Gregory's Server
As someone else pointed out, trolls might not be strategic in their interactions.
They want to inflict pain and hurt—and will do whatever action enables their pursuit.
This is why I call this a "game".
It may not be a literal game like Monopoly but the effect is the same: a zero sum outcome for which they hope you will lose.
But just because a troll may lack foresight, doesn't mean you have to.
It's worth asking, "When this person talks to me, what's their goal?"
Might as well talk about the most motivated troll I came across on the Fediverse.
First bad interaction, I blocked him.
He came back on another instance.
I blocked that.
Then he said, "I can keep doing this, I have hundreds of accounts."
"Fine," I replied—so I looked up every variation of his username on all instances I could find and blocked them. There were indeed hundreds.
He came back, and seriously requested, "Can you stop doing that? It's costing me a fortune in server costs!"
🤣