DUEL 2 NEWSLETTER Date : 05/05/2012 Duedate: 05/18/2012 NOBLISH ISLAND ARENA DM-93 TURN-350 This Weeks Top Honors THE DUELMASTER IS BUSY BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) (93-9223) [7-2-0,84] Chartered Recognition Leader Unchartered Recognition Leader POSITION IS EMPTY BUSY BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) (93-9223) [7-2-0,84] Popularity Leader This Weeks Favorite CONTRACT BRIDGE UGHH FAVORITE GAMES (1587) THE HERQULOIDS (1601) (93-9218) [6-3-0,29] (93-9292) [1-0-0,8] THE CURRENT TOP TEAM BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) TEAMS ON THE MOVE TOP CAREER HONORS Team Name Point Gain Chartered Team 1. BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) 44 2. LOW ROAD 3 (1589) 36 BRUTE STRENGTH (491) 3. DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) 36 Unchartered Team 4. BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) 35 5. THE HERQULOIDS (1601) 24 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) The Top Teams Career Win-Loss Record W L K % Win-Loss Record Last 3 Turns W L K 1/ 1*FAVORITE GAMES (1587) 31 14 0 68.9 1/ 6*BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) 10 3 3 2- 2*CRIT-GIVERS (1593) 10 5 0 66.7 2/ 3*LOW ROAD 3 (1589) 10 5 1 3/ 4*BASH BROS TELEPHO (1588) 28 17 0 62.2 3/ 1*FAVORITE GAMES (1587) 10 5 0 4/ 3*LOW ROAD 3 (1589) 24 16 2 60.0 4/ 4*BASH BROS TELEPHO (1588) 10 5 0 5/ 0*DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) 3 2 0 60.0 5- 2*CRIT-GIVERS (1593) 5 5 0 6/ 6*OLIVA GALVARIUS (1586) 13 14 1 48.1 6/ 8*KNIGHT LIFE (1597) 4 5 0 7/ 5*THE FARSEERS (1591) 12 13 2 48.0 7/ 5*THE FARSEERS (1591) 4 6 1 8/ 8*BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) 11 12 3 47.8 8/ 0*DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) 3 2 0 9/ 7*KNIGHT LIFE (1597) 4 5 0 44.4 9/ 9*BLOODY VIXENS (1595) 3 9 2 10/ 0*THE HERQULOIDS (1601) 2 3 0 40.0 10/ 7*OLIVA GALVARIUS (1586) 2 3 0 11/ 9*BLOODY VIXENS (1595) 3 9 2 25.0 11/ 0*THE HERQULOIDS (1601) 2 3 0 12/ 0*DRAGONS (1491) 1 9 0 10.0 12/ 0*DRAGONS (1491) 0 3 0 13-10*KISS OF DEATH (1249) 0 1 0 0.0 13-10*KISS OF DEATH (1249) 0 1 0 '*' Unchartered team '-' Team did not fight this turn (###) Avoid teams by their Team Id ##/## This turn's/Last turn's rank TEAM SPOTLIGHT In the warriors war room, Mac D spoke quietly to Mi Mi, Honey Bee, Ma'Tee, and Twinkles. "I'm sorry, girls." "I can't believe she's dead," Twinkles said, openly crying. "None of us can." Mac D said. "But be still, I've signed myself up to fight in her place." "What!?!" Mi Mi and Ma'tee shouted. "You can't fight! You're our leader, what if you get hurt?" "Calm down, Honey Bee, I'm just going to deal with Stormy, then... who know." Mac D told her. "Meanwhile, I want you three to take the week off, out of respect for Glitter, our lady killer..." "But, your age..." Ma'Tee said. "I'm not that old, you brute and I can still fit my armor, so I don't want to hear another word." Mac D said, rising from his seat. "I got to go train up... Between us, I'm dying to kill that halfblood..." * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * Walking the streets of Noblish Island early in the morning gave De'von Kildor, manager of Knight Life, time to think. After years as a soldier in Andor, De'von could follow orders without question, yet giving them was something new. These fighters, untrained and wild, believed he could help them somehow. His pride had no problem asking the other managers for advise, if he could only find them. Entering the inn where Knight Life was staying, De'von saw Barbra Jean crying over a pint of ale, Beast bending an iron rod in half, and Mindy V pouting, all at a table in the back. "Uncle D, he's gone!" Barbra cries. "Children, calm down. I know DeeJay Gee's death has scared you--" De'von started. "Scared! I'm not afraid of no one!" Beast yelled. "Who should I be scared of? Kalan, or Brige Burners?" laughed Mindy. "That's not what I was saying. You're adding words to my thoughts," complained De'von. "Kalam is MINE!" Beast declared. "Okay, fine, I'll see what I can do. Where is Ken Do?" asked De'von. "He's outside, practicing with the new weapons," Barbra informed him. "That's good. Last week was a learning experience for all of us, but most of all, me. I am sorry, Beast and Mindy, for setting you up for failure. I swear it will never happen again," De'von promised all of them. "Uncle D, may your time be mine for a moment?" Ken Do asked, walking inside. "Sure. How is the weapon?" De'von responded. "It is strong. It is not fast, but it will do. I must fight the best, so I will be the best. I have only one goal: to take the Duelmaster's soul," Ken Do said, violently. "Hold it right there! I will not have any of that kind of talk on my team. We will fight fairly and with honor. This is a sport, not kill or be killed. There is something truly wrong with you, Ken." Shaking his head, De'von turned to the rest of the team. "I have an idea for next week. Here's my plan...." * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * WHAT'S ALL THIS? Or COMBINING PREVIOUS ARTICLES ON WARRIOR SKILL ET AL I have combined and connected three previous spotlights from Teacher (another Consortium affiliate) to try to bring the idea of warrior design and warrior skill into perspective. If you have any questions about this--just ask in the personal ads. Assur or Jorja, or me (Gamemaster), or all of us, will answer. Note: Having already requested and received the Noblish Island available CIC from RSI would simplify the discussion. TEACHER'S CHEAT SHEET Once upon a time there was along-time manager who decided to collect a lot of valuable information, in irregular small print form, on only three pages of 8.5x11. That manager, or group of managers, use said data information when: 1. The internet is down and the Terrablood/RSI sites are unavailable 2. Traveling around the world and "working D2 strategies" in unusual places 3. Quick information is needed 4. They feel like it The information is not necessarily the prettiest, but it can be quite invaluable to DMers. Copies of that information are now available for Noblish Island managers. Contact Jorja, the Noblish Island coordinator, or request it by mail directly from RSI. Most of the information on the data sheets is self-explanatory. Some will require explanation. Most has been gathered from various sources over time in the DM community. Much of it has been gathered empirically. (Meaning that the information is not programming code, or from the designers, but rather gathered by users and players of the game.) The information may not always be "perfect", but it is widely used in this or similar form. I will explain the information by placing it into two categories-- straightforward, and intricate. First let's cover what is in the first category. The following charts/info fit the straightforward category. Some include simple calculations. 1. WEAPON SUITABILITY -- shows which weapons are suited, marginal, or unsuited to a style. 2. WEAPON REQUIREMENTS -- indicates the ST, SZ, WT, DF limitations for a weapon. It also covers the weapon weight, the armor it is best used against, and whether it is a slash, bash, lunge weapon. (Note: Assur just published an update last turn with even more accurate data.) 3. INTELLIGENCE -- defines the WT needed for each rating. 4. DAMAGE -- reveals the approximate damage rating one should expect for all ST/SZ combinations. Note: a luck roll factor can both hose and bless damage rating. 5. ENCUMBRANCE -- a table which shows what level of "carry" (encumbrance rating) one should expect at all SZ/CN combinations. 6. HEIGHT -- a simple conversion between the SZ number and ft/in. 7. COORDINATION -- which is defined as SP + DF; the chart provides a summary of each coordination rating and the "points" range for each 8. ENDURANCE -- most still use this calculation, although a "luck roll factor" can alter the results slightly. The endurance rating which is WL x (ST+CN) is defined for each rating. 9. HIT POINTS -- sometimes called "damage taking" is broken down in this chart. The HP is defined as 3.75CN + 1.1SZ + 0.4 WL. The rating levels are defined by "points." And now for the more difficult to explain charts which interact with each other. The three intricate charts are: 1. BAGMAN2 SKILL CHART -- this chart explains how many and what skills are added to the warrior base for each stat point. (All stats add skills at certain levels except CN.) 2. STYLE SKILL MODIFIER -- indicates the modification, by style, of skills per type. This occurs "at birth" of the warrior. 3. HIGH WIT STATEMENTS -- a chart of phrases which indicate, at birth, the skill level, by skill type, of your warrior. Note: there is a Low Wit Statement chart for warriors with less that 8 WT, but it is very inaccurate (minimal empirical data) and seldom used. It is not included in this collection of charts. These three charts work together to help a warrior determine his anticipated starting skills. They also define at which skill levels, per stat, that skills are added during the warrior's development. Note: Depending on the warrior's style, it is possible to be blessed or hosed by up to 4 skills by the "luck of the roll." The other thing to remember is that an ambidextrous warrior gets one attack skill added to his base at birth. These intricate three charts, and the interaction between them, can seem quite complicated. After a certain amount of trial-and-error, and/or by absorbing enough advice, a manager finally "gets it." Well, there's the bell ringing for the end of class. In our next session, we will explore "how to use" the Teacher's Cheat Sheet. HOW TO -- THE CIC What can you do with the Consortium Information Collection (CIC)? How does one use all that info? Contact RSI or Jorja in DM93 to get a copy. You can use the information to: 1. Predict what your designed warrior is going to look like. (Indeed, you can use the info to "try out" several design ideas, before you choose your final design. 2. Review the overview of the warrior you received to see if he/she is bonused/hosed. 3. Help keep track of the warrior's skills, including those earned from certain stat raises. 4. Determine advantageous and usable weapons and armor for certain situations. So let's examine the CIC in detail. 1. ***DAMAGE CHART*** This chart shows you the range of expected damage doing your character will yield. For example, a SZ16, 10ST warrior yields "-R+", meaning great damage is typical, but lower and higher are not uncommon. Damage doing is dependent on SZ, ST, and luck of the roll. If a warrior is much below, or much above, the chart predictions, he is "hosed" or "blessed". This chart is more of generic reference than most of the other information. 2. *** HIT POINTS*** HP is calculated as (3.75xCN)+(1.1xSZ)+(0.4xWL). This chart shows the HP needed for each rating. For example, an 11-10-8-15-17-12-11 warrior would have(3.75x10)+(1.1X8)+(0.4x17)=53.10HP and his "hit point rating" would be "cannot lot", meaning cannot take a lot of damage. One raise of CN elevates him to 56.85 and "normal HP". 3. ***ENDURANCE*** By this chart's definition, endurance equals (WL)x(ST+CN). Using the warrior mentioned above, endurance is (17)x(11+10) = 357. Based on the chart, this warrior should have "normal endurance." It is possible to be hosed/blessed in endurance, which would be the case if this warrior did not have normal. Note: On a warrior profile sheet, the lack of any comment about endurance, means the warrior has normal. 4. ***COORDINATION*** Coordination is merely SP + CN. There is no hosing or blessing. The warrior listed above has 12+11 = 23 or normal coordination. 5. ***ENCUMBRANCE*** is often called "carry." Carry is a non-hosed/blessed attribute dependent on ST and CN and it indicates how much weight a warrior can carry without penalizing the endurance. Checking the chart for the above listed warrior shows 11ST/10CN yields "B" carry, or "cannot carry a lot of weight." Each level of carry adds 9 points of weight that can be carried. A = 9; B = 18; C = 27, etc. Items to be carried are armor, helm, and weapon/shields. Check the WEAPON REQUIREMENT chart to see the weights of weapons and armor. As an example, a warrior wearing ASM/H, and carrying BS/ME and a backup SH, has the following weights of 8 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 2 = 19. That amount of carry is more than the 18 indicated for "B carry", hence, the warrior out much quicker than normal. 6. ***HEIGHT*** This is a simple conversion chart showing what heights equate to what SZ. While the warrior fight summary may list the warrior in ft-in, the D2 program really runs using the SZ number. Size may limit weapons or shields that may be used without penalty, and as seen above, it impacts certain other characteristics. 7. ***INTELLIGENCE*** This chart indicates the intelligence statement you will receive at each numeric WT. In general, only the numeric value is of importance. 8. ***STYLE SUITABILITY*** This is a chart which summarizes which weapons/shields are suitable, marginal, or unsuitable for which styles. 9. ***WEAPON REQUIREMENTS*** This chart only refers to primary-hand weapons, and it is a terrific summary of weapon requirement and impact. This chart reveals all of the following and more: a. weapon weights b. ST requirements for a weapon c. SZ limitations for a weapon d. WT requirements for all weapons e. DF requirements for a weapon f. Weapon impact vs. armor type g. Kill "ratings" for weapons (Take this rating with a "grain of salt" as it is not really supported by empirical results, and it appears to say heavy weapons kill better.) h. Whether the weapon is a slash, bash, or lunge type weapon. 10. ***BAGMAN 2 SKILL CHART AND STYLE MODIFIERS*** This chart is a doozy! It took years of data and development, and has become a highly important tool in D2. The SKILL CHART explains what skills are earned at each stat level. For example: at 5 WL the warrior gets 1 each Attack, Parry, Defense, and Decisiveness skill; at 6 WL, no more skills are earned; but bumping the 7WL again adds one each of those same four. Note also that SZ does impact skills. A SZ3 warrior gets two each defense and parry skills and loses two initiatives, while a SZ21 earns 4 initiatives but loses four each defense and parry. This chart is prepared in an accumulative fashion, showing the total skills at each stat. Coupled with that chart the STYLE MODIFIER chart shows the "at birth" style modifications. (All negative or zero. Each style starts with a different base of skills. Lets take our previously mentioned 11-10-8-15-17-12-11 warrior for example, and let's say he is a slasher. The skill chart shows 2 each attack and parry skills at 11 ST; no skills for CN; no sk1lls for SZ; at 15WT 9 initiative, 3 riposte, 7 attack, 7 defense, and 2 decisiveness; 4 each attack, parry and defense plus 5 decise at 17WL; 3 init, 4 riposte, 2 defense, and 5 decise at 12SP; and at 11DF there are 3 Init, 4 Riposte, and 5 each attack, parry and defense skills. Add those all together to get a 15Init-11Rip-18Att-11Par-18Def- 12Dec total of skills for that design. Now you must apply the style modifier chart, and a slasher has as follows: -2 Init, -4Rip, -8Att, -10Par, -12Def, -2Dec. Putting them both together yields a slasher who should expect 13 Initiative, 7 Riposte, 10 Attack, 1 Parry, 6 Defense, and 11 Decisiveness as starting skills. 