[TW MAFIA] Western Chronicles

[fiS]

I'd also like to say this for everyone.
I was a Vanilla Townie from start and told that I'd become SK when the "bar maid" dies. Until UC's death I never had an idea who it could be. I was somewhat a little special VT and I liked the role, actually thought it was little OP but:
Vanilla Townies are underrated. Vanilla Townies are great. Yes, you have no ability, but you can conclude stuff by only reading, gut feelings and maybe voting patterns. Nobody should ever complain being a Vanilla Townie. I enjoyed being Vanilla even if I had no outlook of becoming a SK.

[field]

Not done with my writeup yet.. and I'll be out for the night. So pushing it till tomorrow.

[field]

POSTGAME WRITEUP

Thank you all again for playing. I hope you enjoyed the setup and the day 1 mechanic. I'm going to start by discussing setup balance, and then talk about what went on during the game, then end with MVP and SHOUTOUTS.

SETUP BALANCE:

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I didn't see any problems with the setup being unbalanced. I added Miller, Commuter, and Godfather to throw off the Cop. The Doctor couldn't self-protect. The Vigilante lost his gun if he killed an innocent. The SK emerged once roleblocker died, and I thought it was good balance against town/mafia overpowered because of elected roles. Killing the SK so early cost mafia the game in the end.

The Mayor/Marshall could've gone either way. In my opinion, it shouldn't have been Godfather who ran for Mayor position. Godfather already has investigation immunity, and he can direct his mafia to lynch whoever he wanted anyways. Another mafia should've ran. The problem was, only him and Missa were active, with mido and Scurvy afk. Unfortunate position, and turned out to be a mistake. Especially that he picked WillBy, which brought more heat on him. If he went with less controversial choice (maybe ixt) or maybe sacrificed Scurvy (as he was inactive anyways), the game would have went in a different direction I think. Once WillBy was lynched, the trio of Voth, tp, and Undercut caught onto him and lynched him. WillBy didn't play overly scummy in day 1 (if anything, Exalt played way scummier), and seeing as he was one of the good players, lynching him was bound to bring some heat. Once Exalt was lynched, it wasn't that hard to figure out that Missa was scum. She was largely associated with him, even her name claim mimicked how Exalt claimed his. I didn't think her vote was particularly suspicious, because Exalt was already set to be elected Mayor when she voted. Rather her game play. Plus, tp had a guilty investigation on her from N1, which sealed her fate.

On the town side, I thought Doctor or Cop were best to be elected to the position. Giving them immunity from NKs would be powerful for town. Voth saw a great opportunity for his role to gain immunity from Night kills, and went for it. I thought it was an excellent play. Commuter's two shot of being untargetable by any role at Night made his role largely random. Gaining Marshall's immunity reduced the randomness and made him virtually unkillable at Night till the very end.

GAME EVENTS:

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Day 1 ended up being a carnage with all of town's PRs (with the exception of the cop, tp) were fighting to be elected. WillBy (doctor), Rodney (vigilante), Undercut (roleblocker), and voth (commuter) all posted that they wished to elected, and all had roleclaimed by end of day 1 (rodney hinted at his role, but didn't flat out roleclaim). Zeebu wanted his massclaim, and nearly got it. By end of day 1, the following people had either claimed or hinted at their role:

Undercut - claimed roleblocker
Voth - claimed Commuter
ixt - claimed vanilla townie
Soilderz - claimed vanilla townie
WillBy - claimed doctor (to avoid lynch)
Rodney - hinted at his role in post #28 (polishing my spurs).

The only townies who didn't roleclaim were the_paul (cop), zeebu (miller), and fis (vt who becomes sk).

6/9 townies claimed on d1 and reduced mafia's ability to find the cop to 1/3.

Inactivity of scum isolated them, and led to very accurate scum reads from undercut, something which he tried to act upon in subsequent phases.

Missa ended up being the focus of N1, with tp investigating her and rodney attempting to kill her. Mafia doc did stop the kill against her, but the town gained tp's first guilty investigation. The mafia killed rodney and both roleblockers were useless as undercut tried to rb the godfather and missa tried to rb the miller. It's worth noting that in mafia chat, Missa was going to rb rodney or tp at first, before changing her mind. Biiiiig mistake.

