There are going to be times when a new captain is better off choosing their enemies to be officers instead of their friends. Officers don't vote.

Forget about buying loyalty with extra shares of the treasure and start thinking in terms of alliances. As captain, you can only nominate three people and ideally, one will go home -- with that one being someone other than you. If you pick your friends to be officers, you are choosing people who would normally vote the way you wanted them to. You are taking those votes out of the pool and making it that much less likely that your target for the evening will leave. Sure, you've given them some bonus money and in the thus-far unlikely case of a mutiny, you've got some support for your not going. But that's it. Effectively, two votes that would have worked in your favor just vanished. Nice work, captain.

On the other hand -- what if you pick two enemies? Sure, you have to choke down giving them extra prize money -- but now they can't vote any more. Obviously, you don't want primary enemies: alliance heads, major threats, and the like unless you're making a foolish attempt to swing them, silly you. You're not going to choose anyone you'll want to blackspot that night. You want secondary problems. Minions. Tagalongs who think they can seize a primary position later in the game.

If you do that, you've just taken their votes out of the pool. Two people who would probably vote to keep someone you wanted out have lost all their power for that court session. Yes, there's a risk of mutiny support -- but who ever heard of reality contestants unanimously agreeing on anything? And if you get to keep the big hat after the next expedition, you can use everything you've hopefully picked up during your first term to pick two new officers and ruin someone else's plans...

The fact that I've thought of this pretty much guarantees it'll never happen in the actual show.

• RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,geg6, 11:09 AM, 06-08-07
  • RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,Spanky68, 12:18 PM, 06-08-07
• RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,Corvis, 01:51 PM, 06-08-07
  • RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,Estee, 02:15 PM, 06-08-07
  • RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,CTgirl, 02:17 PM, 06-08-07
• RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,emydi, 02:43 PM, 06-08-07
• RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,ohmyheck, 02:54 PM, 06-08-07
  • RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,Estee, 03:08 PM, 06-08-07
    • RE: Using officers for alliance destruction.,emydi, 04:08 PM, 06-08-07

This is scary.

I had pretty much the same thought as I watched last night. I wouldn't keep my allies as officers. I'd keep my enemies from voting. It's all about getting to the end.

I think these people have watched too much Survivor.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." Albert Einstein

We are again on the same wavelength. Just thought I would throw that out to spoil your weekend

Well, except for one thing. Last night one of the officers (Ben?) had a confessional where he said something like the Captain and the officers pick the black spot people. Which made me wonder - does Captain have final say or does there have to be a consensus?

Captain's decision. Joe Don is just trying to help Ben feel like a big boy.

I would imagine that the Captain would have final say, because that's the way captains operate. One advantage to being an officer would be to steer the black spot marks away from people you are friendly/aligned with and that the Captain isn't. It could help you down the road.

I like that the Captain has so much power and doesn't quite know how to use it. This is like the first survivor - people haven't figured out the best strategy. Being Captain now could make you marked for elimination as soon as your team loses (oops wrong show!)

I'm thinking if Jay ever is voted in (he won't volunteer) as captain he would have a clue about this and choose accordingly. He seems to be the only one with a brain...well maybe to a certain degree Ms. Obvious Cheryl has part of a brain...she knows the officer is the best place to be.

But I'm pretty sure the rules state that both Officers must agree with the Mutiny for it to be carried out. Ben and Cheryl wouldn't vote to cut him adrift. I don't believe that putting your enemies in the officer position is the best move, as you could alienate your allies by giving them barely any food/money.

As captain, you can share the resources (your share of the treasure, food, work assignments) however you see fit. Keeping allies happy isn't a problem -- and if your happy allies are in the voting pool, you shouldn't get a mutiny.

right JD is being stupid...but he didn't know what would be rules when he picked Cheryl an Ben...so I think in that situation at beg of game I would pick my allies too