11. ***HIGH WIT STATEMENTS*** These statements apply to those warriors with 8+ WT. (There are also Low Wit Statements, but that information summary is inaccurate due to lack of input data.) This list indicates what "statements" should appear on your "warrior profile" for each of Initiative, Riposte, Attack, Parry, and Defense per each level of wit. Using our warrior above, as stated, he is expected to start with 13 Initiative skills. He has 15 WT. Examining the chart, under Initiative and across from 15 WT (which also applies for 16WT, since the next listed level is 17), the left side (high order) is for 13+base init skills, and the right side (low order 10-12 base init). We determined that he should start with 13, so we should expect the statement "Nothing short of genius..." If we do get this statement as expected, we DO have 13+ Initiative skills. (13 min) Hence, we could be bonused with skills above 13. We would know if we were bonused 3 Init skills, as we would start with an expert in Initiative. However, if, indeed, we received the other statement "With a very aggressive...", we would know we started with 10-12 Initiative skills, and were hence hosed 1 to 3 initiative skills. Let's try one more example-- for Riposte. Our skill evaluations showed him to have 7 skills. Looking at the HIGH WIT chart at 15WT, he has fewer skills than the low order amount of 10-12, so he should expect no riposte statement. If he did get the low order statement, then he truly has at least 10 riposte skills, so he is bonused +3 or +4 (4 is max skill hose or bonus.) Evaluating the high wit statements of all five skill areas (There is none for decisiveness.) will lead to a true and actual understanding of the starting skill set of any warrior. WARRIOR SKILL BASE, A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE Settle down class. Get rid of that gum, Assur, and quit passing notes to Jorja. Quiet down; quiet down. Today, using the CIC (I am sure you all have requested and received your copies from RSI by now.) we will take a real life example to predict and determine starting skills. This example, coupled with last turn's lecture should put you in a good position to pass the final. Take good notes, students! "Chronic Pain" 32-4593 of team Disillusioned was designed from 5-6-18-10-8-10-13 to be a 9-6-18-15-9-10-17 striker. First, we will predict his skill base. Then we will observe his initial warrior profile. Lastly, we will summarize what we know about any skill bonuses he might have. For the purposes of this lecture, we will use the following code: for stats: ST = strength, CN = con, SZ = size, WT = wit, WL = will, SP = speed, and DF = deftness; for skills: I = initiative, R = riposte, A = attack, P = parry, F = defense, and D = decisiveness. Using the BAGMAN2 SKILL CHART from the CIC, we see that: 9 ST provides 2 A and 2 P 6 CN provides no skills 18 SZ provides 2 I and negative/minus 2 P and 2 F 15 WT provides 9 I, 3 R, 7 A, 7 F, and 2 D 9 WL provides 2 A, 2 P, 2 F, 3 D 10 SP provides 2 I, 3 R, 2 F 4 D 17 DF provides 6 I, 7 R, 8 A, 8 P, 8 F Totaling this created skills of 17,13,19,10,17,9 (always speak I,R,A,P,F,D in that order) Sounds pretty awesome so far! But next we must apply the style modifications, from the STYLE MODIFIER CHART on the CIC. This warrior is a STRIKER, and the chart indicates that striker skill mods are -7, -4, -12, -9, -12, -1. (Again, always using the order, I,R,A,P,F,D.) A different style would have quite different modifiers, all of which are zero or negative modifiers. Combining(adding) the skills from BAGMAN2 and STYLE MODIFIER indicates that Chronic Pain would expect starting skills of 10I ,9R ,7A,1P ,5F ,8D. One note to this is that on the Terrablood website is a module which allows one to input the stat numbers and the starting skills and the expected warrior profile is provided. But, today, we are learning "long hand." Okay, now, let's check to see if we can predict any wit statements. (Wit statements, if any, always appear on the warrior profile just below the intelligence/wit level.) These are key to determining skill bonuses or hoses. Using the HIGH WIT STATEMENT chart, checking first initiative (I), we see that at 15WT (In this example, we will always use the 15WT line on each skill because the warrior in question has 15WT.), and low order, 10-12 skills should provide a "With a very aggressive and clever fighting skill" statement. Continuing to riposte, we have nine skills which are lower than the low order requirement of 10, so we should expect no riposte statement. Our expected 7 attack skills do, however, indicate that we should get the "Has an unusual fighting style that confuses many opponents" statement. Our one parry skill will not get us a statement as 6 skills are required to get anything. And lastly, our 5 defense skills should get us the low order (3-6 base skills required) defense statement of "avoids blows well." To summarize we expect three wit statements, one each for I, A, and F. Using the CIC, we can also predict endurance, punishment level (hit points), carry, and damage-doing, so let's also do that. Endurance = WLx(ST+CN) = 9x(9+6) = 135, which indicates "very little" on the CIC. Hit points are 3.75CN+(1.1SZ+0.4WL) = 3.75x6 + (1.1x18 + 0.4X9) = 22.5+19.8+3.6 = 45.9 = "Cannot take a lot". Carry (per the encumbrance chart) for 9ST and 6 CN = "A carry", which is very little or 9 points carry max. And lastly, damage-doing, per the damage chart, for 9ST and 18SZ = great." We have concluded our "predictions" or "expectations", and when we get the warrior profile, we will know what the warrior truly has, and whether or not he is hosed or bonused anywhere. So let's see what the actual Chronic Pain warrior profile said. CHRONIC PAIN Fights using the STRIKING ATTACK style Is AMBIDEXTROUS Is INTELLIGENT nothing short of a genius at keeping his foes off balance and in trouble has an unusual fighting style that confuses many opponents avoids blows well has POOR ENDURANCE CANNOT take a LOT of PUNISHMENT Can only carry a VERY LITTLE WEIGHT in armor and weapons Does GREAT DAMAGE STRENGTH = 9 CONSTITUTION = 6 SIZE = 18 WIT = 15 WILL = 9 SPEED = 10 DEFTNESS = 17 So what does this profile tell us about the warrior. First, accept that the profile is "true." We may have been calculating and predicting from charts and data before, but what is on the profile is the warrior in fact. Notice first, the ambidextrous bonus. This is special. Being left or right handed is merely a statement, but being ambidextrous adds one attack skill to the warrior's base. Had we known the warrior was going to be ambi, we would have added one attack skill to our prediction, making his predicted base attack at 8. (But, of course, we didn't/couldn't.) The warrior has three statements under wit/intelligence. The first is the Initiative statement, but not the one we predicted. If you look on the HIGH WIT chart, you will see that the "nothing short of genius..." is a high order statement, indicating 13+ Init skills! Great! We predicted 10! He as 13I+. Therefore, he is bonused +3 or +4. As to riposte, we expected no statement at 9 skills, and he got none. Hence, we could consider that he is mode, but, in actuality, we only truly know he has less than 10 R skills since he received no statement. He could, then, be less than 9. Therefore, we know he is mode to -4 R. (+ or - 4 is the most blessing/ hosing possible.) Moving on to attack, where we expect the low order statement for 7-9 A skills. This is even after we added the one A to our calculated 7 base for the ambi condition. Surely enough, we received the "has an unusual fighting...." we expected, so we know this warrior has 7-9 A skills. We expect 8, so he could be from -1 to +1A. There is no wit statement for parry, nor did we expect one as his expected 1P is less than the low wit minimum of three. What we know, then, is that he could have 2P and be +1, or he could have two less than we calculated and be hosed. (It is probably important to state at this time that, depending on style, warriors are sometimes limited to which skills can be hosed or bonused. But that is a lecture for another day.) Last, then comes defense, where our calculated 5F indicated that we should get the low wit statement of "avoids blows well" and this warrior did get it. We now know he has 3 to 6 F skills so he could be -2 hosed to +1 bonused. There is no wit statement for decisiveness. One last offering, you can know even more about your warrior's starting skills if he were to start with a rating (e.g. expert attack) as you would then know that your warrior has between 16-19 skills in that category. There are a few very fine warriors that even start with an Advanced Expert in a skill. (20 skills +) Let's make a final check of endurance and damage-doing. The charts predicted very little endurance, and the warrior received poor. He may be slightly bonused. The warrior received the great damage-doing our charts predicted, so he is probably mode. There you have it. Your last example of evaluating the warrior's starting skill base. Learn it. Have the charts available. You will definitely be tested on this subject on your final. * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * Assur's Guide to Tank Hybrids Today's subject is one of Assur's favorite type of hybrids. They may not be the best warriors to grace the sands, but they are a lot of fun. The idea is that you can't take them down and at some point they will attack back and when they hit, they will hit hard! 1) Design Tank Hybrids (hereafter referred to as simply tanks) are hybrids that wear lots of armor and have lots of hit points. There are lots of variations of this type of hybrid, but typically they are not depending on anything other than their physical prowess to win. Encumbrance and Hit Points are amongst their most important attributes. Skills are nice, but in some cases almost a forethought. Attack is probably the most useful skill to have, followed by Parry and Defense. Endurance, Wit, and Will are all nice to have, but you can create a tank without any of these. Typically they will have minimum 14 in strength and constitution, often much more. Historically Assur has made high will versions of tanks, but has seen others succeed with very low will tanks as well. Usually at least one of speed or deftness is quite low. Most of Assur's tanks have also been stat trainers, so some of them have started lower than 14 in strength or constitution. 2) Style Choice Any style can tank it up, but the higher attack styles work better, simply because when you do attack, you want to hit. But any style can work. Lungers have the highest attack base. Aimed Blows with 21 deftness are just below Lungers. Next is a four way tie between Parry Lungers, Wall of Steels, Bashers, and Slashers. Parry Strikes, Parry Ripostes, and Strikers are all considered lower attack styles, but the lowest starting attack style is, of course, the Total Parry (a full 8 attack skills lower than the same Lunger). Advantages/disadvantages of tanking styles: Lunger: Highest total skills, but learns are not the best and high endurance burn. Aimed Blows: High deftness requirements means designs are very limited. Wall of Steels: High total skills, learns (att/par/ini) are awesome for tanks. High Endurance burn. Basher: Learn attack and decise, reasonable endurance burn. A more offensive type of tank. Parry Lungers: Similar to Wall of Steels, with slightly worse learning and skills. Slashers: Similar to Bashers, but don't learn decise as fast and slightly higher endurance burn. Parry Strikes: One of the few warrior types where their learns work together (decise and parry). Conserve endurance very well. The best tanking style of the lower attack styles. Strikers: Again similar to bashers, but with fewer attack skills, but better endurance conservation. Parry Ripostes: Only 2 attack more than total parries, worse learning, and worse weapon selection suggests that Total Parries would be a better choice. Total Parries: Horrible attack, but can use most of the big weapons and the best defenses in the game makes them a good choice for a more defensive tank. 3) Weapon Selection Typically you will choose the highest damage weapon you can use for your Tank. Some nice choices (with relatively low stat requirements) are: Maul (15 Str, 5 Wit, 7 Dft), Broadsword (11 Str, 9 Wit, 7 Dft), Battle Axe (15 Str, 7 Wit, 9 Dft), and Long Spear (11 Str, 5 Wit, 9 Dft) Feel free to choose other weapons, even if you lack the requirements to use them. 4) Strategy and tactics Tanks are fun to run, because you can really play with their strategies and see different results. Typically you will run in the upper range of offensive effort (5+), but in certain minutes, you very well might go more defensive depending on your tank. As mentioned last turn, some warriors will actually attack more with lower offensive effort (usually if it is their favorite rhythm). To start, though, play with 5-10 offensive effort. Activity level can be anything. I have literally run tanks with 10 activity level in one fight and 1 activity level in the next. I have used almost every tactic with Tanks. I can't remember using the Riposte tactic, but no reason you can't try it. And some styles are not well suited to some tactics. 5) Armor APA/F is the norm. + ]H[ + ---:--- + ]H[ The Lighthouse ]H[ + ---:--- + ]H[ + I thought I'd say few words today about styles and challenges. You have all seen--or will see before you leave Noblish Island (it runs on turns numbered ending in 3), this chart (and I thank Magic Man for making it available): KEY FOR ODDS OF WINNING: 1 - ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE 6 - BETTER THAN EVEN 2 - HARDLY LIKELY 7 - GOOD CHANCE 3 - NOT MUCH 8 - HIGHLY PROBABLE 4 - SLIGHT CHANCE 9 - MOST DEFINATELY 5 - 50/50 10 - ALMOST GUARANTEED Reminder: Left Row vs Top Column BA ST LU SL AB TP PS PL PR WS BA 5 2 6 6 8 9 7 6 5 6 ST 8 5 8 9 9 6 7 5 6 4 LU 4 4 5 6 10 5 7 7 9 6 SL 4 1 5 5 8 6 8 7 8 9 AB 2 2 2 4 5 10 6 6 6 7 TP 3 4 6 4 1 5 7 8 6 5 PS 3 3 3 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 PL 5 4 3 3 6 2 7 5 7 6 PR 7 5 2 2 4 5 6 3 5 4 WS 5 8 6 2 4 6 7 5 6 5 I consider this chart to be a fertile topic for debate, possibly even acrimonious debate. There is some truth in it, I don't dispute that. And it is to this chart, usually, that managers refer when they speak of some warrior having "the style advantage" over another. But I believe that other factors than style are at least as important, and perhaps MORE important, such as the relative skill of the two managers and two warriors involved. But, as I say, there is some truth in it, especially where the managers and warriors are on a level of experience. Therefore, information on the styles of other warriors in a given arena is important, so you can gauge your challenges and avoids to give you the best chances for winning. This is one of the things alliances do for their members--provide a forum for exchanging style information. It is also the reason why experienced managers generally regard it as bad form to reveal a warrior's style in the personals. [Exceptions to this--when the warrior in question has been a stylemaster, and when the warrior in question is graduating.] Style information is valuable; you, or somebody, fought to get it, so it shouldn't be given away. But there's more to "style knowledge" than simply being able to say, "X has the style advantage over Y." You have to use your information. Note that "offensive warriors" are bashers, lungers, strikers, and slashers. Defensive styles are those with "parry" in their names. Aimed Blows and Walls of Steel are ambiguous and may be considered--and run--either way. If you KNOW or even just suspect that you have an offensive warrior who will be facing a defensive warrior, you can adjust your strategy accordingly. You change your armor and the speed with which you're running the warrior to pace him for a long haul, perhaps. (And this is the adjustment that most often needs to be made.) Or if you've got an offensive warrior facing another offensive, you can do the same--slow your warrior's pace--and hope to take out your opponent in the second minute when he's gasping for breath. Of course, you have to survive the first minute somehow. More armor, perhaps, or defenisve tactics. But it's a fact that, especially in the lower levels of the game, many offensive warriors DO burn out by the end of the first minute or shortly thereafter. So if you're paced for that, you may be surprised at some of the wins you can get. Jorja The Middle Way +<]H[>+-----+<]H[+ Question of the Week #10 +]H[>+-----+<]H[>+ The Question, Aruak City (dm 11), turn 426: If a warrior is wearing plate and he is hit on the hand or ankle does he get the same amount of protection? It seems to me the most you could wear on your hand is Chainmail. -- Hanibal, Q.O.W. The Answers, turn 427: Q.O.W. -- I think if you wear armor of chainmail or lighter, the protection to your limbs is limited, certainly not to a degree equal to the armor you are wearing over the body. But I think with platemail or full plate, the armor protects your limbs well. Gauntlets, which I imagine being used with platemail and up, are steel plates, so they protect better than chain. I think this is played out well in our fighters' fights. I've seen chain wearing warriors who are tough go down with one shot to the leg, while the same warrior in platemail takes one or two more hits. You'd be surprised at how well medieval gauntlets' metal plates flexed for hand movement. -- Adie QoW -- When using heavy armor, the limbs seem to be less well protected than the chest and abdomen. I base this observation mainly on the number of ineffective ("bounced") hits seen against the torso compared to the limbs. The lighter armors don't seem to have this difference. -- Generalissimo Puerco Hannibal -- Questions! Great, I've missed them. Unfortunately, I can't offer much help on this. I do know that to rely on "it would logically seem that" is the way to get into trouble, unfortunately. After all, it would logically seem that a basher should be well-suited to using the fist, and this is not so. So I can't guess about the "armor for hands and feet" question. -- Leeta Hannibal -- Take a good look at a suit of full plate some time. Everything EXCEPT the head is protected, unless you're wearing a helmet of some sort as well. If you're going to have warriors wearing APA, you better put them in a Helm or a Full Helm as well, otherwise you may as well send them out in leather. A hit to an unarmored head and your APA is worthless. -- Talon, War-Priest of Mantor the Bright The Question, Aruak City (dm 11), turn 427: All -- I was looking at a fight a few turns ago with Predator (Broadsword fav). In min 1 he attacked 12 times w/ BS and only 1 crit. Min 2 six normal attacks, weapons breaks, pulls his epee and throws three crits in a row. He always threw more crits using an epee even though he is -6 in Deftness to use it. He used a BS in two other fights with no crits. This makes me wonder; are favorites generated after your warrior graduates? -- Hanibal Q.O.W. The Answers, turn 428: Q.O.W. -- From my understanding, favorite