Essence

How to build your own form and not suck with it.

Article 1: Universal concepts and ideas behind building a non-sucky form.


General Rules:

Rule #1: Know how you're trying to win.

Really, everyone in TAO is trying to accomplish the same thing: kill and/or paralyze all of your opponent's units without getting all of your units killed and/or paralyzed along the way. But each form has strengths and weaknesses about how it's going to accomplish that goal. Some forms have no method of paralyzing foes, and thus are weaker against hard-to-kill units like Knights and Dragons. Some forms have no magical offense, and thus are weaker against high-blocking units like Knights and Assassins. The point is, if you start with a goal in mind, like "I'm seeing a lot of grey turtles dominating the field; I want to make a form that can whup up on a grey turtle," the general structure of your form can coalesce around that goal.


Rule #2: Every piece should have a specific purpose for being where it is.

Lots of forms have specific reasons for many of their placements. The standard Scout-Knight-LW-Knight-Knight front wall is a perfect example - the arrangement puts a lot of high-Blocking units in an arrangement where the only obvious attack with a reasonable chance of succeeding (a Knight side shot) is against a unit that won't be crippled by it AND puts the attacker in LW range.
But most forms also have a few units that get put down somewhat thoughtlessly at the end. When you've placed your Cleric, your front wall, and maybe a Chanty/BW combo, how do you decide where the last couple of units go? The answer is "read Rule #1." Make sure that every unit you place has a role in accomplishing your goal.


Rule #3: Give your form a chance to evolve.

Putting the last piece down and hitting the Lobby button is just the beginning of your new form's life. You will learn, as you play it, that you may have failed to take something into account. You may, in fact, learn that your fundamental idea of how to win has a flaw (which is almost the only case in which you should promptly start over with Rule #1 and a brand-new form.) Often, for example, I forget entirely about Mud Golems when I build my grey forms, and I suffer because of it.
Point being, try your form out for at least a dozen games and make changes to it as you notice correctable problems with it. Just don't lose sight of your goal, and remember that every change you make causes your old idea of the unit's function in your 'how' to become invalid - so don't make those changes lightly unless you made the original decision lightly.


Rule #4: Keep your enemy in mind.

Build every form to be able to handle the types of offense that you see most often. If you seem to play a lot of Knight-Knight-Scout flankers, be prepared to thwart them. If you see mage bombs a lot when you're online, plan an aggressive response. Regardless of your goal, your enemy is going to have a plan, and part of building your form is understanding how to disrupt HIS plan in the chance that he happens to be able to prevent you from enacting yours.



Specific Steps:

Step A: Ponder the entire board before you start.

There are several 'generic' setups out there, and the logic behind their creation is powerful. It's so instinctive to corner your Cleric that most people don't stop to consider that centering your Cleric has advantages, too. Look at your goal, and decide whether it's best accomplished by starting on a side or by starting centered, or by starting halfway between the two. Generally, defensive goals are furthered by starting on one side, while offensive and deceptive ones are furthered by starting in the center or slightly off-center.


Step B: Place your most vulnerable units first.

This includes your Cleric, and may or may not include Enchantresses, Golems, Witches, and Wisps. These units need to be placed with a specific idea of how they're going to contribute to your goal, or they won't do so as well as they can. Also, once you know where they're going to end up, you'll know where the more survivable units need to be placed to protect them. Because Scouts are so critical to most games, you may want to consider your Scout to be a 'vulnerable unit' because it draws a lot of fire.


Step C: Protect the assets most critical to your goal.

Many forms seem built entirely to protect the Cleric, and they lose sight of the fact that the Cleric is not the unit most important to their goal. If your goal is to force a long-distance war by pinning the opponent in place with a Furgon and then sniping with an Ambusher, you need to build your form with the purpose of keeping your Ambusher alive. (Now granted, that's a questionable goal, but I'm making a point here.) In almost every case, a form needs to be able to defend it's Scout, it's Cleric, and possibly an Enchantress or Frost Golem. If your goal requires a particular unit to accomplish, then you need to make sure that that unit isn't put somewhere that it may be easily killed in the early game.


By following these rules and steps, you will create a form that, even if it doesn't look anything like "normal", you will understand and be able to use well. With luck, it will stand the dozen-games test and lead you to a new style of play. If not, you will have at the minimum learned why that form doesn't work and how you can create a form with a similar goal that's more effective.


Next time: An examination of some of the goals that some popular forms have and how those goals interact when the forms collide: Wall turts, Cluster turts, Flankers, Rushes, Bombs, and Snipers.

__________________
Essence

Light a man a fire, and you keep him warm for a night. Light a man on fire, and you keep him warm for the rest of his short, agonizing life.

Essence

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?

__________________
Essence

Light a man a fire, and you keep him warm for a night. Light a man on fire, and you keep him warm for the rest of his short, agonizing life.

