@mispeled, on Aug 19 2007, 06:36 PM, said in Global Thermonuclear War:
If the intelligence agent investigated mrxak last night, now would be a good time to claim. If we lynch mrxak and we're worng, that's it.
If no one claims, I think it would be good to vote no lynch today and let the intelligence agent investigate tonight.
What exactly do you mean by claim? Do you mean that the intelligence agent should reveal himself? That might be a good idea, but it sparks the risk of a false reveal (one of the dictators claiming to be the intelligence agent.) Another yet graver concern is that assuming that mrxak is a dictator, revealing now would give the other dictator a chance to get revenge on the intel agent after the UN nukes mrxak. Then the remaining countries are on their own. To break it down from our current standing:
Diplomacy 1: The UN debates and selects a suspect
Elimination 1: The suspect is nuked, but turns out innocent. Then the dictators nuke another innocent and mock the survivors.
Intelligence 1: The intel agent either finds out a dictator or verifies an innocent. Assume he finds a dictator.
Then it could go one of several ways:
I
Diplomacy 2: The intel agent reveals, and names one dictator. No dictators try the false reveal, knowing that with this many players left, it will only lead to their demise, though there can then be at most 3 surviving innocents.
Elimination 2: The UN nukes the dictator, the remaining dictator nukes the intel agent.
Intelligence 2: Nothing happens as the intel agent is dead.
Diplomacy 3: The three surviving innocents must find out and nuke the one surviving dictator before he gets them, or they are tricked into attacking each other. Odds are not all that good for the innocents.
II
Diplomacy 2: the intel agent remains silent, the UN nukes the most suspicious of their number and are correct. (In this case, a high probability, I feel, as no one has come close to being as suspicious as mrxak.)
Elimination 2: The first dictator is dead, and the second one nukes another survivor. The odds of hitting the intel agent are rather low, though it could still happen.
Intelligence 3: with only four players left, the intel agent has a 1 in 3 chance of hitting the other dictator. If they don't, they could still form an alliance with the known survivor, which would at least tie any attempt by the other dictator to trick the other innocent into lynching one of his own. Then there is a good chance of finding the last dictator, and even if things go the worst that they possibly could, the game will end with the last innocent and the last dictator nuking each other. If things go even marginally better than that, the game will end with either 1, 2 or 3 innocents still alive, and all dictators dead. Since I am quite convinced that mrxak is a dictator, I don't think we should waste the intel agent's reveal on him, especially because if he stays hidden, the game will almost certainly end in a victory for the innocents or a tie. Revealing now would present a much greater chance of the dictators ultimately winning. For these reasons, I strongly encourage the intelligence agent to remain hidden for the rest of this round. I hope the rest of you will encourage him to as well. And as to the no-lynch strategy, I think that when we are as sure I as think we are about the identity of the dictator, we should act now. The no-lynch strategy works better nearer the beginning of the game, and after this round will become less effective.
As an aside to kickme, I think you should change your vote. GW may be suspicious, but we will be best served now by uniting against mrxak. Once mrxak is out of the way, the intel agent will get a chance to investigate GW (Which I encourage him to take) and disprove or verify suspicion against him. Then we can deal with him if he is guilty. Right now we must eliminate the taint that mrxak has spread over the entire world with his cruel regime and disregard for human life.