thanks to everyone for signing up and playing. I hope you had fun! thank you to sunny and mmm for cohosting. special shoutout to mmm who really went above and beyond what I expected. thank you very much.
first I do apologize for the two host errors I made. I'll just cut to the chase and go to that.
1. I missed the mayor vote on bluedoom so bluedoom should have been voted out. I feel a little less bad about this because no one recognized this error. I think if it had been recognized someone would have unvoted or just swapped to no vote so I don't feel super bad, but still, I have to be better.
2. i gave bluedoom a result I should not have in retrospect. I told bluedoom their action failed because they ended up getting bus driven to someone the redirector can't target (des). my smogon mafia pilled brain was like "oh illegal target, need to notify." in hindsight, given mafiascum ways of resolving this should just be an action failed no result moment. there was just an OC and I am really used to the thinking that any action failed or getting redirected needs to be alerted that I messed this up when I thought back on it. I don't think this impacted the game too much but I do apologize anyways. for what it's worth, the mafiascum way of resolving (minimal results except roles that expect results eg info roles) is really good imo because it lets mafia create fakes and stories and otherwise lets them lie without worrying too much about getting caught in something simple. that to me is the essence of mafia so I like it.
in hindsight, the draft took longer than expected so hosting ended up being a busy time of my life where i was packing to move internationally which i think broke my focus. obviously i own up to any mistakes regardless of that because i'm the one saying i can host the game but yeah i do wish timing worked out better. sorry.
anyways, let's talk about the game!
so yeah, as I mentioned I think this setup slightly breaks town. but it's contingent on roles, as it goes. I like the idea of a draft. I do wonder if it would be better to do the draft AFTER alignments are rolled. then it gives everyone a little more to think about because you have to consider if your role would be good on mafia or not. like i said, a mafia team of gladiator/fruit vendor/bpv is pretty rough.
regardless, a big reason i like the draft is because it's cool to see what roles people value! the fact redirector was the second to last role is pretty wild to me! so i do think that's a cool aspect of this setup. i'm kind of curious what other draft NOCs there are, I'm not sure I've played or seen/heard of any other setups. perhaps something for someone to explore. anyways, not really going to critique the draft, that sort of thing is personal choice anyways.
mafia was sirfish, pulsar, vishy. yeah so like I said before I was worried that this scum team was a little too green (not that there's anything wrong with that), just as far as maybe needing someone to help guide fish who's never played mafia before. overall yeah i think if bluedoom is voted out/someone else is misvoted that probably gives this team some more space to operate while the talkers kind of talk over each other. i think probably mafia just needed one more relatively active person to create some arguments/push votes onto other low talkers. they weren't really ever able to take advantage of the good positioning that fish was in that they created from the n1 no kill. you have to take advantage of that if you are giving up a kill and potentially removing a big power role from the game.
one thing i'll just mention now is i didn't really understand what the mafia was doing with the jailkeep. here is where i think a more experienced or even just active player would have really helped fish out. okay, until genisu died the jk on fairy is fine - but it seemed very wasteful to me to not use the jailkeep and try to create havoc. or jailkeep big problem roles like the bus driver or redirector etc. for me i didn't really see the reasoning to keep jailkeeping fairy instead of trying to use the role offensively. i think that was a big wasted opportunity for the mafia.
back to the game flow, activity was pretty low day 1 yay no vote. mafia elected not to kill. i think peum mentioned in end game chat that mafia should have shot bpv which I didn't even think of which yeah, would've been a good play. i actually did like the no kill angle - that said, i don't think the mafia really took advantage of the town cred they got. and it let the powerful roles stay alive for longer as i said before. this was a problem night 2 where they ran into a bus drive and ended up shooting at des who actually accidentally posioned themselves night 1. ironically the original actions the mafia submitted n2 had them killing des which would have worked out perfectly with genisu dying. oh well! bad luck but can't really fault them for trying to kill genisu there.
yeah day 2 and 3 were obviously good for town voting out mafia. after that it was a little rocky. celever was totally wrong town who objectively was shady so i don't think that's a misvote you can really get too worked up by. celever did just absorb a bus drive so kind of unlucky in that sense to lose that. realiti then kind of did an oops which led to them getting voted out - i do wonder in the world where realiti does the correct action if maybe king_ gets voted out instead. either that or fish gets caught i imagine.