weapons are generated when your warrior is created, and the bonuses are applied in basic. However, I have experienced similiar situations to what you have seen with Predator. I have a lunger who never seemed to throw a crit with the short spear, but constantly threw crits with the longspear even though he wasn't quite suited to it in strength or deftness. I felt certain the longspear was his favorite weapon because of this, and was highly shocked when upon graduation the shortspear was listed as his weapon of choice. -- the Outsider Hanibal, Q.O.W. -- From what I have experienced and discussed with other managers, fighting rhythm, weapon, learns and tactics are determined upon creation. Did you change rhythms during any of these fights? Was your attack rating high or low at the time? If all is the same, and you throw more crits with an epee, maybe you should send your "favorite weapon" to hell and go with what works. After all, the whole point of finding your fave weapon is to increase your crit percentage. Although, it would be nice to have BS crits over the EP crits (except for the knockdowns!) -- Dr. Strange QoW -- Well, now you're understanding why I don't make too much of an effort to try to find a warrior's "favorite" weapon. Finding a weapon they win with is much more important, and Predator certainly had no problem winning. I think people have had enough cases where a suspected favorite weapon was confirmed to suggest that a warrior's favorites are determined before AD, but the exceptions such as Predator's are numerous. I'll bet Adie will have more to say on this matter, since it seems like it happens to her warriors a lot. -- Generalissimo Puerco Q.o.W. (Fav Weapons) -- I was the closest thing the KoV had to somebody who found their favorite weapon in basic. But since I got my advanced master in attack so soon it's hard to tell. We really haven't noticed our warriors having a favorite weapon in basic. I personally think there may be something to what you're saying. But I think most people believe that it's there all along. -- Maxwell Honorblade Hanibal's Question of the Week -- No, favorites are generated when the warrior is first created. Unless you get a favorites-prize and use it on a warrior, his favorites always and forever remain what they were at the time of generation. -- Leeta Q.O.W -- BS favorite and no crits sounds typical for a lot of warriors. Or GA...or BA...or even SC. Sometimes, favorite weapons just don't serve. I have a WS in Primus with GA favorite and Grandmaster Attack who throws more normals than crits with her favorite. To make matters worse, I have a LU in Primus with Archmaster Attack who still throws normals...with her favorite and with LO. Some warriors, in my experience, just don't throw crits like they should. Others will go crazy with their favorite weapon in basic, right from the start. I've discovered many favorite weapons that way over the years...then again, I've also THOUGHT I'd discovered favorite, only to have them be something else. I've always thought that somewhere, a bit is kept with each warrior for how experienced they are with any given weapon... and if you use a weapon enough, you get better with it (skills not withstanding). I can't prove it, but watching some of my LS and SS, SH and MS favorite warriors using SC and LO, you see improvement over time, even when they aren't getting more attack. -- Talon Warsmith, Epee favorite <grin> Hanibal, Q.O.W., favorites are born with the warrior. It's just that sometimes they seem hard to believe. -- Kennelworth Q.O.W. -- I've always understood that a warrior's favorite weapon is generated right at the beginning. I have however, had the similar experience of throwing more crits with a non-fav weapon. -- Anti * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * }%|[-----+O+-----]|%{ * ---===FREE BLADES REGIONAL NEWS===--- Duelmasters ----------- DM 9 ZUKAL (turn 695): G-STRING of HOT STUFF (Papa Bear, mgr.) DM 12 RIZTAB (turn 697): XENOPHANES of DREAMERS (Sleepy, mgr.) DM 13 DULLENS (turn 624): FLOYD CASTAWAY of ARCANE ROYALTY (Destitute Noble, mgr.) DM 15 MALCORN (turn 691): GOLDEN STAIRS of GREENWARDENS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 16 WILLAF (turn 693): RIPLEY BYRD of PUNNY AMINALS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 17 ALJAFIR (turn 684): BOROMIR of IN MIDDLE EARTH (?, mgr.) DM 19 ZUWAYZA (turn 685): WATER WORKS of MONOPOLY (Sherlock, mgr.) DM 28 MORYA (turn 345): COLGATE SMILE of MY GENERATION (Storm Lord, mgr.) DM 29 LAPUR (turn 682): CAPTAIN KIRK of TREKKERS (Deep Thought, mgr.) DM 31 CHIMLEVTAL (turn 342): XANDAR of AVENGERS (Huckle Cat?, mgr.) DM 32 ARVAT (turn 679): DEE N. EMMI of DEVIL ADVOCATES (The Dark One, mgr.) DM 33 NIATOLI ISLAND (turn 676): SHELLBACK of SEA DOGS (One Armed Bandit, mgr.) DM 35 MURSKA (turn 668): MONKEY MAN of REALLY? (Dr. Grimley, mgr.) DM 43 VEASTIAN (turn 626): KIRVINJ of THE FAMILY (Jorja, mgr.) DM 45 STORMCROWE (turn 320): ROSELYN of DARQUE FORCES (Master Darque, mgr.) DM 47 NORTH FORK (turn 314): SPAWN of FANTASTIC FIVE (?, mgr.) DM 50 SNOWBOUND (turn 301): 4-H of LIFE IMPACTS (Coach, mgr.) DM 56 ROCANIS (turn 558): ELISE GOUDGE of MIDDLE WAY 20 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 60 ARADI (turn 543): ELIN GISSORS of MIDDLE WAY 25 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 61 JURINE (turn 525): VINDA YARRO of MIDDLE WAY 16 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 65 DAL SHANG (turn 519): ON THE CORNER of BASH BROS EVANGELIST (Assurnasirbanipal, mgr.) DM 73 ERINIKA (turn 250): BOOB of PALINDROMES (Assurnasirbanipal, mgr.) DM 74 DAYLA KIV (turn 480): NEGATIVE ONE of NUMB-ERS (Sherlock, mgr.) DM 75 JADE MOUNTAIN (turn 475): INCREDIBLE SPEED of CRITICALS (Howlin' Wolf, mgr) DM 78 LIN TIRIAN (turn 466): CALEAM CHOWDER of SHEWISH BUFFET (One Armed Bandit) ADM 103 FREE BLADES (turn 583): NIGHTCAP of DARKLINGS (She-Puppy, mgr.) Top Teams --------- DM 9 ZUKAL (turn 695): BLUE MOON (Jorja, mgr.) DM 12 RIZTAB (turn 697): BLUE NOTE (Howlin' Wolf, mgr.) DM 13 DULLENS (turn 624): CARDOW HUNTERS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 15 MALCORN (turn 691): GREENWARDENS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 16 WILLAF (turn 694): GOLDEN GLADIATORS (Midas, mgr.) DM 17 ALJAFIR (turn 684): 82ND ILLINOIS (Otto X, mgr.) DM 19 ZUWAYZA (turn 685): MONOPOLY (Sherlock, mgr.) DM 28 MORYA (turn 345): PHANTACITY (Omega, mgr.) DM 29 LAPUR (turn 682): STREET WALKERS (Roadkill, mgr.) DM 31 CHIMLEVTAL (turn 342): AVENGERS (Huckle Cat?, mgr.) DM 32 ARVAT (turn 679): DEVIL ADVOCATES (The Dark One, mgr.) DM 33 NIATOLI ISLAND (turn 676): THE SEWING CIRCLE (Jorja, mgr.) DM 35 MURSKA (turn 668): REALLY? (Dr. Grimley, mgr.) DM 43 VEASTIAN (turn 626): THE FAMILY (Jorja, mgr.) DM 45 STORMCROWE (turn 320): DARQUE FORCES (Master Darque, mgr.) DM 47 NORTH FORK (turn 314): OBSIDIAN ORDER (Skaven, mgr.) DM 50 SNOWBOUND (turn 301): LIFE IMPACTS (Smitty, mgr.) DM 56 ROCANIS (turn 558): MIDDLE WAY 20 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 60 ARADI (turn 543): RED DOG GANG (Spot, mgr.) DM 61 JURINE (turn 525): STAR WARS (Sir Jessie Jest, mgr.) DM 65 DAL SHANG (turn 519): SAND DANCERS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 73 ERINIKA (turn 250): MIDDLE WAY 18 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 74 DAYLA KIV (turn 480): SAND DANCERS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 75 JADE MOUNTAIN (turn 475): SAND DANCERS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 78 LIN TIRIAN (turn 466): SAND DANCERS (Jorja, mgr.) ADM 103 FREE BLADES (turn 583): TOURNEY TEAM (LHI, mgr.) Recent Graduates ----------------- DM 9 ZUKAL (turn 694): TIGHT BLOUSE of HOT STUFF (Papa Bear, mgr.) DM 12 RIZTAB (turn 697): XENOPHANES of DREAMERS (Sleepy, mgr.) KUNG PO FROG of KAOS FROGS (Grimm, mgr.) DM 15 MALCORN (turn 690): HONEYSUCKLE of GREENWARDENS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 17 ALJAFIR (turn 683): ZOMBIE of ZOMBIE SQUAD 2 (Khisanth, mgr.) DM 29 LAPUR (turn 682): MISS CONDUCT of STREET WALKERS (Roadkill, mgr.) (turn 681): CASIMIR PULASKI of BOHICA (Scruffy Puff, mgr.) DM 31 CHIMLEVTAL (turn 340): OMBERT QURL of MIDDLE WAY 7 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 32 ARVAT (turn 679): DEE N. EMMI of DEVIL ADVOCATES (The Dark One, mgr.) TIA MATTE of DEVIL ADVOCATES (The Dark One, mgr.) S.W.A.T. of SECRET SQUIRRELS (Gentleben, mgr.) (turn 678): ABSOLUTION of ANGELS OF PAIN (The Dark One, mgr.) DM 56 ROCANIS (turn 557): LEEYLAYLA NORIN of MIDDLE WAY 20 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 65 DAL SHANG (turn 519): ON THE CORNER of BASH BROS EVANGELIST (Assurnasirbanipal, mgr.) (turn 518): IN YOUR FACE of BASH BROS EVANGELIST (Assurnasirbanipal, mgr.) KORDAL T'ROHN of SAND DANCERS (Jorja, mgr.) DM 73 ERINIKA (turn 249): PANAMA OATES of MIDDLE WAY 18 (Jorja, mgr.) DM 75 JADE MOUNTAIN (turn 474): LEAPS INTO THE AIR of CRITICALS (Howlin' Wolf, mgr) DUELMASTER'S COLUMN Notes from the arena champ. Duelmaster! Finally! I showed those Bash Bros Things which team should be on the throne. Yes! Gooooo Favorite Games! A Duelmaster is allowed and expected to write a DM Column. Oh, yeah? Just what is one supposed to write in one's column? (Hearing a voice sounding like Jorja in the background saying "anything!".) Okay, I shall write about something close to my heart. My faves! I like Women, games, golf, American Idol and Dancing With The Stars, meat loaf, spaghetti, reading, grandkids, The Olympics, The Rider Cup and The Solheim Cup, The Road To The Final Four, The Clemson Tigers, The Kansas Jayhawks, The Evansville Purple Aces, The Cannelton Bulldogs, and my 89 year old Mom. I probably forgot something, but that's enough writing. Challenge me. Come and get me. But watch out! I own ParkPlace and Boardwalk and they are loaded! Monopoly, Duelmaster SPY REPORT Much has changed in NOBLISH ISLAND since last I was here. Never fear, Olaf Modeen adapts to many situations, as do all successful fighters. Biff! Pow! NOBLISH ISLAND watched with glee as FAVORITE GAMES got knocked off top spot by BRIDGE BURNERS! Up 'n down. Up 'n down. Rankings always change. Up 'n down. I think I'm gonna be... Well, BRIDGE BURNERS' 1st moved them up to 5-0-0 place. Some people say I ramble too much, I don't say anything relevant. I repeat myself. I ramble. Well BASH BROS TELEPHONE moved up 0, to 4th. What's with CHELSEA NOREN? She actually beat FAVORITE GAMES' CONTRACT BRIDGE, and walked away with 26 more points from the fight. Laughs were big at LOW ROAD 3 while they watched CHELSEA NOREN clobber CONTRACT BRIDGE. It lost 23 points and got bruised from objects thrown from the stands. NOBLISH ISLAND, set your sights on VENEMOUS CONCUBINE. He'll be happy to entertain all requests after defeating MONOPOLY. BUSY looked pretty Duelmasterlike as he took NOBLISH ISLAND's top spot with 84 points. Now, what will MONOPOLY do? Wouldn't it be nice to have live subjects to practice on? I hear some team is looking into the uses of convicted prisoners. No matter the time or place, men will always duel. The most avoided team was BASH BROS TELEPHONE. The bums at FAVORITE GAMES couldn't face the challenges from BASH BROS TELEPHONE! No excuse for that! What do people see in BELTRAN MOSS? His 4-4-1? LOW ROAD 3 ain't talkin', but he's got 17 points. Warriors of NOBLISH ISLAND unite. You have only your games to lose! BELTRAN MOSS larned his lesson (SORRY taught it well), and we right likely won't be seein' 'im fight any BRIDGE BURNERS members with the same gusto. How long have I been here? I got people to see, places to go... Many other cities have retirement homes for aged warriors. Any plans here? Are you as tired of reading this as I am of writing it? Actually, I guess I'm writing it before you read it. Oh, well. Time for my medication, so I'll leave now. Practice, practice, practice!-- Olaf Modeen DUELMASTER W L K POINTS TEAM NAME BUSY 9223 7 2 0 84 BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) CHAMPIONS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME MONOPOLY 9217 7 2 0 75 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) CAREERS 9216 7 2 0 68 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) CHALLENGER ADEPTS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME DUTIFUL 9237 5 0 2 58 THE FARSEERS (1591) ADEPTS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME CHELSEA NOREN 9228 5 3 0 50 LOW ROAD 3 (1589) ALLANA LORIMER 9230 7 1 1 44 LOW ROAD 3 (1589) -CORSAIR 7244 0 1 0 41 KISS OF DEATH (1249) NOT IN SERVICE 9225 6 3 0 36 BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) CHALLENGER INITIATES W L K POINTS TEAM NAME POKER 9219 5 4 0 33 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) ERBIN PARNAN 9226 5 3 0 30 LOW ROAD 3 (1589) DROPPED CALL 9224 4 5 0 30 BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) -BAUS 9246 3 0 0 30 CRIT-GIVERS (1593) SORRY 9243 2 3 0 30 BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) CONTRACT BRIDGE 9218 6 3 0 29 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) STATIC 9222 5 4 0 29 BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) CANNOT HEAR 9221 6 3 0 25 BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) INITIATES W L K POINTS TEAM NAME PICKER 9244 3 1 1 23 BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) CHADE 9238 2 3 0 23 THE FARSEERS (1591) CHESS 9220 6 3 0 21 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) STORMY 9242 3 2 1 21 BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) -AFRODYKIE 9247 2 1 0 19 CRIT-GIVERS (1593) BELTRAN MOSS 9229 4 4 1 17 LOW ROAD 3 (1589) THE FOOL 9236 3 2 0 16 THE FARSEERS (1591) KEN DO 9274 2 0 0 16 KNIGHT LIFE (1597) KALAM 9271 2 0 1 15 BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) DELISE ORM 9227 3 5 0 14 LOW ROAD 3 (1589) SYRA SHORTER 9303 2 0 0 14 OLIVA GALVARIUS (1586) FRAU FORALYSE 9297 1 0 0 13 DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) TRUTTS 9245 1 4 0 12 BRIDGE BURNERS (1592) MAC D 9304 1 0 1 11 BLOODY VIXENS (1595) EHLONNA GODKISSED 9293 1 0 0 11 THE HERQULOIDS (1601) -POINTY END OUT 9302 1 0 0 11 CRIT-GIVERS (1593) FRAU LYDESSIA 9299 1 0 0 11 DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) MISHA OGLONDORA 9259 0 2 0 11 OLIVA GALVARIUS (1586) FRAU KYRIENA 9298 1 0 0 10 DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) FITZCHIVALRY 9239 2 3 0 9 THE FARSEERS (1591) -SEQUOIA 9249 2 1 0 9 CRIT-GIVERS (1593) UGHH 9292 1 0 0 8 THE HERQULOIDS (1601) BARBRA JEAN 9273 2 0 0 6 KNIGHT LIFE (1597) -HARDY 9250 1 2 0 5 CRIT-GIVERS (1593) MA'TEE 9263 1 2 0 5 BLOODY VIXENS (1595) DUMB BULL 8644 1 1 0 4 DRAGONS (1491) HARSHNAG THE GRIM 8875 0 4 0 4 DRAGONS (1491) SULL 9294 0 1 0 3 THE HERQULOIDS (1601) STAR GIRL 8640 0 3 0 3 DRAGONS (1491) -TWINKLES 9262 0 2 0 2 BLOODY VIXENS (1595) MINDY V 9276 0 2 0 2 KNIGHT LIFE (1597) BEAST 9272 0 2 0 2 KNIGHT LIFE (1597) -HONEY BEE 9264 0 2 0 2 BLOODY VIXENS (1595) -MI MI 9261 0 2 0 2 BLOODY VIXENS (1595) FRAU ELYSE 9300 0 1 0 1 DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) FRAU SOLRAIA 9301 0 1 0 1 DIE TODESBLUMEN (1602) INITIATES W L K POINTS TEAM NAME KONANN CEE 9296 0 1 0 1 THE HERQULOIDS (1601) SHREWD 9306 0 1 0 1 THE FARSEERS (1591) '-' denotes a warrior who did not fight this turn. THE DEAD W L K TEAM NAME SLAIN BY TURN Revenge? GLITTER 9265 1 1 1 BLOODY VIXENS 1595 STORMY 9242 349 KALAM 9241 0 2 0 BRIDGE BURNERS 1592 BELTRAN MOSS 9229 347 JUST REVENGED VISTAFIN 9248 1 1 0 CRIT-GIVERS 1593 PICKER 9244 348 DEEJAY GEE 9275 0 1 0 KNIGHT LIFE 1597 KALAM 9271 349 ELIN TOECHU 9208 6 1 1 OLIVA GALVARIUS 1586 DUTIFUL 9237 348 MAXOR STEELSTRIK 9295 0 1 0 THE HERQULOIDS 1601 MAC D 9304 350 PERSONAL ADS Stormy -- I'm never gonna rest 'til one of us rests... in pieces. You killed my girl... You must pay. -- Mac D, mgr/warrior Bloody Vixens, aka the Avenger All -- Excuse us this week... We have to bury a sister... Next week, though, people will pay! -- Mi Mi, Ma'Tee, Honey Bee, Twinkles; the Bloody Vixens Gamemaster -- Wow, nice training! Fave Games seems to be the team to watch. -- Uncle D, mgr. Knight Life Pointy End Out -- It seems to me, I was caught unprepared. Next time I will be ready. -- Beast All -- Haha! To all who believe they are safe from my blade, think twice! Blink once and the fight is over! -- Ken Do All -- This sand box is fun. Does anyone want to play! :) -- Barbra Jean Sequoia -- I bow before your "strength," may you bow to me one day. -- Mindy V All Managers -- My first time as a manager and I'm 2-3-0. You say not bad, I say too bad. I hope you will forgive any bad choices I make and offer some insight. -- Uncle D All -- Shhh! I'm coming... -- Cy Lent Gamemaster -- Eight awards! That's absurd! Leave some for us beginners! -- Sin Rowynstar Barbra Jean -- A PR vs a TP? That fight was destined to be boring. I hope to have better luck next time! -- Misha Hardy -- Well, you can take some damage, but that doesn't guarantee a win! I guess being SHORTER really can help! -- Syra Shorter Delise Orm -- You're not *that* good! -- Sih Rowynstar Rouhkor -- Yup, Sequoia learned two init skills. I've only been in the Duel 2 world for a couple months and it got me at first, too. And, good fighting so far. -- Sih Rowynstar, mgr. Olivia Galvanius Bloody Vixens -- Maybe your girls and my girls could get together and figure