[BreakABone]

I guess things from my POV and some observations.

I went into this game trying not to end up in my usual role as some Alliance forming, back-dealing making mastermind, and for the most part I think I was successful. I mean sure I spoke to half the game, but Zebra was in charge of the Alliance building for the most part, and he passed along the info or whatever.

So let's see, first day I was contacted by a few people. Found out that Xantar was the Guardian, actually from I believe Bluefire, as they were forming their own little alliance, as odd as it may seem, Bond killing Xantar actually helped the villagers, since he was working with Bluefire and that would have been harmful later on.

Speaking of Bluefire, I actually started talking to him as well, and defended him when Bond started pointing a finger at him. The effectiveness of BF's Mafia strategy I think is he remains really low-key and he has a way of directing suspicious without really laying blame too much.

Also in that time, I found out that Teuthida was vigilante for even rounds (okay he told me) and that's where the idea to off me came from. Better to kill an innocent who doesn't want to play than to kill one who does.

Also started talking to Zebra on day 1 (actually there were a bunch of people, but gonna spare you all the details) and I don't know how his recruitment went with others, but he sure didn't trust me until I was dead. Actually, I don't think Teuthida trusted me until it said I was innocent when I died.

Boring details, I have come to the conclusion that a perfect alliance has no more than 4 people in it. This way you always retain voting majority and there is less chances that someone would infiltrate the ranks. As Zebra learned with TML and I learned ages ago with Teuthida and Typhoid and the first game learned with Vamp.

Second, we need new strategies for weeding out Mafia, they are hardly ever the people who are quiet nor are they the biggest talkers. If anything, they are the ones that usually blend in. The ones who never really start a voting rally, but not the ones trying to change your mind.

Now as for picking out the MAfias, the first round is always a crapshoot but oddly enough the first person I started to suspect was Magus due to the fact that he claimed he was talking to no one else. I am awesome and I know that, but he is real life friends with Bluefire and found it a bit suspect that he wasn't at least talking to him about the game. And I asked him again on the second day and same story, Schanefreude I semi-suspected, but honestly started voting for him on the second day for the very reason I said, he voted for me twice, it was nothing more than a revenge vote. Somehow, this rallied enough votes to kick him out.

I started to suspect that TML wasn't on the up and up when Zebra started speaking with him honestly. I told Zebra not to trust him, wasn't really sure why, but again its just my ego, but the fact that he didn't contact me for the first 3 days made it highly suspect.

And I was gone after the 2nd round so I have to give Bond credit for his plan to out the last Mafia member.

Now from what I saw on the Mafia end, I thought the whole picking off members of the Alliance one by one, was a rather poor strategy, at some point, someone would be able to piece together that SOMETHING was going wrong within the Alliance. Also misfiring on Zebra was a big part of the decline. Since you left the two proven Specials together, and lost the key to the house as Zebra trusted TML more than the rest of the alliance.

Similar to what happened a few games ago when Typhoid offed me, but was the only one in the Alliance vouching for him so once I was gone, all the usual suspicious arose.

So word of advice, at least from my one experience as the Mafia, don't pick off people in a list, we picked them based on their voting pattern, if someone was voting against us too often, get rid of them, if someone is suspect, don't kill them. Make it the suspicious grow, maybe kill off someone who was pointing fingers at them. If you get in close with a good guy, stick to them, don't off people they mention.

If you are a villager, make an alliance with no more than 4 people and that includes the people another person may have made an alliance with, you don't want a 20 man alliance, it makes for hurt feelings when voting.