[Interest Check] Pokemon Conquest roleplay... In Kalos!

[Tomas Elliot]

So, while checking my old conversations here on Reborn (and by "old" I mean, "from before my period of hiatus") I found the plans for a roleplay inspired to Pokemon Conquest. Back then, the project went to hell after I disappeared, but now that I am back (hopefully) for good, I think it would be nice to revive it. I am posting here the ideas we had come up with, to see if people would be interested in the idea: I am a bit busy with university, but should I get enough positive feedback, I will start the roleplay next monday...

The basic idea

The basic idea is to recreate a scenario similar to the Pokemon Conquest spin-off game. Basically, it would be all about warriors competing against each other and against NPCs in order to conquer all the kingdoms that exist in the game, in a setting inspired to Middle Age (we would take inpiration from European Middle Age, rather than from Japanese Middle Age). Each warrior would have a Pokemon partner that would do the fighting in battles, being able to use its moves not only to attack opponents, but also to take advantage from the environment, set up traps, spy on enemies to collect info, and so on. The Pokemon would share a bond with its master, and this bond would be measured by a value named Link. The Link would be expressed in percentage form, with the maximum value being ofc 100%. Winning missions with the partner Pokemon would increase this value, while being defeated would decrease it. Each warrior would be able to achieve 100% Link only with one pre-set species, however (more on this later). From a strictly gameplay point of view, the roleplay would consist of various missions, each of which would be built exploiting the game theory: all players would take part into each mission, however only one of them would be able to obtain the ultimate prize of the mission. The players would be forced to cooperate (because the missions would be too difficult to just solo them), however they'd be bound to double-cross each other at some point: it wil be interesting to see the strategues each player will adopt to try and emerge victorious; generally speaking, the peculiar element of this roleplay would be the fact that the partecipants would be allies with one another, but at the same time they'd be in competition with one another, thus paving the way to situations involving betrayal, stolen info, and so on.

Warriors and stats

Upon joining the roleplay, each player will have to create their warrior. Each warrior will have 3 statistics: Power, which will have to do with the battles, Wisdom, which will have to do with the Link between the warrior and its partner Pokemon, and Charisma, which will have to do with recruiting NPCs. Each stat will go from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 100. Warriors will not physically take part in battles, however each of them will have a Warrior Skill, a special ability that will give to their partner Pokemon a significant advantage in battle, which they will be allowed to use only once per mission. People would be able to create their own powers upon posting their app (more on this later)

Pokemon and Link

Upon creating their warrior, each player will have to declare which will be their Perfect Pokemon, that is the Pokemon they can achieve 100% Link with. Let's say for example that I choose Wobbuffet as my Perfect Pokemon: I will be able to achieve AT MOST 50% Link with Pokemon that have type advantage over Wobb (that is, Dark-, Bug- and Ghost-types), 70% Link with Pokemon that are neutral or weak to the Psychic type, 90% Link with other Psychic types, and 100% with Wynaut and Wobbuffet only. Link will affect performances in battle, also it will be crucial for the evolution of the partner Pokemon: in fact, even if warriors will have to declare the fully evolved form of the Pokemon they want as partner, they will have to start with the unevolved form, and evolve it throughout the game.
Pokemon that evolve via level up and/or friendship will evolve, in our rp, upon achieving specific levels of Link (a two-staged Pokemon will evolve upon reaching 50% Link regardless of the level it requires in the game, while a three-staged Pokemon will evolve upon reaching 30% Link and then evolve again upon reaching 70% Link).
Pokemon that evolve via stone (this includes Pokemon that require trading, which will evolve with Reborn own Link Stone) will be able to evolve as soon as their warrior obtains the appropriate evolutionary stone (they'll sometimes be given away as prizes for victory in missions), however that will cost 10% Link.
Pokemon that need to hold a specific item while leveling up (or being traded) in order to evolve will still need that item: such items will be obtainable throughout missions.
As for Pokemon that require to be leveled up in specific locations in order to evolve, they will evolve upon reaching 50% (or 70% link for three-staged families) Link at the end of a mission that takes place in specific locations (we will have a location with an intense magnetic field to evolve Magneton into Magnezone and Nosepass into Probopass, a forest to evolve Eevee into Leafeon, and so on).
Link will increase at the end of each mission, if the palyer and their partner Pokemon made it through it without being defeated: each player will receive a pre-determined amount of Link, plus a bonus which will depend on the Wisdom stat. Let's say for example that a certain mission gives 10% Link as a reward: upon clearing it, I will obtain 10% Link + (10%*[Wisdom stat]%); for example, a Wisdom stat of 80 will give me 10% + (10%*80%)= 10% +8% = 18% bonus Link. Decimals will be ALWAYS rounded DOWN.
Please note that the Pokemon a warrior will start their journey with won't have to be the Perfect Pokemon: players may decide to begin their journey with a different Pokemon and then obtain their Perfect one later in the game.