out who is the real GIRL POWER on the island?! -- Sin Rowynstar Dutiful -- Don't run from me! -- Sin Rowynstar Jorja -- If Dutiful killed Elin and then doesn't fight for the next four turns, is it held against me? -- Sih By the computer, no. By the other managers, yes. Olivia Galarius -- One tomb filled for each of us now, hopefully the digging is over. Thanks for the shovel. -- Dutiful Afrodykie -- That was a real hit in the jaw. Two, even. -- Chade Not in Service -- Hopefully every hit does not inflict as much damage. -- Fitzchivalry Cannot Hear -- I go Frantic over your lack of endurance. -- The Fool Questions: -- How do we determine which arena to go to after our team becomes Chartered? -- Can anyone share some challenge and avoid strategies to help me make better choices? How to optimize my wins and gains through this system? -- What is the Duelmasters Sponsor Program? -- I would like to know if I calculated the skills correctly for a 11-6-12-17-17-10- 11 striker. This is what I came up with on the Bagman2 chart: Att 7, Par 2, Ini 8, Rip 7, Def 7, Dec 11. Unfortunately, this ST died in one hit, but I just want to know if I used the chart properly. Thanks. -- Why would my highest WT warrior have the least skill gains? So far he has received three skills in four fights and has never trained stats. -- Are there other charts besides the C/C and Bagman2 lists? If so, would someone please send them to me since I do not have access to e-mail? Monopoly -- Congratulations. You finally got your title shot and made the best of it. I tried, but could not overcome. -- Busy Afrodykie -- I guess you didn't like getting cut off... -- Dropped Call Twinkles/Mi Mi -- Tough match ups, yours with 1 fight of experience against mine with 7 fights of experience. -- Assur (manager of Static and Cannot Hear) Ravinkor -- Yes, every line means you learn an additional skill, so in your example, you learned two initiative skills. You can also gain expert, advanced expert, master, or higher ratings, but that is simply a marker for how many total skills you have to that point. -- Assur My brief analysis of what each skill does: Attack -- How well you attack and are likely to hit your opponent (and includes slipping past parries) Parry -- How well you parry and are likely to parry an opponent's attack Defense -- How well you dodge and are likely to dodge an opponent's attack <Note that Dodge and Parry work together> Initiative -- How much you try to keep control of the fight and maintain the offensive. Riposte -- How likely you are to attempt to steal initiative from your opponent. Riposte can be seen in messages after a parry or dodge that will read something similar to "Warrior disengages his foe's weapon arm and tries to steal the initiative!" Decisiveness -- Mostly has to do with first strike All are affected by other things besides your skils, but that is a brief description of what each skill does. Sin Rowynstar. Answers for you 1) Kill Desire. 10 Kill Desire will make it more likely to kill, but absolutely does not ensure a kill. In fact, it is rare for a team to maintain a kill ratio of more than 15% (where 15% of the team's wins result in kills). Note that 1-2 and 9-10 kill desire do odd things to a warrior in a fight and most managers stay within the 3-8 range, simply because their warriors tend to fight better overall. 2) You cannot train past 21 until you reach Advanced Duelmasters. It typically takes a year or more for a warrior to reach Immortality and Advanced Duelmasters. One note about training stats: You have the potential to 'burn' skills. Until you better understand why and when to burn skills, focus on skill training. The 'normal' requirements to reach Advanced Duelmasters are: 14 arena wins, 20 arena fights, 3 ratings in skills (where advanced expert or higher counts for 2 ratings) appropriate to your style, and 17 PP's (You get 2 PP's for each turn in the Challenger Champion class and 5 PP's for each turn as Duelmaster) 3) Assur normally trains almost entirely skills during a warrior's early career. There are notable exceptions listed below. Assur also VERY rarely does 3rd trains in one statistic before Advanced Duelmasters. The only times in memory that Assur has done 4th trains is by accident. One or two trains is about as much as you'll get on a single statistic A) Often will do 1-2 trains in Strength or Constitution to improve physicals B) Intentionally burning skills. Design a warrior who intends to train stats and get skills fast. 4) Absolutely. There are some 'superior' weapons that are good regardless of whether it is your favorite or not. For speed (WH, SS, HA, QS). For Damage (BS, BA, SC) Knockdowns (LO, LS). For riposte (EP). In general, except for the couple listed here the blunt/pure bashing weapons are inferior. On the other side, I just changed a weapon on a warrior and he made 5 critical attacks in 8 total attacks. That is what a favorite weapon can do for you 5) Death in general can very much suck. Bloodfeuds can allow for huge mismatches. 6) I'm short on time this week, so give a better idea of what you mean by friendly? "Easier for new players?" "Managers who aren't bloodthirsty, trying to kill?" "Arenas that won't take advantage of newer players?" Something else? Some arenas that I do recommend: DM 47 -- One of the most competitive arenas around. Going to be a tough place with the Turf War coming soon. DM 21 -- A Delarquan arena with very good participation. DM 32 -- This may be what you are looking for in terms of friendly. Most of the slow arenas. Lots of mixed bags, but some great players hang out more in slow arenas than fast arenas, players who definitely would be 'friendly.' Realize that no manager is going to hand out wins, but there is a big difference in challenging you to get easy wins and letting you learn the game on your own, letting you make the challenges Arenas that I absolutely recommend staying away from: DM 18 -- A brutal arena, with mostly tourney teams and very experienced managers. Don't be deceived by its apparent small size. DM 1 -- Similar to DM 18 DM 81 -- This is a no-tourney arena. Historically known for managers looking for easy wins and I suspect many would ignore that you are a new player and 'pick' on you. Mac D. -- Good spotlight, keep it up. -- Jorja Ravinkor -- Yep, two skills learned. As to exact significance and how it might be used in setting up strategies, beats me. I hope that either Gamemaster or Assur can answer that one? -- Jorja Sir Rowynstar -- Answers: 1. No. But it goes a long way to ensuring that he will continue attacking madly through the whole fight, or at least through the minute in which his KD is 10. 2. No, and it isn't possible. Until your warrior graduates into the Advanced level of the game, no stat can be increased beyond 21. 3. Depends on the stat and the warrior and your intentions for said warrior. Some managers never train stats until their warriors have maxed in skills, which usually happens after they graduate into Advanced, and sometimes long after. Others, who are not much concerned with Advanced play, train skills freely in this basic level of the game. Most do it occasionally. I do it sometimes, if one of the critical stats is lower than I can tolerate (for example, a single digit in WT or ST, or a CN that seems likely to get the warrior killed early). As to how many times I would train a given stat, it depends on how fast he reaches the goal I have in my mind. Seldom more than twice, though. As to how many different stats I might train on a given warrior in basic, usually only one, though, again, some managers may train several. 4. Yes. I don't really care what the Commission decides is a particular warrior's "favorite." I've never seen a clearly positive result of all the testing and careful analysis some managers do in attempting to deduce the favorite weapon. There may BE one, but I've never noticed it. If the warrior is doing well with a weapon, I don't go changing it around. 5. Yes. This is the best argument against wanton killing in the first place. 6. Ah! This is a question FULL of possibilities! Avoiding extremes of size both large and small, running down the list in numerical order, I would suggest (arenas are regular speed, two-week turnaround, unless stated otherwise): dm 11 Aruak City, Andorian (no down-challenging), fairly chatty. (Note that one definition of "fairly chatty" means both Jorja and one of Gamemaster's avatars are active there; all the ones I will list here are fairly chatty....) Dm 16 Willaf, Free Blades. Dm 28 Morya, slow, Free Blades. Dm 29 Lapur, Free Blades. Dm 30 Iaye, Andorian. Dm 50 Snowbound, Free Blades, slow. Dm 52 Fratsfa, Andorian, slow. Dm 59 Illis, Delarquan, slow. A Lord Protector is a warrior who has graduated from these, the Basic games and moved on to Advanced dueling. Lord Protectors are immortal, they can be killed, but resurrect automatically. To become such, you need twenty regular-arena fights (as in, not tourney fights, although tourney fights do count in a little), fourteen regular-arena wins, seventeen political points (two from a turn in the Challenger Champs, five from a turn as Duelmaster), and some debatable number of skills. There are what appear to be exceptions out there, but when you pursue the data far enough, it generally makes sense. Some favored warriors go the minute they have the necessary fights and wins (the skills and points having been acquired along the way). I had one, I think he may be the record, who went on achieving his fourteenth win... and something like one hundred eight losses! -- Jorja P.S. Although he probably wouldn't have made it past a hundred fights these days; the Commission would have decided he was a tourney sandbagger and pulled him to the Isle anyway. I had another, after that first one, who was hauled out at 8-92. Sorry -- I was, you know. -- Beltran Moss Poker -- Oh, it's you. Bah. -- Delise Orm, not a fan of poker A standby. How tedious. There is a lot most standbys could do to improve themselves, but it's pointless to tell them. -- Allana Lorimer Not in Service -- Perhaps a blessed state. -- Chelsea Noren, ready to retire but not gonna Trutts -- A bad match for you in terms of experience. That's more armor than Jorja would advise for one of your style, and DEFINITELY drop the off-hand weapon. Yes, I know, you DID use it, but maybe if it hadn't been slowing you down, the fight wouldn't have gone to the second minute, or you'd have hit more with your primary weapon, or SOMETHING. Try it, anyway. Reading over the fight again, my GUESS is that most of your problem was the difference in experience and too much encumbrance in the way of armor and weapons. -- Erbin Parnan P.S. The best way to avoid bad random matches is to use your challenges and avoids. LAST WEEK'S FIGHTS BEAST was devastated by KALAM in a 1 minute mismatched Bloodfeud fight. SORRY vanquished BELTRAN MOSS in a 1 minute uneven Bloodfeud battle. MISHA OGLONDORA was subdued by DUTIFUL in a 2 minute beginner's Bloodfeud fight. CAREERS was unbelievably bested by BUSY in a 2 minute Challenge Title fight. CHADE was defeated by NOT IN SERVICE in a 2 minute Challenge match. POKER was bested by ALLANA LORIMER in a 2 minute Challenge brawl. FITZCHIVALRY was vanquished by STATIC in a 1 minute mismatched Challenge fight. MA'TEE was savagely defeated by TRUTTS in a 2 minute amateur's Challenge brawl. MONOPOLY was vanquished by VENEMOUS CONCUBINE in a 1 minute uneven duel. CONTRACT BRIDGE was vanquished by CHELSEA NOREN in a 1 minute uneven fight. THE FOOL was viciously subdued by ERBIN PARNAN in a popular 2 minute brutal fight. CHESS was viciously subdued by DROPPED CALL in a popular 4 minute brutal bout. DELISE ORM was subdued by CANNOT HEAR in a 1 minute competition. HARSHNAG THE GRIM was overcome by KEN DO in a exciting 1 minute novice's contest. DUMB BULL was viciously subdued by FRAU KYRIENA in a 3 minute bloody amateur's bout. STAR GIRL was savagely defeated by SYRA SHORTER in a 2 minute novice's duel. STORMY unbelievably bested SULL in a crowd pleasing 4 minute amateur's bout. PICKER devastated KONANN CEE in a 1 minute one-sided fight. BARBRA JEAN luckily beat FRAU SOLRAIA in a tiresome 7 minute novice's bout. MINDY V was overpowered by FRAU LYDESSIA in a 3 minute bloody mismatched conflict. EHLONNA GODKISSED overpowered FRAU ELYSE in a 3 minute uneven fight. MAXOR STEELSTRIKE was murdered by MAC D in a 1 minute uneven bout. FRAU FORALYSE vanquished CONVICTED THIEF in a 1 minute mismatched fray. UGHH narrowly defeated SHREWD in a popular 5 minute novice's match. BATTLE REPORT MOST POPULAR RECORD DURING THE LAST 10 TURNS |FIGHTING STYLE FIGHTS FIGHTING STYLE W - L - K PERCENT| |BASHING ATTACK 12 PARRY-STRIKE 4 - 2 - 2 67 | |STRIKING ATTACK 8 STRIKING ATTACK 32 - 19 - 4 63 | |SLASHING ATTACK 6 WALL OF STEEL 13 - 9 - 0 59 | |AIMED BLOW 4 SLASHING ATTACK 20 - 14 - 1 59 | |PARRY-RIPOSTE 4 AIMED BLOW 17 - 16 - 0 52 | |TOTAL PARRY 4 BASHING ATTACK 38 - 39 - 3 49 | |LUNGING ATTACK 4 TOTAL PARRY 12 - 13 - 0 48 | |WALL OF STEEL 3 LUNGING ATTACK 10 - 11 - 1 48 | |PARRY-STRIKE 1 PARRY-RIPOSTE 2 - 5 - 0 29 | |PARRY-LUNGE 0 PARRY-LUNGE 0 - 0 - 0 0 | Turn 350 was great if you Not so great if you used The fighting styles of the used the fighting styles: the fighting styles: top eleven warriors are: PARRY-STRIKE 1 - 0 TOTAL PARRY 1 - 3 3 STRIKING ATTACK SLASHING ATTACK 4 - 2 PARRY-LUNGE 0 - 0 2 WALL OF STEEL WALL OF STEEL 2 - 1 LUNGING ATTACK 0 - 4 2 LUNGING ATTACK STRIKING ATTACK 5 - 3 2 BASHING ATTACK AIMED BLOW 2 - 2 1 AIMED BLOW PARRY-RIPOSTE 2 - 2 1 SLASHING ATTACK BASHING ATTACK 6 - 6 TOP WARRIOR OF EACH STYLE FIGHTING STYLE WARRIOR W L K PNTS TEAM NAME AIMED BLOW BUSY 9223 7 2 0 84 BASH BROS TELEPHONE (1588) SLASHING ATTACK MONOPOLY 9217 7 2 0 75 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) STRIKING ATTACK CAREERS 9216 7 2 0 68 FAVORITE GAMES (1587) WALL OF STEEL CHELSEA NOREN 9228 5 3 0 50 LOW ROAD 3 (1589) Note: Warriors have a winning record and are an Adept or Above. The overall popularity leader is CONTRACT BRIDGE 9218. The most popular warrior this turn was UGHH 9292. The ten other most popular fighters were DROPPED CALL 9224, SYRA SHORTER 9303, DUTIFUL 9237, TRUTTS 9245, ERBIN PARNAN 9226, SULL 9294, STAR GIRL 8640, EHLONNA GODKISSED 9293, MINDY V 9276, and CAREERS 9216. The least popular fighter this week was BARBRA JEAN 9273. The other ten least popular fighters were SHREWD 9306, DUMB BULL 8644, CHESS 9220, MAXOR STEELSTRIKE 9295, FRAU SOLRAIA 9301, KONANN CEE 9296, FRAU KYRIENA 9298, DELISE ORM 9227, MONOPOLY 9217, and FITZCHIVALRY 9239. MAIL-IN TOURNEY LIII INITIATES TOURNEY W L K TEAM NAME ELIN TOECHU 9208 (6-0-1) 3 3 0 OLIVA GALVARIUS FAXING IN TURNS If you fax in your Duelmasters turns, realize that most fax machines have a border on the right and left side of the paper where no image is transmitted or printed. When you put your strategy sheet in the fax machine, make sure you allow extra room on the right side, especially if you are challenging that turn. When the ID# of the warrior you are challenging is cut off, we are unable to enter the challenges. There are four possible solutions to this problem: 1) Load the strategies farther to the left, so the Duelmasters dude is cut off, rather than your challenges, 2) Write the ID# of the warrior you're challenging in the space for the name, 3) Load the strategies long-wise (but then you have to be careful about overlapping the sheets, which can also cut off the ID#s), or 4) Face the fact that you won't get all of your challenges through. We'd prefer solutions 1-3, but it's your choice. Also, please be careful that your fax machine isn't transmitting too darkly or lightly. If you write your turn in pencil, some fax machines will transmit the pencil so lightly we can't read it when it gets here. If your fax machine can make copies, it's a good idea to try making a copy first to make sure it's readable, adjust the darkness if you need to, and then fax it to us. Be especially wary of the Advanced Duelmasters Strategy Sheets, because if your fax machine sends the grey shading too darkly, we won't be able to read those lines at all. Good luck! -- Green Eyes STRENGTH AND WEAPON DAMAGE by Pagan Weapon damage is equated to Strength + damage class. Damage Class is categorized by Size. So damage seems to be done like this: 1. Armor weight + 12 + any bonus it has vs weapon type is a negative to the damage done. 2. Damage done is strength + damage class variable + weapon variable. 3. Slashing, Bashing, & Lunging increase the damage done. 4. When the damage done equals 1 or less then there is a weapon bounce statement. The minimum damage a blow can do, if it does not bounce, is 1 point of damage. The program knows there's a hit before it knows damage, so it can't reverse a hit, you merely take one point of damage because the weapon bounced off the armor. 