~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADVANCED STRATEGY: THE THREE KEYS TO VICTORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Against beginner level players, a few simple purchasing tactics will usually allow you to win. Against intermediate level players, more advanced purchasing tactics and some basic strategy will bring victory. But against the top players, you cannot always purchase your way to victory, and often, you cannot get much of an advantage, no matter how good you purchase. This is when you need to use strategy and tactics to get yourself the victory. In this situation, the key to beating the top players is to use a few simple yet often overlooked tactics correctly to swing the battle in your favor. I will outline each in turn... 1) Use the +4 adjacent unit bonus every chance you get Even intermediate players know this rule, right? Well, just to refresh your memory, if two or more of your units are next to an enemy unit, any unit attacking that enemy gets a +4 bonus to its attack. So many players will move some junk units next to a strong enemy unit and then attack it with a strong unit to do extra damage. 'Why is this such a big deal?', you might ask. And since it seems so easy to remember and execute, can't anybody do it correctly? Well, yes, anybody can do it correctly, but the trick is not using the bonus, it is using it as often as you can. This is how the top players get those extra kills. Consider a typical scenario where a strong enemy unit is sitting in your path. Assume you cannot make it surrender. Now, beginners and some intermediates will take a strong unit and attack it. Then they will take another strong unit and attack again. Maybe one more will finish off the enemy unit. What is wrong with this? Nothing, in the sense that you kill the unit. But, you just spent three of your strong units attacks, and you left them all vulnerable to a counterattack. An experienced player will send two junk units to attack the enemy strong unit (assuming you can skirmish it without getting hit), and then send in a strong unit. Now, the strong unit gets a +4 bonus and will likely do much more damage(sometimes twice as much). After these attacks, you will probably need at most one more attack to finish it. And at least one of the junk unit will be next to it already, so you can repeat the steps above and get another +4 bonus and finish it for sure with your second strong unit. So now you have saved one strong unit for another attack, and the skirmishers sitting in the area will protect your units from the counterattack. Why go through all the trouble? Because each extra strong attack per turn can mean another enemy unit killed, and against the top players, the little things like this really add up. Another +4 bonus strategy involves conjurers. Assume you have the same attack/defense values as the enemy unit you want to target, and assume you have conjurers. A regular attack will do 1,3 damage, and if you use the conjurer you will have 4 kills. That will hurt a unit, but nor cripple it. BUT, if you send a couple of junk unit to stand next to the target, and then attack with the conjurer and strong unit combo, the expected number of kills rises to about 6(assuming full strength units). Many times you will get even more kills that this, and leaving a unit with 9 of less really cripples its attack, esp if they are kills. If you do this consistently, one attack will knock out one enemy unit per turn in terms of effectiveness, and you don't have to worry about them resting. If you have 3 conjurers, that's 3 units a turn without needing to worry about completely surrounding them or getting multiple attacks. In a slugfest with many strong units on both sides, this can be incredibly effective. Let's take another scenario... several lowly enemy junk units are blocking your path. Does this require using the bonus? Well, no, you can clear them out with heavy units regardless. But... consider this: if you maneuver your units so as to get the bonus, you will do more damage and have a greater chance to kill the junk(so it won't come back to bother you again) instead of making it retreat. This is even more important when you are up against experienced junk units which the opponent cannot replace with reinforcements. Of course you should not just waste units to get the bonus on junk units, but if there are several enemy junk units near each other, you can be more clever about it. When figuring out where to attack from, position your attacking unit next to two junk units at once and attack one of them. Now you already have a unit adjacent to the junk units you did not attack, and you did not waste its turn. Only one more of your units is required to get the bonus against that enemy junk unit. Using this method, you can get the most out of each unit of yours and each attack of yours. If you think killing enemy junk is not so important, you're missing the point. Every single enemy unit killed leaves your opponent with less resources! The faster you can kill them, the faster you can get to wherever your army is going to, esp if the junk units are blocking your path. You never want to waste three turns moving through some random junk. The key to the +4 bonus is to PLAN your attack beforehand to get as many bonuses as possible. Often you have a choice from where to attack an enemy from. You might not usually give this much thought, but you should. For one thing, the +4 bonus works on defense too, so if you attack from a spot where you are adjacent to 3 or more enemy units, you will suffer more wounds. Even if not, you should position yourself so you can get the +4 bonus against other enemy units later on in the attack, as mentioned above. Do not forget air units... ground units next to air units have no effect, so