DUEL 2 NEWSLETTER

Date   : 09/16/2016    Duedate: 09/29/2016

NOBLISH ISLAND ARENA

DM-93    TURN-461

This Weeks Top Honors

THE DUELMASTER IS

TROY
RIVER RATS (1699)
(93-9911) [8-2-1,64]

Chartered Recognition Leader   Unchartered Recognition Leader

TROY                           ONE
RIVER RATS (1699)              NUMBER (1705)
(93-9911) [8-2-1,64]           (93-9944) [3-1-0,35]

Popularity Leader              This Weeks Favorite

COMMERCIALS                    COMMERCIALS
BB TALK RADIO (1700)           BB TALK RADIO (1700)
(93-9920) [5-5-0,25]           (93-9920) [5-5-0,25]

THE CURRENT TOP TEAM

BB TALK RADIO (1700)

          TEAMS ON THE MOVE            TOP CAREER HONORS
Team Name                  Point Gain  Chartered Team
1. CRUEL LORDS (1707)          60
2. BB TALK RADIO (1700)        29      RIVER RATS (1699)
3. THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)      24      Unchartered Team
4. RIVER RATS (1699)           15
5. THE MANTICORES (1704)       10      CRUEL LORDS (1707)

The Top Teams

Career Win-Loss Record           W   L  K    %  Win-Loss Record Last 3 Turns    W  L K
 1/ 0*CRUEL LORDS (1707)         5   0  1  100   1/ 3 BB TALK RADIO (1700)     11  4 0
 2/ 2 RIVER RATS (1699)         34  16  1 68.0   2/ 1*NUMBER (1705)             9  6 0
 3/ 3 BB TALK RADIO (1700)      32  18  1 64.0   3/ 2 RIVER RATS (1699)         8  7 1
 4/ 1*NUMBER (1705)             12   8  1 60.0   4/ 0*CRUEL LORDS (1707)        5  0 1
 5/ 4*ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)       9   6  1 60.0   5- 4*COYOTES (1701)            3  3 0
 6- 5*COYOTES (1701)            17  18  1 48.6   6/ 5*THE MANTICORES (1704)     2  2 2
 7/ 6*THE MANTICORES (1704)      4   6  3 40.0   7/ 7*THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)    2 11 0
 8/ 7*THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)     5  17  0 22.7   8/ 6*ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)      1  0 0
 9/ 0*OLD MAN GAMERS (1706)      0   5  0  0.0   9/ 0*OLD MAN GAMERS (1706)     0  5 0

    '*'   Unchartered team                       '-'  Team did not fight this turn
   (###)  Avoid teams by their Team Id          ##/## This turn's/Last turn's rank

                                    TEAM SPOTLIGHT

                             A Mail-In Tournament Primer
                                          or 
                           John Dillinger Runs The Numbers

The purpose of this spotlight is to give newcomers to D2 a sense or feeling or 
information about tournaments, in this case a Mail-In tournament.  Hence, John 
Dillinger of Famous Hoosier, a former Noblish Island warrior, was selected as the 
guinea-pig.  (Note: Famous Hoosiers was a previous entrant here for The Consortium.  
River Rats led by Commodore Perry is the current Consortium rep.)

So, a tournament.  Four times a year RSI holds tournaments.  Winter and Summer are 
Face-To-Face Tournaments where managers compete on-site and can change strategies each 
and every fight if they wish.  The winter Face Site has always been in Tempe, AZ (the 
RSI Home Site), while the summer event in held in varying cities east of the 
Mississippi.  (The last one was in New Orleans, summer of 2014 was in Chicago, summer 
of 2015 was in Newark, NJ.)  The Mail-In Tournaments are done completely via mail and 
managers submit predetermined strategies for their entered warriors.  (Each warrior is 
allowed a primary strategy and also a secondary strategy which will be employed 
against selected styles.) Both events cost $7.00 per warrior and are great fun.  
Warriors compete in classes, thereby allowing similarly experienced warriors from all 
arenas to be fairly matched with each other.  In tournaments, a warrior's chance to 
learn skills or earn stat increases is half that in normal arenas.  Supposedly, the 
chances of dying are also halved.  