after that yeah i think the king kill was probably not the best because king was in the POV. bluedoom/fairy/peum were basically not getting voted out ever so needed to run into the kill delayer OR jailkeep someone to mess up actions OR no kill to avoid the vote i think. i think the play i was envisioning was something like jailkeep uranium and kill bluedoom -> blame king or uranium and one of them gets voted out and then try and win the 50/50 with peum in the end game. you do have to give town a lot of credit here because they thought out the actions and really made it tough for mafia in the end. i see this game as a strong town doing a good job of finding each other and making the best use of their actions in order to create an endgame where they can find scum without having to rely too much on reads, which, tbh were probably about average for a town (although here on smogon that's probably really good lol). overall i thought this game was solid and i hope people enjoyed. i do see myself wanting to rerun this setup once more in the future but not for a while lol. hopefully i'll still be around!
quick individual write-ups
a fairy - lowkey aura farming this game. i was kind of surprised you were just annointed as clear town relatively early. maybe mafia could have done a better job planting some more seeds of doubt there but like i said aura! you were a steady presence for the town and a key contributor late on in securing the win. good job
des121 - it was very sad and quite bad luck that you ended up poisoning yourself. i wanted to see you in the game a little longer because i think you would have had more of an impact but that's how mafia is sometimes. thx for playing
celever - i feel like sometimes u have games where you are just very off about everything and it seemed like this was one of those games. i do think you did get kind of unlucky with people piling on you and i know you were a bit busy which i think kind of contributed to people scumreading you. appreciate you coming in and trying even with everything going on
sirfish - mafia mvp. being mafia in your first mafia game ever is really daunting. i thought you were really composed . i do appreciate you continuing to give it your all even when put in a really challenging situation. i really was not trying to dunk on you at all with my evaluation of the game so i hope you don't take it that way! overall was very impressed by you - didn't really seem to me like it was your first time playing mafia!
VISHY FISHY - i felt for u this game i know you said you wanted to sub out before you were voted out. being mafia is really tough and i think some people aren't necessarily "built" for it if that makes sense. the notion of having to lie as part of the game can be challenging, i don't know if that's necessarily the case for you. regardless, what counts is that you gave it your best shot and i appreciate you playing and hope to see you come back for more. there's also the fact that perhaps the game would have gone differently if i hadn't made that error so yeah. keep ur head up!
GENISU - this was just a great game from you, i think you had a lot of success in this game because you were able to modulate your tone to the extent that you could built rapport with other players who then listened to you. conversely, i think you were also able to work with others to get to the right decisions. just very impressed by the growth you've shown and i hope to see you continue that hard work
PULSAR512B - i think i wrote it before but yeah you are a very solid scum player but sometimes it just doesn't work out which i think happened here. less of a you thing and more bad luck/solid town play. thank you for playing
king_ - blast from the past! i hope all has been well with you. i know it's just "the internet" and perhaps i'm corny for this but it is nice to keep up with people you knew from years ago so i was really stoked for you to come in and play. i know there was a couple of tough moments this game but i have 0 complaints with how you played. you came in tried your best and stayed active. i guess not a lot goes on around here much anymore but hoping you stick around and play again!
THECHICKENING - i know your bus drives gave some people a headache (maybe including me as far as resolving goes XD) but tbh i think you made some solid decisions. you basically forced the mafia to kill you after your drive the night before really ruined their plans. i hope you had fun and will play again next time!
REALITI - another solid town presence and in this game. idling the kill delay out of pity for the mafia was an A+ aura play. i laughed! i do think you were somewhat unlucky to get voted out but at the same time it was understandable. overall night actions aside you were an active town presence and helped get them to the W. thx for playing
BLUEDOOM - you were also v solid this game although maybe should have been dead d1 heh. sorry again for blowing your result and causing unnecessary confusion although i hope you and everyone can understanding my reasoning! this was a very solid performance from you. thx for playing
URANIUM233 - i appreciated your presence this game i know you said you got busy towards the end which ofc is very understandable. i thought you were providing good energy especially in the beginning of the game. i think you are still relatively new to mafia? anyways, i do hope to see you stick around keep playing. thanks for playing!
PEUM - you earn a gold star for a great job this game, particularly towards the end game. i know there seems to be a trend of you getting on people's nerves but for me i see it as more of a you having a strong personality vs anything untoward happening. i actually think your ability to communicate your thoughts in a persuasive manner has improved from when you first played. not that being the best matters but i do think you are probably one of the strongest if not the strongest mafia player on smogon right now and a lot of that is because you really put effort into thinking about the game and coming up with theories. that commitment to thinking about the game is imo way more important than being right. let's play again sometime soon!
oh i know i already said this but yeah big thanks to MMM for an incredible cohosting job. did vote counts better than me and was very proactive in helping out, such as running through night actions, catching my mistakes etc, way beyond my expectations. i think everyone playing will agree it's nice to get constant vote counts so yes a big help on that front.
if you are interested in keeping up with the circus folks both old and new we have a server outside the circus server - feel free to join
here!
gg all. until the next one~
