by Viceroy63
Is there such a thing as the “Perfect Drop?” The kind of drop that you can step back from and say, “How could I possibly lose this game, with a drop like this?” Or how's about the reverse? Can there exist the worse possible drop ever, that you just can't possibly win with? What if all of your drops are within the same continent; The same bonus zone? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing? To a large degree, the answer lies in the type of game settings involved.
For example, if you were playing Trench Warfare with no spoils then it would be nice to have all of your drops fall inside of the same “BZ” (Bonus Zone) as that would facilitate the conquest of that BZ, which in turn would provide for extra troops in the long run to win the game. In a game with no spoils the conquest of a BZ becomes of paramount importance in the game. But what about the kind of games that we play in the "SoC" (Society of Cooks)? The SoC teaches from the classic escalating game map. Does it matter then? Yes it does. A great deal in fact. Only from a very different perspective.
The escalating setting allows for the spoils trade to determine, to a very large degree, who wins the game. But that does not mean that a certain amount of strategy and the initial drops in the game have nothing to say in the matter. In fact the initial drops have a lot to do with who wins but don't always have the final word. It can be likened to a process of elimination that begins with the initial drops, continues with Strategy and Position and finishes off with the finely timed spoils. Being proficient at each step of the way assures you of being ready for the final spoils that will win you the game. It all begins, with the drops.
'SoC Hand Book,' wrote:“Prime territories are places that have lots of connections and few bottlenecks; in an ideal game, you would have a stack in NA, Europe, Africa, and Eastern Asia. Below is our prioritized list of territories, but it is subject to your other placements. You don't want your stacks to be too close together or to hold ALL the prime territories because then you will be an easy target.
NA: Chicago, Edmonton, Vancouver, Havana, Montreal, LA, New York, Anchorage, Mexico City.
Europe: Moscow, Istanbul, Berlin, Reykjavik, Madrid, London, Stockholm.
Africa: Nairobi, Dakar, Lagos, Cairo, Cape Town, Johannesburg.
Asia: Dubai, Hong Kong, Novosibirisk, Delhi, Manila, Magadan, Beijing, Astana, Bangkok, Mumbai, Yakutsk, Tokyo.
SA: Sao Paolo, Bogota, Lima, Buenos Aires.
Oz: Jakarta, PM, Perth, Sydney.
This is strictly from an offensive mindset. There will be times when you want to have Buenos Aires or Johannesburg as a defensive stack that is hard to get to for the other players. Also sometimes it is necessary to hold a choke point such as Bangkok, Magadan, or Reykjavik to prevent other players from getting into certain areas where they could make a kill.”
Prime territories are places that have lots of connections and few bottlenecks because they provide more options to attack from. They also make it easier to card because there are so many surrounding regions, so that we have a choice. Tucked away in a corner may provide some safety but not a whole lot of attacking and carding options.
We can't always drop in the "MPT" (Most Prime Territories) available, but we can always strive to be close to one just in case. The point is to be in places that provide us with the most opportunities to card and eventually attack from, while we wait for that perfect set of Spoils to drop in on us.