Moves and Battles

Each Pokemon will be naturally able to use in a battle all the moves its species can learn via level up and/or via breeding. There will be no 4-moveslots limit. Players will be able to teach their partners moves that their species can only learn via TM or tutoring (as of Gen 6 learnsets), however doing so will cost them 10% Link.
There will be no stats and no damage calculation in battle: each player will simply have to describe their strategy, and the judges (myself and eventually the co-host/s) will award the victory to the one that displayed better creativity, better strategy, better respect of the opponent, in one word better roleplay skills. In order to get an idea of the power of a Pokemon, however, each Pokemon will be given, upon beginning a battle, a Battle Value. This Battle Value will basically be the reason why Link is expressed in percentage: in fact, the Battle Value will be the percentage of the Power stat of a player expressed by Link. For example, if I have a Power stat of 80 and a Link of 50%, the Battle Value of my Pokemon will be 40, because 50% of 80 is 40. This Battle Value will not be decisive to the victory, by this I mean that people with higher Battle Value will NOT be guaranteed to win. However, th Battle Value will give us an idea of the difficulty of a battle: if a player with a Battle Value of 20 faces a player with a Battle Value of 90, the guy with the Battle Value of 20 will have to fight an up-hill battle, and will be expected to pull off a very good strategy with some very good posts in order to win: Vice-versa, the guy with the Battle Value of 90 will have the advantage, and thus won't have to display a particularly great strategy (being lazy might cost them the matchup, however). Please note that every move and ability which influence the Attack stat, like the Intimidate ability or the Swords Dance move, will influence this Battle Value instead in our roleplay, giving it the same bonus/malus they would give to the stat in normal gameplay.

NPCs and recruitment

We will have 20 major NPCs. As the story will be set in the past of Kalos, AZ will be the main NPC and our equivalent of Charlemagne (after all, Kalos is inspired to France), with the story exploring his start of darkness following the loss of Floette, and the players ultimately having to try and prevent him from creating the Ultimate Weapon. The other NPCs will be inspired to the 12 loyal Paladins of Charlemagne, and other characters of the Charlemagne saga. These will be the major NPCs which will play a role in the plot, acting as the enemies the players must overcome in battle (think of them as "bosses" after a number of minor missions), with AZ himself acting as the "final boss". During missions, each of these NPCs will be supported by a variable amount of minions, however these minions will be far weaker than the major NPCs (and than the players, for that matters) and their only purpose will be to quickly lose to the players in order to give away valuable info upon being defeated.
Upon defeating a major NPC, a player will get the chance of recruiting him/her: if the player defeats the Pokemon of an NPC with a supereffective move, while the Charisma stat of the player is higher than the Charisma stat of the NPC, the player will be able to recruit the NPC: from that moment onward, the NPC will become a secondary character of the player, and the player will be able to use the partner Pokemon of the recruited NPC in battle alongside their own.

Creating a warrior

Upon joining, a player will have to create their warrior: to do so, they will be given 350 Warrior Points, which they'll invest in the various aspects of a warrior I have explained so far.
Each of the three stats (Power, Wisdom and Charisma) will be capped at 100, so a player will have to invest up to 100 Warrior Points in each stat.
Choosing the Starter Pokemon (the Pokemon the player begins their adventure with) will cost Warrior Points: a Pokemon whose fully evolved form is considered NU as of Gen 6 will cost 30 Warrior Points, RU Pokemon will cost 50 Warrior Points, UU Pokemon will cost 70 Warrior Points, and OU Pokemon will cost 100 Warrior Points.
Additionally, a player will have to declare which ability their Pokemon partner will have, choosing from the ones their Pokemon can get in the games: while picking one of the normal abilities will be free, picking the Hidden Ability will require an additional cost of 50 points.
Choosing the Perfect Pokemon (the Pokemon the player can achieve 100% Link with) will cost points, with the same rules explained above. In case a player decide to use the same Pokemon as the starter AND as the Perfect Pokemon, they'll have to pay the cost for it twice, and also they'll need to pay an additional cost of 50 points (so for example, picking a RU Pokemon to be both your starter and your perfect would cost you 150 WP). While it may sound unfair, this huge costs is needed to balance out the fact that having the Perfect Pokemon from the very first mission would allow the player to quickly grind to get to 100% Link, and this would give them a huge advantage.