Essence

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

Article 3: OK, so I've got a good idea...now what?

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

How your Goal should Look on Paper

Trying to translate your idea into a new form that's you-exclusive seems hard. It is, but it's worth it. Here are a few generic steps that all form-builders should go through, complete with a trio of examples for each step. The three example 'goals' that I'll pursue through the entire form-building process are:

1) The Tsunami: "Set up to crush, but be prepared to drop back and armor up to keep the crushers alive before rejoining the attack." inspired by Gypsy's Flex form. Ask him, maybe he'll tell you.

2) The Porcupine: "A lone Scout can outdamage a Cleric's healing ability, so in the long run it's all the offense I need. Keep out of the enemy's range, keep that Scout alive, and be prepared to punish the enemy hard for coming to me."

3) The Steamroller: "Mount a slow offense of hard-to-kill units and outmelee his toughest defenders. Then sweep in with hard hitters and take out the weak units in back."


I'll look at each step from the perspective of all three of those goals, and try to get the idea across through the examples.



Step 1: Where does this set belong on the board?

Because all of your units begin the game facing the centerline, the game necessarily aligns itself along the vertical axis of the board. It seems intuitively obvious that there are a pair of valid "options": the corner and the middle.

The corner prevents a couple of trick Scout shots that the middle doesn't, and is more defendible against melee attacks, as there are fewer sides for your form to be attacked from.

The middle provides an instant flanking opportunity against forms on either side, and prevents opp-side games which take a long time to resolve. It also provides more opportunity for escape, as a centered unit can make it to either side in a single move, increasing the distance between your opponent's form and your vulnerable units dramatically.

The 'hidden' third option is to align yourself between the center and the middle. It seems counterintuitive because you don't really gain the protection of the corner, but neither can you meaningfully escape to the corner, and you're less able to flank cornered forms on the side you're near. The advantages of the middle option are deception and irregularity. By placing your units in nonstandard positions, you can often catch people who have carefully placed units to avoid 'standard' threats in an uncomfortable position (though this doesn't happen often enough to be a huge factor in most games). More importantly, you can use the position to lure same-side forms into trying to 'flank' your outside edge - which, of course, you can prepare for. Both of these advantages are slim, and neither has the powerful logic of the corner or the center -- but it's lack of apparent sense can be an advantage in and of itself. Making people think you don't know exactly what you're doing is a strategy, too.


(Of course, there are other alignments to consider as well - the "Default" alignment, where all of your units are along the back wall, and the "Spread" alignment, where all of your units are scattered across the board. The Spread alignment is good only in freezer forms (where the goal is "Paralyze first, ask questions later"), and the Default alignment is one I have never seen used well. Feel free to PM me if you feel the need to correct me on either of those statements.)


So, look at your goal, and ask yourself which basic type of strategy (offensive, defensive, or deceptive) is going to further your goal best. The answer isn't always as simple as offensive=centered/defensive=cornered/deceptive=middle, but it's a good start.

Examples:

Goal 1, "Tsunami" - cause it crashes out, then falls back, then crashes out again, is probably best served in a centered position. The goal is to come at the opponent guns blazing if need be, and fall back when necessary - that sounds like a centered form to me.

Goal 2, "Porcupine" - 'cause it's like a turtle that defends itself with pain rather than armor - seems like it would be best cornered, except that the Scout needs to be able to hit anywhere on the board from within Barrier Ward range, which is going to force the form into a middle alignment.

Goal 3, "Steam Roller" for obvious reasons, could be logically placed in the center, as it's essentially offensive, or cornered, because it's intended to keep the more vulnerable hard hitters aside for later, which means they need protection. I'll corner it just to have an example form in each of the major positions.



Step 2: What are your Core Units and where do they belong?

Every goal is going to immediately call a few units to mind. If you're Corner Turtling, you have to have a Stone Golem, a Cleric, and a Scout at the minimum. If you're Sniping, you need a Furgon, a Frosty, a Cleric, and a Scout. In order to start building a form, you need to understand which units are actually critical to your goal. If your goal doesn't involve healing, you may not actually have a Cleric in your core units. If your goal doesn't involve range or focus-breaking, you may not actually need a Scout. Most forms will end up with both because it's a good idea, but that's not the purpose of this step.

Example:

The Tsunami: Needs a Stone Golem for armor, a Cleric to keep the crushers alive, and some crushers. Because the specifics of the crushers aren't important to the nature of the goal, we'll leave them unnamed as of yet.

The Porcupine: Needs a Scout, a Cleric, a Barrier Ward, and some painful pain that will go unspecified.

The Steam Roller: Needs three Knights, a Cleric, and some hard-hitting backup that will go undecided.


Once you have your Core Units and an idea of where on the board your form will be aligned, you're ready to place them.



