Everything you do matters (PART 2)

A Bluffer's guide.

We return to the article where I give advice about gaming, lessons which can be applied to other games be as usual we will mostly be looking at Malifaux.

There will be a great pattern you will see emerging is that most of this little things amount to the power of bluffing.
Going back to Dictionary definitions a Bluff is:
"Noun: An attempt to deceive someone into believing that one can or is going to do something"
and
"Verb: Try to deceive someone as to one's abilities or intentions"

Bluffing is to a degree lying, but it then again it is not.

Bluffing is more simply holding the entire truth so that your opponent can therefore believe a reality which is actually not truth.

I ended up the last article saying "Never give anything up".

Scientia potentia est, Knowledge is power.

Drawing that first hand

This breaks down into a few parts

• How you draw the cards
• Ordering the cards (but we covered that)
• Looking over those cards
• Using a soulstone for filtering

First of all the "How you draw the cards" is probably already got your eyebrow raised, "what do you mean?" "how could this matter?" simply with a lot of this part it's all about showing emotion.

A lot like ordering cards how you react when you are getting that first hand can say a whole lot and can actually affect the decisions of your opponent during the entire game.

Don't draw and look individually.

Here I will use the power of common emotes to explain what a lot of people do.

• Player draws card one, it's a moderate, a 10 let's say :-)
• Player draws card two, it's another moderate, a 9 :-)
• Player draws card three, it's a weak, just a 3 :-(
• Player draws card four, it's a severe, an 11 :-D
• Player draws card five, oops a 2 of an irrelevant suit :'-(
• Player draws card six, wow a 13 of an important suit :-D

Player drawing Red Joker would be a huge :-D face with a bro fist clenched.

If the player's opponent watched their face, he could possibly do a few things.

The first is have a read that overall, the player's hand was good, he barely seemed upset and looked super pumped about that last card.

This means he does not want to push into fights too hard, if he can forces some discards they go up in priority.

If the opponent had an amazing read, made a lot easier by the player's expressions, he could figure that only 3-4 cards are worth worrying about, put the player in positions to cheat against less relevant things or what for the player to use them for big TN (summoning, obey his own models and the like) and move in once the "coast is clear" and half the player's cards have gone.

Lastly, the higher level play would be that the opponent could track that exciting card in the player's hand, especially if they seemed extra chuffed (probably and RJ or a severe for a certain suit), figure out what that card probably is and wait until it is used in the typical manner it would be (Nicodem summons a hanged, a flesh construct goes for Devour).

There is a super simple answer to stopping this potentially happen and it leads into Looking at the Cards.

Draw the hand face down in one go, pick it up and maybe even shuffle it a bit.

You may still have tells, your eyes will probably light up if you see a hand full of face cards and a Red Joker.

In this case though, worse scenario is the opponent knows your hand is good, not how good and cannot track anything in particular.

Looking at those cards now is important, you don't want to give too much away, but you do need to have a rough plan of what you want to do, what your hand may guarantee you can do and what cards you can afford to lose.

I myself have had games where I use a card for it's number in a combat forgetting I was keeping it for it's suit for a spell. Try not to fall into these traps.

This I admit is also far more strategical, there is a lot of analysis happening here, prioritising, sometimes though these are obvious (Ramos wants that Tome to Summon the Swarms for example).

Deciding what your hand needs and doesn't isn't also as simple as keeping the high cards (I will leave Lynch and Aces of this, but imagine his Aces are high).

I say this as it leads into soulstone use.

Filtering cards is one of my favourite soulstone uses in M2E as your hand, can be, very important.

Can be, is something you need to think before using those stones in the first turn, if there is no interaction with cards in hand then, discarding anything in this step will just end up in the deck later.

Also always at least leave yourself that short window of time where you might consider using a stone if you have one, whether or not you perceive there is a hard decision to make, this is something else that will help not give anything away.

Going back to which cards to keep, if you use a stone bare in mind at this stage what discarding may tell your opponent.

If you discard a 6 for example and opponent notices this they may be worried your hand must be pretty solid as the simplest thing to do, is discard your 2 lowest cards.

Do not ruin your hand just for the sake of bluffing, but if you have abilities where you need to discard, maybe you know someone will go defensive, keep a low weak back, it could help with some mind games.

In Malifaux suits matter too, if you discard two cards of the same suit, this may indicate either you don't care for them, in that case it may not matter, or it may show you have a hand full of them.

These things are different on a game to game basis. In life I always like to say, think about things from the other person's perspective. What would you think? This will paint you are far greater picture.

An important sidenote

I will say it here, some players get too hung up on the hand they draw.

Sometimes your game plan may need that mask for leap and you have none, sometimes your entire crew is in combat and you want to win these fights.

If your hand is all weaks, you are at least more likely to flip higher cards, however this does all go back to making your own luck.

My tip here, when you look back at the game, win or lose, don't just blame a loss on a bad hand.

Why were you in that position to begin with?

Was there not a better out that hoping for that suit?

If the suit was so important could you have kept one from the turn before?

As with good players making their own luck, great players will rarely blame their losses on it.

Also as they say "Bad Things Happen"

Measuring distances, asking questions

Much like the rest of these potential bluffs, in a game where you premeasure what you want, when you want there is potential information being thrown about all over the place.

These things can also come into play on Vassal. Should you check ranges, will this give away things?

It can, but again do not ruin your game just to bluff. Make sure those auras are in, check what you Rifleman can shoot, what Lady Justice can charge after a walk, but be aware this could show intentions.
If you only check one charge, it shows that is probably all you have planned, if it is your activation and that is the plan, this is fine, don't waste time.
Outside of your turn, check a few, this may change your opponents thoughts of what to activate first, remember the more options there are, the higher chance to wrong one is chosen.
If you throw your tape out to essentially show a bubble around your combat beast as a threat range, you may deny areas of the board not actually using AP.
If you want them in it, maybe check to see that model which is nearby, how close it needs to be to pick on something you wouldn't want it to, you may get a "free Lure".
Even checking the range of your own spells can affect decision making, if you have only just got yourself into Obey range, your opponent may mess that up for you knowing that's the plan.

With measurements a good eye can help a lot, if you lack this you can at least measure a nearby distance of "importance" to gain a better idea.
Even if you don't need to, remember, what does it show if you do?

Asking questions is also something that can give away intentions.
I am not encouraging you to bombard your opponent with question after unnecessary question but asking things will make your opponent wonder why you need to know.
Asking what something's defense, willpower or remaining wounds is, will show you have some intention of attacking it.
Asking what something's Ml, Ca or even Cg is will show that you are considering what will happen if that model attacks.
Asking about ranges goes back a little to the previous part, if you ask a range, your opponent will not only say, but there is a good chance they will check.
Have you left a trap? Did you make a mistake?
Also asking how far you have to score for certain schemes can fall into a whole other area of bluffing and minda games.

For now I think will end here.

Just don't forget. Everything you do matters.

End of Part 2

There is probably a lot more things I could write about and I will endeavour to continue this into at least a trilogy.
If you have any questions or suggestions on things I may have missed, please leave a comment.

Thank you

-Ben (@psientologist) [Listening to Grim Fandango and Samurai Champloo soundtracks]