Strategy Guides

[Madamos]

Continued

How to Build your Own Form and not Suck With It.

Last time: Universal concepts and ideas behind building a non-sucky form.

Article #2: The most successful 'goals' to have in mind while form-building, and how they interact with each other.


Why does a form work?

Every form that works well does so because the pieces are in position to further the accomplishment of a goal. The interaction between your objective and your opponent's objective is, on a strategic level, what decides the actions that occur on a tactical level.

If your form has a goal that is defensive in nature, and you play another form that is defensive in nature, the game will proceed very differently than if you play a form that is retaliatory in nature. The best forms work because they can stand up on a strategic level against a variety of other form's goals, either by adapting their play style (and, essentially, their goal), or by simply stand up well under more circumstances than another form.

In my experience, I've come across six recurring 'types' of form, each with it's own basic goal. Keep in mind, there are lots of other ideas and forms out there that I couldn't possibly cover; this is just a look at what I see most often.




1) The Wall Turtle:
Keep my vulnerable units away from his attackers, and leave a place to retreat to and heal up.



Definately the most-often occuring form in TAO today. Mostly grey and single-gold, the Wall Turtle has an essentially defensive goal. It is a very successful goal, however, because it is surprisingly flexible. If an opponent comes up with a Bomb, the Wall Turtle generally has several powerful attackers right at hand to 'go aggro' on the weak casters. If an opponent is playing another Wall Turtle, the Wall Turtle can generally spare a Knight and Scout to make a flanking run without sacrificing it's ability to achieve it's goal.

The Wall Turtle's weaknesses are against Flankers, which are custom-made to overcome Wall Turtles, and Cluster Turtles, because the Cluster's superior unit defense and patient style of play often force all but the best Wall Turtles to overextend and lose one or both parts of their goal.



2) The Cluster Turtle:
Attack cautiously; use high-armor units and/or high-range units to maintain a HP/healing advantage, and play the slow game.



Mostly double-gold, the Cluster Turtle has a very defensive goal. Possibly the most dominant form on the field today, the Cluster Turtle isn't flexible like the Wall Turtle, but it can stand up on a strategic level to almost any other goal. Only Bombs (which can break focus fast and then take advantage of the unarmored units' moment of vulnerability) and the best of Snipers (which can negate the Cluster's range advantage and lure a Mud Golem or Pyro near enough to trap and kill) can consistently stand up to a Cluster Turtle if played well.



3) The Bomb:
Kill everything fast with unblockable, high-damage attacks.



Bombs show up across all levels of TAO play except dropless. Many people hate Bombs with a passion, because Bombs 'change the rules'. Most TAO play is about careful planning, and taking advantage of LOS and Blocking to protect your vulnerable units. Bombs toss those rules out the window, caring nothing for LOS or Blocking, and just laying down painful pain after painful pain on everything in sight. Unfortunately for Bombs, they just can't really adapt. What they do is so extreme that most players have a hard time compensating for their sheer power, but if an opponent can survive the first wave of assaults, the game is basically over for the Bomb.

On a strategic level, Bombs often lose to Wall Turts, Flankers, and Rushes, primarily because those forms can often kill a Witch or Pyro before it's acted, negating a significant portion of the Bomb's damaging ability. Cluster Turts and Snipers are generally significantly weaker against a Bomb than other forms.



4) The Rush:
Kill the Cleric before it can be useful, then use hard-to-kill units and the healing advantage to clean up whatever's left.



Rushes generally aren't grey, because grey units just don't have adequate Cleric-killing abilities. Many people hate Rushes because they can't stand the pressure on their Cleric from move one, and it's just plain demoralizing to have to play without healing, especially for a Wall Turtle or a Sniper, where healing is a fundamental part of their goal.
Rushes most often lose to Cluster Turtles, who can often keep the Cleric alive despite the pressure, and Snipers, who can defend well enough without a Cleric to immobilize a significant part of the rush and then wear down the rest with ranged fire.



5) The Flanker:
Get to the enemy's backfield fast, and eliminate the chaff. Let the paralyzers worry about the enemy's hard-to-kill units in the endgame.



Flankers, almost always grey, are a direct response to the Wall Turtle's all-too-frequent appearance on the field. By placing fast attackers on either side of the field, the Flanker will always be able to put pressure on an enemy Wall Turtle to collapse for it's own defense. If the Wall Turtle collapses to prevent the flankers from killing the weaker units, the Flanker busts out the ranged fire and wears down the Wall Turtle that way. If it doesn't, the Flanker dances through the backfield, cleaning house and letting his attackers die so long as it nets him the enemy's range. Once the enemy's range is down, Miss Chanty comes out to finish the job.
Flankers can't stand up well to Rushes, who abuse the flanking team before it can get wher it needs to be, or against Cluster Turts, who effectively don't have a backfield in the first place.



6) The Sniper:
Let them come here, and then pin them down and deal with them slowly. If they won't come, send out a single well-defended range unit, and deal with them slowly until they realize they need to come here. Keep the attackers healed up at all times to prevent an offensive lapse.



Snipers are by far the rarest form type worth mentioning, but they're still common enough in my experience to mention. Snipers appear across all levels of TAO except dropless, because the key units are grey. Most snipers use a Furgon both to defend and to trap attackers on the Sniper's side of the field. Once there, the Sniper's Frost will pin down the most annoying attacker while the offensive units work over the other(s). If the enemy won't attack, the Sniper will send out a Scout (always within BW range and outside of opponent's Frost range) or, in extreme cases, an Ambusher or Witch, to attack from afar and get Barriered up before any damage can be done. Eventually, the enemy will figure out that it needs to attack.
Snipers lose horribly to Cluster Turtles (who have equal range but harder-to-kill units) and honestly don't fair that well against most other forms -- but they shine against Wall Turtles and, oddly, Flankers -- the latter falls right into it's "come here" trap, and the former into it's "no, really, if you don't, I'll kill you from over here" trap.


You can see by looking at the complicated interactions not between the units, but between the goals of each form, how the form is determined by the style of play, and it's the conflict between styles of play that will determine the victor.



So what does this all mean?

It means that building a form will never guarantee you wins. What it will do it set you up to be mentally prepared to accomplish your goal, and through that goal, to win. It means that the more you design your own forms and attempt different goals, the more you will understand by looking at an opponent's form what his goal is, and thus how to thwart it. It means that building your own form and not sucking at it is not a simple process, but it can start in a simple manner.

It also means that you can look at what kinds of forms you see most often when YOU play, and you can start your design process by picking a goal that stands up well to those forms. It's this kind of strategic thinking that seperates the masters from you and me.


Next time: OK, so I have a good idea...what now?