A cat's daily trail of thought - Mobi hit and run

[Necrocat219]

Hi all! A quick summary of how I tend to think about Outwitters, whenever something new comes up that confuses me or surprises me I decide that the best way for me to understand how exactly this works is to calculate what each player gains from each situation in raw numbers. I then put it into practice and if what I calculated doesn't reflect in real gameplay I check all the other variables too.

Pre-update: A summary

Before the update there was a general consensus that Scallywags were slightly stronger that the other teams managing to slowly drain their opponents. Feedback followed close behing with top spots slowly shuffling between the two. However there was a considerable lack of adorable players in the top 100, although it would be wrong to say that they weren't there: Calmon was a very significant player for example who wowed us with his Mobi games and Poweewee, now numero uno, used adorables back then too.

Post-update: A summary

In the past month or so since the release of the Veggies update the Adorables have slowly come out to be the team that has benefited from the +1 wit per kill change the most. They also got Reaper and Thorn Gulley, both excellent maps that the Mobi can be utalised to it's full potential on.

Now, I think that it would be good to make an in-depth analysis of the exact implications of the biggest buff to the Mobi - hit and run! So without further Ado, lets take a look at my custom-made map, perfect for easy analysis:



Runners

Here it shows the two units that are affected the most by Hit-and-run: The 1hp runner and the 2hp runner. They are the most common targets in hit and run and are the main juice for Adorables generating an advantage over the opponent. Now the important thing is to note their value:

A 1hp runner costs 2 wits to get into a useful position on the board and the 2hp runner takes 3 wits to get into a useful position on the board.

Each runner has a spawn value of 1. Whenever your unit gets killed and your opponent doesn't lose a unit as a result of hit-and-run, you lose one oppertunity to spawn, no matter who used up the most wits. This advantage is very significant on one spawn maps, and even some two spawn maps such as thorn gulley.

Anywho without further ado, onto the analysis:



Soldier vs Runners

In the first example we have the soldier moving, attacking then being teleported next to the Mobi. Remember that the Mobi could be anywhere so the soldier could be teleported to a better position than before.

At the very minimum the soldier breaks even at +0 wits - and even then you've removed one of your opponents spawn, restricting their flexibility. In the scenario that you attack the buffed runner you also get a +1 wit gain which will give you a very significant advantage over your opponent.

Point of view of opponent

Something interesting to note is that exchanging one spawn for a bit of vision can still be worth it if you really don't know about your opponents positioning. Also just because you can break even with trades doesn't mean that it will be healthy to make those trades; your opponent can essentially lock up either your spawn or your vision if you aren't careful




Spawned runner vs 1hp runner

This is a very common situation: Spawn a runner to exchange with your opponents central runner and deny them the ability to revenge kill. Now it's important to note that this is by no means an equal trade: You not only gain one spawn, but the most important thing you gain over your opponent is your runner gets moved to wherever your Mobi is: usually this is in a position that would have cost you a wit to move your runner anyway so you might consider this a +1 wit gain over your opponent.

Point of view of opponent

The main point is that you can't afford to get into runner trade wars as much as your opponent can; killing a runner with a runner when your opponent has a mobi should only be strategic and not just to gain vision. Being strategic with your soldier positioning around your runner or buffing it and keeping it out of range of soldiers are all things that should be done to avoid bad trades.



Double-move runner vs 1hp runner

Now this is a funny one to analyse, at first glance you see:
-1 wit lost by mobi player, -1 spawn loss by opponent, runner positioned next to mobi.

This trade can range from being a -1 to a break even +0 in terms of wits and positioning if you place your runner somewhere useful. You should always be open to this option even if it 'wastes a wit' because if you can gain some advantage, albeit a dampened-down one, it can still be good.

Short Summary

An additional thing to note that you also have to consider any micro-management that you might have to make with your mobi - every time you move it to position your unit it costs a wit which can impact your wit efficiency. Also the Mobi costs 7 wits (8 if you include moving, or healing) and you have to make these sorts of trades if you want to make it worth spawning.

I hope that this enlightened anyone that wanted to know everything about how hit and run generates advantage for you. I did leave out Snipers and Medics, but thats because I think they could be covered better in a more general analysis of runners. Any suggestions for improving would be appreciated!

[wonderpug]

Great analysis! The only thing I'll add is that there can be an extra cost in the Mobi hit'n'run if the Adorables player again has to move his attacking unit back into place. In your first soldier example, for instance, if the soldier goes after the 1hp runner, it costs just 2 wits to do the hit & run. But if the Mobi user wants to put the soldier back into position to again threaten the space the runner was on, it will increase the cost of the whole maneuver to 3 wits.

It depends a lot on the situation, of course, but it can be a common "hidden cost" of Mobi tactics.

[Necrocat219]

Added that in the summary as they being extra costs that can impact your efficiency; it also made me remember to mention the initial 8 or 9 wit cost of getting your mobi into it's lowest cost position.

[wonderpug]

I know you focused on hit & run Mobi tactics here, but if you wanted to expand the scope to just cover Mobi tactics in general, I think another good concept to cover would be something about how you recover the cost of your Mobi the more you use him. Transport a soldier from spawn one hop further than the soldier could've jumped on his own, and you've just recovered a wit. Transport a sniper 3 spaces, that's another 3 wits recovered.

Depending on the map, situation, and particulars of his use, Mobi can almost be equated to having an extra bonus wit space.

[2dhh]

+rep
This is a wonderful guide. Do expand it to cover snipers please!

[Necrocat219]

Alrighty I'll make that addition after gathering together my thought when I have time, a lot of the theory I make in my head I often question as much as possible making it complicated . For example I always did everything to kill the medic with FTA but now I do so less thanks to questioning just how much of an advantage that really gives me.

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(01-19-2013 01:25 PM)2dhh Wrote:  +rep
This is a wonderful guide. Do expand it to cover snipers please!

Okaydokie and thanks for the rep!