5. The lower your strength, the more bounces you will see. The lower your damage class, the more bounces you will see. The lighter weight a weapon is vs the armor it's hitting, the more bounces you will see. 6. In reverse to #5, all of those secondary-damage statements (often referred to as extra-damage statements), such as "it was a devastating blow"... "what a massive blow" -- these merely show that you hit your opponent with enough damage to exceed the computer secondary-damage statement threshold. Your warrior caused enough damage to exceed a programmed set number (whatever that number may be) and the fight is only showing that you exceeded that number. The programmed number for the secondary-damage threshold is a hard number: it is constant within the program and is used for all fights and all warriors. It is not random, simply because it cannot be random and keep any consistency with the Damage-Classes. It has nothing to do with how much damage you did in relation to your opponent's hit-points, either. If you exceed that hard number in damage, you get a printed statement showing that to be the case. There is no such thing as Extra Damage. Pagan TEAM AND CHARACTER MAINTENANCE SERVICE As a service to all managers, we offer team and character maintenance. This option allows you to make sure your team or selected warriors will never miss a turn! Team Maintenance: This will cause all warriors on that team to fight every turn; if it's an AD arena, any new warriors who arrive on that team will fight the turn they arrive. In A.D. or in transfer arenas where you have multiple teams, each team will need to separately be on Team Maintenance. (The only exception is new warriors; they will not fight until they have had their initial strategy input.) Character Maintenance: This will cause only that warrior to fight every turn. If the character graduates or changes arenas, he/she/it will stay on Character Maintenance. In either case, you may submit strategy sheets for your warriors each turn, if you wish. The Team/Character Maintenance will make sure your warriors fight each turn, and they will always use their most recently entered strategy. Remember that challenges, avoids, and challenge/if challenged strategies will not carry through from turn to turn. These sections are only used on the turn they are entered. In order to continually challenge or avoid you will need to submit a strategy sheet each time. One other thing to remember about maintenance: Maintenance is not something that you write on your turnsheet (like in demo tourneys). In order to add or remove maintenance for a team or warrior, you must send a note to Customer Service. If you just write things like this on your strategy sheet, they may or may not get done. Likewise, don't write it on your personal ads. Please, please, please put it on a separate piece of paper with "Customer Service" written on the top. If you don't, well, you can imagine. Thanks for your time. Good luck in Duelmasters! -- Green Eyes The Perfect Scout We all know them. We all hate them. What am I talking about? Scum. But there is nothing better than a scum to scout at your enemy's weak points. You can see if they'll last long, what weapons they use, where they attack, their style, etc. And you typically don't have to fear a loss. Picture this. You see a guy on the listing 10-5-2. Well, you don't want to send your best warrior with his perfect 5-0-1 because you want to keep winning. So you send in your scout. Now you know if you can beat him. The scout will enable you to better pick and choose your fights. Also if you feel like getting back at someone these scum are great. How to design: ST13+ can go as low as 11 CN17+ WT5-7 no more WL17+ SP3 as low as possible DF7 is perfect So a perfect set up would be 15-19-13-7-19-3-8 to start train CN till 21 then WL 21 WT 8 DX 9 then whatever you want. This guy is not for ADM he's just for regular DM and to be used to scout. Don't worry about skills until you've 3 raises in everything then go to skills. Oh yeah strategy. 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 HE---------HE BD---------BD Parry-------P Get rid of him when they get up high. Then they've already scouted everything. Brought to you by Mr. Drake DM#5, Mgr. of Pirates THE BRAINY, LOW WILL STRIKER Like many others, I have experimented with the striker style, though I waited nearly two years into playing this game before doing so. Recently, while preparing for a tournament, I was reviewing the many roll-up sheets I had ordered in hopes that I might find a warrior or two who might have a good chance at a TV, or even a TC prize. Most of the roll-ups were born losers, or mediocre warriors at best, so I decided to experiment with the striker style. Most managers will agree that in order for a warrior to have a long-term potential (Primus), you need a will of at least 15. I wouldn't know, never having gotten a warrior that far. However, not all roll-ups will give you the opportunity for a 15+ WT/WL/DF combo. With that in mind, I made a few high WT, high DF, low WL strikers and hoped for the best. I was relying on their superior decise to get in the first blow, and hoping to finish off the opposition before they had a chance to swing back. Before you mega-managers say it, yes these guys would have made good, albeit extremely fragile aimed blows with the stats such as the following. I know, I had one with similar stats TV at the same tournament with a 9-1-0 record. However, I am writing about the low-will striker, not aimed blows. The result: 11-12-10-19-9-6-17 & 9-12-12-19-7-4-21 These guys have absolutely no realistic long-term potential once past basic, assuming they live that long (that single digit will is a killer). However, #1 managed to go 8-2-1 in the tournament, picking up an impressive 18 skill sin the process. he also managed to take out all 4 TP scum he faced, going 9 minutes in one fight, and 5 in another (his overview claimed "poor endurance"). #2 started with very "little endurance," yet managed to last 8 minutes vs. a TP-ratings, and had no problem sending those pesky TP-scum desperate before the end of the first minute. Give your striker a scimitar and let him go out 10-10-7 decise. With the high- decise style advantage strikers get, he should get in the first, and hopefully last, blow. Slow him down to about 6-4-6 minute 2, then go 6-1-1 thereafter. He'll either have won or lost by the end of the 3rd minute vs. most opponents. Have him come out at 6-4-6 (min 1), 6-2-6 (min 2), and 6-1-6 (min 3+) vs. TP-scum. I aim for the legs (I don't know of anybody who protects the legs, especially at tournaments), though if you want to go for the kills, aim for the head. Will these kind of rollups TV every time? NO! Their problem is a distinct aversion to pain, one blow will usually do them in. It is, however, a far better way of enjoying those frustrating low WL warriors than simply writing DA on the strategy sheet. If you are really gutsy, run these guys in the arena. They are a sure bet to be killed before their 15th fight, but will probably have a winning record when they die. Comments, derision and just about anything else welcome. Diplo Blind Man, Red Branch (3) AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. . . Are you tired of all the articles on the so-called Un-scum TPs and kill-at-will strikers? While I always appreciate input from more experienced managers, it seems some of the best styles are completely passed over when the articles come out in the last couple pages of the newsletters. In this case, the lunger. In the first ten fights of my arena, lungers held an average of 55% wins, and had a kill rate second to strikers, tying with bashers (if killing is your goal). Experienced managers agree, starting with offensive styles benefits newbies, because they tend to be a little easier to run and more consistent at lower levels play. In way of disclaimer, I'm by no means a mega-manager. I've been at this for a little over two years, and don't have a record that you'd write home about. This is because I do a lot of experimenting, DAing even a good fighter, just to try something new. Though I haven't run a lot of lungers, I have learned that they tend to do best with a fairly even spread of stats. ST: Usually somewhere between 9-13, 13 is nice because it lets you use the long spear (an obviously superior lunging weapon), but 9 or 11 can free up the points for other stats, if need be. CN: While everyone will tell you to never put points here, this is a style which, like the TP, can benefit from decent constitution. Try not to go any lower than 9, with something in the 13 range preferably. Given you can train this without skill loss, a 10 works all right, though you're going to have to finish your foes in the first minute. SZ: 9 is all you need for any of the weapons, but it seems hard to get a good damage rating with anything under a 12. WT: I've gotten some good bases with as low as a 12, and a 17 didn't seem to improve them appreciably. 15's seem to do pretty fair. Granted, given the quickness of their fights--if they're run right--they may take a little while to develop. WL: As with con, you're going to need that drive and endurance. A 12 con, 12 will gives normal endurance, and even will as high as 17 doesn't seem to give them all that much more stamina, so again, I'd say in the range of 15. SP: I'm an advocate of the low speed school, overall, and I've had them as low as a 7 with some decent response, but an 11+ is better, and they make use of speed better than most, given wit and deftness to use it. DF: Again, 11+, I've heard that lungers favor the legs as a target, so you need to be able to hit a reasonably small, mobile target. The really nice thing about lungers is their spread of skill bases. I've had four decent lungers, who ran in the .500 range, and probably could have done a lot better if I'd pegged their rhythm. My best overall spread of skills came from a 13- 10-9-15-15-11-11, with 50% in initiative and attack, 30% parry, 35% defense and 20% riposte. I've had them go as high as 60% in riposte (9-15-8-15-13-11-13), but with no parry, it was sort of useless. As one of the highest endurance burns in the game, obviously, the strategy is the key, and the one place I must admit lacking. I know the armor can make a big difference for them, so you want to go as low as possible, naked if you think you can get away with it. Like a striker, you really don't want to get hit at all. I usually run them hi-hi-mod (with exception of some of my defensives, I always run a 5-8 KD). Unlike strikers and bashers, they don't seem to respond as well to the hi-lo-hi in the later part of the fight. The weapons for a lunger are pretty obvious; epee, longsword, short spear, or long spear. If you build one with less strength and con, you can boost the speed and deftness enough to make the epee standards, but given my experience with their damage ratings, I'd advise against it. As I noted in the beginning, an even spread seems to work well, and one of my first ever was 13-12-12- 12-12-12-11, with 65% ini, 35% att, 15% rip, 15% def. No godling, by any means, but could do some wicked things with that longspear, and very nearly won his DA match. Again, I make no claims as being a great manager, only one with a lot of time on his hands, and one who saw a notable lack of info on what I consider to be one of the best potential styles in the game. Their flashy style can lead to great gains in the popularity and recognition, and their well spread skills can probably lead to great things in development. I would greatly welcome any form of questions, comments or complaints, and particularly other managers experience with this--or for that matter any other--style. Good fighting. Elder Snorri The Aesir (22) Miroi Chang (DM 79) WARRIOR HANDEDNESS by Pagan There has always been something FISHY about ambidextrous warriors and what hand they hold their weapons in. If you ask anyone but me, most will tell you the same old line about Ambi's holding their weapons in their left & sometimes in their right. WRONG.... The computer program does something weird here, and I will explain in the program format: FIGHTER1 is right-handed primary hand = WEAPONA FIGHTER2 is ambidextrous primary hand = Epee off-hand = Dagger back-up = Epee 1. FIGHTER1 swings WEAPONA 2. various computations for attack, parry, defense... 3. FIGHTER1 hits/misses (let's say he hits) 4. computations for attack area/protect area (hit or parry or save) 5. selection of attack area or impossible parry save or random area 6. FIGHTER2 is struck on LEFT ARM 7. selection on warrior file for handedness then correlate with weapon carried; RE_ROUTE --> If ambidextrous select handedness 8. check for fail at hit-points level vs. damage done 9. FIGHTER2 drops his Epee {at this point you'll never notice much difference. You may even think that the computer at this time, or at the beginning of the fight, designates the weapon side an ambi warrior is carrying. But you'd be wrong.) 10. check for initiative, if yes then check for back-up 11. if no on initiative then continue (current offensive warrior continues offensive), if yes then offensive is broken RE_ROUTE to advantage computations 12. FIGHTER2 spins and pulls out his Epee {so FIGHTER2 should have his Epee is which hand?...his left} 13. advantage computations judge who takes offensive 14. FIGHTER1 swings WEAPONA with devastating force! {now this will look familiar because it always the same system, the program doesn't change, just the numbers do} 15. various computations for attack, parry, defense... 16. FIGHTER1 hits/misses (let's say he hits) 17. computations for attack area/protect area (hit or parry or save) 18. selection of attack area or impossible parry save or random area 19. FIGHTER2 is struck on LEFT ARM 20. selection on warrior file for handedness then correlate with weapon carried; RE_ROUTE --> If ambidextrous select handedness 21. check for fail at hit-points level vs. damage done 22. FIGHTER2 drops his DAGGER {wasn't that Dagger in his right hand?...guess not.} ...and so on, and so forth.... You'll notice that the program never chooses a weapon side until necessary. This has a few ramifications: hit points in specific areas, selective attacking based on warrior body positioning, and a few other things. This is true because I have PROOF. Eventually you will get fights that this will happen to. BUT IT AIN'T EASY. It was just luck that I got the hardcopy to show it to me. You may notice that your ambi warriors, if they drop their weapons (and every warrior eventually does), that eventually you will have two different fights where your guy got hit in the same arm and dropped two different weapons. It wasn't until I got lucky and it happened to me twice in one fight (yes I lost the fight!) getting hit in one arm and dropping two different weapons. You should begin to see some format here. The program breakdown is basic, but is a close enough approximation for you to get a better feel about what's happening. -- Pagan A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DUELMASTERS or HOW TO KEEP YOUR HEAD ABOVE WATER Way back when I first started Duelmasters, I was helped immeasurably by an article written by an experienced manager whose name escapes me now. I regret that now, because that article is largely responsible for my current success in Duelmasters. At least, it kept me interested and competitive until I knew enough to develop my own strategies and styles. What I would like to accomplish with this article is to give enough advice on the various styles that a beginner can put together a decent fighter. I feel for those managers struggling with a 20 or 30 percent winning record. I was once one of you (in Cliffhome). With that in mind, I will briefly discuss each fighting style and my recommendations. So here goes: AIMED BLOW: I've never designed one, so if you're set on having one, I'm not going to be much help to you. A setup for a good AB will produce a GREAT PR. But if you still want one, try something like this: 11-9-9-17-15-6-17. You need wit and deftness and the 11 strength will give you a longsword or quarterstaff. Great against TP. BASHER: A pretty good style for the beginner, and easy to produce. Bashers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the small, fast type to the dreaded "scum basher." You need ST of 13 for a WH. It's the best basher weapon. The more speed he has, the less constitution he needs. ST & SZ should equal about 25. Example: 15-7-10-17-13- 11-11 or 15-17-10-13-17-5-7. LUNGER: Good choice for the beginner. Many people make lungers too small. At least SZ 9 so he can use a LS vs. heavy armor. Try high WL and SP and if you have the deftness, try a LO. Don't worry too much about CN. Run 10-10-10 to start. Use only one weapon. Ex: 13-5-12-15-15-17-7. PARRY-LUNGE: My favorite style. Try 11-10-12-16-16-6-13, increase WT & WL to 17. Run 3-3-3 first minute, then more offense and activity after that. Be patient with the parry types. It takes time to develop their skills, but once you do, they are the best and most entertaining designs. Use LO/DA and light armor. PARRY-STRIKE: Set up similar to PL, but may have more ST for heavier weapons. Could also use more CN. He can use a variety of weapons well. Ex: 13-13-9-16-15-5-13. PARRY-RIPOSTE: Arguably the best style once fully developed. WT and DF should be 17 with one or two stat raises. ST of 9 okay, but 11 better (it give you LO against heavier armor). Size should be small, although I was once successful with a size 14 PR. PR needs a fair amount of CN. Ex: 9-15-5-17-15-6-17. SLASHER: I haven't been too successful with these, but some people have been. They need to be able to take a few