you need to move at least two air units next to an air unit for there to be an effect. This is where those bomberdiers can really help. Move a few next to air units and get that bonus for your sky hunters. As a bonus the bomberdiers will trap the air unit so it cannot escape; this can be a very effective combo when you are down in the air war and want to attack the air units from below, but cannot get there with your anti-air in one turn. The key thing to keep in mind is that you should treat the +4 bonus as your birthright, something that you should strive to get at every attack, not as something you might get occasionally or try for against strong units. Always think about the +4 bonus before planning a turn. 2) Flank the opponent This does not seem as such a big revelation either. Flanking is always a sound military tactic, but few player use it in FG. Why? Simple... most players would prefer to keep their army together instead of splitting it up and taking a risk that the opponent will conquer each part of their army in turn. Ah, but without risks you cannot achieve the greatest victories! Before I get into flanking, let me just say that it is not easy to succeed at this strategy. In other words, it is easy to fail at it and lose to players you might not normally lose to the first few times. That is why this section is titled 'advanced strategy'. I would still encourage you to try it no matter what your level, but be warned. OK, now let's discuss the concept of flanking in FG... First off, some players misunderstand the goal of flanking. It is NOT to attack the opponent from all sides, although if you can do that, all the better. It is not to take towns behind enemy lines, although in team games this is a good strategy as well. The real purpose of flanking is to bottle up the enemy so you can move in for the kill. Think of all your recent games... what are the most annoying things that generally occur? -You can't get to thse strong enemy units because of junk screens -You can't force surrenders because the opponent has wisely left some lines of retreat to where you cannot block them -You hurt a unit but can't kill it, and it retreats or is shielded by other units until it recovers. -Those pesky healers, conjurers, and seiges are making your life miserable from the back lines, and you can't touch them Now, imagine the enemy is encircled by your units on all sides, or even on three sides. Now that wounded unit cannot escape, the opponent has to screen from all sides, and you can block any path of surrender that you want, not to mention harass or kill enemy support units. THAT is the goal of flanking. Without a lane of retreat, an army is much less effective; and if you have ever played in tight quarters surrounded by the opponent, you know how difficult it is to maneuver. The reason is that if you are trapped, you cannot surround the enemy or flank any units, and thus you cannot force surrenders or get more than one or two attacks on a unit. That leads to desperation attacks. And junk screens are less effective because there is no room for them to retreat and you leave yourself open to surrenders. Starting to make sense now? 'But I don't want to split my army because the opponent will not wait for me to surround him before attacking my weakened units!', you protest. Splitting your army is not as devastating as you might think. You can flank with junk units just as effectively as with other units. In fact, the best flankers are inviso units and speedy units. Many opponents will see you flanking them yet not attempt to prevent it because they underestimate its importance until it is too late. After all, who is going to pay attention to a bunch of stray wolf riders doing scouting? I would also recommend using some inviso units as they can move undetected until you are ready to move to a blocking position. Since you are keeping your main army together, you are not really risking being overpowered, esp if you use your screening units correctly. If there is no opening, you should play defensively until your flanking units get into position. You can even move back if you have to. Remember, the first attack must be a strong one to give you an advantage, otherwise the enemy counterattack will cripple you. So it does not pay to attack unless you see a good opening. Your opponent will be thinking the same thing and be cautious as well, in most cases. Here is another key point to remember: flank and attack with your main army at the same time! If you attack before flanking, you will gain no benefit, but likewise, if you move the flanking units into position without attacking, the opponent will just clear them away next turn and you will have gained nothing. But, if you attack simultaneously as you flank, the opponent will have to worry about fighting on two or more fronts. This is especially effective when the opponent only has a few strong units. The opponent will not be able to counterattack fully because he has to worry about breaking out of the trap his units are now in. Even the top players will find this difficult and make mistakes trying to figure out whether it is better to clear an escape route or to launch a full counterattack. If they waste time clearing an escape, the counterattack will not be very successful and you should gain the advantage at the loss of a few junk units and maybe some skirmishers. If the opponent ignores the units back there, he is now bottled up, and cannot do all the things we discussed above, such as retreat units to safety and move around freely behind his lines. Once again, you have the advantage. And that is all you are trying to get, the advantage. Flanking does not necessarily mean the enemy army will crumble, although against inexperienced players that might happen. Often you will lose the flanking