I entered John Dillinger of Famous Hoosiers from Noblish Island in The Spring Mailer.  
Prior to fighting JD in The Mailer, I wanted to give him the best possibility to 
succeed.  I prepared to fight him in the Apprentices class.  Classes are segregated by 
FE (Fight Equivalents).  What is a fight equivalent?  Each arena fight counts as one 
fight and any tournament fights count as a half fight.  The Apprentices Class is for 
warriors with 1-4 FE.  Having no tournament fights prior, I wanted to "max" JD for 
Apprentices.  By "max" I wanted him to fight with the maximum FE possible in that 
class.  By doing so, I optimized his chances to succeed.  In order to assure that he 
was maxed at tourney time, I had to sit JD out one fight on Noblish.  Had I fought 
him, he would have acquired 5 FE and would have competed as one of the least 
experienced members of the Initiates Class (5-10 FE).

Pre-Tournament, JD looked like this:  19(+1)-19(+1)-13-3-21(+1)-3-9, a Total Parry who 
was Very Stupid, Ambidextrous, Clumsy, had Awesome Endurance, could take Tremendous 
Damage, could carry Tremendous weight in armor and weapons and did Great damage.  Many 
would call this warrior a scum.  I hesitated to call John Dillinger that to his face.

JD did quite well in the tournament, finishing 5-3 against the best Apprentices in the 
land.  He also learned/trained very well, earning 4 stats and a skill.  Perhaps a 
general fight-by-fight summary would prove of value?

First, let me list for you the two strategies I chose and my training regimen I mailed 
in for JD.

                          Normal strategy:
                          3-3-3-3-2-3-3        APA/F
                          3-3-3-3-2-1-3        0+ = LG & FI
                          5-5-5-5-7-8-5        BU = DA & WH
                          n-n-n-n-n-n-n
                          P-P-P-P-P-n-P

                          Alternate strategy: (against TP)
                          1-1-1-1-1-1-1       ASM/F
                          1-1-1-1-1-1-1       0+ = SM & FI 
                          1-1-1-1-1-1-1       BU = FI & WH
                          n-n-n-n-n-n-n
                          P-P-P-P-P-P-P

Training Regiment = DF, DF, DF, WT, WT, WT, SK+ (e.g., rounds one through three train 
DF, rounds four through six train WT, rounds seven and on skills).  

Strategies, armor, weapons, backups, tactics, alternate strategy against, training, 
etc., etc. are all variable, and explaining MY choices or normal Consortium choices 
would require a much, much longer spotlight.  Perhaps another day.

As to JD's tournament action:

Fight one against a sz14 ambi LU:  JD parried 19 and absorbed 5 hits to win with no 
swings in 3 rounds.  He earned a DF train, raising his DF to 10 which also came with a 
riposte skill.

Fight two, another lunger sz8 who chose a longsword he had neither the ST nor DF to 
wield:  JD parried 18, and absorbed 3 hits, winning in four without swinging.  He 
earned another DF train!  Lucky!  (The math on that train for 21 WL, 2nd trained DF, 
tournament halfing ratio = 105% x 50% x 50% = 26.5% chance.)  AND, that DF was 11 for 
him, so it came with 2 attack, 2 parry, and 2 defense skills.

Fight three, an aimer, and the bane of all scum, Sz5, scimitar, lacking strength:  
While JD parried 13 attacks, he was hit by 9 regular and 3 critical swings and lost in 
three rounds.  He missed the DF train, which was only at a 13% probability.

Fight four, a plunger at sz5 with ale/l and a scimitar:  JD actually dodged one, was 
hit five times -- one a crit, but parried 21, before breaking his SC.  Then the 
opponent swung twice with fists, JD parrying both, one which did damage to the 
opponent.  Finally the opponent pulled a backup scimitar and swung five times all 
parried.  JD won in round 8 without swinging.  JD did not get his WT train at appx 
50/50.

