Circle The Wagons 100$ challenge

[Jimmy V.]

Let's play a little game and earn some money!

The first player to beat Verboten 3 times in Circle The Wagons (online mode only) will earn a $100 cash prize.

A few extra rules:

To win the prize, one must climb the ranking list, unlock Verboten and beat it 3 times.
It is allowed to unlock Verboten with coins (to do so, click on Verboten in the list of bots of the training mode screen).
It is allowed to use Magic Potion for more play time.
It is not allowed to inflate one's rating by unconventional ways (by playing against a fake account or a complacent opponent for example). Your rating must reflect your strength.
The winner must have registered their account so that we can get in touch via email.
Payment will be done via Paypal.
We reserve the right to amend the rules (most likely to make the task easier), to increase the prize or even to cancel the challenge altogether should something unforeseen happen.

You can use this thread to report on the challenge.

Have fun!

[Jimmy V.]

Only one person appears in the ranking list at this point. It means few players have started to take the challenge seriously.

Plenty of opportunities for you to win then! It is only just starting.

 

[Daniel G.]

Do you need to win 3 times and make top of the ranking?

[Jimmy V.]

You just need to win 3 times against Verboten in the online mode. You don't need to be at the top of the ranking list.

[Jimmy V.]

Mark L. has managed to reach a rating of 1887 and unlocked Botanist, the penultimate bot.

Congratulations to him! He shows that climbing up the ranking is doable.

Unfortunately for him, he has since suffered a loss streaks. He is still above 1800 though.

Who will get the Jackpot? Plenty of time left, we think.

[Jimmy V.]

Mark L. reached 1950 a few hours ago. He is getting closer and closer.

[Mark L.]

And I think I finished last night.

[Jeff M.]

Congratulations !!! (assuming Jimmy certifies you )  though from your level it does appear that you are capable of this feat.

Would you care to share any hints or general strategy to help the rest of us get better at this game?

[Jimmy V.]

I can confirm that Mark L. has successfully completed the 100$ challenge.

Huge congratulations to him. This was not an easy task. He left all other contenders well behind.

He played 169 games, won 104, lost 54 and drew 11.

After unlocking Verboten, he only needed 3 games to win the challenge as he won these 3 games convincingly.

We were a little bit afraid the challenge would be a bit too difficult or a bit too easy. If we downgraded the robots too much, it would be uninteresting. If we left them at full capacity, it would be next to impossible. We are quite happy that in the end, we were close to the right balance.

We are certain that most of the players find the bots too powerful. But Mark proved to us that there is still room for improvement. For players like Mark, Verboten is just not good enough.

Please join me in congratulating Mark! May he enjoy eternal glory!

[Mark L.]

General strategy:  I generally focused on the scoring cards vs the points for the size of your biggest territories. The bots were certainly better than me in setting things up such that their last cards added 2+ points that way. I didn't ignore it completely of course, but most of the scoring cards can give you a better rate of return.

For the scoring cards that require multiple turns of setup (4 fort square, wagon circle, most pick axes/guns, etc), it's extremely important to look ahead and see how things should play out. Also if you're unfortunately the one who has to figure out where to start the game (I strongly preferred having first pick over figuring that out). And don't be afraid to skip a card (or even two) when it'll swing things.

Against the bots, I noticed there were a few scorings I was much better at (the smallest town scoring, and the 4 fort square for 7 points), and others they were better at (color majorities, trick shots). Verboten might need a little bit of tuning - though 3 is a small sample size, it seemed a bit easier than Botanist.

The updates to the UI were good - it definitely cut down on the scrolling, and I didn't have a repeat of the game I lost because I accidentally chose the last card instead of the first card.