units, but gain the upper hand as the opponent wastes manpower killing them. One thing that you will probably find annoying is waiting for your units to move into flanking position. One way to speed this up is plan beforehand where you want the armies to meet and just keep your army there while sending units to flank the position the enemy army will have to move to fight yours. Most players will move to the battle, so never underestimate how important it is to position your army where YOU want the battle to occur. By the time the enemy arrives there, your units can already be in position to flank. Plan ahead and you can make flanking easier. While not every situation is tailor made to flank the opponent, you should always send a few junk units to flank just to annoy the enemy and make him think('are there inviso units with those junk units coming my way?'). If it fails, you lose little, but if it succeeds, you gain all that we discussed above. Let's talk about which maps are good for flanking. River maps are tough to flank on, because if you face off with a river in between you cannot launch a good attack with your main army, so flanking will do nothing to help that. Ideal maps are ones with mountain ranges or jungles that form a valley. For example, take the Serpent's Cauldron map. See the jungles in the middle with a narrow path? If you face off the enemy army at the top or bottom of the path, and then flank from the other side(not easy to do but deadly if you manage it), the opponent is completely trapped because there is no maneuverability in the jungles and he cannot escape left or right. An army in that position can easily be crushed. You also want a map where you can maneuver well on the edges as this will speed up the flanking maneuver(for example, Blackmoon Fans has a good road network along the edges). Lastly, you want a map with a good spot to stand off against the enemy army(just make sure you have a chance to attack when the time comes, don't stand behind rivers). When your armies are at a standoff, the first tactic you should always use is to try to flank the enemy. If you have already started to flank, and your opponent has not, then you have the advantage! Often a flanking maneuver will fluster the opponent, and he might send strong units away from his army to try to stop the flanking units, or send support units over. If this happens, seize the opportunity to draw his strong units as far away from the main battle as you can, and then attack with your main forces. As with my other tips, the key is planning; think about flanking right away when you start a battle! 3) Planning, planning, planning! What's all this planning I am talking about and why is it important? Well, planning can mean many things, but the planning I will discuss here is the type you do before you play each turn. You don't do any planning before turns? Well, let me see if I can change your mind... How many of you have opened a game file, taken a quick look, saw a great attack against that enemy unit you wanted to kill, and went ahead and started attacking? And how many of you then regretted not moving another unit first, or doing something else that would have assured a better turn? I, for one, have done it plenty of times. And I have learned over the years that a critical part of FG is controlling that impulse and planning your turns. In fact, I can tell you right now that if you start moving units before you have looked at the battlefield for at least 5 minutes, you are not going to get the best possible attack. If you are killing the opponent easily, then this is not a big deal, you will win anyway. But in tight battles against a top player, you're going to want to have the best turn possible each time. Often there are many attacks you can make, but the key is to focus on your objectives. Ask yourself these questions: -Do I want to attack or defend and rest? -Do I want to concentrate on the air war or the ground war? -Is there a key enemy unit I can kill this turn that will cripple his war effort? -Are there enemy support units that I want to get rid of? -How many surrenders can I get this turn? Answering these question will give you a better idea of what you want to accomplish. The worst thing is attacking without any clear purpose. Let's consider some of these questions and how they will affect your thinking. Attack vs Defense: there are times you have good attack possibilities and can clear out many enemy units, but sometimes your units are hurt, or you have no good attacks. These times it is better to rest and defend instead of launching useless attacks(note this is exactly what the AI does in campaign which makes it so easy to beat, launching useless attack after attack upon your units). If you need to defend, you might consider taking out only enemy units far from the main enemy army, or just wounding them as you retreat. The rest of the turn should be spent resting, retreating, and setting up screens. But if you want to attack, you should plan out which attack each unit will perform and which units will get in positions to force surrenders. Never plan an attack and then decide to retreat in the middle of the turn, this always leads to disaster. If you planned your attack right, you should never have to retreat halfway through. Same thing about retreating, do not change your mind when one of your attacks works really well, stick with the plan! Ground war vs Air war: usually you have a skull, bow units, and sometimes seiges. Any of these can attack air or ground units. You want to figure out which is the priority before planning the rest of your turn, since it will help you maximize your air attack or ground attack. For ex, if you find you can only afford to spend one unit on the air war, you probably won't be able to kill anything