Fight five is a scum similar to JD.  The opponent is smaller at sz10 and too low WT 
for the BS/ME he holds.  Both of these are advantages to the scum opponent as points 
are distributed elsewhere rather than in WT or SZ.  Remember:  JD is going to use his 
alternate strategy against TPs.  The opponent is as this: ASM/H, BS/ME (lacks WT) with 
a backup SH and SM.  The fight goes 23 minutes and JD wins on endurance.  The first 
swing of the match was in round eight by the opponent.  Through 19 rounds the only 2 
swings were by the opponent which JD dodged and parried.  By round 20, both are tiring 
and able to hit.  The opponent has 2 BS hits and a ME hit which caused JD to drop the 
shield.  JD was able to get in 2 SM hits, 1 WH hit, and 2 FI hits during that time.  
This time JD does get his WT train and moves from very stupid to just plain stupid.

JD is starting to feel good about his 4-1 record and is gloating like a gangster.  His 
downfall is coming.

Fight six is a sz9 striker with a scimitar, which JD defeats in six minutes with no 
swings and 30 parried swings.  He was hit five times and had to "suck up" 2 normals, 2 
crits, and 1 extra value blow.  JD earned the 2nd WT train of his tourney (26.5%) 
taking him to 5 WT and collecting the five skills at 5WT:  Init, Rip, Attack, Defense, 
and Decise.

Now JD is 5-1.  He thinks he is Godfather.

Round seven is against a sz6 aimer, another bane to all scum.  JD was celebrating way 
too early!  The aimed blow came out in ASM/S and a dagger and ripped up JD in six 
bloody minutes.  The aimer's actions were like this: 10/32/2 (crits, swings extra 
value blows).  JD parried 13, amazingly dodged 9, but took too much damage otherwise 
and lost.  Sadly, he did not get any skills in his first ever skill train either.  

JD's eighth and final fight was a sz7 striker who obviously knew how to fight a TP 
like JD.  The opponent was in ALE/L BA/-.  The opponent banged away for 4 minutes and 
finished JD with a devastating blow.  JD parried 21, 2 of which were crit parries -- 
one each with LG and WH.  But he was hit 8 times, of which 3 were crits and 4 were 
EHB's.  JD did learn a defensive skill.

Such is JD's Mail-In tournament saga.  He was a solid 5-3.  He earned 4 stat 
increases, which added 12 skills and he learned one additional skill.  He now is a 
meaner (can John Dillinger be any meaner?) 19-19-13-5-21-3-11 TP.

Key things you learned:
1.  Four tournaments plus their type and timing
2.  FE (Fight Equivalents)
3.  Tournament Prep
4.  Some basic Consortium scum strategies
5.  Aimed Blow/Scum relationships
6.  Stat raising and burning skills

Written by: John Wooden, Famous Hoosier Manager (Consortium affiliated)
Amended by: Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, River Rat Manager (Consortium affiliated)

***---------*---------*---------*---------**---------*---------*---------*---------***

Winning Warrior Types -- Introduction

Assurnasirbanipal generally refers to warriors as one of three types (Offensive, 
Defensive, and Hybrid).  These three types do not exactly map to styles.  There is no 
reason a warrior can't utilize more than one of these modes in his career.  But 
understanding them helps greatly when designing a warrior and creating a strategy 
which will allow him to win.  Over the next few weeks I will go into detail of each 
type as well as which styles have natural advantages fighting as which type.

Offensives win (as you might expect) by taking down their opponent through damage and 
sustained attack.  They really should do AT LEAST good damage with a blow (which 
typically requires around 20 or more points on strength and size).  Wit is the most 
important stat, since they need to learn skills fast and wit gives all three of the 
skills they care most about (initiative, decisiveness, and attack).  Do not undervalue 
will, as it is the primary contributor to endurance.  Deftness of 11 is perfect, 7 
acceptable.  Speed is preferred to be even.  Traditional styles are Strikers, Bashers, 
and Slashers.  Lungers, Parry Strikers, and Aimed Blows are also often run as 
offensives.

