SMG Studio

We've all been there. You have many more armies than your opponents and can clean up on this turn. Which opponents do you kill first? Which do you kill last? When you have the game won and can eliminate your opponents in whatever order you choose how do you do it? I ask because many times I have been in this situation and many other times I have been an opponent facing inevitable defeat. If I can't win I want to place second but often my opponents will choose to kill me as soon as possible. Of course there are also many times when it doesn't play out that way. If the winning player is my ally they will sometimes leave me for last. Because this is so important to my rank I want to understand how people make these end game choices. I suspect that a lot of the time when people choose to kill me first it is because of my high rank. Maybe they know that if I get a worse finish I will fall farther and maybe that makes them happy. Or maybe they are just upset that there are players who can maintain a better ranking than they can. Personally I will try to let higher ranked players finish better as I understand there situation and know how hard it is to maintain their rank. Sadly I have found other high ranked players do not extend the same courtesy to me any more often than low ranked players do. Aside from choosing based on rank some other ways to make these decisions that I know of are always killing weakest first, always killing geographically (you know where you leave Australia for last (unless you are based there)), or always killing people who fought you or annoyed you first and leaving loyal allies for last. Please comment your thoughts on this situation. My approach is that I kill anyone who really picked at me beyond what is strategically advisable first, then I kill by rank after that leaving highest ranks for last.

Just played my first online match where I had a high ranked ally. There were a couple times I felt like he would destroy me but he chose to let me stay for second place. I felt honored. It was nice of him to let me stay in the game because I feel like I learned alot. Thanks for mercy and honoring our alliance till the end.