Beginner's guide: 10 tips to win as an Andolankari
Playing Andolankari for the first time can feel chaotic: people everywhere, police on every corner, a clock ticking and a dharna far away. These ten tips will help you win more rounds, and get detained a lot less.
1. Build before you march
The most common beginner mistake is running straight to Jantar Mantar alone. A lone leader is easy to stop: one lathi and the constables carry you off. Spend the first minute walking through busy streets and collecting people. Fifty followers is a good first target; a hundred makes you hard to stop.
2. Naara in the busiest places
Your naara (E, or the NAARA button on a phone) brings people out of the shops around you. It has a short cooldown, so use it where there are the most shops and passers-by: markets, metro stations and big crossings. A naara on an empty road is wasted.
3. Keep moving, but not into the police
Your kafila follows the path you walk. Sharp turns and long detours spread it out, and a stretched kafila loses people when the police hit it. Walk in smooth lines along wide roads, and steer around police officers instead of through them.
4. Push barricades with numbers
Barricades fall faster the bigger your kafila is. With a small crowd you can push for a long time and still not get through, while the police gather around you. If a barricade isn't moving, go around it, or come back when your kafila has grown.
5. Use the city's shortcuts
A TV reporter (F) can turn your interview viral and bring 15 to 25 people at once. An auto or taxi gives a lone leader a quick ride towards Jantar Mantar. The metro carries a kafila of up to 20 underground. A chai stall puts your stamina back after three seconds of standing still. Learn where these are on the map.
6. Respect Section 163
Near Jantar Mantar the rules change. Groups smaller than 30 are turned back at the outer cordon, and inside the inner zone you need 100 or more people together, or security detains you straight away. Gather your crowd before you cross the red ring, not after.
7. Link arms when it matters
The human chain (R, or the CHAIN button) needs ten or more people. While it is up, no lathi can pull you out and your losses are halved, but you move slowly. Use it when you are under heavy pressure close to the dharna, not for crossing the city.
8. Plant your banner at the dharna
The dharna banner (B) draws more people to you, and inside the dharna zone it counts extra towards the POWER bar. Place it once you are settled at the dharna, where the police have to work hardest to take it down.
9. Free your comrades
When people are detained they sit in the detention bus until it leaves with 50 on board. If 40 or more protesters surround the bus, the gherao frees everyone, and those people can join your kafila. A big kafila passing a bus full of comrades should almost always stop and help.
10. Play the clock and the night
Every round runs from morning to night, and the police win if time runs out. Don't wait for a perfect kafila. Aim to reach the dharna with time to spare. A dharna after dark, by candle light, counts a little more, so a strong crowd that arrives in the evening can still turn a round around.
Bonus: watch the round event
Some rounds bring a twist: a heat wave that tires you faster, exam-result day with more people on the streets, the metro shut, or a VIP movement that closes some roads for a minute. Read the message at the start of the round and adapt your route.
Want the other side of the story? Read the Dilli Police strategy guide, then try both sides.