TACTICS: An Anti-Tsudochan Defense

Again, I know this team is still technically in beta...

Anti-Tsudochan Defense

Yellow - Any position

The Tsudochan are an opponent that doesn't play the same game as ANY other team. They will pretty much ignore your players unless they have to do something with them. Well, as an initial setup, MAKE THEM HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOU! This setup makes the Tsudochan have to sacrifice tons of Movement that they do not have to spare if they want to go for a 3 or 4 point goal--being a team made up of entirely Jacks, they NEED Movement desperately. The center line of 4 players causes them to give up 8 spaces of Movement to clear the 4 point Hex line. You can make this defense slightly better versus 3 point attempts too, if you position your Threat Hexes on the straight line of players just right. To do this, face the player closest to the home team forward, then face the player behind him completely backwards, this will give a double Threat on two Hexes at least.

This has been the best defense I have come up with to deal with the Tsudochan. I would be very thankful to anyone who might have a different or better setup they could share!

TACTICS: Robots Setup - Standard Packaging

Now, with full disclosure, I do not play the Robot (by Robots I do mean the Season 2 Chromium Chargers). I have a buddy that does and I have watched him play them a good bit. This is more theory than practice, but it seems solid enough.. :-)

Standard Packaging (Home)

Orange - Jacks

This would be my starting setup for the Robots. It is a pretty standard setup with Jacks positioned near the launch line and three Jacks protecting the 3/4 point goal--something has to be sacrificed, in this case I decided on the 1/2 point areas.

Red - Guards, Orange - Jacks, Yellow - Strikers

I would use my first two actions to convert two Jacks up front to Strikers (of course, if the ball is one the left side the set up above would be the reverse). I would run one into position to catch and shoot the ball. With another action, I would convert my other upfront Jack into a Guard for later Rushes*. With my final action I would Pick Up the Ball, hope it doubles, Throw the ball to the other Striker, hope he doubles the catch, and throw the ball in using my Coaching Dice.

Surly someone has a more reasoned setup than this one... please share! :-)

*Another very viable option as an alternative here, would be to buy another card. This might well help you get into position to score better, depending on the card.

TACTICS: Koris Setup - One Shot At Glory!

Again, I know this team too is still technically in beta... but I just love them!

Koris!!!

One Shot At Glory! (Home)

Red - Guard, Orange - Jack, Yellow - Striker, Purple - Portal

I really enjoy the Koris. I like their look. I like their play style. I like the fact that they are unique and challenging. Having said all that, I am still trying to get down exactly what I like as a starting setup for them. This is where I am at right now. 

I always like to make someone work for the extra points, so I have 2 Jacks and a Guard keeping lookout over those lanes.* This is half of the team setup right there.

The other half is in a tightly-knit ball near the center of the pitch. First, let me start with the Jack. His job is to Sprint into the best possible position down the pitch and spit out another portal, for the Striker. The Striker is positioned to go after the ball as quickly as possible. Then he should jump into the portal, to the portal the Jack made and go for a 3, or if you are really lucky 4, point goal. Please recognize, these two might die in this effort. Such is life--that Striker has a HUGE target on his back as it is.

The last Guard in the center is setup to make it difficult for someone on the other team to use the portal. He has Gotcha!, so that assists a lot in the whole stopping people arena.

I would love to hear any other setups for the Koris, I plan on playing the heck out of them once they are released!

*As a quick aside, recently I have been wavering between this "protecting the extra point lanes" strategy and the "protect the 3/4 point zone entirely" strategy. Moving the two Jacks to protect the 3/4 point zone is really up to taste here, AND who you are playing. If you are against a Striker-heavy team, protect the 3/4, if you are against a predominantly Jack team, you might want to protect the extra lanes. It also depends on how many Coaching Dice a Jack team might have and... this is a topic for another time.

TACTICS: Crystallans Setup - The C3 Defense

Before I even begin, I know that as of this time this team is still officially in beta status, and their stats and relative play style may change. But, reading Jake's comments on his blog, probably not that much. So, having said that...

Crystallan Center Column (Visitor)

Dark Blue - Guard, Light Blue - Jack

This defense ("The C3 Defense") is the way I like to begin with when I am the visiting side of a match as the Crystallans. 