so its best not to waste it on a futile attack. Same thing for the ground war. Always decide which is the priority and spend every available unit on that priority(sometimes both are a priority so you split your attack). If there is a key enemy unit you want to kill, you should first figure out how to kill it and what units you will need. If you can, you should force the unit to surrender. Figure out which units you need to accomplish this, and mentally note that they will not be available for future attacks. Also, set aside a few other units that can attack the unit in question in case the initial attack fails due to luck. You will do this attack first, and then use the backup units if you need to in order to finish off that critical unit. This way you get the unit no matter what; since this is a priority, doing it first ensures you do not waste units that you need for this task on other tasks. How many times have you attacked with a unit early in the turn, and then wanted to use it to finish off that key enemy unit that survived your other attacks due to luck? Planning your turn ensures that this never happens. Support unit targets work similarly... If there is a conjurer or healer you need to kill, you want to set aside a few units to do so in your battle plan. Depending on how important killing the support unit is, you will do this attack first or last (refer to the discussion above). Now let's discuss the final question I posed, which involves the critical issue of surrenders. When you are planning a turn and you wish to attack, a good rule of thumb is to try to get at least one surrender per turn. Surrenders are generally easier to get than normal kills because even if you have bad luck you can still kill the unit. This is because suppresions count as much as wounds towards the target number it takes to make a unit retreat and surrender. And the suppresion hit rate is twice that of the rate of getting wounds; if your expected losses are 1,2 you would expect 6 suppresions. So even with bad luck you are virtually assured of getting suppresions(if you don't get the wounds), and making the unit retreat. When an enemy unit is surrounded by at least two of your units, you get the +4 bonus and the chances of surrender become even higher. In terms of planning, you want to try to maximize your surrenders. IN fact, I rarely plan to kill a unit outright. Usually if I can't make it surrender the first time, I will force it to retreat to where I can make it surrender next turn. That way there is a huge margin for error and bad luck. Bad luck usually does not prevent surrenders, as I mentioned above, and so you can be more sure of your attacks that way. A key to planning surrenders it to try to move a junk unit so it simultaneously sits next to two enemy units, thus blocking the paths of two units at once. This way it takes fewer units to surround several enemy units. If you can't surround a unit at first, try to make an enemy unit retreat into the position you cannot occupy yourself. And be careful, the biggest mistake players make in planning surrenders is forget that a unit will disappear off the board after it surrenders; what I mean is you will plan to make three units surrenders, and two are next to each other. Well, you surround both of them, and kill the first... but now the space where the first unit was is opened up and you have to occupy it before you can make the second unit surrender. Sometimes the space the killed enemy occupies cannot be occupied cause it is out of the way, so you cannot make the second unit surrender as planned. In this case, you might try changing the order of attack in your battle plan and making another unit surrender first if you can then occupy its position. Of course if you do not plan the turn, you might notice this only after the fact, and then you won't be able to get that second surrender. Another reason why planning is key. Another thing to consider is your positioning when you are done. Do not leave units in positions where they can easily be made to surrender, that is like giving the units away for free and will negate any good things the attack has accomplished. For ex, if you have a full exp lionmen who can get a surrender by attacking from a square surrounded by 4 of your units, DO NOT do it! Next turn the opponent will move one or two more units next to it, and then get the surrender. It is only worth it if the unit you kill is a key unit in the enemy army and yours is not. In summary, the first thing you want to do when planning is set your priorities. If you decide to attack, always attack the most important units first AND have a backup plan in case you have bad luck. That way, if there is a problem, other units can finish the job. The less important attacks should be performed last, with whatever units are left for the job, if all goes according to plan. The thing to remember about planning is that you want to spend at least 5-10 minutes looking at the possibilities BEFORE moving a single unit. Set your priorities, and move the units in your head(or make notes on paper), so you can figure out the positioning and attack possibilities after each attack occurs. Use that backup plan in case the worst possible scenario occurs, and be careful not to leave yourself open to surrenders when you are done. That covers my three keys to victory. I did not leave in all the details, but I hope you now have a good idea of how I use each tactic to my advantage against the top players. While all these techniques are simple to do, they are difficult to master; that is why they are the key to beating the top players. NEXT ISSUE: Tricks and Traps for all Skill Levels(tentative)... Suggestions, thoughts, and feedback on my strategy articles is always welcome! Regards, BloodLord the Lich FG Laddermaster