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View Full Version : Essentials to Strategy, p.1 (Turn knowledge)


Megabyte
03-11-2005, 11:44 AM
I am making it a goal of mine to help enlighten players in general. There's too much emphasis on the setups themselves. I'm a firm believer that your setup isn't much. Its a step to the process of playing the game. After the first turn, your setup doesn't mean anything anymore. Its how you play.

I'll be making a thread like this every so often in an attempt to help show the other steps which are commonly ignored by many players. This is info I've found is critical in winning and playing at your best, yet is passed off as a side issue to your average player.

Todays topic....
Turn based info:
Character Name: Move: Attack:
Knight 0 1
Beast Rider 0 1
Assassin 0 1
Furgon 0 1
Scout 1 1
Mud Golem 1 1
Frost Golem 1 1
Poison Wisp 1 1
Barrier Ward --- 2
Pyromancer 1 2
Dark Magic Witch 1 2
Dragonspeaker Mage 1 2
Dragon Tyrant 1 2
Enchantress 1 2
Golem Ambusher* 1 2
Stone Golem 2 2
Lightning Ward --- 4
Cleric 2 3
This is critical stuff, commonly overlooked. Know your turns! Plan accordingly around them. A player heals with the cleric (no movement), then next turn have the scout move and attack. Someone has their LW attack, then next turn moves their DT/caster in and attacks with it; then has their muddy move in and quake.

See the problem with these? The units will all be able to move/attack again on the same turn.

Why is it a problem? Because your not making the most of the units. If you have multiple usefull moves that are all available at once, you can't use them all on the same turn. Timing is key. You don't want to have to sacrafice your scout to kill a unit because you couldn't heal AND attack with the scout in time. You want to be able to have planned your moves following the turns that these units rest so that you can heal and attack accordingly.

How is it solved? Just realize that you don't need to necessarily change the way you play, just the order that you play it. Instead of using the DT on the scout, then mud quaking it, do the muddy first, THEN the DT. Same result (dead scout), and now instead of having both the units come back in 2 turns (meaning one of em will be just sitting there un-used for a turn, basically giving your DT or your muddy a 3 turn wait) you get your muddy back in one. Doesn't seem like much, huh? But a single turn can make a difference. It can be the difference between my muddy getting to make another attack, then retreating, or my opponents knight moving in for that kill shot.

Look at it logistically with the muddy/DT example. If you don't attack with turn planning, then you get both units back in two turn. Your opponent pummels these units while they sit there. Then, after 2..you move your muddy back for a heal, leaving your dragon for 3 turns. BUT, if you attacked in the proper turn planning, your dragon would still wait for 3 turns..but your muddy would have gotten another attack in by then, and likely taken a lot less damage.

This is just one exmaple of proper turn planning. Using it once doesn't mean much in a game, but planning each turn accordingly to minimize damage taken and maxamize your units usefullness and damage can add up real fast.

edit: Some of you can maybe see for yourselves, but I'd say after playing some..that after about 5 or so turns your planning has a noticeable result.

zzzaacckk
03-11-2005, 11:54 AM
good job mega!!

thefreezing
03-11-2005, 12:23 PM
Nice..... :)

EDIT: Im starting to hate "You must spread your reputations first before giving it to Megabyte or whoever." Pisses me off.

Megabyte
03-11-2005, 04:47 PM
yah, I realized I don't spread enough rep around...so I'll pos someone...and like 3 weeks later try it again for something else and I havn't spread enough for even that.


More of you need to be witty or rude so I can rep more accordingly

Cross Punisher
03-11-2005, 04:57 PM
Nice work Megabyte. Maybe you could do one on the importance of using what units you have to your advantage.

An example being that you've manage to kill your opponent's scout. Instead of rushing to kill the others, you can afford to take your time and allow the opponent to come to you.

Megabyte
03-11-2005, 05:46 PM
there'll be more, just gotta pick and choose which ones

Bottle
03-14-2005, 02:28 PM
While this is an excellent thread, and one that I fully agree with (having realised this many many moons ago), I have one point that I have to pick apart.

After the first turn, your setup doesn't mean anything anymore. Its how you play.
Not if you start at a major disadvantage. No matter how good your strategy, having a detrimental formation will lose you the game 9 times out of 10.

As for the rest of the post: good stuff. Just one addition of my own: while it's all very well obeying these rules yourself, a good player will exploit the lack of use of these rules by their opponent... and the true master will FORCE their opponent to have all his units ending recovery at the wrong time. Forcing someone to heal to save their cleric (when they want to move their scout in to attack your own cleric, followed immediately by a heal to save the scout from death) will prevent an opponent from attacking you... giving you time to attack instead.

Megabyte
03-28-2005, 07:29 PM
agreed (sry for necro, got reminded of it by some friendly reps ;) ), turn mastery is also about utilization against your opponents, not just on your own units.

And yes, while your setup has lasting effects on the whole match, the point was simply that there is too much emphasis on "this is my setup...its better than yours, that means I'll win." Your setup lasts only until you make your first move, then its changed to something else. Of course, ideally you'd change it to something better suited to the situation each turn, but thats being a little optimistic for some people ;)

For example a phase I hit last summer was to make setups that people would actually call stupid or laugh at (and damn, I was good at it :D). It was fun beating people who'd laugh at my setup. I remember one guy got beaten while he was grey, said it'd never beat a gold, so he logged onto a gold, and lost with that, then got his friend to play me (also gold) and he lost too it too. Even when I didn't change it, their planning their own setups to counter mine didn't help them.

Lonely Tylenol
03-28-2005, 08:00 PM
If I may update the table to make it more understandable to the newbies here (who might not know the abbreviations)....

Character Name: Move: Attack:
Knight 0 1
Beast Rider 0 1
Assassin 0 1
Furgon 0 1
Scout 1 1
Mud Golem 1 1
Frost Golem 1 1
Poison Wisp 1 1
Barrier Ward --- 2
Pyromancer 1 2
Dark Magic Witch 1 2
Dragonspeaker Mage 1 2
Dragon Tyrant 1 2
Enchantress 1 2
Golem Ambusher* 1 2
Stone Golem 2 2
Lightning Ward --- 4
Cleric 2 3

*Correction