Diary of a D12 Noob--from personal experience

Hello all,
I welcome you to the thread where I share the fails of my D12 games, committed by yours truly. I'd advise you not to make these mistakes in your games. Enjoy!
--jtemple507

Entry 1:
On my first day on D12, I joined a 4-player World Classic speed game at 8: 30PM, believing the game would be quick what with the 5 minute turns. WRONG. This game ended up taking until 11:45PM, at least for me. And I was up way past when my dad told me to go to bed at 9: 30, but I didn't want to be kicked out of my first game and risk being banned later on. My advice for you readers is to anticipate a speed game to actually take a long time, and if you don't have that kind of time, don't play. I've now abandoned speed games completely because of this, because I'm 15 and need to go to school. Stick to the long-term games until you believe you'll have the time for a speed game.
Another thing to advise based on this game is: don't go crazy attacking everyone in the beginning. It may end up costing you the game later on. Instead, focus on the strongest players, or the ones who are in the best position to take a given continent. I did what I'm telling you not to do, and it ended up making what might have been an easy win for one of the other players. And when three of us began collaborating through the chat, the game did improve, but often I didn't look at the chat until AFTER I took my turn. And I realized I had attacked a player who had said "let's team up to get blue". Because of that, we were now both in an easy position to get killed by the blue player. The blue player ended up killing the pink player, the one I'd accidentally attacked, next turn, and he and I fought hard over control of Europe. He'd take Ukraine one turn, I'd take it back. Then he'd take South Europe, and I'd take it back. Meanwhile, the black player was also killing me off because, although we'd mutually agreed to fight blue, I told him it was way past my bedtime. So eventually I was killed off by black, and by gaining my territories he was able to defeat blue and win.

So, to sum this story up, kiddies: Don't join speed/live games if you aren't sure you'll have the time. Stick to attacking the strong players throughout the game, and make alliances where you can. And finally, make sure to read the group chat, or you'll end up attacking a player who wants to ally with you.
Well, that's all the advice from this game.
This is jtemple507, ending this post.

Even better than that is to hold your ground and watch everyone else attack each other. Holding regions in increasing games is hardly ever worth it unless you start with almost all of one, and even then only go for the rest if it's South America or Australia. The key to success in increasing cards games is killing others for their cards when the bonus gets high.

Thanks for that. I tend to play more in increasing card games anyway because I'm still not used to the whole fixed card idea. And usually I always get at least half of one of the continents to start in all the games I've played. It might be different for you, pixel, and for the people who read this, however.

Entry 2:
For my second game, I decided to play a 2-player Capitals game on the World Classic map. So my first turn comes up, and I'm a little tense, since the other player has dealt quite a bit of damage to me territory-wise and hit my capital, Western USA, really hard. The ethical thing to do here would be to place the 3 guys you get on your capital, because in a Capitals game, if you lose your capital, it's game over for you. I did not realize this at the time, and put my 3 troops on the Middle East and conquered India and China from the other player. I also attacked Central America from my capital, which would lead to my demise. I got really bad rolls and lost 5 guys out of the 9 I'd had, while the other guy only lost his two. Then, realizing how easily it would be for the other player to take my capital with his crazy amount of troops in Ontario, I rushed to defend my capital. I moved two of the three guys I had in Central America after conquering it back into my capital. I then moved two of my three guys in Venezuela to Central America, thinking I'd reinforce my capital next turn if the other player didn't kill me first. Well, he conquered my capital on his turn, and it was game over.
Moral of the story: Defend your capital at all costs! To start out, only reinforce your capital and the territories surrounding it, if you have any. Once you have a solid defense in your capital, begin reinforcing the closest territory you have to the strongest player's capital, while keeping an eye on your own capital. If things start getting bad near your capital, start putting your troops into your capital again. If you're going to want to get a continent bonus, focus on the continent that your capital is in, to improve the defense of your capital. Well, that's all for now. I'll post another game soon.
Thanks for reading!
--jtemple507

Just a bit more advice... when you are in a situation where the live game is taking too long, if all players agree, you can ask a mod or admin to change the game to a 24 hour game. We can also change 3 minute games to 5 or 7 minute turns too.

Another good tip would be to read this: http://www.dominating12.com/forum/?cmd=topic&id=1029

You seem to spend alot of time writing on forums, why not spend some time reading?
It's an exellent guide for everything that is not 1v1, and for 1v1 there is something in the post below

Haven't posted in a while, guess it's time for:
ENTRY #3:
After playing and winning a 1v1 game, I decided to play another speed game. My mistake of last time seemingly forgotten, I played through on one of the largest maps in the game, the World Expanded map. It took 2 hours for me to complete this game, and again, I came upon a time-crunch. Unexpectedly, I was leaving for my mom's house 20 minutes before the game ended. Luckily, at this point I only had two or three territories left, so the other players soon killed me off. This game showed me that speed games are definitely not for me, and so I stopped playing them.
That's all for now,
JT

Some good observations, but dependant on the game type:
If a Capitals 1v1 unlimited fortifications game, beware! The first player to play will usually eliminate all your troops near their cap and grab any bonus territories on offer, bringing reinforcements to 3 for you and anything from 5 upward for them and therefore less troops are needed in their cap. This is very much a 'first player to play wins' type of game. Always check the fortifications before joining, I have stumbled into a few of these and got to go first just once!
Also in any other type of capitals game, it is not a good idea to block your Capital with your own troops as the main army can't leave the Cap to attack another Cap.
If the paths from your Cap are open to others, any of your troops linked to your Cap are mostly better served being fortified to your Cap.
Finally, always resist attacking an opponents 1 troop if it blocks his Cap to yours, in fact protect that 1 troop, by way of deflection, from attack by others, as it will only allow that player to attack you with reinforcements and not his main army.