Defensives win by letting their opponent get tired.  They usually want to wear heavy 
armor, take damage, and have decent defensive skills.  The most important stats are 
strength, constitution, and will.  Speed is virtually useless.  Size is much preferred 
to be very small.  Deftness of 11 is again perfect.  The traditional style is Total 
Parry, but any of the parry learning styles (Parry-Strike, Parry-Riposte, Parry-Lunge, 
Wall of Steel) or lungers work well.  However, almost any style can win fights with 
lots of hit points, high will, and the best armor in the game (APA/F).  You'll notice 
I don't mention wit.  That is because defensives can come very stupid (3 wit) or 
Geniuses (21 wit).  Wit is always good, but defensives can win without it.  There is 
another type of Defensive warrior, the dodge specialist.  These are usually Lungers 
and Fist Aimed Blows.  They are a specialized type of defensive that I will discuss in 
depth separately, since they do not follow the same pattern as other Defensives.

Hybrids are the hardest type of warrior to learn and win with.  There are many 
different ways to make them.  They win by combining some combination of offense and 
defense to win fights.  They normally have at least a moderate amount of constitution.  
Assur prefers to have 11 strength on hybrids in order to carry decent weight, but many 
managers are fine with 9 strength.  It is difficult to win with 'big' hybrids because 
they (usually) need the points elsewhere.  Wit is always desired.  Will depends more 
on style and design than being required.  Speed is completely unnecessary and you'd 
rather have points elsewhere.  Deftness should be at least 11 for most hybrids.  The 
traditional best hybrid styles are Lunger, Total Parry, Wall of Steel, and Parry 
Riposte, but once again, there are many ways to make hybrids and any style can fight 
like one.

Design principles common to all types of warriors:
- Both Consortium and Assur recommend not going below 7 strength.  Aimed Blows are the 
  only style that can 'excel' with very low strength, but even they use strength the 
  same as other styles.
- 11 Deftness is magical.  It gives you most weapons well suited and lots and lots of 
  important skills.  Pretty soon you'll understand that Aimed Blows do everything 
  differently and there is a very good reason why they are the exception with deftness 
  as well.  Most Aimed Blows prefer 17 or 21 deftness.
- Will is also a stat that you normally never want below 7.  And 7 is really low (only 
  really recommended for endurance-conserving styles: Parry Strikers, Aimed Blows, 
  Total Parries, Parry Ripostes, and maybe Strikers).
- Every style wants wit.  11 is bare minimum for offensives.  Wit is considered the 
  most important stat by many managers (Assur considers it the 3rd most important 
  (after Will and Strength).  However even Assur realizes that 21 wit can cover for a 
  lot of mistakes.
- Size is probably most important to Hybrids, simply because with too many points on 
  size, you don't have enough points to be good.  High size is 'best' on Offensives, 
  but defensives can sometimes deal with it.  Note that for size, smaller is usually 
  considered better, as long as you don't do little damage with a blow.
- Constitution is not needed at all for offensives, while desired on the other two 
  types.  For Defensives, it is a primary stat.
- Speed is the least important stat for hybrids and defensives (you almost never want 
  to add to speed on these types of warriors).  For Offensives, add to an even value, 
  but even on offensives, speed is not the most important stat, especially if you can 
  get high wit and will.
- Design to your warrior's strengths (Consortium writes a great article highlighting 
  this topic).  21's are very nice, especially Wit and Will, but Deftness for Aimed 
  Blows and 21 Strength also has good use.  
- Most warriors want at least one of Wit or Will to be high with 25+ a good starting 
  point for the minimum you 'want' on these two stats combined.  Very few managers 
  have graduated warriors with lower than 20 total (and go much lower and you can 
  almost ensure your warrior an unsuccessful career).

                                 DUELMASTER'S COLUMN
                             Notes from the arena champ.

