Micro 948: Noughts and Crosses Blitz [Game over!]

[Umlaut]

Micro 948

Noughts and Crosses Blitz

Moderator: Umlaut
Designer: Empking

Players

1. GuiltyLion
   
2. T-Bone*
   
3. beeboy
   (replaces Rozyroz)
   
   
4. maxwell
   
5. Blair
   
6. Cat Scratch Fever*
   (replaces Kanna)
   
   
7. Clover Ebi
   
8. Celeste
   
9. Dunnstral

(Asterisks denote prods.)

Spoiler: Game state

The game is over! The Mafia surrendered on Night 2.

maxwell ​	Clover Ebi ​	GuiltyLion ​ X
T-Bone ​	Celeste ​	Blair ​
beeboy ​ O	Cat Scratch Fever ​	Dunnstral ​ X

[Umlaut]

General Rules

None of these rules supercede or contradict the Forum Rules and Guidelines, all of which are in full force.

---

Conduct

1. Don't use
   orange
   , it's my color.
   
2. Play to win.
   
3. Don't discuss the game outside of the game until it's over.
   
4. Don't flame. Don't harass. Don't use insults that target minority, disadvantaged, or legally protected classes.
   
5. Keep interpersonal disputes out of the game thread.
   
6. Don't quote or misquote private communications from the moderator.
   
7. Don't use encryption, tiny/hidden/unreadable text, or anything that could be easily confused for such.
   
8. All replacement requests will be taken as serious, irrevocable, and immediate. Once you request replacement you are no longer a player and may not post.
   
9. Don't game the rules, pretend to break the rules, or intentionally test the limits. All pretended violations will be dealt with identically to actual violations.
   
10. Don't break the rules of any other ongoing game in this thread.
    
11. Don't argue moderator actions in the game thread. If you want to dispute a ruling, do so via PM.

---

Game mechanics

Day

• Days begin with a deadline of
  72 hours
  .
  
• Days will end when one of the following events occurs:
  • The deadline is reached.
    
  • A lynch (or no-lynch) is achieved.
    
  • A town-aligned player is modkilled.
• Votes should be made via the vote tag: “[vote]<playername>[/vote]” or “[v]<playername>[/v]”. Full player names or initial segments thereof are preferred.
  
• When more than half of living players are voting for the same player, that player will be lynched and the day will end. Votes are irrevocable once a majority is achieved.
  
• You may vote not to lynch by voting for “No lynch”. When half or more of living players do so, the day will end without a lynch.
  
• If the day reaches deadline without a majority, there will be no lynch.
  
• I will interpret malformed votes according to my own discretion. In general, if it looks like a vote, I will probably count it as a vote. I reserve the right to edit malformed votes for easier counting.
  
• When a majority vote has been achieved but not yet recognized by the moderator, the game is in
  twilight
  . Players, including the lynchee, may continue to post during this period.
  
• Under certain circumstances I may elect to extend the deadline. I will announce in thread if this occurs.

Night

• Nights will last
  24 hours
  , or until all living players give me their approval to end the night early.
  
• During the night, you should be unable to post in the public game thread. If for some reason you are able, doing so is still against the rules.
  
• The mafia kill should be submitted in the Mafia's private thread. If no kill is submitted, then no kill will occur.

---

Activity requirements

• Players who do not confirm within
  24 hours
  of receiving their role PM will be replaced.
  
• Players who do not post for
  24 hours
  in a single game-day will incur a prod.
  
• Players who do not post for
  12 hours
  following a prod will be replaced.
  
• Players who incur three prods will be replaced.
  
• At my discretion, excessive “prod-dodging” may result in a mod warning and subsequently in disregard of future dodges.
  
• If for any reason you are temporarily unable to meet these requirements, you may declare V/LA status
  in thread
  and be excused. V/LA declarations must include a definite end date.
  
• Notwithstanding V/LA status, any player who does not post at all for
  3 days
  of consecutive day time will be replaced.
  
• These are minimal requirements, not recommendations; please keep the game active.

[/font]

[Umlaut]

Setup Information

This game uses the Noughts and Crosses Mafia setup, designed by Empking.

Roles

2x

Mafia Goon

1x

Innocent Child

6x

Townie

Mechanics

• Mafia have daytalk.
  
• Each player occupies a position on a publicly viewable Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe) board. The Innocent Child occupies the central square.
  
• Whenever a player is lynched, this puts a cross (X) on their square; whenever a player is killed at night, this puts a nought (O) on their square.
  
• Town wins if all Mafia are dead
  or
  the board has three crosses in a row; Mafia wins if they control half the votes
  or
  the board has three noughts in a row.
  
• If two win conditions occur at once, the game board will take precedence. E.g., Town wins by placing a third cross in a row even if they lose majority by doing so.

Role PMs

Spoiler: Mafia Goon

Welcome to Noughts and Crosses Blitz! You are a

Mafia Goon

.

You and your partner,

[REDACTED]

, have access to a private topic, where you may talk during all phases of the game. Together you may choose one player to kill every night.

You win when the Mafia controls half the votes

or

when the board has three noughts in a row.

Spoiler: Innocent Child

Welcome to Noughts and Crosses Blitz! You are an

Innocent Child

.

You will be revealed as Town-aligned at the start of the game.

You win when all Mafia are dead

or

when the board has three crosses in a row.

Spoiler: Townie

Welcome to Noughts and Crosses Blitz! You are a

Townie

.

You win when all Mafia are dead

or

when the board has three crosses in a row.

[Umlaut]

Role PMs have been sent; Players have (expired on 2020-06-13 23:30:00) to confirm. The game will begin once 8/9 players have confirmed.

[Umlaut]

With 8/9 players confirmed, the game begins!

---

Day 1 has dawned.

