Haelix's Strat Views Part 3 - Pyros and Range

[Haelix]

Parts 1 and 2 were unlabelled, but can be found here:
Defensive Formation is Best
Symmetry is Not Your Friend

Now, the good stuff. (Again, because I lost the first post last night.)

In a defensive formation, there are a few things that it's important to do if you want to win. You must harry your opponent's exposed units to provoke him into attacking, or pounce on any units he moves up to attack.

To do this, you need a unit with a high range. If you can plunk down your Scout in a strategic (read central here) position, then he can attack repeatedly without moving.

Now for us poor slobs without a Gold Account, we only have one Scout. That means you have precious little to attack with at extreme range. So, what can you use as Scout backup to attack at range? Why caster units of course. Not only that, but they have unblockable damage, which I'll discuss later.

First, the Pyromancer. The Pyromancer has range 4, and can attack from behind cover in your formation. This, with his unblockable damage makes him great backup, right? Well it would, except his damage is pitiful, especially to a unit with armour, and his range isn't anywhere near as good as the Scout.

Secondly the Dark Magic Witch. She also has range 4, so she has the same downfall as the Pyromancer in that respect. However, it's much more difficult to attack from behind cover without nuking your own unit. I have purposefully damaged my own Lightning Ward or Knight on occasion to get the benefit of high unblockable damage on a unit.

People seem to value highly their Dark Magic Witch, and for that reason value mine highly, and she becomes somewhat of a target in that respect. This combined with the fact that if you run her out in front of your formation to attack she's vulnerable for 3 turns, means that it's hard to not use her from behind a formation.

So, in recap, the Pyromancer can be used behind a formation line, but has pitiful damage. The Dark Magic Witch cannot be used well in front of a formation line, nor behind it, but has high damage.

I'll make that note about unblockable damage here. This kind of damage is much superior to attacking at a percentile, because it allows you to make concrete plans. For the most part, concrete plans are very important. I usually plan 3 or so moves ahead, and if I'm attacking with a 40% block, that throws the entire plan out the window.

Therefore, until they make a caster unit that has 4+ Range, and attacks at high damage on one square, I'm going to keep my Pyromancers in.

Here's a final thought to ponder. I've been thinking about swapping out my Dark Magic Witch to swap in my third Knight.

Haelix, the long winded.

[Ahab]

Well, after reading your posts, I just wanted to tell you that, yes, setting up properly is the simgle most important thing you can do to win.

Here is my current setup:

     _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
   _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
 _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|S|K|_|K|S|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|P|L|D|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
  |C|F|W|_|_|_|_|_|_|
    |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

It used to be:

      _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
   _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
 _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

[Ahab]

Ahem. (wha hoppin?)

Anyway, it used to be:

     _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
   _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
 _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|S|K|_|_|L|K|_|_|S|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|D|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|W|_|_|_|_|
  |_|_|_|F|_|_|_|_|_|
    |C|_|_|_|_|_|_|

Just wanted to agree with y'all that setting up defensively seems to be the strategy du jour.

Will this change? Not likely.

One suggestion:

Give greys four knoghts to make it harder for golds to win. As it is, they don't stand a chance!

Ahab

[Choi]

edit the post to put the board layout between code tags, like [ code ] .... and ... [ /code ] (except without the extra spaces).

Should look like this when you're done:

     _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
   _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
 _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|S|K|_|K|S|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|P|L|D|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
  |C|F|W|_|_|_|_|_|_|
    |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

Never seen vb used like that before nice job

[Haelix]

Why not move your Lightning ward up one square? As it is, you're wasting some of its coverage...

Mayhaps there's a reason for it in gold terms.

Anyway, I'd be interested in the reason why...

[Ahab]

Actually, it's only something like that.

I think my ward might be closer to the front. In fact, yah, I bet it is. But I also like to block off the back rank from a Knight taking out my frosty.

I was thinking that another improvement to this setup (besides moving my L up front) would be to give frosty a little room back there, and leave spaces for witches and scouts to hide from scouts until heal time. I think that might work better.

In any case, since 4 out of 5 of my games are against newbi greys, I tend to get lazy. This setup has not failed me yet.

Ahab

[kyrios24]

Ahab (*clears throat*), as a future fellow something wicked member, i feel it is my duty to tell you that formation is lacking. Very lacking. Your cleric is a bit open to blasting. Perhaps pushing everything up a bit and stashing the cleric behind might be better? I like the frost golem's positioning though. See how a superior - I mean, different - setup works out for you.

[Ahab]

Sorry, what am I missing here? What do you mean by blasting?

[Choi]

I think he means a Dark Witch making a suicide run to blast your cleric.

[Ahab]

Well, she wouldn't make it. My dragon would kill her first. Or my ward.

Actually my setup is different in reality, but even so, this setup is pretty typical to most I've seen.

Haven't lost with it yet.

[kyrios24]

yep choi, that's what I mean. Thanks.

...And no, your ward or dragon wouldn't stop a witch.