lynch.

[kuribo]

It works great against newbies


Against experienced players, bussing is less effective.




Then again http://forum.mafiascum.net/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=44900

[Realeo]

So know your audience, it appears.

[kuribo]

Like everything else in Mafia and life

[Killthestory]

Be versatile and have fun with what you do. If you're all stressed out, not only are you having fun, but it's a pretty big sign you're scum.

[kuribo]

That's not even remotely true, being town can be just as stressful

[Killthestory]

Depends on your playstyle, then. People see others who are more uncomfortable as people who aren't town.

Maybe stressful wasn't the right word. Uncomfortable is what I mean. I usually see town joking around a lot more rather than being serious. It's dependant on playstyle, so if that's not how you play, play to that. It's just good to have fun and be versatile with every situation.

[Accountant]

Bussing works sometimes. But sometimes it doesn't.

[MagnaofIllusion]

Maybe stressful wasn't the right word. Uncomfortable is what I mean. I usually see town joking around a lot more rather than being serious. It's dependant on playstyle, so if that's not how you play, play to that. It's just good to have fun and be versatile with every situation.

[Killthestory]

Yes.

[McMenno]

aren't we all

[callforjudgement]

I was on a scumteam who ran a variant of this. We had four on our team; two of us (including me) threw as much shade as possible at a third player, whereas the fourth hard-defended them. We got the weakest link to L-1, then they claimed, and we let the wagon collapse. Then I started tunnelling the third player even though they didn't have a wagon any more, got vigged and flipped scum, and this gave the third player enough towncred that they could coast to victory.

People put a lot of stock in bussing their scumbuddy to a lynch, but having them

not

lynched is even more effective because you're not sacrificing a member.

[kuribo]

Eventually, good town will call you out for throwing shit with someone you aren't then willing to lynch


I've caught many scum over the years by following the Aborted Busses. They vote early, calling their buddies scum, but when the wagon gets around L-3 or L-2, they get cold feet because they don't really want the lynch to go down. If that bussee then flips scum, there's a fairly strong associative connection.


Always remember your associative connections, kids. Except when I'm scum. When I'm scum, they're worthless.