Our Strategy Case

1. Summary

Our Strategy is to play D in round 1. For the rest, play the same strategy as the opponent did in the last round.

3. Analysis

Why did you choose this strategy?

In this repeated prisoner's dilemma, in order to get a higher payoff, we need to predict our opponent's behavior and react accordingly. In the round 1, we'd better play D- the dominant strategy in one-round prisoner's dilemma- to make sure that we do not fall behind at the beginning. To be specific, if the opponent plays C, we will get 6 while he gets 1, and if D we will have 2 while he has 2 as well. For the rest rounds, we will play the same strategy as the opponent did in last round. In this case, we can at least get the same payoffs as our opponent.

What strategies do you expect other teams to choose?

One of the strategies we can expect other teams to choose goes like: play D in round 1, play C in round 2 to 4. For the rest rounds, play C if the opponent plays more Cs than Ds in the last 5 rounds. Otherwise, play D.

Another strategy we can think of is more unfriendly. Since other teams may predict that we are less cooperative. Thus they choose to play D in round 1, and play D for the rest if we play D once in previous rounds. Otherwise, play C.

The last strategy that other teams may choose is to express the wish to cooperate. Play C in round 1, and play C in round 2 (no matter what the opponent did). In the round 3, play D if the opponent started with D and continued with D. Otherwise play C. For the rest rounds, play the same strategy as the opponent did in the last round.

Among all strategies, we hope that our opponent would be more cooperative. Based on our strategy, the more C the opponent plays, the higher total payoffs two