All these limitations and rules aside, please note that it will be forbidden to pick legendaries and pseudo-legendaries not only as starters, but also as perfect Pokemon: this is because the pseudo-legendaries (and even a couple legendaries, try and guess which ones lol) will be used by the key NPCs, the strongest bosses you'll face much later in the story.

As mentioned earlier, a player will be allowed to come up with a Warrior Skill upon registering their app: this should be an ability capable of helping your Pokemon in battle (you can check out the Skills that exist in the original Pokemon Conquest for reference), and it should also make sense, in terms of name, description and effect, with the characterization of your warrior (both in terms of stats and personality). There will be no added price to pay and no restrictions when creating such Skill, however, if you go overboard and you create something that is insanely powerful, or that might create an abusable loophole, you might get your app rejected, with a request to change your Skill.

Ranking up and Mega Evolution

Upon achieving 70% Link with their partner, a warrior will be able to Rank Up, becoming a warlord. Upon transforming from a warrior into a warlord, a player will be given a 50% bonus in all their stats, they will be given permission to create an upgraded version of their Skill, and they will unlock the ability to Mega Evolve their partner Pokemon during a battle. However, only Pokemon that enter the battlefield with a 100% Link will be able to Mega Evolve (meaning that the moment you achieve 100% Link your partner will gain the ability to Mega Evolve, but should you be defeated in the next mission with your Link decreasing,, your partner will lose this ability untill you regain your 100% Link), also the player will need to obtain the appropriate Mega Stone (again, they'll sometimes be given away as prizes for missions). Some of the aforementioned NPCs (the most important ones) will already be in their Warlord form upon appearing in the plot for the first time, and this of course will immediately characterize them as the most powerful warriors around (with AZ being THE most powerful, of course).

Well, this is all for now. If you have comments, feedback, suggestions, or simply if you want to let me know you'd be interested in such a roleplay, feel free to post here. Also, due to my current university schedule, it will be quite difficult for me to handle this on my own, and therefore I would really appreciate some help in the form of one (or more) co-host(s). Back when I originally came up with the idea, Personwithabanana and Rustytengo volunteered to be the co-hosts, so yeah, if they are still interested they will of course be given priority over any other co-host application...

Edited October 29, 2014 by Tomas Elliot

[Azeria]

Damn Am interested...I commend you for the hard work put into this.Also if needed i could be a co-host though i have a tight schedule these days.

[Tomas Elliot]

Damn Am interested...I commend you for the hard work put into this.Also if needed i could be a co-host though i have a tight schedule these days.

Eh, free time is an issue for everyone, so yeah... And honestly, I didn't even put that much effort into this, at least not now: all these ideas were stored in my messenger, ready to be used!

Oh allow me to clarify something: as I said, strategy will be a CRUCIAL part of the roleplay, which means that the key NPCs would have strategies of their own too... And as NPCs would be handled, when fought as enemies, by myself and the co-hosts(s), it is clear that I would know everything about their strategies, and so would the co-host(s). Because of this, A CO-HOST WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PART IN THE RP WITH A CHARACTER OF THEIR OWN, because going into a battle already knowing about the strategies of the NPCs would just be unfair...

EDIT: of course I will NOT be participating with a character of my own either.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Tomas Elliot

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

POKEMON CONQUEST HORY SHI

wait lol lemme read all of this--

[Tacos]

tl;dr

Gonna read, I'm interested though

[AuthorReborn]

I'd love to play and I like the concept, although I have a question. Since we can pick any Pokemon with their ENTIRE MOVESET (something that was missing in the actual game and it kinda ticked me off), I would want to choose Ralts for my starter to get up to a Gallade as my perfect link. Would I pay Warrior points based on Gallade being RU or would I wait for the tiers to get scrambled up again arfter ORAS for his mega?