hits, so keep CN around 10. ST of 13 gives you a GA against heavy armor. Keep size down. Ex: 13-10-6-16-11-11-14. STRIKER: There are two basic styles of striker: High speed and deftness and enough strength to handle weapons of choice, and large strikers with low SP and DF. Regardless, keep the WT high and CN low. They are naturally decisive, so take advantage of that. Use only one weapon at a time. Ex: 13-5-13-17-15-15-9 or 13-7- 17-15-17-7-7. TOTAL PARRY: Some TPs are carelessly made, figuring that it isn't really a skillful type, but those fighters don't last long and they're boring! A good design for a TP is 13-13-8-17-15-5-13. This would also make a very good PS or PL! Run 3-3-3 P for a couple of minutes, then 4-3-4 or 5-3-5 for a minute or two. A good choice of weapons is SH/ME; ACM/H. You can get by with less WT or ST and he can be larger, but keep CN, WL, and DF fairly high. You will be insulted, because some styles just can't last for more than a minute or two. But this is your real strength. WALL OF STEEL: A good style. ST & CN & WL should equal 45 or so. I like at least size 9 so he can use a QS. SP isn't really important. Run defensively for a minute or two, then offensively after that. Ex: 15-12-9-13-17-5-13. GENERAL NOTE: Often, the specific stat levels will depend more upon your weapon choice than it will your fighter's style. If you want to use a great axe, you will need a ST of 13 and DF of 11. Lungers using SS or LS need ST of 11. LO needs WT and DF. A WH needs ST of 13 but only a DF of 7. Some weapons require a size 9 fighter. So, when designing your fighter, think about the weapon you want him to use before you finalize your selections. Also, remember that you can raise each stat (except size) two points without too much trouble (unless your WL is very low) while you're fighting in the arena. Be patient with your fighter and develop him gradually. Few great fighters start out that way! Good luck in the arena! Fritz of Battle Pets (225) Solven -- 22 ENDURANCE by Tankesh/Adie (DM11, Aruak City) DETERMINATION This attribute of a warrior found on the overview determines how long a warrior can keep up their offense, defense, or just keep standing. All styles use the same physical stats and the computer determines their endurance the same way, using those stats as a base. But the actual endurance of a warrior can vary up or down from that base depending on luck (good or bad). Like skills, each warrior can be gifted, mode, or hosed in their starting endurance, and that giftedness or penalty seems to stick with them permanently. Possible endurance levels, from lowest to highest are: very little, poor, normal (no comment), good, great, tremendous, awesome. Endurance can also be raised, in order of importance, with WL, ST and CN trains. After training endurance to a warrior's first new level, I find it usually takes about 6 total trains, on average, to get to the next level of endurance. If a warrior is gifted, as training continues, that higher level of endurance appears to stick with them. It would be difficult to list numerous data points here to give you a better feel for what endurance to expect in your new warrior, but if you want more data, try this web site and look at the chart: http://www.bit-net.com/~johnh/calc.cgi?end ENDURANCE BURN How fast endurance is used depends on the style of a warrior, their activity level, their offensive effort, and armor/weapons carried. 1) Burn rate by style -- This is tricky to tell as nobody runs all styles with the same strategy and armor regularly. But here is an approximate rate of burn by style from highest to lowest, in my humble opinion: LU - WS - SL - BA - PL - ST - PS - AB - PS - TP Personally, I find the last five extremely difficult to separate, but usually the more active styles burn faster due to faster strategies and more offensive skills, so I tried to put them in order of the most active, typically. There are numerous exceptions of course. 2) Activity Level -- Warriors running at higher levels of activity burn endurance faster no matter their style, period. It may be that running on a warrior's favorite rhythms allows said warrior to continue at that level longer than otherwise. When a warrior gets tired, a strategy with a higher activity level will inhibit them from recovering their endurance as they will try to keep moving. 3) Offensive Effort -- The more a warrior swings, the more tired they get. Of course, if your OE is high, but the other guy is doing all the swinging because they have the initiative, you aren't burning as much endurance. Endurance recovery is also inhibited if offensive effort is kept up when a warrior is tired. 4) Weapons/Armor Carried -- The more one carries, the faster a warrior gets tired carrying it. Easy. EXHAUSTION Warriors who are exhausted or tired will see lines in the fight reading, 'no longer has the endurance to put up much of a defense', or 'staggers with exhaustion'. You will see the former line if your warrior is exhausted and is attacked. Such warriors are easier to hit and have a difficult time using their defense and parry, which are penalized or even non-existent while they rest and try to recover their endurance. ENDURANCE RECOVERY Over the course of a fight, warriors who become tired will often 'fade back, snatching a much needed moment of rest' or some other similar action. This is basically a breather for the warrior to try and recover some endurance so they can keep fighting. Kind of like a climber pausing briefly to catch his breath and recoup. If the warrior is not defeated while recovering, they will continue eventually, or try to. For high burn styles, the very thought of continuing often makes them fade back again and they may stand around for a while if not hacked down. They may also leap about continuously, holding onto the initiative, but lack the endurance to actually swing! Very low activity and offensive effort allows easier recovery than even moderate strategies by telling your warrior to effectively give up the initiative and chill. Of course, you run the risk of getting attacked while standing there. Low burn styles can actually, if running slow enough (i.e., never attacking!), stand around and recover their endurance almost as fast as they lose it, making REALLY long fights possible between two such warriors. WILL CHECKS Lastly, related to endurance, are "Will Checks". When a warrior is exhausted, this check is performed by the program to decide if the warrior wants to go on for just a bit longer, to hang in there. It occurs often in longer fights, especially with the Total Parry style, which often wins by exhausting their opponents. A failed will check results in the warrior collapsing from exhaustion. A successful check allows an exhausted warrior to continue and try to recover more endurance. Additionally, will checks determine whether a warrior surrenders, usually due to being wounded. A will check is determined by just that, WILL. If your warrior has a low will, they will surrender or collapse more often than those with a high will. Lastly, kill desire affects will checks. A low kill desire will make it more likely that a warrior will fail his will check and surrender, therefore live. A higher kill desire makes the warrior more willing to gut it out and fight to the end, helping his will checks succeed. This may cause warriors to get killed more easily, unless they win. This kind of death is due to a warrior who refuses to surrender, giving their opponent more chances to try and kill them, or due to increased trauma from more hits to a specific body location that can result in an infirmary death. An Unbiased Look at the Slashing Attack Really. Slashers are coming out big this season, and as it's a style that I think requires a lot of study, I'd like to share my learnings and observations with those of you interested in this excellent offensive style. Too often I've heard experienced managers shrug off the slasher out of hand--why? Because they've never succeeded with the style themselves, and as such, hardly consider it worth noting. However, it's a style that's sneaking a lot into the limelight these days. General design: ST: 11-17--I would go as low as 7 or 9 depending on the warrior's size; I do like at least a 9 for use of the scimitar. It's nice to get them to at least normal damage, good, or better, because if they can't inflict any damage, they're going to be in trouble. CN: any--I like to give them some CN just so they can take a hit or two, but it's not necessary. I have a couple of slashers who started with a 4 CN and made it to AD; bear in mind, however, that a slasher with a good design is as mortal as an aimed blow, and you can expect to lose them just as you've become attached to them. SZ: 5-11--NO BIGGER. I don't know why, but big slashers just don't seem to make it. However, I am flexible here, and I'm currently attempting an experiment with gigantic slashers. If it works, I'll update this. As of right now, I'll stick with the smaller ones. Another good reason to have a good strength. WT: 17-21--As with any style, the higher the better. I've had some success with WTs in the 13-17 range, and even 11, but I don't expect him to ever be Primus level. If you can get 17 or 21, then do so. WL: 11-21--Again, as with WT. A slasher with a good endurance will shock the hell out of a scum TP who goes out sure that a slasher is easily scummed--not so. 17 is a good number; if possible, go with it. SP: 5-9--If someone tells you that a slasher needs speed, DO NOT LISTEN to them. It's hooey. A slasher already gets a speed and init bonus, they don't need any more help, and in the long run it will greatly hinder them. A high-speed slasher will end up Init-heavy with absolutely no other skills (and it's really frustrating to have a fast little slasher who already has a Master Init and still isn't learning any other skills)--there's nothing to 'em. You want him well-rounded, then you keep that SP low; that's the major drawback to the slasher (or any pure offense style), and I believe it's the main thing that's kept them from being more greatly respected. DF: 13-21--Here's where you make or break 'em. A good deftness makes up for the decise that might be lost in a low speed, and decise is more important than init. Any good aimed blow will also be an excellent slasher (and, to avoid the inevitable snorts of derision, yes, they'd be a better anything else. But I'm talking about slashers). A good, generally perfect slasher looks so: 7-9-5-21-18-11-13 (it's not ABSOLUTELY perfect, mind you; if I was designing him today I'd probably have gone with a 17 WL and 8 ST). These are the stats of what is perhaps my best all around slasher, skill-wise. This rollup started with these bases: INIT: 90% RIP: 60% ATT: 70% PAR: 15% DEF: 65% DEC: 55% As you can see, this slasher got lucky--more, perhaps, than some would, especially in the defense area. Some slashers will be frustratingly low in defense. Despite this skill base, he also started doing LITTLE damage--with this kind of problem, I definitely advocate raising ST to get rid of it. It WILL hurt his record, and, with my newest Stat/Skill chart, I see that raising from 7 to 10 hasn't hurt this slasher's learning at all, and now he does GOOD damage. Of course, not all of my slashers have been this good skill wise. Often they do start with desperately frustratingly low parry/defense skills, therefore needing nothing more than to get that first hit. Many slashers, especially the high ST/WT/DF combo ones, need to get the first hit--'cause if they get hit first, it's all over. One of my favorite designs looks like this: 13-13-6-17-15-7-13. This slasher has been desperately unlucky in skills, favorites, and definitely so record-wise. I can also attribute my lackadaisical managerial style to his lack of success, because I believe the numbers to be good. Be that as it may, the slasher I've had the best success with looked like this: 10-14-9-18-16-8-9. He started with a negative 10% parry, and only a 20% defense. For those wishing to snigger at me, this is Billy the Kid. He doesn't look like this now, of course; he has a 47-29-2 record with several stat raises and three Advanced Masters. So it's up in the air, for me, as to whether a really awesome design or just dumb luck is what attributes to one's managerial success. But that's neither here nor there. Once you HAVE your design, you want to know how to run them. I've heard some say that weapons selection is limited with slashers. Sure. Limited to the BEST WEAPONS IN THE GAME. A slasher can use hatchets (don't laugh! My slashers can do devastating things with hatchets), scimitar, broadsword, battle axe, longsword, epee, or shortsword. The scimitar is the weapon I advocate as the best all around, but always try others. Every slasher has their own ideas and some are pretty picky about it. I don't recommend using the epee in regular DM even if you have the stats for it, unless you use it only against armor classes 0-4 or so. Armor: I dress them heavy, but mostly because I like them to LIVE. A slasher is generally so quick that even as heavy as scalemail won't slow them down once they have that expert Decise (and often before). But in order to please those who think excessive armor is scummy, you can drop them down to ALE/L. Go without armor only if you're sure you can get the first swing and drop your opponent with that first hit or it's a super scum who WON'T hit you. Otherwise, if you want to live, I recommend some armor. But each manager can use this advice as they will. Strategies: Early on, I run them fairly hard, 10-10-6 in minute one, dropping to 8-4-6 in minute two, and then to 6-1-5(6) thereafter. Some slashers are a little strange in that they don't mind an "inverted strategy," that is, a higher defensive effort (activity level) than offensive, i.e.: 8-10 or 6-8. The 6-1-6 usually means that they can last a good long time against parry styles, and usually come out on top. The styles to watch out for are high-kill, high-decise strikers and killer lungers. Most slashers can and will get the jump on lungers, but the strikers are tougher; both CAN be beaten. With a little clever fiddling, the good slasher can beat ALL styles. But watch out for him while he's still young. Tactics: Not necessary. The slash is nice, if they like it, but it CAN slow them down. Decise is better if you want to be first off the mark or they appear hesitant in the first minute, but only in minute one OR desperation (but not both). Use response against strikers using decise. Important Note: It is absolutely NOT TRUE that your OE and KD have to be the same number in order for a defensive to be effective. I don't buy it. A 10 OE and a 7 KD will get you the results you want, and with the correct strategy, you can be as much a killer, or not, as you desire without going berserk at a 10 KD. Trust me on this one! :) And that's about it. If you have any comments, criticisms, complaints, new ideas, different ideas, etc., you can contact me via: Tex's Rangers (20, 51, 105, 104) Texas Independence Co (57, 105) -- Tex PRIORITY SKILL LEARNING -- by Pagan There are specific facts you should know about skills. To begin with, there are six skill areas. Three are offensive (attack, initiative, decisiveness) and three are defensive (parry, riposte, defense); they define, together with your stats, the abilities of your warrior in these areas. You should already know the implications that skills have upon your warrior's roll-up, but now I want to talk about how learning additional skills relates to your warrior's potential. Each warrior has a favorite skill learn, that is to say, a warrior will learn a particular skill more often than any others. Generally speaking, the skills a warrior learns most often are heavily influenced by his fighting style, which is called Priority. I will talk about priority a little later, but in general, it is the likelihood that a style is to learn a skill category. For example, Total Parries learn parry and defense more often than they learn decise or initiative. Your warrior's favorite learn affects the priority of his skill learning. A favorite learn is only limited by the six possible learns allowable, so you may have a Total Parry with a favorite learn of initiative or a Slasher with a favorite learn of defense. In any event, by your twentieth learn you should have an idea as to what his favorite learn is, because of the disproportionate amount of skills learned within one category. Also, when your fighter is invited to join the ADM arenas, you will be told what skill learn your warrior favors. A new area that I have been examining in the context of skill learning is the impact an opponent's style has on the type of skills learned. Your warrior's fighting style, along with the fighting style of his opponent, has a direct effect on the type of skills learned, but does not control the number of skills learned. When he fights a Total Parry, for instance, he is more likely to learn a defensive skill than when he fights a Slasher. PRIORITY Chart developed by Ben Hitz -- "PUG" Revised by -- DMobster and Pagan The probability of learning a skill is modified by the style. Each style has a learning scope that differs from each other style. There are Priority skill areas for each