Day 2 was pretty cut and dry. Exalt was getting lynched and nobody was changing that. It was also the beginning of tp/voth alliance, and tp cleverly hiding his role in plain sight. Mafia didn't suspect him until late in the game, and that contributed a lot to their loss. They should have killed him on N3 instead of fis. Overall, Voth/tp/Undercut were on point with undercut posting the scum team 100%, fis was a little off but her gameplay was townie and she was right in going after Missa even though she didn't have knowledge of tp's guilty investigation, Soilderz was off as he put up a slight defense of Exalt. However, because of that he was able to live longer, and being Bodyguard it was crucial for town. Also, Soilderz was one of the few who were reading flavor in the writeups. Definitely the first.

I also subbed rodney in on D2. Rodney targeted Missa on N1 and when subbed in he knew why he failed. I did not think that knowledge gave him or the mafia an unfair advantage so I saw no reason not to sub him in.

On N2, the mafia roleblocked and killed undercut, with mafia roleblocker being protected by the doc. The cop investigated rodney and got a guilty result, the second time in a row.

On D3, Missa was the obvious lynch. tp's guilty result on her sealed her fate. With tp also having a guilty result on rodney, WillBy was the only mafia member able to stay under the radar. tp continued to hide in plain sight and even publicly clashed with voth at some point. The biggest question this phase was Missa's "defense" post which wasn't really a defense, but more a play from the mafia. Missa was coached by mates, especially WillBy. the_paul, WillBy has a message for you: "I'd pick on the_paul, just because he's fun to pick on." The bastard! The goal was to sow doubt in town. To give enough information so that people question what is real and what isn't. Obviously at this point, voth and tp were pretty knowledgeable. But the other townies were in the dark, and were prone to be swayed. Would it succeed? Who knows, but it was a big play and worth a try. At this point WillBy said he felt good that tp was cop. Wtf changed your mind? lol. He also thought (falsely) that the game was unwinnable for the mafia. At this point, the game was very much winnable. WillBy couldn't know that because presence of SK wasn't confirmed yet.

By end of day 3, there were 5 town, 2 mafia, 1 sk. By end of N3, there would have been 3 town, 2 mafia, 1 sk, assuming the sk doesn't kill a mafia member (which she didn't as fis chose ixt). By end of D4, there will be 3 town, 1 mafia, 1 sk because rodney gets lynched (on basis of tp's guilty result). By end of N4, the game could have been one of the following 5 scenarios, some of which favor the mafia or sk, or both together:
-1 town, 1 mafia, 1 sk (mafia & sk target different persons)
-2 town, 1 mafia, 1 sk (mafia & sk target same person)
-2 town, 1 sk (mafia kills townie, sk kills mafia)
-2 town, 1 mafia (sk kills townie, mafia kills sk)
-3 town (mafia & sk kill each other).

By the end of N3, Murphy's law took effect. The worst possible thing that could happen, happened. Mafia killed the sk. They needed the sk's kill to balance the numbers out. Mafia needed to kill tp at this point and had they done that, the game would have turned out differently. Fis, while having good reads throughout the game, could have been swayed by WillBy in the late game. I am not sure why he decided to kill her, other than perhaps put shade on ixt. In the end, mafia got double fucked as fis chose to kill ixt LOL. And I have a message from @fiS:

Hi field.
plz kill ixt. Plz plz plz. Make it a cruel death.
(i actually do everyone a favor!)

Still makes me laugh LOL.

On D4, Voth pulls a clutch play by witholding rodney's name until a bodyguard claimed to him. He forced the mafia to gamble as they did not know who tp had investigated. And he knew that both mafia members couldn't claim bodyguard together, as that would out them both. In the end, the wrong mafia member counterclaimed to him. Voth already knew that rodney was guilty, and because of that he knew that Soilderz was telling the truth. Had voth revealed rodney's name before rodney counterclaimed, it would have given WillBy the opportunity to counterclaim and gain voth's trust, and potentially cause a mislynch of Soilderz.

After that, the game was pretty much over as voth put the pieces together, and him along with Soilderz outnumbered WillBy two-to-one so the latter had no chance of winning no matter what.