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

All right, here we go.

So... do our Pokemon only have one move like in the game?

[AuthorReborn]

All right, here we go.

So... do our Pokemon only have one move like in the game?

"Each Pokemon will be naturally able to use in a battle all the moves its species can learn via level up and/or via breeding. There will be no 4-moveslots limit. Players will be able to teach their partners moves that their species can only learn via TM or tutoring (as of Gen 6 learnsets), however doing so will cost them 10% Link." -Moves and Battles

[Tomas Elliot]

I'd love to play and I like the concept, although I have a question. Since we can pick any Pokemon with their ENTIRE MOVESET (something that was missing in the actual game and it kinda ticked me off), I would want to choose Ralts for my starter to get up to a Gallade as my perfect link. Would I pay Warrior points based on Gallade being RU or would I wait for the tiers to get scrambled up again arfter ORAS for his mega?

Ah yes, ORAS. This idea had come into being before ORAS was even announced, so to be honest I absolutely failed to keep into consideration... I guess it will depend on the info available at the time when you actually post your app: as mentioned, I will start the actual roleplay on monday if enough people are interested, which means you will most likely post your app on monday night or tuesday, considering the timezone difference... By then, there will probably be more info available in regards to the changes in Gallade's stats, and we will use those to judge. If such info are still missing by then, we will just go with X/Y meta, because realistically it will take LONG for you to achieve 100% Link (specially if your starter is not Ralts and you acquire it later), so by then the other people (and the NPCs) will have grown to such levels of power (with Mega Pokemon popping out left and right, because realistically people will go for them, and the top NPCs will have them) that a Mega Gallade shouldn't make THAT much of a difference...

Also @Zephyr, AuthorReborn said it all

EDIT: apparently the official site for ORAS claims (and Serebii reports it too) that Gallade will get a boost to Atk and Spe upon Mega Evolving, with its ability changed to Inner Focus. So yeah, from the looks of it, it's going to be an improved version of the Gallade we all know and love: good offensive stats, wide movepool, and crappy ability. The exact same things we all thought when Gallade originally came about in Gen 4, just with improved stats. Unless these boosts to stats are HUGE, I really cannot see it being that much of a game breaker...

And since we are on this topic, something I forgot to mention: Pokemon that are not legendaries but still considered Ubers on Smogon, and/or Pokemon whose Mega form is banned, WILL be allowed here (they will count as OU in terms of costs). This is because the very things that make them so broken in the actual games (mostly their abilities) won't be that much of a problem in this format: Shadow Tag Gengar? Sure, the whole "switch Pokemon to build your strategy" thing won't exit in this roleplay where each person carries ONE Pokemon a time into battle, so it will hardly be a problem. Parental Bond Kangaskhan? Attacking twice is cool and all, but as I said there won't be stats nor damage calculations, so if you don't come up with a very cool strategy, you will lose regardless of double attacks. Speed Boost Blaziken? This is a roleplay, the order of attacks depends on posting order, not on speed... So yeah, as you can see, Pokemon that are problematic in the actual games won't be nearly as much in this format, so as long as they are not legendaries or pseudo-legendaries, everything is fair game

Edited October 28, 2014 by Tomas Elliot

[AuthorReborn]

Awesome thanks. I doubt we'll have new data about the megas by next Monday, although Project Pokemon hacked through the demo and found the exact changes in the BST of all of the Pokes so we could go off of that.

[Tomas Elliot]

Awesome thanks. I doubt we'll have new data about the megas by next Monday, although Project Pokemon hacked through the demo and found the exact changes in the BST of all of the Pokes so we could go off of that.

As I said upon editing my previous post, many abilities that are the main selling point of these new Megas will hardly matter in this format, so even stuff like Mega Gengar or Mega Kangaskhan won't be particularly broken. On top of that, Mega Gallade is gonna get a very crappy ability, so that will be even less of an issue... Of course it could be given some HUGE stat boosts, but as I said earlier there won't be any stats in this roleplay, knowing the stats of your Pokemon will only be needed to get an idea of how to roleplay its fighting style (basically, you have a Rhyperior tanking hits left and right and a Weavile bolting around the battlefield, but not vice-versa, to try and stay faithful to the actual games), but there will be no actual damage calculation, so even if a Pokemon like Gallade is handed stat boosts so huge to become a game breaker, it will hardly matter here...