style that differ amongst each style. Each skill is given a corresponding number from 1 to 6 depending upon its priority. PRIORITY SKILLS BY STYLE AB -- ATT, RIP, DEF, PAR, DEC, INI BA -- ATT, INI, DEC, PAR, RIP, DEF LU -- INI, DEF, RIP, ATT, DEC, PAR PL -- INI, PAR, ATT, DEF, DEC, RIP PS -- PAR, DEC, INI, ATT, DEF, RIP PR -- RIP, PAR, ATT, DEF, INI, DEC ST -- DEC, ATT, INI, RIP, PAR, DEF SL -- INI, ATT, RIP, DEC, PAR, DEF WS -- ATT, INI, PAR, DEF, DEC, RIP TP -- PAR, DEF, RIP, ATT, DEC, INI Aimed Blows learn attack the most and initiative the least out of any of the skills. By adding your warrior's Priority skills along with that of your opponent's Priority skills, you can come to see the probability your warrior has to learn a particular skill. The above list for Priority may not be free from error; however, I believe it to be an accurate reflection of what the actual priority skills are across the styles. Some of the skill areas were so close in number that estimations had to be made about which skill was higher in priority to another. TRAINING SKILLS AND STATS What happens in a fight with priority skills? Take a look at a Parry Lunge who fights a Slasher. Skills Slasher Parry Lunge Total Number of trials INI 6 6 12 RIP 4 1 5 ATT 5 4 9 PAR 2 5 7 DEF 1 3 4 DEC 3 2 5 Total 21 21 42 Now, here we have the total pool of skills in fights between a Slasher and a Parry Lunge. In this fight (Parry Lunge vs Slasher), it is more likely for a warrior to learn, in this order: INI, ATT, PAR, RIP & DEC, DEF. By calculating the variables we can see the likelihood for either warrior to learn each corresponding skill. To learn initiative, there are 12 possible skills in a pool of 42. So 12 divided by 42 = 28.57% chance to learn an initiative skill. There are only 4 defensive skills in the pool, so 4/42 = 9.52% chance to learn a defensive skill. By looking at the numbers you can see that, in this fight, both warriors are more likely to learn initiative skills than defensive skills. Also, by calculating all of the skills your opponents learn, you will learn the most common skill your warrior teaches. This is the same process as finding your favorite learn. The likelihood your warrior has to learn a skill is a factor of Wit. Where Priority shows you the pool of skills, your Wit determines whether your warrior learns the skills or not. For an example of how this may work--and understand this is only theory--the computer seems to keep pulling out skills out of a pool of the two combatants' Priority skills. It then checks your warrior's Wit against a variable to see if this skill can be learned or not. If it cannot be learned, the computer throws away the skill and pulls out another. (Remember that the total pool size then decreases, from 42 to 41, so you must then divide accordingly). The computer rolls a random number, affected by a warrior's Wit, to determine the number of skills that will be learned up to a maximum of six, and a minimum of zero. (There will be no taking away of a warrior's skills!) The computer then continues to pull out skills out of the priority pool until: 1. You fail to learn a skill 2. You reach your maximum allowable number of skills (0 to 6) 3. The pool of skills is exhausted. How then is Priority affected by a warrior's favorite learn? You need to add 6 points of Priority to your warrior's favorite skill learn. This favorite affects only your warrior's pooled Priority skills, and does not affect your opponent's pooled Priority skills. Vice versa, your warrior's pooled Priority skills are not affected by your opponent's favorite learn. You can use Priority to find your warrior's favorite skill learn, once your warrior has learned 20-30 total skills. Without calculating a favorite, your warrior should learn his base percentage chances with Priority: Priority Number Percent Chance for Priority 6 28.57% 5 23.81% 4 19.10% 3 14.29% 2 9.52% 1 4.76% You are adding 6 points of Priority to your favorite skill learn, so after you warrior has approximately 20 to 30 total skills, divide the number 6 (the favorite Priority) by 27 (the Priority pool +21 & the favorite +6) and this equals = 22.22%. So any skill area that is approximately 22.22% higher in skill learning than it should be (as listed in the chart above) is your warrior's favorite learn. -- Pagan PARRY-RIPOSTE --the how to and why-- Greetings, fellow managers. This article will deal with the design and successful running of the parry riposte, henceforth referred to as ripper. A well designed ripper will have both enough offense to satisfy those lunger maniacs, and defense to make the most parry-XYZ fanatic happy. The most gratifying quality of the ripper is, of course, his legendary riposte ability. The trick? Finding out how to make him do just that. It requires a well-balanced mix of good design, diligent studying of his fights, and a sound strategy. Let's do this step by step: DESIGN ST: 7-11 CN: 9 or less SZ: 7-9 WT: 15-21 WL: 13-17 SP: 5-13 DF: 17-21 EXPLANATION: ST: I like to have an 11 ST for using the longsword, a ripper's best weapon vs. the heavy armor. When designing one, unless the strength was 6 or less, I probably wouldn't add. Why? He needs points elsewhere more importantly. CN: Never add points. It's a waste and gets you no skills, which are a highly valuable commodity you need. SZ: Smaller IS better. Why? Again, you need those almighty points elsewhere and who cares if you don't have the initiative? You'll steal it with your riposte! WT: Honestly, I'd like to never start below 17, but the Rollup Gods make that quite hard at times. Therefore I settle for a rock bottom 15, allowing you to use the epee and still learn at a respectable pace. WL: I've run with a 13 will and experienced no ill effects. As a rule, though, if you have extra points and just can't figure out what to do with them... slap them on will. Will is important when considering your warrior's long term potential and the ability to raise attributes once skills are maxed out through learning. SP: This and deftness are the two main ingredients for riposte. Nevertheless, I place the importance of speed right above con. It really isn't necessary and quite frankly, I'd never add points to it because you won't have any left once maxing out wit, deftness, and will. DF: I place this as the second most important attribute for a ripper. You need to be able to hit where you aim and make your shots count. When you come up against that dreaded TP wearing APA/F & ME/ME, 100 hit points-plus, scumming for all he's worth, you have to be able to hit those low hit point areas to win that fight. The arms are my favorite attack location. I've run up against one of these things and by minute 7 he dropped his ME, went desperate and gave up. If you get a design that makes you say, "Wow, this could be a good aimed blow," chances are he'd make one helluva ripper. ARMOR: Since the mortality rate of young rippers is alarmingly high, I recommend that you never go below ARM/H until that rating in defense and parry come your way. Once that happens, and you'll already be on your way to Advanced Expert riposte by this time, if not higher, go ahead and put him in ALE, if you want. Always keep that helm, though! Never forget that your beginning ripper is going to take some hits, and since we hate to waste points on con, we depend on the armor to protect us until our defenses come on line. WEAPONS: I've had good luck with the LO/DA combo. The EP/HA works well, also. As always, though, find his FAVORITE! Others like going with the small shield as the off-hand parrying weapon, but since I've never tried that I can't comment on it. Experiment, that's the only way to find out. EXAMPLES: 1) 13-9-7-15-13-8-19 2) 9-13-8-19-15-5-15 3) 9-7-7-21-13-6-21 1) This is actually a warrior. He is running at 75% and doing quite well. In half his fights he has drawn first blood. Not only having the initiative, but by parrying the blow and counter-striking. 2) This was a ripper also, until ripper #1 killed him. Lots of potential. 3) This would be my "perfect" ripper. The Reader's Digest version of design is this: Wit, deftness, and will, in that order. Remember, when designing a warrior, take into consideration the breakpoints and place your points accordingly. STRATEGY: This is a general strategy that has worked wonderfully for me. No two rippers are likely to be the same so this is just a good framework to start with. A highly important detail is to thoroughly read your fights and find out what activity level he likes to riposte at. I have also found that the old standby kill desire of 2 more often than not made him pass up attack, via riposte, opportunities left and right. By having it at 5, he increased his counterstrikes considerably. 3 3 6 6 6 5 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 LA -------------------------- > BD -------------------------- > N --------------------------- > P P N N N N P You will notice that when he goes "offensive" in minute three, I don't force anything with a tactic modification. I've found them to hinder a ripper more than help. Some may laugh at this minute three offensive strategy, but he HAS killed in minute three. Against defensive styled warriors, he looked like an offensive lunatic. Against offensive warriors, he ripostes 2-3 times per attack thrown at him. FINAL NOTES: Always remember that a ripper will make a corresponding amount of attacks using lower numbers as an offensive warrior going ballistic with high numbers. Don't push your ripper, but slowly move his numbers up and down and find out where HE likes to run. Your warrior overview can give you a clue to this. Don't worry about him making a lot of wild attacks at first, as this is normal for rippers. They get robbed on their attack percentage due to their style, but it will come around in time. In closing, if this article can help just one person struggling with the ripping style, I'll be happy. I also encourage feedback, whether it be in agreement or constructive criticizing. I base my conclusions from talking to other managers and my own experience, which has been best with rippers. Good luck to all in the battle and.... May the Almighty One guide your blade. Blackhawk, mgr. Knight Rangers (arena 22) and Knight Rangers (arena 20) A service of the BROTHERHOOD OF JUSTICE ------+------ B O J ^ I ^ /___\ I /___\ I / \ There is a Tavern in the Town... Finally, after a great deal of research, study, gathering of information, wasting time, not to mention hundreds of delicious meals later, I have finally complied enough for the first article on Alastari's fine taverns, inns, and other such establishments. For the sake of convenience, I started in the northlands, and the Island of the Whistling Dragon, where sits the fine city of Aradi. Aradi simply has too many night spots to do them all justice, but certainly the two greatest are Drake's Lodge and the Blind Cyclops Inn. Both have an excellent setting, offer entertainment, lodging, and a fine menu. Drake's menu has a wide selection not only from the northern Andorian traditions, but also many more exotic dishes culled from the eastern seaboard, Malcorn, and the Karnhorn Empire. The Blind Cyclops leans more heavily towards the west coast cuisine, and some of the spicy dishes from the Aruaki Clanhold can be found here. The seafood at both locations, and generally across town, is excellent. Running down the coast into the Aruaki Clanhold itself, the first stop would normally be Amen-Tei; however, I jumped over it into the heart of Andoria, first. Along the populous Catseye River you'll find the cities of Seam, Aruak and Solven. In Seam, one of the finest places to eat is the Stoned Golem. The prices are reasonable and the cooking excellent. I recommend the dragon steak highly; fiery seasoning and the richest Kati-Tei wine to wash it down with. Also in Seam you'll find the Frozen Arms Inn--a perfect location to go if you particularly enjoy indoor ice skating (on the floor). The temperature is kept at a constant 25 degrees Fahrenheit, but if you have a heavy parka, I recommend at least stopping by for a drink of tira--I don't know what's in it, and I hate to ask, but it's worth it. Seam is also home to the Firedragon Inn and the Final Rest. Both cater more to the hard drinkers rather than the picky eaters. The Firedragon is more likely to host a bar brawl--if you like quiet conversation, I recommend the Final Rest. On into Aruak, you'll find the Bulldog Inn, a place for food, drink, gambling, or sleeping--whatever you're looking for, you're likely to find it. The food is tasty and the companionship unequaled. In Point, you'll discover the Ogre's Crypt. Run by the same people as the Blind Cyclops Inn of Aradi, it offers a similar style of cuisine. It's been rumored that offworld "soft drinks" are also available here, although that is strictly hearsay. Enjoyable, always. Across the channel in Iaye there rests one of the finest inns in Alastari, the Dragon's Blood Inn. Notable not only for its fine food and excellent selection of imported wines and liquors, the Dragon's Blood has one of the most welcoming interiors of any inn I've seen. The large downstairs rooms are divided into a gigantic "common" room with a fireplace large enough for five men to stand in--frequently to be found there entire sides of beef, slow cooking for the evening's meals. A "party" room can either be closed off from the main room for private gatherings or added to the spacious quality. Smaller rooms are also available. Also, the Dragon's Blood offers the best whiskey I've ever tasted. Also in Iaye is the Rat's Nest. Found on the northern waterfront, it is mostly a tavern and well known mostly for its taxidermy. The walls are a veritable museum of native Alastarian wildlife. Gambling, drinking, and women are the main staples here. Back on the mainland, I stopped in Khalhums long enough to listen to the music in the Blues Hall--not much on food, but the drinks are generous and well priced, and the music unbeatable. Also in Khalhums is the Black Sheep Inn; it's a large barn-shaped building not far from the arena that serves good food (mostly mutton, but it's lean and well-cooked) and excellent spirits. Going down into the Federation, I found an exciting place in Sunset called Wildlife Unlimited--anything you want, you're likely to find it here. All forms of entertainment, any drink imaginable, food from lands all over Alastari and beyond. Part of the profits of Wildlife Unlimited goes to the training, research, and development of warriors. Also in Sunset I found the Baba Yaga's Bar and Grill, with great beer served in gigantic mugs with large tin plates heaped with filling, tasty food. It's a comfortable, friendly place that I recommend highly to anyone traveling down that way. Across the street is a large casino called Cagliostro's Castle--very classy place that caters to the "better class" of gambler. A very enjoyable evening can be had there if you win--the drinks are a bit on the expensive side, but the liquor is the best. Crossing over to nearby Transel, stop by the Sultan's Tent. The menu is extensive, serving dishes from most of this corner of the world; I highly recommend the Nianian Firefish. The drinks are good, with a big selection to choose from, and the entertainment excellent. The ambiance can't be beat, with a massive firepit sunk into the center of the common room; when the fire is out, a stage can be pulled over it for more of the entertainment. I suggest stopping by on the weekends, when the fire is lit and the overhead skylight drawn back--quite a sight! It's made mostly of mahogany and marble, and is kept up well. In Tricorus, there were several places that caught my eye, but most notable is the Blue Dolphin Inn. The Blue Dolphin is a large establishment reminiscent of the Dragon's Blood; comfortable and roomy, with gigantic bay windows looking out at the massive Tricoran monument, Three-Horn Mountain. The food is good, if plain fare, with healthy portions at a reasonable price. Excellent drinks. Highly recommended. They naturally specialize in Tricorus' delicious gold brandy. In Delarq Tor, if you can find it and get in, there is Ho's Pleasure Club. "Pleasure" is the operative term. Fortunately, I had a face the doorman liked AND the hundred bashari cover charge and was allowed in without being beaten to a pulp (as I saw happen to some other hapless fellow). The music is loud and tasteless, as are the women--apparently there is a house rule that the only women allowed are sluts or royalty. There is gambling, regulated by the house and the house takes profits from all winners. The drinks are watery. The house rules are strict. I got out before I was thrown out. In Talcama, if you're in the mood to be silly, stop by at the House of Jello and watch the wrestling matches. Apparently, better food and drink is served upstairs, but the entire purpose of the House of Jello is to go down to the pit and watch the action. It's just for fun, and that it is. If you're there, go. I found the Choking Ogre in Cliffhome, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It is an extensive building with a high ceiling, a combination tavern and gamehouse. The food is excellent--daring, spicy, and dramatic, presented well and cooked to perfection. The portions are