Realist
08-31-2006, 01:37 PM
There seems to be very little discussion of anti strategy, perhaps because the anti is wrongly maligned as a set with either very simple strategy or none at all. But to use an anti well is actually quite a difficult task. And antis require a different set of considerations than other sets. So, let's discuss anti strategy. :)
"Anti" is short for "antirush", and generally consists of 3 knights, 2 scouts, a dragon, a frost, a cleric, a mud. The hardier units usually form a continuous line at the top to protect the back sitting cleric. Anti sets are usually pretty good, so I'm not going to go into a detailed discussion of which is best, but generally keep in mind that the strongest unit against the anti is the same-side mud. I like keeping a unit two spaces above the corner cleric, because that tends to be the weak point against muds--they can damage the cleric to 14 hp, enough to be finished off by a scout, and at the same time damage most of your other units. This unit also protects against cleric-poisoning wisps, though those are rare these days.
Also keep your scouts as seperate as feasible, so one mud can't ruin both scouts. I find three squares away to be good enough.
Lots of antis put scouts on the front. I don't like letting my scouts be pushed away by easy dragon hits, so I don't do this, but it is definitely up for discussion.
Here's my set:
http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/8576/antixg5.jpg
Perhaps the most important concept in managing an anti or rush is attack order. What are the most important units to kill? In more defensive sets, i.e grey turt v grey turt, you don't necessarily have a chance to determine what unit to focus on, you try to kill whatever you can based on your access to that unit and if you end up with a unit advantage you'll probably win. In antis and rushes, though, you can basically kill any unit you want if you really try, you have a lot of heavy power or long ranged units like dragons and scouts. Therefore, kill order is a more important concept than simply kill ease.
#1 rule: Don't focus on knights in early game. Knights are low ranged units and therefore not much of a threat. Moreover, knights benefit from clerics more than any other unit in the game due to their high armor. Deal with knights later, when you hopefully have a frost without ranged opposition, or the enemy cleric is dead.
#2 rule: Do focus on scouts and muds in early game. As long as you have either a cleric or frost alive, killing scouts and muds is your #1 priority.
Muds: I think muds are actually sometimes overrated in kill order compared to scouts. It is true that muds are the anti-killer more than any other unit, but muds are also easier to kill than scouts due to no blocking, no armor. If you do some damage to a mud, you can usually afford to wait until it attacks before you do anything else to it. Pay close attention to hit points; it is often a bad sign to see a mud at 4 hit points, it means you probably attacked it with the wrong units.
Don't attack muds when you are on the offense in an opposite side battle, unless you have nothing else to possibly attack except knights. Muds are weak on the defensive.
Scouts: My favorite scout attack unit is the dragon. I think knowing when and how to attack scouts correctly with dragons is the skill that separates good anti players from bad anti players. The reason to attack with dragon is obvious--a cleric heal doesn't protect the scout from dying in 2 shots from a dragon, and no cleric heal makes the scout vulnerable to every single unit as well as an adjacent mudquake.
Even if the scout successfully flees, you have a victory of sorts--you want scouts as far as possible from your frost/cleric base.
The only reason not to attack a scout with a dragon is if it would put the dragon in high danger of death. This usually occurs in opposite side antis. Even if you are putting your dragon in danger, though, consider that it takes a long time to kill a dragon--if you can use those turns to do a lot of damage to your opponent, it may be worth sacrificing a dragon for a scout.
One great dragon move is the hit-scout-and-threaten-cleric-at-the-same-time attack. In my set, that would be attacking the right scout either one or two squares away. This requires your opponent to either protect both scout and cleric, leaving your dragon time to recover, or to sacrifice either cleric or scout. Try to make this move when you can.
#3 rule: Killing clerics is very nice, at any point in the game
It's difficult to come up with a rule for where clerics are in the kill order. A cleric is probably more valuable than a single scout in most stages of the game. But is a cleric more useful than a frost? Depends on your opponent's units, but often, no, especially on opposite sides with low ranged units.
That said, I have played a lot of games where I really didn't understand why my opponent wasn't moving in to kill my cleric. In opposite side antis, get your scouts within 4 squares of a cleric shot, and try to keep them there even if you aren't ready to actually make the shot. Be ready to sacrifice low hp scouts for a cleric shot rather than running (as long as you can make a second shot, of course); a fleeing scout is often a useless scout; the use of the scout is its high range.