     Yep, me:  your Duelmaster.  And I deserve it.  I have beaten Idiots, a Scarecrow 
and a Monkey, Boring Hosts and Repetitives, Coursers and Creshendos.  I am good!  And 
the best part is that I let that mediocre warrior named Repetitive beat me early on, 
only to KILL him in our next match.  Good?  You bet!
     In case you missed The Commodore's early spotlight, I look like this:  11-3-15-
17-10-17-11.  I rolled a lucky roll!  +4 Init; +4 Rip; +1/4 Def; and great damage.  I 
am probably not someone to mess with.
     But, if you want to be my last fight, and my final kill, maybe I can arrange the 
fight with The Commission.  If not, well, then, have a nice day.

                                          -- Troy

                                      SPY REPORT

     You elder fighters surely remember me.  The younger ones may call me Olaf 
Modeen.  I return to NOBLISH ISLAND once again!  Woof!  NUMBER were a bunch of dogs 
after BB TALK RADIO got through with 'em!  2nd ain't so sweet as 1st!  CRUEL LORDS' 
walking tall now that they went 5-0-1 their first time out.  But we know what awaits 
them soon...  What's with LORD WHIP?  He actually beat NOBLISH ISLAND's EMBEZZLING 
SCRIBE, and walked away with 20 more points from the fight.  Laughs were big at BB 
TALK RADIO while they watched DUMB TOPICS clobber ONE.  He lost 13 points and got 
bruised from objects thrown from the stands.  Our Duelmaster has lost, folks, lost to 
KUNG-FU MASTER, BUT TROY is still the Duelmaster because it has the most recognition 
points!  I suppose you want to hear some rumors and dirty gossip about your fellow 
fighters?  Tough!   
     No matter the time or place, men will always duel.  NOBLISH ISLAND thinks BB 
TALK RADIO and their 32-18-1 is too much!  If at first you don't succeed, give up...  
Management must be dealin', as the boys at RIVER RATS ain't reelin'!  BB TALK RADIO's 
mad!  What do people see in COMMERCIALS?  His 5-5-0?  BB TALK RADIO ain't talkin', 
but he's got 25 points.  Taunt your opponent KRATH!  That was my lucky charm when I 
was unfairly challenged.  (and by 16 points!)  TWO should have an easy win.  I have 
to get this off my chest.  What a low dog, TWO!  She can't set herself up in a real 
match.  I was sorry to see KRATH lose.   
     Warriors of NOBLISH ISLAND unite.  You have only your games to lose!  How long 
have I been here?  I got people to see, places to go...   
     Well, I'm pretty much through.  You guys need to get back practicing.  NOBLISH 
ISLAND is a nice place to live, but I don't like to live in nice places.  Remember--a 
good fighter needs both good skills and good luck.  Until next time,-- Olaf Modeen  

DUELMASTER                     W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 TROY 9911                     8   2  1    64       RIVER RATS (1699)

CHALLENGER ADEPTS              W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 TOBINSPORT 9914               7   3  0    61       RIVER RATS (1699)

ADEPTS                         W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 DUMB TOPICS 9918              8   2  0    56       BB TALK RADIO (1700)
 ROME 9912                     7   3  0    44       RIVER RATS (1699)
-COURSER 9937                  3   3  0    42       COYOTES (1701)
 CANNELTON 9913                6   4  0    41       RIVER RATS (1699)
 ONE 9944                      3   1  0    35       NUMBER (1705)
 BORING HOST 9919              6   4  0    34       BB TALK RADIO (1700)

CHALLENGER INITIATES           W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 IDIOTS 9917                   6   4  0    29       BB TALK RADIO (1700)
 TWO 9945                      3   1  0    26       NUMBER (1705)
 COMMERCIALS 9920              5   5  0    25       BB TALK RADIO (1700)
 BETTER THAN SEX 9955          2   0  0    24       BB TALK RADIO (1700)