healthy, as are the drinks--sometimes necessary when having the Hot Spiced Miniature Potatoes! Everything is reasonably priced. In Rocanis, there were too many taverns to choose from. The Wanton Troll, Mylar's, the Grub & Rub Bar & Bistro, and on--I finally settled on the Wanton Troll, for its popularity. The outside isn't promising, and being greeted by the six foot tall (and wide) proprietress, the wanton troll herself, Beulah, is a trifle frightening. However, once you get past her (if you don't know the password, flirt a little with her and she'll let you in), you'll find it's all worth it. It's a boisterous, crowded place, generally full of loud talk and laughter. Hot and spicy food is plentiful, and the drinks are served in large, often iced, mugs. On a good night both are excellent, although it sometimes depends on the cook. It's always enjoyable, though, and it's a place I've been back to. Further north on the eastern side of Alastari, I found Salty's Chowder House in Morya--a seaport tavern inland; and worth it for the food, the house special Chowder. It's thick and filling and VERY tasty. I was disappointed to find none of the more impressive drinks; southern wine for the most part, although Arkers pale ale in that neck of the woods is worth the price. In Lapur there were a number of taverns, with the Burned Tree (formerly the Gnarled Tree, before a fire gutted the old building; it has been re-built) being the first on my list--a pleasant place with excellent drinks but the food was only so-so without much of a selection. The Blue Rose Tavern served up better food but only three varieties of beer and again, only southern wines. The Drowned Rat offered an good whiskey but only had pretzels and nuts. I found a small tavern in Monuntial called Pontiff's Potent Potables; the food was plain fare of the meat & potatoes variety--unremarkable but plentiful and tasty, reasonably priced--HOWEVER, the excellent and exotic array of drinkables makes this a definite find. Each of the drinks seems to have a quality all its own; you definitely leave feeling good. Fighting is discouraged and weapons are checked at the door. Reservations are recommended. I cut back up to the Isle here, and found several excellent places. Just outside Willow Beach, near the Darkholm arena, is the fabulous Eve's Palace Casino--upper crust, upper class, and definitely worth the price. An excellent place to spend an evening. In Talahya, I stopped by E-Snee's Bar & Grill; ordinary food for ordinary prices. Generally good. Nearby is the "food market," which is a block of restaurants of all kinds. You can find everything from southern desert cuisine to the exotic stuff of the Northwights. If you're on the Isle, you could try a new restaurant every day. Talahya's Market District is home to restaurants of every shape and size, serving food from all over Alastari and Lirith Kai. Not far from the Primus Arena and the Grey Tower, this street of little restaurants, taverns, and theatres is a must if you are just passing through. Check it out and you'll find what you're looking for, guaranteed. Over in Andorak, the Crimson Eagle caters to all whims; food, drink, lodging, gambling--a very classy-looking place, serves to all types and has a good selection. Also in Andorak you'll find the Sightless Dragon, a smaller but no less welcoming environment with excellent live music nightly. Close by, near the Home Guard arena, is the ever-popular Bash & Glug--food and drink, plenty of both, for a good price. Fun, fights, & frolic is the rule here, no weapons allowed. Their early morning breakfast bar is a MUST. Also here is an Ice Cream Parlor under the name Arthur's Last Stand (I'll explain that shortly). Exotic flavors, good on a hot day or any day. Arthur's Last Stand is a "chain" of taverns operated in the cities of Talcama, Caer, Morya, Dullens, and Willow Beach (Darkholm). They are the same wherever you find them; friendly, with decent drinks and decent food. Recommended if you are someplace that they are--familiar, comfortable surroundings. If you know of a tavern or eating establishment in your city that you would like to recommend, let us know about it! -- Swift JESSIE'S GUIDE TO A GOOD BASHER (3rd Edition) Greetings. This is a 3rd edition of "Jessie's guide to a good BASHER." I have a little more time to upgrade my second article to give you some more info regarding my favorite style. The major changes are in the weapons and strategies section. But read the whole thing, I've made other changes as well. Also, this article doesn't discuss the SCUM basher or other mutant variations of this style. It deals mainly with ones meant to last past 10-15 fights. Most new mangers or managers that don't run bashers that much don't understand how to make a good basher. Needless to say, they don't run them right, either. Even with my hoard of bashers, each one varies somewhat. The 4 MOST important things to a basher are DECISE skills, ATTACK skills, DAMAGE bonus, and maintaining the INITIATIVE. This is also the order of importance as well. Bashers also learn ATTACK, DECISE and INITIATIVE skills faster than other skills. They are very similar to slashers in many ways. 1. DECISE SKILLS: A basher needs to strike first, and this is why his number of decise skills must be high. His bigger size will give him bonus DECISE skills, as well as bonus INITIATIVE skills. Bashers have poor defense and parrying abilities, this is why they need to gain the initiative. A BASHER'S best defense is a good OFFENSE. Speed also gives decise skills. But I don't add to speed, 'cause speed isn't vital to a basher or his performance. 2. ATTACK: After gaining the initiative, the number of attack skills will determine when he hits or not. Bashers need to hit what they swing at, cause they may not get another chance to swing. I recommend a 10+ base in attack for a basher. This means he should have a HIGH ORDER WIT statement for attack. The higher the attack rating, the easier it will be to get through the parries and dodges of the opponent. If you check the WIT statement chart and he doesn't have HIGH ORDER attack, he may not do well. 3. DAMAGE: This is a MUST for any basher. Would recommend no less than a GOOD DAMAGE rating. I prefer GREAT DAMAGE for my bashers, or more. A basher must be able to do ALOT of damage when he hits, 'cause he is trying to bring his opponent down fast. Because he can't afford to let his opponent attack back with the low defensive abilities the basher has. That is why he needs to make every hit count. 4. INITIATIVE: He needs to start with at least a LOW ORDER initiative WIT statement. He needs to maintain his attacks to get enough hits to bring his opponent down, so there is no counter-attack. It does no good to strike first if he can't maintain his initiative. Big size, high WIT, and high DEFTNESS will give your basher extra starting INITIATIVE skills. Designing a good basher doesn't take a rocket scientist. If you've been wondering what to do with big guys, BASHER is the answer. Bashers make excellent BASIC warriors. And if you get one that has some defensive abilities as well as offense, he might be good at the higher levels of the game. Smaller bashers that have higher skill bases fare better at higher levels of the game than bigger ones with less skill. The only problem with small ones is surviving BASIC. 'Cause, they don't have the DAMAGE or HIT POINTS the big ones have. Strength: 10-17 Don't skimp, you need the damage. But WIT is the first concern. Strength is number 3 in the priority race. You might need a little higher if you have a small one. Remember you want to at least get a GOOD DAMAGE rating. You can also train strength later, so don't worry about starting with it too high. I always try to get odd numbers on strength, 'cause that's where most of the strength requirements are for basher weapons. 15, 17, 21 STR also give extra skills. Constitution: 6+ Try to get it to a least 6. If you already have it above 6, don't add points here. This is low priority for adding points. Size: 9+ is recommended, but I wouldn't go below 6 unless you got at least a 15 strength. If you have a size 15+, then you can go as low as 10 on the strength. A QS, only needs an 11 strength to wield. You can use it till you get a 12 or more strength to wield the bashers best weapon the WARHAMMER. Don't forget big size! 12+ get bonus HIT POINTS, DECISE SKILLS, and INITIATIVE SKILLS. But they also get a penalty in their starting DEFENSE skills. Smaller ones, 8 or less, get bonus defense, but less hit points. They also get hosed on DAMAGE bonus. But, the smaller ones usually start out with more skills than the bigger ones. WIT: 15, 17 or 21. Since a basher starts out with lower skill bases than most styles, he needs to learn fast. Even if he is only an average basher, he can make up for it by learning fast. Having a high WIT will help him learn fast. If you have a slow learning basher, he won't be competitive after about 10 to 15 fights. The reason is because the other styles that start with more skills than a basher will pass him up in the skills department. This will cause many losses and even death. This is a number ONE priority when adding points. WILL: If you can't get 15, 17, or 21, don't add points here. WILL is not a basher priority. If you want your basher to go to ADM, you need at least a 15 WILL. Bashers are low endurance burn, and don't need high endurance. But it is nice to have. Some of the best short term Bashers have low wills. Speed: 5+. Speed is not a basher priority. Don't add points here. I don't like 3 speeds, I believe there is a voodoo curse that penalizes you too much. DEFTNESS: Many managers skimp here. DON'T SKIP on deftness. I see many managers see that a roll up has low deftness and automatically say, "Make it a basher." That greatly damages your basher. For a lunger or slasher who already have ALOT of skill to start out with, it's okay to have a low deftness. But not a basher who doesn't have those skills. Deftness is where most of the bonus skills come from. Don't ROB your basher of the skills, he needs all he can get. I recommend 13+. 11 is okay if you have a 17 or 21 WIT. I never go below 9 deftness, period. BASHER WEAPONS: After experimenting with all of the basher weapons extensively, I have more info in this area to give. Basher Weapon Requirements : Warhammer: STR 13, Size 3, WIT 9, DEF 7 Mace: Str 13, Size 3, WIT 7, DEF 5 Morning Star: Str 13, Size 3, WIT 9, DEF 13 War Flail: Str 11, Size 3, WIT 7, DEF 7 Quarterstaff: Str 11, Size 9, WIT 11, DEF 11 Great Axe: Str 13, Size 3, WIT 9, DEF 11 Great Sword: Str 15, Size 9, WIT 11, DEF 11 Maul: Str 15, Size 9, WIT 5, DEF 7 Halberd: Str 17, Size 9, WIT 11, DEF 11 Those weapons above are well suited to the basher. Also, weapons that are marginally suitable are battle axe, broadsword, and fist. You do get a little penalty for using marginally suitable weapons, but not enough to notice. Your basher's favorite weapon can only be a well suited one. Besides strength, other important factors that determine what weapon you equip your basher with are ENDURANCE and current ATTACK skill level. If your basher has an ENDURANCE problem, use the QS or WH. Or if he is fighting against a heavy armored defensive style, these weapons are the best choice. Warhammer is good against plate. Don't use a ML or HL with an endurance problem, 'cause he won't last past round one. If your basher hasn't gained enough skill yet, and is being parried most of the time, use BIGGER weapons. If you have the strength and endurance use the ML or HL. Using these weapons will increase the damage you do, making each hit count. In basic, when weapon speed its a major factor, big weapons aren't really that slow. It is very easy to a jump your opponent using a HL or ML, I do it all the time. Another tactic I use often with great success is using big weapons for light armor and lighter ones for heavy armor. Most offensives in basic wear lighter armor and have fewer hit points. Offensive styles are more deadly to bashers than defensive styles. Therefore you need to bring them down as quickly as possible. Using a HL or ML against scale armor or less, usually only takes one or 2 hits to bring an offensive style down. Defensive styles parry and dodge a lot of your attacks, so you need a lighter weapon so you won't tire out quickly. Using a warhammer for chainmail and above will let you last long enough to bring a defensive style down. Warhammer also does very well against heavy armor. WARHAMMER: 13 STR required. This is the BEST weapon for a basher without a doubt. Its light weight and speed are unchallenged against all the other Basher weapons. It also does a surprising amount of damage. Can be used against all armors with great success. This weapon rarely breaks. MACE: 13 STR required. This is an okay weapon, but doesn't compare to the WARHAMMER. It has problems inflicting damage. Morningstar: 13 STR and 13 DEFT required. Does good damage, but is slow and heavy. Isn't worth the endurance burn. War Flail: 11 STR required. The is the WORST weapon in the game. DON'T USE IT!!!!! Damage for this weapon is very lame and I have see it bounce off of ALE and NO ARMOR opponents. I believe daggers and fist do more damage! Quarterstaff: 11 STR and DEFT required. This two handed weapon is light weight, quick and good against all armors. This is a basher's fourth best weapon. This weapon's main problem is that it breaks too much. I use the FIST as a backup when I use the QS, so when it breaks he doesn't have to draw a backup weapon. Offensive styles may not give you a chance to draw your backup weapon. With a fist back-up you will continue attacking after your weapon has broken, maintaining your initiative. Great Axe: 13 STR and 11 DEFT required. This is also much like the QS, but weighs a little more. Does more damage than a QS. It will tire your basher faster. This weapon also breaks a lot. Maul: 15 STR required. Does massive damage, but is very heavy and tiresome. This weapon is a better all-around weapon than the halberd. This is the 2nd best bashing weapon. Halberd: 17 Str required. Does the most damage in the game. This weapon also is only for those warriors who have the strength and the endurance for it. This is a basher's third best weapon. Greatsword: 15 STR required. See WAR FLAIL. This weapon also breaks a lot. Shields: Are well suited to bashers, but don't ever use one. They do hardly any damage. Don't ever use a shield and any other weapon in a bashers OFF-HAND. They rarely use their OFF-hand to parry and when they do use it to attack with, they do less damage. When the computer gets to the part in the program where it selects which hand to use, you want him to use his PRIMARY weapon to do the most DAMAGE. Not to pick an off-hand weapon that does lessor damage. Also you get an attack bonus for using two hands with many weapons. Bashers favorite weapon: Well, out of 90 Basher ADM graduates, the following is a list of their favorite weapons. MS(9), MA(17), GA(5), GS(9), ML(9), WF(8), HL(8), WH(7), QS(9), ME(2), LG(8) You have to try each of them if you want to guess which one it is. If you're lucky and get the WH, then praise the gods!! 16 of the 90 bashers got the BASH tactic as their favorite tactic. But I wouldn't use the BASH tactic; the DECISE tactic is awesome for a BASHER. I use it with all my bashers. Two bashers got DECISE as a favorite tactic. Bash is only good to use against strong defensive styles after round one. I have used the DEFENSE or PARRY Tactics in desperation with great success. I will chose the one that the basher has a WIT statement in. IE: If he has a DEFENSE statement, I use DEFENSE tactic in DESP. If a parry statement, then PARRY in DESP. If neither, then PARRY 'cause it's almost always higher than DEFENSE for a basher. Basher Armor: ALE/S or H to start. If he doesn't seem to get the jump on most of his opponents, then go to heavy armor. You can `sponge' your opponents by taking hits and hope to hit them when they're tired. But if they do to much damage to you first, you will lose. Favorite Rhythms: Offensive effort should be between 8-10 the first minute and 5-8 there after. In DESP. 5-10. Activity Level should be 5-10 in the first minute and 1-3 thereafter. IN DESP between 1-10. KD between 5-7 all rounds. Typical Strategy: MIN: 1 2 3 4 5 6 DESP ======================================== OFF. 10 8 5 5 5 5 10 ---------------------------------------- AVT. 10 1 1 1 1 1 6 ---------------------------------------- KD. 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 ---------------------------------------- Att. RA RA RA RA RA RA RA ---------------------------------------- Pro. HE HE HE HE HE HE HE ---------------------------------------- TAC. DECISE in minute one. Bash in later minutes against scum or heavy defensive styles. Defense or Parry in DESP. If you aim for the limbs, you can take your opponent down quickly. Bashers tend to hit the upper half of the body more anyhow. Well, that's a wrap. If you would like to chat, get charts, or learn all the stuff RSI doesn't tell you, drop me a line. You can diplo me in Primus DM102, "The Joker's WILD" or any one of my others teams that are too numerous to list. Also, you can EMAIL me at 103260.3347@compuserve.com Ta-Ta, Sir Jessie Jest The Basher Guy