At this point, people might ask: if the power of the various Pokemon in the actual games doesn't matter here, why the differences in cost for the starter/perfect Pokemon? And why basing it on tiers? The answer is: to promote diversity. If all Pokemon costed the same, people would just invest as many WP as possible into the warrior's stats, resulting in everyone playing more or less the same... And of course, people would prioritize Pokemon that have cool abilities and/or a Mega Evolution, and they would most likely pick a starter that is also their perfect, in order to get the opportunity to grind right off the bat. The system I am proposing, on the other hand, forces people to trade off something if they want a significant advantage: you want high stats? You'll have to pick something that is not your perfect as starter, and restart your grinding from scratch when you do get your perfect. In such a scenario, the NU Pokemon costing less than the OU ones will encourage people to pick obsure, unloved Pokemon as their starters, picking the all-powerful and popular perfect later on, and this will boost diversity in our roleplay.

In other words, I tried to make sure that people wouldn't race with one another to get their hands on the same old 5-6 overly popular Pokemon, while hundreds of other Pokemon remain unused and forgotten...

[AuthorReborn]

I love the idea, and I feel like it's a very "Reborn" like idea, ya know? Like how in the actual game Ame made you're forced to use Pokemon you probably glanced over and never paid a second glance to in the main games like Litleo. And I also love it because I happen to really love some of the Pokemon that aren't that good in battle, but are either straight up awesome in design. Also, quick question, if you were to say, choose a Shedinja as an example, would it retain the ability, in this case Wonder Guard, or would it just be without its prized ability and be at a huge disadvantage?

Edit: Also, another question, just cause I'm so curious about this idea. Anyway, legendaries. In PC, you could eventually link with certain legends if you had the right warlords. Will this be a thing or no? Like it could be that, based on your regular perfect link, you could potentially link with Legendaries of the same type? For example, say a guy has a perfect link with Charizard, he could potentially obtain and perfect link with a Moltres as well? And everyone who's in the game could join a giant race to try and obtain these Legends and if you obtain it without your perfect links matching up you could trade it off to someone else who could put it to use? Probably not, I'm just speculating because I am super hyped for this XD.

Edited October 28, 2014 by AuthorReborn

[Tomas Elliot]

I love the idea, and I feel like it's a very "Reborn" like idea, ya know? Like how in the actual game Ame made you're forced to use Pokemon you probably glanced over and never paid a second glance to in the main games like Litleo. And I also love it because I happen to really love some of the Pokemon that aren't that good in battle, but are either straight up awesome in design. Also, quick question, if you were to say, choose a Shedinja as an example, would it retain the ability, in this case Wonder Guard, or would it just be without its prized ability and be at a huge disadvantage?

Shedinja is a weird case, now that you mention it: of course it would retain its signature Wonder Guard ability, but the problem is... Well, actually obtaining it! Its evolution requirements in the games state that you need to level up Nincada untill it evolves in Ninjask: if you have an empty Pokeball in your bag and a free spot in your team, doing so will also cause Shedinja to appear... But in this RP there won't be any Pokeball nor teams! I guess I'll have to come up with a special evolutionary method... But yeah, that aside Shedinja WILL retain its ability, but expect the key NPCs to have a lot of Dark/Ghost/Fire/Rock/Flying coverage moves, in no case Shedinja will ever be able to merely waltz in and laugh at an opponent

[AuthorReborn]

Okie dokie, thanks.

[K_H]

I'm interested, count me in!

[Azeria]

Question:So would we be able to start with our Perfect link or just a pokemon related to the type?

[AuthorReborn]

Question:So would we be able to start with our Perfect link or just a pokemon related to the type?

From what's been said so far, it sounds like you can start with any Pokemon (probably not legends) but your perfect link is probably going to be an excellent Pokemon you can use in various ways, which will cost a lot of your starting Warrior Points. So you can start with your Perfect link, but you might start out with something similar and cheeper to be able to distribute your starting points more variedly.

Edit: Also, quick question, what about borderline tiers and their pokemon, such as Shuckle.