How your Goal Should Look on the Board

Step 1: The Core Units

Remembering back to Article 1, we know that each piece should have a specific reason for being where it is. This is true of all of your units, but doubly so for your Core Units. In order to translate your goal effectively into a form, you must know why everything is where it is, because the why will lead to the what (as in "what do I do this turn?")

As long as you can answer the question "Why is this unit where it is?" to your own satisfaction, you are doing a good job building your form. Stick with it.


Because of the limit of 7 images per post, the Core Units example pictures will have to open in a seperate window. Sorry.

Examples:

The Tsunami:

Tsunami Core Units

Pretty basic. We want the Cleric in the middle so that the crushers that will presumably form a wall in front of him do a good job of keeping units away from him, and we want the Stone adjacent to the Cleric so that in the late game, we can armor up the Cleric without either of them moving in case of a minor threat.


The Porcupine:

Porcupine Core Units

This looks pretty vulnerable, but it's where the BW and the Scout need to be if the Scout is going to be able to cover the *entire* board from within BW range. It'll have to close up as we add the painful pain in later.


The Steamroller:

Steamroller Core Units

While normally I'd center the three Knights in front of the Cleric, this form is more aggressive than that, so I'd like my Knights to be closer to an opposite side form (and closer to flanking a same-side form.)



Step 2: The Vulnerable Units

Again remembering back to Article 1, it's wise to place the vulnerable units before the tougher ones, so as to better defend them with the tougher ones when the time comes.


The Tsunami really isn't going to have a terrible number of vulnerable units besides the Cleric. A Mud Golem and a Scout for focus-breaking purposes should do it. We'll put the Mud Golem in immediate Stone range, but the Scout we'll put up front in a position to easily drop back into Stone range or step 4 squares forward and get a shot off at a Cleric in the opposite corner.





The Porcupine wants to have some severe pain and some attack-enders in it, so a DSM, a Pyro, and a Frost all need a place to hide until needed. The DSM will go in a semi-defensible position; the Pyro, not so much. The Frost can stand out in front a bit more.




The Steamroller wants an extra Cleric to do it's job well, and needs focus-breakers (Scout) to keep it's offense alive. Also, the game's 'heavy hitters' (DSM and Pyro) tend to be fragile, so they go in at this step, too. I realize, too, that a DT is a necessity, and in order to conserve space, I have to switch out a Knight for the DT.





So, now each of my example goals has their Core Units and their weakest units placed. It's time to polish things off.



Step 3: Defend the Weaker Units

Of course, now that you know where the vulnerable units are going to sit, you're going
to want to keep them alive long enough to perform their duty. Each setup will require a modicum of defensive thought in order to keep the weaker units alive, even if the question is simply "where on the front line should I place this unit so as to keep my Cleric alive for as long as possible?".


Examples:


The Tsunami:

With the Tsunami (like many rush-ish forms), the offense and the defense are mostly the same units. A simple spread of tough units set up to block basic LOS and easy paths to the Cleric, Mud, and Stoney, with a few points in the setup: first, we kept Scout side shots to a minimum by placing units that will probably move after the Scout next to it; second, all of the units are within a single move of Stone Golem range.





The Porcupine:

Unlike the Tsunami, the Porcupine wants to encourage Scouts to close and try to pick apart it's weaker units, so, like a noob, we'll put the defenders right up near the painful pain. A Lightning Ward out front is threat enough alongside the DSM to prevent most non-Knight frontal assaults, anyway.






The Steam Roller:

With no spaces left, the Steam Roller looks like it's hit a wall. It's not a terribly defensible form, and the main defenders (the Knights) are going to leave and attack according to the Steam Roller's 'mission statement'. Now, I am willing to take out the Mud Golem if I can find a phenominal defender. Fortunately, one exists. A well-placed Furgon can delay an aggressor or three long enough for the DSM and Pyro to really put the hurt on it while the Knights are doing their job.





Now, if by some miracle, your form has spots left after these three steps (mine never do), you may have a fourth step: "Place remaining attackers for maximum disruptive effect". I hope most of you can figure out how to do that part on your own by now.




Hopefully, these ideas and examples have conveyed the basic structure behind building a form that you won't suck with. Am I saying that any of my example forms are game-dominating? Absolutely not - because the 'goals' they're built to support really aren't all that strategically viable. They're supposed to be examples, not templates. ;p I'll leave the creation of strategically viable goals to all of you.

Now, if you've followed with me, you'll know enough to take your new form out into the field and test it by playing a dozen or so games, finding out your form's weaknesses, and trying to cover for them without losing sight of your goal. Be creative, be original, and above all have fun.



Next time: By special request - a basic look at what strategies fare well and/or poorly against which other strategies, a.k.a The Jinmaster Chart.

__________________
Essence

Light a man a fire, and you keep him warm for a night. Light a man on fire, and you keep him warm for the rest of his short, agonizing life.