Vote Count 1.0

maxwell ​	Clover Ebi ​	GuiltyLion ​
T-Bone ​	Celeste ​	Blair ​
Rozyroz ​	Kanna ​	Dunnstral ​

Not Voting

(9): GuiltyLion, T-Bone, Rozyroz, maxwell, Blair, Kanna, Clover Ebi, Celeste, Dunnstral

With 9 alive, it takes 5 to lynch.

Deadline

: (expired on 2020-06-16 00:50:00)

Notes:

• Celeste is the

Innocent Child

.
[*]Kanna has (expired on 2020-06-13 23:30:00) to confirm.[/list]

[Celeste]

Interesting! The gods heard my prayer, and my wish has been granted!

Hmhmhm. This is all because of my daily sympathy and compassion, is it not?

[Celeste]

I'd like everyone to proceed with the funniest RVS joke they can think of. The least funny person will be brutally murdered.

VOTE: GuiltyLion

This one gives me guilty vibes, and I have a feeling he may be lion.

[Clover Ebi]

Coming up with a joke on the spot is cruel! Has anyone tried the VOTE: T-bone steak recently?

[Blair]

Greetings!

Opening Thoughts

Below I've attached a visual representation of optimal game board strategy for both teams in all possible scenarios. This is in no way a hard-and-fast requirement to follow, but I think it will prove a helpful reference.

Bear in mind that while this guide suggests the top left square as the opening move, because the board is blank at this point, all four corners are functionally the same - so if we lynch in a different corner today we can just rotate the guide to match and nothing changes.

Scum will almost certainly nightkill the Innocent Child night 1, not just because they are confirmed town, but also because there are almost no scenarios in which they will not need that square to stay in the game.

Importantly, we need to remember that if both sides play the board optimally, the result will be a draw.

So we should plan on focusing on serious scumhunting while treating the game board as a secondary tool that we can use to manipulate the mafia into making nightkills that benefit us, or risk outing themselves.

I believe today we should lynch somewhere within the four corners of the board. Ideally, we can lynch the scummiest of those four players, or at least lynch someone who will force the mafia to nightkill one of our top suspects - in an ideal world, we could accomplish both.

Game Board Strategy Guide:

Spoiler:

VOTE: Dunnstral

In my experience, Dunnstral is always scum.

[Clover Ebi]

Is it bad the first thing that ran through my mind when I saw this set up was if it was optimal to lynch the innocent child?

[Celeste]

Coming up with a joke on the spot is cruel! Has anyone tried the VOTE: T-bone steak recently?

Hmhm. This will suffice.

[Celeste]

Blair, my dear, why provide an optimal strategy for our nefarious adversaries to follow?

VOTE: Blair

[Blair]

So we can better predict and manipulate their nightkills.

Tic Tac Toe is a broken, terrible game. So broken and terrible that knowing the optimal strategy doesn't change it.

[Celeste]

In one of the previous runs, the mafia misplayed and failed to kill the Innocent Child on night 1. This ensured their defeat since day 1 was a mafia lynch. Your information means there is no chance they will misplay now. While running around like a junior detective, did this not cross your mind?

[Blair]

Is it bad the first thing that ran through my mind when I saw this set up was if it was optimal to lynch the innocent child?

I wondered the same thing, but center block isn't actually a very good opening move.

Because the IC is in the center, they are pretty much doomed to die Night 1. If for some reason they don't, scum are probably trying to avoid setting themselves up to be mechanically lynched the next day - which would be a pretty nice revelation.

P-edit: No, it didn't cross my mind. Genuinely. I cannot fathom anyone not killing the Innocent Child in the center square Night 1. Good lord.

[Blair]

That's like playing Hide & Seek and warning me not to remind anyone that they win by hiding.

[Clover Ebi]

I don't really think the chart has anything to do with Blairs alignment. You could talk about how one side has more detail than the other, but the likely thing is she just made it pre-game.
pedit: Fair enough. The answer I came to is it's only optimal if a lot of the town agrees on a certain pair probably being scum, but if that's the case you just lynch them.

[Clover Ebi]

I think a better question to discuss would be how much should we let the game influence our choice making? Like if you scumread someone in a less optimal sqaure would you go for someone else you're less sure on if they had a better square for us to lynch? Or should you play this like normal mafia.

[Celeste]

Do you think so? It seems that is merely her displaying her passion... ...toward the production of this killing game.

Blair, did you prepare this before you received your role?

[Blair]

The ideal play is to lynch someone in our PoE in such a way that scum are forced to also nightkill inside our PoE to block us.

[Celeste]

So we should plan on focusing on serious scumhunting while treating the game board as a secondary tool that we can use to manipulate the mafia into making nightkills that benefit us, or risk outing themselves.

I am the type of person who cannot overlook a good strategy.

So I have no choice but to accept this. But I want to stress that it is only because of my sense of duty.

[Blair]

I looked up the chart when the role PMs went out, and typed the rest up in real time. Why?

[Clover Ebi]

I mean you could be right and this is her trying to get credit and look townie by giving us both sides, but I think realistically this isn't something we can really push and if Blair is scum this isn't gonna be the selling point.
pedit: Well that sounds nice, it's rare for town to agree on poe even though I would love the idea of it. I think mafia has the advantage of being very read flexible because of this game, I just wanna take that away from them.

[Celeste]

It doesn't matter, Blair. You didn't answer in a way which would interest me.

VOTE: Clover

Who said anything about selling points and pushes? We are merely trying to leave the miserable depths of RVS, no?

[Blair]

I guess what I'm saying is, if I can lynch my #2 scumread so that scum have to nightkill my #1 suspect to block us from 3-in-a-row, I'm going to favor that.

If our reads are any good we can force them to nightkill themselves.