INITIATES                      W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 TELL CITY 9915                6   4  0    23       RIVER RATS (1699)
-DOGMEAT 9924                  4   3  0    21       COYOTES (1701)
-IMMURE 9936                   4   3  0    21       COYOTES (1701)
-RAZURE 9923                   3   3  0    21       COYOTES (1701)
 LONGSTER 9856                 2   1  0    21       ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)
 LORD WHIP 9958                1   0  0    20       CRUEL LORDS (1707)
-CRESHENDO 9922                3   4  1    18       COYOTES (1701)
 FIVE 9948                     3   1  0    18       NUMBER (1705)
-M. ALLEN 9855                 3   1  0    17       ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)
 FOUR 9947                     2   2  1    15       NUMBER (1705)
 LORD PAIN 9957                1   0  0    13       CRUEL LORDS (1707)
-AUTUMNBE 9643                 3   2  0    12       CAVEAT EMPTOR (1657)
 LIGHTNING 9941                1   2  1    12       THE MANTICORES (1704)
-MONGOOSE 9940                 1   0  0    12       THE MANTICORES (1704)
 SYTHINI 9949                  1   1  0    12       THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)
 LORD BRYON 9961               1   0  1    10       CRUEL LORDS (1707)
 MORFAUS 9956                  1   0  0    10       THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)
-LOTT R 9852                   2   1  1     9       ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)
 SOCK 9933                     2   3  0     9       THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)
 LORD HAMMER 9959              1   0  0     9       CRUEL LORDS (1707)
-STABLER 9854                  2   1  0     8       ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)
 THREE 9946                    1   3  0     8       NUMBER (1705)
 LORD RICD-LANDS 9960          1   0  0     8       CRUEL LORDS (1707)
-DRAXXUS 9644                  1   4  0     7       CAVEAT EMPTOR (1657)
-GOBLIN BREATH 9939            1   1  1     6       THE MANTICORES (1704)
-SAPHIRE 9943                  1   1  1     5       THE MANTICORES (1704)
 KRATH 9932                    0   5  0     5       THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)

INITIATES                      W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 TAKKARI 9934                  0   5  0     5       THE GALLOWGLASS (1703)
-SEARRUS 9645                  0   4  0     4       CAVEAT EMPTOR (1657)
-PERSEPHONE 9642               0   4  0     4       CAVEAT EMPTOR (1657)
-AGRISEL 9646                  0   4  0     4       CAVEAT EMPTOR (1657)
-OX 9942                       0   2  0     2       THE MANTICORES (1704)
 SEAN 9950                     0   1  0     1       OLD MAN GAMERS (1706)
 DANGBAR 9952                  0   1  0     1       OLD MAN GAMERS (1706)
 CHRIS 9953                    0   1  0     1       OLD MAN GAMERS (1706)
-ALZADER 9894                  0   1  0     1       ROSS' RAIDERS (1689)
 HECTOR 9951                   0   1  0     1       OLD MAN GAMERS (1706)

'-' denotes a warrior who did not fight this turn.

THE DEAD                W  L K TEAM NAME            SLAIN BY              TURN Revenge?
MORDANT DESERTER        0  0 0                      LORD BRYON 9961       461  NONE
REPETITIVE 9916         5  3 1 BB TALK RADIO 1700   TROY 9911             459   
TONY 9954               0  1 0 OLD MAN GAMERS 1706  LIGHTNING 9941        461   
NALFFAR 9931            0  1 0 THE GALLOWGLASS 1703 GOBLIN BREATH 9939    457  NOT REVENGED
VENDISS 9935            1  2 0 THE GALLOWGLASS 1703 SAPHIRE 9943          459   

                                     PERSONAL ADS

Ho!  Troy is Duelmaster? ! The little town of 600 on the Ohio River in Perry County, 
Indiana?  A true River Rat!  Salute. -- Commodore Perry

Truly enjoyed and liked your "learns" spot, Assur.  Kudos. -- The Commodore
P.S. I wish I had and could offer 10 extra DFs to you so you would have the only 13er 
in the game.

