Re: (TFT) What kind of tactics are useful?

[Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com>]

I'm hardly a veteran, but after a few microquests and dark city games modules here are my thoughts, which more experienced players may be able to refute:

1) Dex is more important than armor. Ideally, you want a Dex of at least 12. 13 is even better. You can sometimes get away with 11. So wear whatever armor optimizes your dex.

2) Shield. If you're not strong enough to wield a two-handed weapon, you should always take a small shield. It's free -1 hits. If you're one-handed, a shield is generally better than the equivelant armor, both because you maintain your mobility and your adjDex is one better.

3) Weapons. Take the heaviest weapon you can balanced against your armor and adjDex. AdjDex is more important than the strength of your weapon. 

4) Polearms. At ST 13+ an equivelant strength polearm is generally better than a two-handed sword or axe. Not only do you get double damage on the charge (which will put most opponents down), using your 1-hex jab can force your opponent to engage you, which gives you the +2 adjDex for receiving a charge. 

5) Missile Weapons. Far from useless. A horse bow averages 3.5 damage and requires a 16 adjDex to get two shots in. If you're playing with ITL you can take missile weapons talent and hit that adjDex 16 with a 32-point starting character. That's an average of 7 points damage a turn. And with that high an AdjDex, you're almost guaranteed to hit, even while shooting through friends and foes. Yes, chainmail and shield will negate some of that damage, but most characters with chainmail and shield will have a low AdjDex and will get taken out easily by your melee guys.

6) Form up. As an "opponent" I've found the microquest antagonists to be far more formidable if they take a round getting into formation rather than charging blindly ahead. By getting into formation I mean moving half their speed toward each other so that they can form a line and prevent flanking/double-teaming.

7) Illusions. Illusions are the best spells. They last for 12 turns without having to "feed" them. And "disbelieving" them is an action. So even if they're disintigrated by a successful disbelief, you've burned one opponent's action.

8) Miniatures. I use miniatures, too, so I basically throw out a lot of the above advice in favor of equipping my guys like my miniatures. Note that since getting back into Melee, I've been on a buying spree of a lot of armor-less miniatures. 

--- On Tue, 9/30/08, Jim Zmrazek <jzmra@hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Jim Zmrazek <jzmra@hotmail.com>
> Subject: (TFT) What kind of tactics are useful?
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 6:27 PM
> As a new player, I haven't really had enough time to
> play enough games to
> understand what weapon and armor combos work well together,
> and what kind of
> tactics to use.  I use miniatures to represent the
> fighters, so I'd like to
> arm them appropriately if I can.  Could some of you
> veterans help me out a
> bit?
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