MVP:

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Without a doubt, MVP goes to both voth & tp. I thought they had a symbiotic relationship and neither would have been as effective without the other. tp gambled his trust in voth, and it paid off as voth became his messenger. Without tp's investigation results (3 scum out of 4, impressive), voth would have had no leads for town. However, voth was smart in deciding when to use these results. Many people with investigative results make the mistake of giving out that information so early because they are eager to catch scum, or to show others that they've caught scum. Voth demonstrated why it is not always a good idea to give the mafia information that they otherwise do not have, and that was just good mafia play.

SHOUTOUTS:

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Exalt: The mafia was unlucky from the start, getting two inactives. I thought you did well up until you lynched WillBy. From then on, your fate was pretty much sealed. I was hoping you'd survive till later in the game because I enjoy your play. Too bad!

Rodney & WillBy: Thanks for saving my game bros. Rodney was unlucky with a guilty investigation on him so fast. No matter what he said, he had no chance of convincing anyone of anything. WillBy on the other hand managed to stay off the radar and make some good plays. Fuck you for killing the sk though and ruining what would've been an epic ending with 1 town, 1 mafia, 1 sk alive.

Undercut: I didn't like your D1 roleclaim. Roleblocker is ineffective at stopping mafia kills until the late game and by claiming so early (without even having any chance of swaying anyone to your side) you put a target on your back. Nevertheless, your scum list was 100%. Despite that, you had little credibility in town to sway them to your side, and several people were suspicious of you and your roleclaim.

Soilderz: Thanks for reading and analyzing the flavor text. I didn't have many clues, but I did have some and all were based on day or night events. Also, good job staying under the radar and not getting killed. That helped the town win, because it kept voth virtually invincible.

fis: I thought your gameplay was on point the entire game, even if you had some off reads. ixt or Soild weren't playing particularly townie. Also, thank you for being active despite being busy irl, and for the laughs when you killed ixt.

Missa: You were a bit unlucky getting tied to Exalt early on, but some of your posts were pretty scummy tbh. And that post which voth quoted and said it's the reason for you being lynched on D3, that's exactly what I thought after reading it LOL. Nevertheless, I think you're getting better at the game. It's not easy playing as scum, and the day 1 mechanic messed with the flow of the mafia a bit this game unfortunately.

Zeebu: Your D1 massclaim idea struck me as odd considering you are a miller and asking for roles is a scummy move that invites an investigation from the cop. As townie, you shouldn't want a cop to investigate you, as that wastes the cop's investigation (the goal is to catch scum). Let alone when you are a miller... you'd cause the cop to waste an investigation and then to (mis)lynch you, wasting a day phase. I thought it was a bad play even if latter didn't materialize. In the late game, your reads were pretty spot on though. Was surprised that town lynched you before WillBy. Voth is racist, that's probably why.

ixt: I was disappointed in you whining this game. We are quite generous in TW mafia that we have setups loaded with roles. In other forums, the setups usually have 2 PR on town side and rest vanilla, with 1 PR on scum side. Vanilla townie is how you learn how the game is played... by reading and rereading, analyzing what people say, and adding your thoughts. It's not boring, it's what this game is lol. I thought you started out OK but decided to rage quit for some reason. Also, asking for cop to investigate you is a big no-no, and is usually a scum move. See above (under zeebu) why I think townies shouldn't want or invite an investigation from cop. Hopefully you get better as you play more.

With that said, gg everyone. Glad to see mafia is back and I hope we can bring back some of the old players. Night actions spreadsheet below.

NIGHT ACTIONS:

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NKY4M-cObAopKpNnHM_utxVJ_nP-HYB8pVDrfjjTk6s/edit?usp=sharing

[Voth]

Hi field.
plz kill ixt. Plz plz plz. Make it a cruel death.
(i actually do everyone a favor!)

LOL I'M DYING.

field, awesome write up. Awesome game, thanks for hosting, that was a fun one. The elected roles were a fun addition, and in all actuality, the existence of the roles themselves were instrumental in allowing town to win. This was actually a really close game.

[the_paul]

Thanks for the write up, and especially thanks for the host Field. Imo it was really, really well done.