"New Team Manager", do you have a name?  The pros and cons of kills:
     PRO -- It sorta gives one a "rush"; It seems to make the warrior more "fearful"
     CON -- The warrior can be bloodfeuded four times by ANY of the warriors on the 
            dead warrior's team
     OTHER -- No extra skills, attributes, etc. for killing. Zippo. 
  -- Commodore Perry

A welcome to all the teams and newbies in the Noblish arena.  We are glad you are 
here. -- The Commodore

Numbers, you had our number this turn.  Kudos to you. -- The Commodore

One and Five -- Bah, humbugs! -- Rome and Tell City

Boring Host, lucky, lucky you! -- Cannelton

Health. Humility. Honor. -- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (The Consortium motto.)

Didn't have time to write about the worst matchups in the game, but that will come 
next turn.  Yes, Consortium, I've even featured you. -- Assur

Regarding killing...  I will start with the cons, because it is a part of the game I 
do not enjoy... 
Cons:
- Allows your opponent to have 4 turns of Bloodfeuds.  You can avoid these by sitting 
   your warrior out, but that isn't fun, either.
- Potentially reduces the fun for the manager whose warrior you killed.
- Potentially makes an enemy of said manager
- Do you want your warriors killed?  Neither do most other managers.
- If you just beat a warrior (and don't kill him), he is available to be beaten again, 
   killing removes him from the rankings

Pros:
- Creates fear.  A warrior with 2, 3, 4 kills will get challenged less.  Similarly a 
   team with high kill % will cause managers to consider twice whether they want to 
   risk death again their warriors who are very likely running killing strategies.
- Can be fun if you enjoy it
- Means you will never have to face that warrior again (well, unless it comes back 
   from the dead) 
- In some arenas, death is not only accepted, but encouraged.  DM 33 is one of the 
   meanest places in Alastari (also probably the arena with the most character at the 
   moment), but this arena is not for everyone.

BTW, my design last time should have read 6 deftness, not 3.  Six 13's and 6 Deftness.  
A 'pretty' design, but not necessarily a high winning design -- Assur
P.S. Thanks to the Commission for letting my name go through.  It fits the team theme 
and even more so the stats of the warrior (which makes it a sextuplet).

                                  LAST WEEK'S FIGHTS

CANNELTON devastated FIVE in a 3 minute gruesome mismatched Challenge fight.
TWO demolished KRATH in a 1 minute one-sided Challenge melee.
FOUR was defeated by IDIOTS in a crowd pleasing 1 minute bloody Challenge duel.
THREE was defeated by TELL CITY in a exciting 1 minute bloody Challenge fight.
TROY was bested by KUNG-FU MASTER in a 1 minute Title duel.
TOBINSPORT was overpowered by VENEMOUS CONCUBINE in a 1 minute one-sided struggle.
DUMB TOPICS devastated ONE in a 1 minute one-sided competition.
BORING HOST slimly lost to ROME in a 2 minute melee.
COMMERCIALS viciously subdued TAKKARI in a action packed 4 minute gory duel.
SOCK was vanquished by BETTER THAN SEX in a 1 minute one-sided duel.
LIGHTNING assassinated TONY in a 1 minute uneven match.
LONGSTER overpowered SEAN in a exciting 1 minute bloody one-sided fight.
SYTHINI handily defeated DANGBAR in a 2 minute brutal one-sided contest.
HECTOR was devastated by LORD HAMMER in a unpopular 3 minute mismatched bout.
CHRIS was overpowered by MORFAUS in a 1 minute one-sided duel.
LORD PAIN devastated MORDANT DESERTER in a 1 minute uneven duel.
LORD WHIP overpowered EMBEZZLING SCRIBE in a 1 minute mismatched brawl.
LORD RICD-LANDS bested CONVICTED THIEF in a 1 minute novice's fight.
LORD BRYON killed MORDANT DESERTER in a exciting 1 minute novice's bout.