It is a powerful defense of the 3/4 point zone. If you can take out one of the Fully-Harmonically-Tuned Guards, you deserve those points! Each Guard will be hitting you back like a Forge Father Guard rolling at full Strength! Unless you are a Hobgoblin Hulk, with a little Hobgoblin sidekick or two, you are going to be hard pressed to clear the lanes enough to make a 3/4 goal.  When you opponent's Striker inevitably geets stuck in your backfield... well, destroy him! That should be easy considering the Harmonic Guards back there. 

In addition to what was just said, you have made an Evasion gauntlet in the center using the Guard and two Jacks. And what of those Jacks? Well, if the center Guard should survive the initial onslaught from you opponent, then you get the Movement bump for the Jacks to be able to get further. They might need to work in tandem to get the most out of ball-handling, but that is really just the whole Crystallan thing--working together and whatnot.


BTW, I also thought that "C3 "was clever, as in they are more powerful when they can "See Three"... SMH at myself. :-)

TACTICS: Asterian Forward Commanders Setup and Hobgoblin's Middle Irk Setup

Please note, these two setups are to be understood independently of each other, they are just presented on a single pitch because one was for a Home team and one for a Visiting team. In the future, I will display only one side at a time for individual team setup.

Asterian Forward Commanders (Home)

Red - Guard, Orange - Jack, Yellow - Striker

I like this setup for the Asterian for a number of reasons if you are the Home team. 

The first reason is that you have your Guard on the Pitch at the beginning of the game. With the ref starting on the Visiting side, it is much more likely that you Dirty Tricks is useful on the first Rush--use it! Try to take out a Striker, or failing that a pretty hefty Guard. Once the first Rush is over, and you find a Rush that you have two Actions left (this seemed to happen a good bt with the Asterians believe it or not), then exchange him for one of the Jacks. The Jack will do just as good at Dodging as the Guard, so blocking the 4 point hex line works fine, plus you always have that Taking a Dive to use. 

Second reason, you have a Jack positioned in the direct center of the Pitch to move down and try and clean a path to either a 3 or 4 point goal using Taking a Dive. If this isn't necessary for some reason, he is still a decently reliable player (heck, an Asterian Jack is nearly as good as many teams' Strikers!). This give a bit of flexibility, which is nice.

Speaking of Jacks, if that center jack does not use his Taking a Dive, perhaps in the third Rush, one of those jacks in the 1/2 point zones can use their Taking a Dive. You are bound to have some of the opposing coach's players on your side, and they are surly asking for a Foul!

Finally, the pinnacle of the Asterian team, the Strikers! These guys are amazing, if you didn't know! Use their incredible movement and Speed to get into position to score that 3 or 4 points. You can go for a 1 or 2 pointer, and you might have to depending on you opponent, but push the Strikers to move down the Pitch and try every time for a 3/4 point goal. They can easily get there and score without breaking a sweat on the very first Rush--they may need the Jack to try and clear a path though.

Hobgoblin's Middle Irk (Visitor)

Dark Blue - Guard (Hulk), Light Blue - Jack, Green - Striker

For this Hobgoblin setup, what I focused on was getting to the second Rush. If the opposing coach is smart, the first thing he does to the Hobgoblins is remove their Hulk, or try to at least. So, this setup first and foremost is about protecting the Hulk. 

The Hulk is flanked by a Jack on either side*, their Threat Hexes, combined with Stench, helps protect the Hulk from ever side and angle--unless you are going to come all the way around and Slam/Throw the Ball at the Hulk from directly behind him. Once you are in the second Rush, these two Jacks become the Hulk's little buddies. They should lead an advance and have the Hulk follow, devastating the opposing team. 

One Jack stays back to protect the 4 point hex.

The two Strikers are guarding the 2 point lanes on either side. They are there because you will need them on the second Rush, to hopefully score. Should the other coach go after one... good, the Hulk can turn them into paste next turn. 

*One note about this little threesome, it can also work if all three move back a hex, putting the Hulk in the 4 point hex, but I generally like them as far forward as possible. Either is extremely effective.

