The Patient Sheriff

#1

Here’s a scenario: You’re a sheriff, and Night 2 you get an unseen check on someone. Conventional wisdom seems to be to announce it in chat immediately the next day. This seems like the common play, and I’ve seen very good players like Dadmos do this consistently.

But, should you? What do you actually gain? Since the check was Night 2, you know they aren’t the Mastermind. Assuming the MM successfully converted Night 1, if you execute him on Day 3, the MM can convert someone else that night. If you let him live, you know who 1 out of 3 of the unseen are. If you execute him, the MM converts and now you know who 0 out of 3 of the unseen are. Not only this but knowing someone is unseen you can see who they are accusing and who they are defending. Who they vote up quickly and who they drag their heels on. You can’t get any info like this if they are dead.

You don’t slow down killing unless the MM is alone, which could happen if he failed to convert a lot. But statistically, it’s unlikely and so not a good play to bank on.

Then there’s the fact that announcing it makes you a huge target for conversion or killing. If you wait until the MM is found and killed, you can ensure you won’t be converted, and that unseen will have to operate with just an assassin.

One concern with leaving them alive is the increased voting power, but that isn’t really a problem early on, and if it’s getting to the point where the votes are going to start to get tight, you can just announce your findings and kill him then.

Another is the benefit of the abilities the third unseen give… but again, unless you get the MM they’re just going to convert someone else and you’ll have to deal with that anyway. Plus, the deeper into the game it is, the more information the MM will have on who to convert.

Is there anything I’m missing here on why this is a bad strategy?

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#2

It’s better if the assassin is jailed until night 3 or whatever

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#3

Not really. You want to occupy him so the prince can jail him after. The other way around doesn’t work. Also that way you can use a knight to kill him thus proving the knight.

#4

I agree that the best strategy ist o jail/occupy the assassin, however in my experience that rarely works because as soon as you announce everyone just lynches. I agree ideally that would be better.

But assuming it’s the average random game, would you risk it? Remember, you know don’t know for sure if he’s assassin, either, and you might just expose yourself for nothing.

#5

Yeah I have to second the practicallity of it… I’m leaning towards keeping them in my journal and being quiet for a few days hoping to either double shot (IE call out 2 guys at the same time). or pick a better time to go for it.

I do agree, in a perfect BD… the smart thing to do would be, call out to the BD to jail/occupy the assasain for the 3 days, and go out after the MM while the only person killing is the NK.

Last time I went for that strategy… my result was…

D3.
Me: “X is the assasain… don’t vote him but block/jail him”
1 has voted for X
2 has voted for X
3 has voted for X
(etc…)
X: umm butler?
me: Pardon and jail/occupy him… if we kill him now, the MM will just convert tommorow and a new assasain will pop up. we won’t lessen anything
(everyone but me votes execute)
N3. Prince “You shouldn’t have pardoned assassin” executes

#6

Your chance of winning in this game was low anyways, because BD seemed to lack knowledge of the game mechanics. The prince execute was particularly bad. I mean, you just had outed yourself and explained why you pardoned…

#7

Could be, but so long as there is no wall off of new players from vets, you have to adapt strategies to work around the bad players… say if you are butler or drunk, and you are 99.9% sure you found the Assasain or CL… occupy them for the full 3 days you can before calling them out. both sides are likely to be newbies, if you can manipulate your side rather than bet on their competence, you can win more.

#8

I once had a game where I was assassin, died n1, nk kept getting kills, and 4 people were left: sorcerer, observer, mm with no convert, and good king. it’s d7, sorc gets killed, mm FINALLY converts obs and it’s a gg and only mm, me(assassin) and the new convert win. very lonely.

#9

You are right,
In a perfect world u could only tell butlers/ drunks to occupy him.

With most games players skills I think u can just just keep it in your journal until MM is dead.

Also, if u can see the king wishper that player without the player wishper to king, so king is probably evil.