SUBTERFUGE Forums

Been having a strange game this week, and I've been wondering about mining strategies. What do y'all think?

In my current game we're on day 9 and there's only one mine (this is a regular, casual game with 6 people). The player with the mine would take 90 - 40 days to get 200 Np since he's only got about 3 outposts. So the rest of us, hesitant to drill mines and draw the attention of the others, haven't drilled at all - just forged alliances and attacked.
It's been fun, but I'm wondering what everyone thinks about early mining strategies. Do you drill first and jump ahead in Np as early as possible? Or hang back and drill after someone else has taken the heat? What repercussions have you had of breaking a mining standoff?

lenasteapot wrote:Been having a strange game this week, and I've been wondering about mining strategies. What do y'all think?

In my current game we're on day 9 and there's only one mine (this is a regular, casual game with 6 people). The player with the mine would take 90 - 40 days to get 200 Np since he's only got about 3 outposts. So the rest of us, hesitant to drill mines and draw the attention of the others, haven't drilled at all - just forged alliances and attacked.
It's been fun, but I'm wondering what everyone thinks about early mining strategies. Do you drill first and jump ahead in Np as early as possible? Or hang back and drill after someone else has taken the heat? What repercussions have you had of breaking a mining standoff?

I normally don't mine until I feel safe enough and ready to play defense. Nothing concrete though. Normally it's right after a successful war.

Depends on the diplomacy, and which mine (1,2 or 3).

Mine 1, I'll go for unless I feel like attack on me is a very real possibility. Even still, I might build it in the middle of my territory depending on how strong I'm feeling. 50 drills is not a lot of drills, and your first mine produces a ton of your end game Nep (as long as you arnt eliminated).

Mine 2, only if I feel pretty safe diplomatically. I often like to get my 2nd mine from war, rather than building it. Then mine 3 is super cheap and can lock up a win so long as diplomacy stays in your favor.

Mine 3/4, are for pushing for the win. I only like building these if I need to catch up in Nep, or if I'm allied with other leaders, but would still like to beat them on the leaderboard.

^These are my general plans. What other people do does have impact. Not being in first does have value, so does having more drills if war is a danger. You can also deliberately stay 20 below an ally to get funding, or climb 20 above an ally to fund them.

I would not, however, not drill even 1 mine indefinitely merely because others havnt drilled, unless diplomacy is extremely chaotic.

This is what is so great about Subterfuge, its so hard to say what is/is not a good idea, because each game can vary so much.

I drill when I am capped as long as that doesn't put me with too much target on my head. For example if I have less outpost than others. When I mine they know they can easily catch up or surpass me. I also like to not mine because then if I take someone else's mine I can build a surprise mine and forge ahead. However none of these strategy has worked for me so its just an idea . Usually it takes X days to win and Y days to move your sub across to prevent the person from winning so you keep an eye on everyone and slowly creep up toward the finish line while smiling friendly to everyone that is doing the same. Then you got to stiff arm them backwards the minute that X is somewhat close to Y and run for it !