Starcraft Mafia - Game Thread - Concluded

[impertinence]

So, quick not on Nicklesbe and some thoughts I have about his play

Overall feeling is he is trying very very hard to get people to see his point of view. Seems hellbent on getting lynched to root out scum and if it is indeed a gambit it's a really high stakes one. Then again, his signature is proof he is willing to crank this game up to 11.

I'm conflicted on him, one one hand I think the push to get lynched is so hard now that it would be almost too reckless to push it and flip scum. The town vibe I get is mostly because of this.

So to the things I don't like:

The whole case against Carl's is very weak. I see one legitimate complaint in there and that was when Carl read the conversation about EricFabian as to be about himself. That point didn't even come from Nickles, but I brought it up and as I said then Carl being paranoid town is as possible a reason as him being scum. Other than that the whole case against Carl is just a lot of hot air and nitpicking and generation a lot of words for very little. It looks a lot like the type of 'going nowhere' arguments and cases that filled tons of pages last game but didn't get town anywhere.

Another point that really doesn't make sense for me is the initial vote he put on himself. The explanation of trying to weed out scum is a legit tactic, but the timing of it is so weird. First of all there really was no lynch train going yet. Second it was very early in the game, third he almost immediately let everyone know that he did it to catch scum. As in "watch this lynch train guys, when I die mafia will be on it!" Of course, unless we have completely retarded mafia this game they are not going to bite on that scum trap. So that behavior is counterproductive to what he claims to want to be doing. It can almost be seen as a way to so obviously give away the 'secret tactic' that is serves as a warning to other scum to stay away from the lynch.

Also, by adding to his own lynch train he takes away one needed vote to the lynch. He has referenced the rules about majority vote rules for lynches so he knows full well that if no one else votes as of the moment when he made his play he could get lynched with no one else voting. In essence he reduced (or eliminated) the need for mafia to vote at all.

When I think about it, the way he has played makes the most sense if he has some sort of role that would flip town no matter what. I know the reverse role exsists (town that flips scum) but a scum role that flips or scans town seems like it would be unfair. Experienced players feel free to fill in thoughts on how feasible that kind of role would be. (The thinking being if Nickles gets lynched, without mafia on his lynch train and flips town it will give scum free reigns for a few Days). Final flavor point: Ghosts in StarCraft has an ability called cloaking. I don't know what that means but sounds like it could possibly be an ability that would prevent scans or maybe affect the flip like I was talking about.

Finally. It is possible that the many obvious attempts to point out that people voting him will be scum is just a gamble to scare people from placing a vote on him and thus lead to someone else getting lynched while he basks in the towniness of his attempted self sacrifice. A risky gamble indeed if true.