How do you play the early game?

[Skelda]

It's refreshing to finally find someone to talk to about

cannibalism

/evolutionary psychology/etc."

Wow I feel called out

[Skelda]

"Oh no! I'm so annoyed that this person just messaged me quickly! They must be a huge threat!" -thought no one ever

[Skelda]

My legit advice for early game is to clear your schedule for the whole day of game start and do nothing but PM as quickly as you can. You can put your foot off the gas a bit later but just being a presence in the beginning is all you should need to do for the most padt. Also maybe make sure you are having enough gametalk but not too much, and usually that starts by just asking the other person what they think of the tribe after you've had some back and forth on whatever else.

If you find a bestie early on, great, but for the most part just being like "hey, I contribute, if you swap with me I will pull my weight" should be enough on tribe one. I always think of tribe one as people I have as options later on if I need them but probably not my true closest allies in the game, though that depends on circumstances. It's really just about keeping those doors open on tribe one. Tribes two and three are about locking down your super tight merge allies, and then merge returns to how tribe one was where the people you meet can and should be options if you need them, but probably won't be your besties.

[Skelda]

The main problem with having a bestie from tribe 1 is that everyone knows that you have a bestie from tribe 1.

Exactly, so it's better for it to be something that's in your back pocket if you need it rather than your whole plan. Also even if someone is your bestie on tribe one, if you swap apart you will make new friends and there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get back on the same page when you meet again. That's why it's better to find your real bestie later in the premerge because there's less chance of being separated for a significant amount of time and drifting apart.

[Skelda]

The main problem with having a bestie from tribe 1 is that everyone knows that you have a bestie from tribe 1.

This happened to me in Flash Mob with Carmine.


Also I would probably devote the first day and a half to messaging if possible, I've been burned way too many times by PMing Day 1 and thinking I could take a little easy on Day 2 and have been burned otherwise.

I think you should be as active as you can up until the results of the first challenge, and then if you lose, there will be gametalk which you can't miss, but if you win, that tends to be when people relax a bit. You don't want to be complacent obviously but as long as you are still active, you usually can get away with being a bit slower on the PMing front once everyone knows there isn't going to be an immediate tribal and the urgency is gone.

[Skelda]

Every game varies so heavily depending on design. If there is a fair amount of swapping, then you don't really need to worry about your first tribe so just focus on getting through it and making a decent impression.

Don't be on top

but don't be that easy first boot either. Second swap on is when you really need to jam who your best friend is because most likely, your first tribe best friend will be dead or have someone else they already are close with.

Don't be friends with the person everyone likes.

You are just asking for trouble. All you want from that person is to make sure they like you too as they have huge sway in the first couple votes.

I disagree with the bolded advice. I get what you mean, and you should probably be cognizant of the fact that if you immediately love someone, there is a decent chance that everyone feels a similar way. But you usually should be making friends with that person, or at least making them think you are friends, but more often legit making friends. That's an incredibly useful ally for later in the game and getting in their good graces can be the difference between staying and going down the line. Should you be staking your entire game on them choosing you over someone else? No. But you should be in good with them, and the best way to make them feel comfortable is to be genuine in your desire to both continue forward in the game.

I also just flat-out disagree with your advice about not being on top. If you're a new player capable of being on top and running your tribe, I say go for it. At the very least it will be a learning experience. I get the argument about wanting to play in the middle if possible, but you can't really give generalized advice in that regard because every player is different. I'm biased because I like to play from the top and always have, but it depends on the player and what they can make work. But also I don't think people see control premerge as threatening necessarily? Probably situational but some players can away with it. So if there's any time it's okay to control things and be on top, it's early in the game, since by the time merge rolls around, circumstances will be different and no one will care who dictated boots rounds and rounds ago.

A lot of this comes down to personal taste and preference, and I get that some people like to be a bit more UTR, but that isn't and shouldn't be everyone's game.

[Skelda]

It also definitely is the case that in games with more frequent swaps, the rewards for being on top are less and less, so something to keep in mind. But I think having control and getting the most beneficial eliminations for yourself can be its own reward.

[Skelda]

I think we're just going to agree to disagree here. We're both very different players, and we both have had success with our different strategies. I'm not saying that your approach to the early game/the game in general is wrong (and I think more players on site play like you than play like me for what it's worth), but I do think you can't make sweeping statements like "playing MOR is the best way to survive early game". I just can't accept that. Yes, there are drawbacks to being seen as a threat in the game, but there are also drawbacks to being someone who is expendable to large numbers of people or who doesn't have the super tight relationships needed to make moves and have agency in how things proceed. Different strokes for different folks etc. etc. If we all played to be as MOR as possible, to me that wouldn't be a very exciting or interesting game anyway.

One thing I do firmly believe (and this is advice for both the early game and for the game in general) is that you should know yourself and play in a way that utilizes your strengths as a player. So if you are good at playing a sneaky UTR style game, great. If you have a fantastic social game, great. If you're a challenge beast, great. It isn't really about those individual ingredients, it's about knowing who you are as a player and knowing how to use who you are to get yourself into the best possible position. It isn't that a MOR game is better or worse than an aggro social game, but that some players are better at playing that kind of game. If the social game is what you're best at, but you're scared about being seen as a threat and so aren't as social as you could be, then because of that fear, you're letting what could have been one of your strongest assets lie fallow. If you're someone like Meme who is able to make crazy big-brain strategic plays, then you should lean into that and learn how to play that way and make it far. Variety is the spice of life.

And one final thing to note: I know that anyone can read this thread, but I was thinking about it with newer players in mind, and while less experienced players certainly do have a range in terms of personality/approach to the game, I think we see them playing not aggressively enough more often than we see them playing too aggressively. So for me, I think the early boots are more often people who aren't playing hard enough than people who are playing too hard, though there definitely are exceptions. For this reason, I think telling new players that one of their main concerns in the very beginning of the game should be their threat level is generally speaking not good general advice. Do some players need to hear it? Probably. But if you're a new player and you have a chance to really seize control and run your original tribe, I say go for it and worry about consequences which may or may not come later. That's what I would do anyway, but again, it might just not be your nature to take that kind of role and that's okay too.

I'm glad you have found a strategy that works for you. That's not my style, not my truth, and it isn't a lot of other people's either.

[Skelda]

And I say to new players, play hard! Don't be afraid to be a threat. Be bold. Be social. Make moves. Experiment. Learn who you are as a player and what particular challenges you face so that in the likely event you fail to win, you can refine and perfect your strategy in subsequent games.

We're like good cop/bad cop. Or ying and yang. Two sides of the same coin. Idk I don't have a good metaphor hahaha