[WillBy]

FWIW the game, to my knowledge, was lost. I had no idea fis was the serial killer. I thought she might be the bodyguard (and had privately claimed to voth early on) because she managed to fly generally under the radar and Voth hadn't said he highly suspected her.
I had a feeling paul was the cop because wed narrowed down the options just enough. Your constant doubting Voth had me suspicious. But I was also worried Voth was secretly the cop and was playing us all. I really wanted to kill the bodyguard, and that's why we targetted fis.
Something else kind of funny is that by n3, I thought there wouldnt be another killing role out there, and didnt protect rodney because I was worried about a tracker

[the_paul]

FWIW the game, to my knowledge, was lost. I had no idea fis was the serial killer. I thought she might be the bodyguard (and had privately claimed to voth early on) because she managed to fly generally under the radar and Voth hadn't said he highly suspected her.
I had a feeling paul was the cop because wed narrowed down the options just enough. Your constant doubting Voth had me suspicious. But I was also worried Voth was secretly the cop and was playing us all. I really wanted to kill the bodyguard, and that's why we targetted fis.
Something else kind of funny is that by n3, I thought there wouldnt be another killing role out there, and didnt protect rodney because I was worried about a tracker

Damn, I thought my only chance to stay alive was by publicly distancing myself from Voth. Did I overdo it or was it that obvious?

[WillBy]

Damn, I thought my only chance to stay alive was by publicly distancing myself from Voth. Did I overdo it or was it that obvious?

It's getting harder to remember, but I feel like Voth didnt do his part. Which to be fair is what he should do as borderline confirmed.

We didnt really know anything until there were so few players left that it was just process of elimination. By the time we did kill you, it was just a spite kill. You had already found 2 mafia, and I thought you would investigate me next

[the_paul]

It's getting harder to remember, but I feel like Voth didnt do his part. Which to be fair is what he should do as borderline confirmed.

We didnt really know anything until there were so few players left that it was just process of elimination. By the time we did kill you, it was just a spite kill. You had already found 2 mafia, and I thought you would investigate me next

I thought Soilderz was mafia because he nailed me as being the cop. That's when I came up with my completely bullshit scumlist, which I was hoping the inaccuracy of this would throw the mafia off. I really was willing to bet Soil was mafia though, you honestly weren't really on my radar. I was almost sure the last 2 were Rodney/Soil, and when you killed me I was investigating Soil

[WillBy]

I thought Soilderz was mafia because he nailed me as being the cop. That's when I came up with my completely bullshit scumlist, which I was hoping the inaccuracy of this would throw the mafia off. I really was willing to bet Soil was mafia though, you honestly weren't really on my radar. I was almost sure the last 2 were Rodney/Soil, and when you killed me I was investigating Soil

Yeah. I knew it couldnt be a real list. When voth was super sure he had at least 1 of us, we had to be super careful who we pointed at. Which is why rodney and I were both 3/5 on each other's list.

Anyways, you both played really well. You kept the circle tight and Voth was such a tease with the scum-list thing. GGs.

[Zeebu]

i still think the mass roleclaim would have worked due to what i think would be a high liklihood of selecting both elected roles to town as well as having hte bodyguard NOT be known to all

[WillBy]

i still think the mass roleclaim would have worked due to what i think would be a high liklihood of selecting both elected roles to town as well as having hte bodyguard NOT be known to all

Yeah, it probably would have worked. I dont like them for just that reason. It's really hard to balance for that, besides just giving mafia safe claims. I think eventually there should always be a mass claim, but d1 is like, showing fields hand prematurely.

[Missa]

Well I was simply trying to be more active and put more thoughts out there, and that apparently made me look bad. People were on my nuts game before last because I didn't post enough.. But if I post at all or ask questions, I'm obviously scum. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha f y'all lol

[the_paul]

Everybody is scum, Missa. Everything everyone does is scummy. That's just the way it is. FWIW once Exalt flipped we had a really good idea you were mafia, not necessarily what you said

[Zeebu]

Yeah, it probably would have worked. I dont like them for just that reason. It's really hard to balance for that, besides just giving mafia safe claims. I think eventually there should always be a mass claim, but d1 is like, showing fields hand prematurely.

thats what i mean, if a d1 mass roleclaim would win it, then the game isnt balanced