Edited October 28, 2014 by AuthorReborn

[Azeria]

Interesting i'd probably go for NU-UU

[Tomas Elliot]

From what's been said so far, it sounds like you can start with any Pokemon (probably not legends) but your perfect link is probably going to be an excellent Pokemon you can use in various ways, which will cost a lot of your starting Warrior Points. So you can start with your Perfect link, but you might start out with something similar and cheeper to be able to distribute your starting points more variedly.

Edit: Also, quick question, what about borderline tiers and their pokemon, such as Shuckle.

This is quite accurate for a reply to Can'tType's question. Basically, it works this way: you pick a Pokemon, and that Pokemon will be the only Pokemon you'll be able to achieve 100% Link with (and achieving 100% Link is not just a plot device, it also grants you cool bonus, up to and including Mega Evolution). At this point, you pick a Pokemon to begin your adventure with: since picking your perfect Pokemon to be also your starter Pokemon would give you a distinct advantage (you would be able to grind for Link right off the bat, thus reaching 100% Link so early that the rest of the game would be a walk in the park), I have made it so picking your perfect Pokemon to be your starter costs you A LOT of WP (double the price of the Pokemon plus 50). Basically, you CAN go this way and grind for Link right off the bat, but this will drain your WP thus forcing you to go with pretty low stats. And as stats are important in some crucial moments of the game, this might not be advisable. So yeah, I made these rules so that people would be encouraged to go a different way: pick a powerful, well-known Pokemon as perfect, but then pick something more obscure and less popular as starter, in order to save WP to invest in stats. If you do this and pick a starter that is of the same type as your perfect Pokemon, you'll still be able to achieve 90% Link with it, which is very good and houldn't be overlooked (among other things, it is enough to unlock the promotion to warlord, so a clever idea could be to keep on using the starter untill the promotion is unlocked, and only then switch to the perfect), and you'll still have a chance to catch your perfect Pokemon later on.

As for the question about the borderline Pokemon: A pokemon in a borderline tier, for example BL, is effectively banned from the lower tiers: basically, a BL Pokemon is banned from UU and can only be used in OU. This should be enough of an answer to the question: BL Pokemon will count as OU Pokemon for pricing's sake, BL2 Pokemon will count as UU Pokemon, and so on so forth.

EDIT: also yes, it would indeed be forbidden to pick legendary or pseudo-legendary Pokemon as either perfect or starter Pokemon. Unfortunately this is final, so there will NEVER be ANY way around this rule: those Pokemon are needed for plot reasons later on, and besides, they are stronger than your average Bidoof, so if they were allowed people would probably race to get their hands on them, something that I want to avoid at any cost (I am designing these rules specifically to encourage diversity).

Edited October 28, 2014 by Tomas Elliot

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Interesting, might play, though Farfetch'd would have to the mon I pick.......nothing else would be 100% for good ol' Hukuna!!!!

[GotWala]

I see, so you pick your projected, endgame Pokémon and then a separate (Or the same at a cost) starter. Interesting!

Though I was wondering, if 100 is a stats cap, there are 3 stats, and we get 350 points, wouldn't that mean that basically anyone who picks RU and lower without picking their perfect Pokémon would have max stats from the start?

[AuthorReborn]

Yes but then you have to deal with having a statistically worse Pokemon for a while, until the hosts decide to steer the odds into your own favor, which will take quite some time. And at the same time, there will be those who have been grinding their perfect links from the start and will be up to their final evolution of their perfect link when you are simply obtaining the basic form of your own, so really you can have a mad rush in the start by getting a nice strong Poke as your PL and grabbing it from the get go, or you can play the long game and attempt to use a weaker Pokemon but with your stats improved until you can finally obtain your PL.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Or you could just try to have fun and not minmax lol. Not that there is anything wrong with trying to win, but eh, Need to have a little fun on the way there, after all that is the point of an RP.

[AuthorReborn]

I'm just answering a question, I didn't mean to say that we should all go hardcore strategy mode or anything, I'm just saying if you're trying to take a more strategic approach, here's a few ways to do it.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Of course, honestly that start is common in most strategy games. Basically do you pick something that makes you powerful early on, and try to snowball ahead of your opponents? Or do you play the long con, waiting to get to a point where you can build up your advantage and then start striking?