In Monopoly, I get the railroads. If someone buys a railroad before me, I’ll trade all my other property plus half my money if that’s what it takes to get it from them.
In any board game, I take the least favored marker. In Monopoly, that’s usually the iron; Clue would be Professor Plum; in games with generic markers, I get the yellow one, etc.
If you ask me for a noun in a game of Mad Libs, the first one will likely be “Cheeto”.
I don’t castle when I play chess. I want to beat you without resorting to moving two pieces at once!
When I played Monopoly, I would try to get the first set of property. Then I would put 4 houses on each property, becasue if you can’t buy enough houses, you can’t buy a hotel.
In the various incarnations of Civilization, there are always other groups that I will not suffer to exist. In Civ II, for instance, I will immediately and always declare total genocidal war against the French. No exceptions, no quarter.
You’re doing the right thing more often than not, then!
In Morrowind, I never join the Thieves Guild. I think I used a FAQ to clear it as fast as possible in one game just to see what the rewards were, but I haven’t even joined it since.
I can’t be evil in RPG’s. I want to be evil, I want to see the evil ending, I even create the evil aligned characters (In D&D RPG’s), but 1/4 of the story in I’m lawful good. Damn it!
What you said, but for me it’s the Celts. Damn you, Bodicea!
I always wind up as a half-elf fighter in *Baldur’s Gate * and the other AD&D games, just because it’s so freaking hard to keep mages and clerics and rangers and all the other people with crappy/no armor alive.
In CRPGs, I tend to play bards if the option is available, or whatever roguish build is available otherwise. I steal everything the game allows me to steal, even if it means I have to save and restore frequently, but in all other ways I choose the Shining Beacon of Hope path when solving problems. Only Arcanum has ever implemented a system in which acts of theft count against your karma, and even that could be gamed.
Agreed - everytime I start off with hotels on Baltic and Mediterrean, I win.
I am always blue when there is a choice of token color (unless there’s purple)
In Risk, I try to grab the smaller continents first (South America, Oceania) to get the bonuses, then grow from there. Doesn’t always get me a win, but usually allows me to put up a respectable fight.
See, more often than not, I see that strategy fail. So many of my friends are of the mindset of “I’ll take Australia/Oceania no matter the cost! It’s the best ever! only one point of entry!”
I’ve seen people fight to nearly the death to get Australia, and then either myself or someone else comes in and mops up all the rest of their armies everywhere else. Let them have the two extra per turn, it won’t help when we’re getting 4 extra for N.America, 3 for S.America, and 4-5 for having so many countries.
I always start my chess game by moving the knight first. It only gives me four possible moves, but it ALWAYS throws off my opponent right from the start if they haven’t played against me before.
In Battleship I NEVER have my ships touching. The strategy that “oh your opponent won’t know that he’s attacking two ships and will get confused” is total bull because it leads them to TWO of your ships which will get destroyed back to back!
I absolutely refuse to play Monopoly with anyone who wants to play with Free Parking Payout. Sorry, but I have better ways to waste half a day than watching everybody take turns getting rich so that the game never ends. BTW - I’ve played a couple games of Monopoly with the regional champion who went to my college, and his #1 strategy is becoming a railroad tycoon, since once you own all 4 of them, you’ll be getting payouts every single round.
As for video game RPGs, I’m always really anal about getting into the config screen and setting everything as soon as possible. I used to rename all of my characters, even if I couldn’t think of a good name to give them (I remember my first playthrough of Final Fantasy 6, I renamed Cyan to Knight) but now I don’t mess with names at all. I also always save twice in a row, just to make sure that the “Are you sure you want to overwrite?” went through. I also try to sell off all of my old equipment, even if I don’t need the money, just to keep my items screen less clustered. For some games (the Dragon Warriors comes to mind) you can’t carry much stuff anyway.
In Final Fantasy: Tactics, which I’ve replayed at least 10 times, I immediately powerlevel. I can’t help it. By the time I actually move past the first map, I’m so ridiculously over the level cap for story missions that they typically finish within just a few turns. I also always have one monk and one ninja, who together form my Asian Strike Team of Death. Orlandu’s got nothin’ on them.
I do that, too, though in recent games I’ve ended up regretting it as often as not - losing fodder for alchemy, customization and the like. >_< On that note, I play around with that a lot.
I always load up on healing items. If I have access to a replenishable supply of the better ones (High Potions, X-Potions, Remedies, High Ethers), I’ll sell the lesser ones, but make sure I have the good ones at max every time I leave town.
In Civilization I always raze cities I conquer, cuz I hate how the computer arranges them. For every civilization I wipe out, I take one of thier workers and put it in a square near my capital, on a hill or moutain preferably, and just fortify them.