Factors that increase a clerics value: Lots of high armored units in the same army (esp. knights), fewer enemy scouts (the harder it is to kill, the more valuable it is), no enemy dragon (because dragons can kill scout in 2 hits even after a heal, but heal protects from double knight hits), opposite side forms (harder for opponents to access your units, easier for you to flee and get healed), no frost on either your or opponent's side (frosts make hit point battles less relevent).
Keep all those factors in mind when determining what it is worth sacrificing to kill your opponent's cleric or to save your own.
One more point about the cleric. It is useful as a deterant even when it is inactive. Just as a grey LW is helpful even in games where it never fires a shot, so too is the cleric useful even when it doesn't use its power for turns on end. A cleric forces your opponent to focus on a few of your units rather than attacking whatever it is easiest for him to attack. This is an incredible ability; it allows you to flee and force your opponent to follow you, and it allows you to attack with high hit point units and force your opponent to ignore that attack and instead try to kill a lower hit point unit elsewhere.
Killing dragons: The decision to focus on your opponent's dragon requires a lot of commitment. Dragons would seem to rank just below knights in kill order, due to their high hit points and high recovery. On the other hand, killing the dragon is a major blow to your opponent's attack power. Lower armor than knights also makes dragons a more intelligent attack choice even when your opponent still owns a cleric.
My basic rule for dragon killing is, if I can't attack scouts or muds or clerics right now, and: 1. I have a knight side shot on a dragon, I will make it. 2. I have a scout side or front that won't put my scout in danger, I will make it.
Sometimes the point of attacking a dragon isn't to get the kill, but rather to force it to retreat, thus allowing you to go on the offense against more important units like cleric and scouts.
If a dragon puts itself near you with no supporting units, then do definitely ambush it with your knights, unless you have to do something more important like protecting your cleric or killing opponent cleric/scouts.
Frosts: Some players attack frosts much more aggressively than I do. I think some people are unreasonably afraid of them. Sure they are very powerful in the end game, but if you can get a good advantage before the endgame it won't matter if your opponent has a frost.
If the frost is on the opposite side, it is probably not worth attacking it (unless it freezes something) until you at least have a knight or a dragon nearby. Your scouts are better used to take out the cleric and flee.
If the frost is on same side, I still won't usually attack it early on unless it is already hurt from me breaking a freeze. It simply has too many hit points to focus on in early point of the game.
"Anti" is short for "antirush", and generally consists of 3 knights, 2 scouts, a dragon, a frost, a cleric, a mud. The hardier units usually form a continuous line at the top to protect the back sitting cleric. Anti sets are usually pretty good, so I'm not going to go into a detailed discussion of which is best, but generally keep in mind that the strongest unit against the anti is the same-side mud. I like keeping a unit two spaces above the corner cleric, because that tends to be the weak point against muds--they can damage the cleric to 14 hp, enough to be finished off by a scout, and at the same time damage most of your other units. This unit also protects against cleric-poisoning wisps, though those are rare these days.
Also keep your scouts as seperate as feasible, so one mud can't ruin both scouts. I find three squares away to be good enough.
Lots of antis put scouts on the front. I don't like letting my scouts be pushed away by easy dragon hits, so I don't do this, but it is definitely up for discussion.
Here's my set:
http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/8576/antixg5.jpg
Perhaps the most important concept in managing an anti or rush is attack order. What are the most important units to kill? In more defensive sets, i.e grey turt v grey turt, you don't necessarily have a chance to determine what unit to focus on, you try to kill whatever you can based on your access to that unit and if you end up with a unit advantage you'll probably win. In antis and rushes, though, you can basically kill any unit you want if you really try, you have a lot of heavy power or long ranged units like dragons and scouts. Therefore, kill order is a more important concept than simply kill ease.
#1 rule: Don't focus on knights in early game. Knights are low ranged units and therefore not much of a threat. Moreover, knights benefit from clerics more than any other unit in the game due to their high armor. Deal with knights later, when you hopefully have a frost without ranged opposition, or the enemy cleric is dead.
#2 rule: Do focus on scouts and muds in early game. As long as you have either a cleric or frost alive, killing scouts and muds is your #1 priority.
Muds: I think muds are actually sometimes overrated in kill order compared to scouts. It is true that muds are the anti-killer more than any other unit, but muds are also easier to kill than scouts due to no blocking, no armor. If you do some damage to a mud, you can usually afford to wait until it attacks before you do anything else to it. Pay close attention to hit points; it is often a bad sign to see a mud at 4 hit points, it means you probably attacked it with the wrong units.