TACTICS: Basic DBO Starting Setup

I thought I would explore a few of the myriad starting set ups for a standard DBO game. Now, do keep in mind, these will vary drastically depending both on which team you are playing and which team your opponent is playing. And these are basic setups, I plan on exploring more in-depth setups with positions and team-specific setups at a later time.

Standard Offense and Standard Defense (and Standard Defense Option 2)

This is a very standard board setup, at least in what I see played casually. 

Offensively (Home), it covers your extra point hexes in all three scoring zones and it gives the starting player a decent spread of his ball carriers up front. This allows the Home team coach to focus on grabbing the ball and trying to score quickly, while still having some basic coverage for his backfield. 

Defensively (Visitor), this set up is for trying to keep your opponent's initial points, should they score, to a minimum. The Visitor team coach has all the extra point hexes covered, but in addition, the entire 3 point scoring zone is blocked by three players in a defensive line. To add yet another deterrent, there is a player in the extra point hex itself. This set up makes the Home team have to really put forth a lot of effort to score anything more than 1 point. *This is one of my favorite setups for the Crystallans, btw!*

A slight variation that I see a lot for the Visitors is to bring that player in the 4 point hex forward to the front. This gives you a 1 in 6 chance of a Threat on the ball. That player can act as a lure to the other coach sometimes too. And finally, if that player is left alone, and your opponent scores, you at least have one player in position to grab the ball upon the new launch.

Bestial Setup and Threatening Setup

These two were setups that I used early on in my DBO career, when I was trying different ideas on the very basics of the game. I enjoyed the highly aggressive posture of both of these. Of course, I will emphasize again, these are better for some teams than for others--for instance, these are for highly bashy teams.

On the Home team side, we have what I call the Bestial Setup. Generally I would use this as the Visiting player, not Home player, but I wanted to display it with the other setup, because the two have some similarities. Bestial Setup gives full Threat Hex coverage, protecting your side of the pitch. If your opponent is a team with a low Speed value, this can really work for you (even worse if they have low Movement too). You are forcing Evade tests, and anytime you can do that, it is a good thing. This is in some ways a betting strategy too though. Half of the pitch is almost double covered, where your players are thick, if you prefer a little more of a balanced defensive line, perhaps instead go with... 

The Threatening Setup accomplishes everything the Bestial Setup does, but with the heavy bet on a few hexes. Plus, the Threatening Setup does give you the one player in line of the 4 point goal. This setup is a bit more stable, and I prefer it for sure at this point, and still use it sometimes.

The Arrow and The Pyramid

The Pyramid (Visitor) is a pretty standard style of setup, but is far enough away from the "Standard", that I thought I would mention it. It protects against those extra point shots. It gives you a player remaining in the middle to either run for offense when it is your Rush, or assist in crushing someone in your backfield on your turn. It also gives you some defense on the outside of the pitch. The outer players make it more difficult for movement around your players, and they also are extra defense against the 2 point goals. Those two outer players are also in great spots to respond to your opponents movements.

The Arrow(Home), on the other hand, is meant to be an offensive punch, to be a hyper-aggressive attempt at the 3/4 zone. A few Guards and a few Strikers making a push to punch through to make a 3 or 4 point goal. It takes some practice, but is a decent starting setup for a Home team with a balanced number of positions. 

The Practiced Void and Standard Symmetry

Standard Symmetry, is one more variation on the Standard setup. It is one that I see a lot. Though the outside players near the launch line are sometimes over a hex or two toward the outside.

Ok, I know I said I wasn't going into team-specific setups, but... The Practiced Void (Home), is a fun setup a Void Siren team, or should you draw a Run Interference card at the start of the game (and have Jacks, of course). This setup can work equally well as a Home or Visitor team. You have a pretty basic setup upfront, but the three players in the rear give someone with Run Interference an exciting opportunity. With the three players positioned in the center of the Strike Hexes, you are defending the entirety of your score zones. If you are the Void Sirens, you are causing your opponent to play an extra layer of strategic planning. If you just have a Run Interference card, you are just being sneaky... sort of.

Feel free to share your starting setups, I would love to hear them.

I am hoping to do more of these TACTICS in the future. Please comment below on what you might like to see.