Greetings, Warlord -

So the battlefield has proven a tough challenge, victory seems impossible, and you find yourself losing your enthusiasm for the game. You're not a sore loser, but with the odds of victory slim, you don't feel compelled to keep going, and you're thinking of resigning. What do you do? Is it time to graciously acknowledge that you've been outplayed and move on to something more entertaining?

Here's our advice to you:

Fight For Survival!

First of all, we sympathize. This situation came up often in playtesting, since 3/4 of us lost in each test.

From a true Tournament point of view, you should try to survive as long as you can and hold as many cities as possible on Turn 20. This improves your tournament rank and gives you a better slot on the Head-to-Head Ladder, because you get points for how many turns you stay on in the game, and you lose points by dying or resigning sooner. You gain by hanging on, as it should be. That argues against bailing out. But we all know it's not as fun to fight to the bitter end when you have no chance of winning.

But we hope you joined the Tournament to have fun, not simply to win. If you can't win, you can still have a lot of fun and finish the game without actually resigning. If you're still on the map and in the action, you can still tip the outcome! Before you vanish, can you find *some* clever way to trip up your nemesis, even if only just a little? In other words, we hope you'll choose to go down with the ship, guns blazing away, just because you enjoy the glory of battle.

Creative Ways to Resign (if you must):

We know it's not as much fun to lose, and if going down with the ship isn't your style, there are still options. We discourage using the "resign" command, but it is allowed under the rules. But resigning hurts you by reducing your tournament rank and your starting position on the Head-to-Head Warlords ladder, since you lose all your cities sooner. But then maybe you're not going to live until the end of the turn and you'd prefer to go out with a bang rather than getting slaughtered. So let's talk about resigning.

Resigning can be a very creative strategy unto itself. You change the game by eliminating all your own cities, since the number of cities left on the map is reduced. Those players who would have occupied your cities may be hurt in the final standings, since their city fractions will go up as much as they expected. And those who had wouldn't have attacked you may benefit, because their cities will represent a larger fraction of the cities left on the map at the end. And strategically everything changes completely: whole fronts disappear, and new challenges arise! But these side effects can be very subtle. If you really want to resign, be sure you won't actually help your enemies! Check the effect on the final city fractions before making a rash choice. Try to find ways to take as many enemy cities/troops with you when you go! But remember, there is a certain amount of shame associated with not finishing a game...

The Turtle Defense:

Fighting to the end can be tedious and resigning is a bit shameful, but there are many creative options in between! One option is the "turtle defense". Concentrate your units and focus your production on a small number of cities that you hope to hold until the very end of the game. Fortify them, save up gold so you can run a deficit while building up your armies, and sit there until almost the end of the game, while your enemies slaughter each other and ignore you. Then maybe attack at the very end to recapture a few cities and boost your final score.

If you fortify well, no one will want to attack you. If you retreat slowly and avoid losing units in needless battles, you'll have many units in your remaining cities.

The Armadillo Defense:

The Armadillo Defense is a variant of the Turtle Defense. In the Armadillo Defense, you also hide in your shell like a turtle, packing your strongest defensive forces into your key cities to make them invulnerable. But why sit in there passively? Make a strong hero stack into a strike force ("the armadillo's tail") and send it forth to distract your enemies and hopefully hit their soft spots.

More Creative Options

If nothing tickles your fancy so far, see the Advanced Tactics page by Magnus Goransson, at the link above, which is full of even more creative ideas.

No Matter What, Lose Gracefully

If you're destined for defeat, let this be your final challenge: find a creative way of finishing the game, one which suits your tastes and sends the right message about your values as a Warlord. Remember that the purpose of the tournament is to find the "Greatest" Warlord in a fair manner - don't play favorites and help players you already know, just because you like them. Each game is separate, and you should try not to let things from the real world affect your play. The only thing worse than walking away from your country is giving everything to someone just because he's your friend. Play to the end and finish with honor - we really hope we don't have to use the "lost player replacement" rules on you!