Don't attack muds when you are on the offense in an opposite side battle, unless you have nothing else to possibly attack except knights. Muds are weak on the defensive.
Scouts: My favorite scout attack unit is the dragon. I think knowing when and how to attack scouts correctly with dragons is the skill that separates good anti players from bad anti players. The reason to attack with dragon is obvious--a cleric heal doesn't protect the scout from dying in 2 shots from a dragon, and no cleric heal makes the scout vulnerable to every single unit as well as an adjacent mudquake.
Even if the scout successfully flees, you have a victory of sorts--you want scouts as far as possible from your frost/cleric base.
The only reason not to attack a scout with a dragon is if it would put the dragon in high danger of death. This usually occurs in opposite side antis. Even if you are putting your dragon in danger, though, consider that it takes a long time to kill a dragon--if you can use those turns to do a lot of damage to your opponent, it may be worth sacrificing a dragon for a scout.
One great dragon move is the hit-scout-and-threaten-cleric-at-the-same-time attack. In my set, that would be attacking the right scout either one or two squares away. This requires your opponent to either protect both scout and cleric, leaving your dragon time to recover, or to sacrifice either cleric or scout. Try to make this move when you can.
#3 rule: Killing clerics is very nice, at any point in the game
It's difficult to come up with a rule for where clerics are in the kill order. A cleric is probably more valuable than a single scout in most stages of the game. But is a cleric more useful than a frost? Depends on your opponent's units, but often, no, especially on opposite sides with low ranged units.
That said, I have played a lot of games where I really didn't understand why my opponent wasn't moving in to kill my cleric. In opposite side antis, get your scouts within 4 squares of a cleric shot, and try to keep them there even if you aren't ready to actually make the shot. Be ready to sacrifice low hp scouts for a cleric shot rather than running (as long as you can make a second shot, of course); a fleeing scout is often a useless scout; the use of the scout is its high range.
Factors that increase a clerics value: Lots of high armored units in the same army (esp. knights), fewer enemy scouts (the harder it is to kill, the more valuable it is), no enemy dragon (because dragons can kill scout in 2 hits even after a heal, but heal protects from double knight hits), opposite side forms (harder for opponents to access your units, easier for you to flee and get healed), no frost on either your or opponent's side (frosts make hit point battles less relevent).
Keep all those factors in mind when determining what it is worth sacrificing to kill your opponent's cleric or to save your own.
One more point about the cleric. It is useful as a deterant even when it is inactive. Just as a grey LW is helpful even in games where it never fires a shot, so too is the cleric useful even when it doesn't use its power for turns on end. A cleric forces your opponent to focus on a few of your units rather than attacking whatever it is easiest for him to attack. This is an incredible ability; it allows you to flee and force your opponent to follow you, and it allows you to attack with high hit point units and force your opponent to ignore that attack and instead try to kill a lower hit point unit elsewhere.
Killing dragons: The decision to focus on your opponent's dragon requires a lot of commitment. Dragons would seem to rank just below knights in kill order, due to their high hit points and high recovery. On the other hand, killing the dragon is a major blow to your opponent's attack power. Lower armor than knights also makes dragons a more intelligent attack choice even when your opponent still owns a cleric.
My basic rule for dragon killing is, if I can't attack scouts or muds or clerics right now, and: 1. I have a knight side shot on a dragon, I will make it. 2. I have a scout side or front that won't put my scout in danger, I will make it.
Sometimes the point of attacking a dragon isn't to get the kill, but rather to force it to retreat, thus allowing you to go on the offense against more important units like cleric and scouts.
If a dragon puts itself near you with no supporting units, then do definitely ambush it with your knights, unless you have to do something more important like protecting your cleric or killing opponent cleric/scouts.
Frosts: Some players attack frosts much more aggressively than I do. I think some people are unreasonably afraid of them. Sure they are very powerful in the end game, but if you can get a good advantage before the endgame it won't matter if your opponent has a frost.
If the frost is on the opposite side, it is probably not worth attacking it (unless it freezes something) until you at least have a knight or a dragon nearby. Your scouts are better used to take out the cleric and flee.
If the frost is on same side, I still won't usually attack it early on unless it is already hurt from me breaking a freeze. It simply has too many hit points to focus on in early point of the game.