Key to getting a gold star is the observation that on odd-number rounds you always go last and on even number rounds you always go first.

Another key is that the AI always attacks with their full stack.

Another key is assuming the AI will attack territories that only have one army on them.

At the end of each round, have at least one territory that only has one army to tempt the AI to attack it. Preferably the bait territory will neighbor multiple AI territories.

If you are on an even round, move your largest stack to that bait territory as your first move. If your army stack is equal size to what is attacking your bait, then the attacker will be left with one army at the end of the attack. Have a second neighboring territory attack that one army with 5 as your second move of the even round.

Later on, if an AI has a territory with 1 and you have a 30+ stack next to it, you can conquer that territory on an even round as your first move, knowing that the neighbors will also attack it and hit your giant army that now occupies that space.

For the starting four rounds, I sacrificed my first two territories to the Klara (the rightmost) AI such that he could escape the right side and leave me with the 1, 2, and 3 bonus territories. By the start of turn 5 I owned the 1, 2, and 3 bonus territories and Klara only had my starting territory.

Next I slowly won the 5 bonus. Once you get the 5 bonus it becomes easier to wear down the remaining AIs since you can have multiple bait territories that do significant damage, one where you move a big stack to, and one where you add all your armies to.

By turn 13 there was only one AI left and I hammered away until I won on turn 17. I was getting 14 armies per turn, which is enough to kill his two new armies each turn, while only losing two of my own while building up a bigger and bigger stack.

Edited 2026-05-25 18:42:29