                                    BATTLE REPORT

             MOST POPULAR                        RECORD DURING THE LAST 10 TURNS     
|FIGHTING STYLE               FIGHTS        FIGHTING STYLE     W -   L -  K   PERCENT|
|BASHING ATTACK                   8         TOTAL PARRY        3 -   1 -  0      75  |
|AIMED BLOW                       6         BASHING ATTACK    37 -  20 -  0      65  |
|STRIKING ATTACK                  4         AIMED BLOW        16 -  14 -  0      53  |
|SLASHING ATTACK                  3         LUNGING ATTACK    10 -   9 -  0      53  |
|WALL OF STEEL                    3         WALL OF STEEL     12 -  11 -  1      52  |
|PARRY-LUNGE                      2         STRIKING ATTACK   19 -  18 -  4      51  |
|PARRY-STRIKE                     2         PARRY-RIPOSTE      2 -   2 -  1      50  |
|LUNGING ATTACK                   2         SLASHING ATTACK   13 -  14 -  2      48  |
|PARRY-RIPOSTE                    1         PARRY-STRIKE       3 -   7 -  0      30  |
|TOTAL PARRY                      1         PARRY-LUNGE        2 -   7 -  1      22  |

Turn 461 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-RIPOSTE      1 -  0     STRIKING ATTACK    1 -  3         5  BASHING ATTACK 
AIMED BLOW         5 -  1     TOTAL PARRY        0 -  1         2  AIMED BLOW     
SLASHING ATTACK    2 -  1     WALL OF STEEL      0 -  3         2  LUNGING ATTACK 
BASHING ATTACK     5 -  3                                       1  STRIKING ATTACK
PARRY-LUNGE        1 -  1                                       1  WALL OF STEEL  
PARRY-STRIKE       1 -  1     
LUNGING ATTACK     1 -  1     

                               TOP WARRIOR OF EACH STYLE

FIGHTING STYLE   WARRIOR                     W   L  K PNTS TEAM NAME                  
STRIKING ATTACK  TROY 9911                   8   2  1   64 RIVER RATS (1699)
BASHING ATTACK   TOBINSPORT 9914             7   3  0   61 RIVER RATS (1699)
AIMED BLOW       CANNELTON 9913              6   4  0   41 RIVER RATS (1699)
LUNGING ATTACK   ONE 9944                    3   1  0   35 NUMBER (1705)
WALL OF STEEL    BORING HOST 9919            6   4  0   34 BB TALK RADIO (1700)
Note: Warriors have a winning record and are an Adept or Above.

The overall popularity leader is COMMERCIALS 9920.  The most popular warrior this 
turn was COMMERCIALS 9920.  The ten other most popular fighters were CANNELTON 9913, 
IDIOTS 9917, TELL CITY 9915, BORING HOST 9919, SYTHINI 9949, LONGSTER 9856, LORD 
BRYON 9961, THREE 9946, DUMB TOPICS 9918, and ROME 9912.

The least popular fighter this week was HECTOR 9951.  The other ten least popular 
fighters were LORD HAMMER 9959, LORD RICD-LANDS 9960, CHRIS 9953, TONY 9954, SOCK 
9933, ONE 9944, TOBINSPORT 9914, KRATH 9932, FIVE 9948, and LORD WHIP 9958.

                                CHALLENGES AND AVOIDS

To clarify:  You issue Challenges to warriors, but Avoid teams.  
To Challenge, write that warrior's name and ID# in the space provided. 
To Avoid, write the team's name and Team ID in that space. 
Make sure you include the ID!

                             * * * * *   MEMO  * * * * *

From:       The Office of Accurate Census Reporting, Gladiatorial Commission
To:         All Managers

In the interest of preserving our natural resources and preventing managerial writer's 
cramp, the census form has been eliminated, effective immediately.  Managers may 
register their warriors' races and/or favorite sayings by simply writing them on a 
separate piece of paper and submitting them to the Commission.  Each warrior may have 
up to 15 favorite sayings.  Each saying must be categorized Jeer, Gloat, Boredom, Ouch, 
Victory and may be up to 70 characters long.  For any questions, please contact the 
Gladiatorial Commission. 

                                   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