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

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

At 20:58 -0400 10/1/08, TFT Digest wrote:
> Also, I'd like to ask about ranged weapons.  To me... they seem kind of
> useless.  Once your foes have any kind of decent armor on, it becomes very
> hard to damage them with a 1 die bow.

Longbows, at 1D+2, are much better in this regard.
Also note that with the "Missile Weapons", a crossbow pretty easily 
becomes a 1 turn per shot weapon. Even a beginning character can do 
this (ST 12, DX 11, IQ 9, Effective DX with Light Crossbow -> 14, one 
turn per shot).

The best reason I can find for bows is taking down enemy wizards (or 
making them dodge, in which case they aren't casting spells). Another 
possibility is if you have a large number of weakly armored 
opponents, a Longbow that has worked up to 2 shots/turn is very 
effective.

In any case, missile weapons guys are far more effective if there's 
somebody standing in front of them, to make sure they don't get 
unexpectedly charge-attacked. Whether they keep shooting, picking the 
attackers slowly apart while the front-line guys defend or disengage 
(slowly giving ground up), or change to spears and charge-attack, 
they can still be pretty effective.

> If they dodge, then it's even harder.

At adjDX 14, you still have even odds of hitting.

> I would also like to introduce firearms into the mix
> (so I can incorporate my Warhammer Empire and Dwarf figures),... I 
> think it's much more productive to just hack and slash at your
> enemies.  Again, your thoughts?

Gunpowder as a routine weapon is not very good in TFT. I'm happy with 
that, personally, but I think that's just a matter of taste.

> What kind of uses do you find for hand to hand combat?

1) Gives tired Wizards something useful to do. Cast the last spell, 
run around behind, drop the staff, and tackle the enemy. Count on 
your friends striking at +4 adjDX to disable them before they stab 
you to death.

2) As you say, heavily armored foes and those with big weapons.

In either case, HTH as a one-on-one isn't a favorite of mine. Even if 
you win, you end up lying down, unarmed. HTH is mainly to let your 
friends get in good shots. One might think about using it against the 
front-line character protecting a bunch of archers, on the theory 
that the archers won't want to shoot into the pile, but... I'll bet 
they would.

At 20:58 -0400 10/1/08, Sgt Hulka wrote:
> 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.

Illusions are good. Fire and Rope are my favorites for melees. Both 
are "creation" spells, so (by exploiting the megahex grid) you can 
get pretty good range at no DX bonus. Fire is *wonderful* for taking 
out lots of spiders, rats, etc., and can be tactically invaluable for 
making certain hexes non-tenable. Rope is fabulous for converting 
heavily-armored opposing human tanks into prisoners.
--
						- Mark     210-379-4635
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