De minimis Wit – A Super Titan’s guide to efficiency.

[Necrocat219]

Update: A big thank you for a mention in the Witters Digest, It's really fantastic to know this guide is helping people improve their game so much! I'll be keeping this updated.

Introduction

Hi I’m Necrocat219 and I’ve been a longstanding member of the community for quite some time. While I have never been the best and still have much to learn especially with Scallywags and Veggienauts I feel that I can make a guide that if you read, gain an understanding of and adopt some of the tactics here, it can help you further your skill ahead of those in your league. A note is that I thought I made the images smaller and it seems that something went wrong along the way. Ah well. Without further ado:

Actual Unit Value

Don’t think of the value of each unit as what it shows in the unit select screen, think of their value as how much it cost to spawn plus the lowest cost it takes to move it there. So for the example below, a soldier spawned is worth 2 wits, and each time you move it up to 3 hexes away from the spawn it gain a value of 1 wit.



Your medic also adds 1 wit to your unit’s value, so if you heal your soldiers up (Which you really should) add 1 to each location on this map. Don’t treat your unit’s value as it’s cost + how many times you moved it, you could move it 17 times and it could still be only worth 3 wits. If your opponent wastes a few wits to move their soldiers, you can laugh silently to yourself and count up how many wits you gained.

(04-10-2014 09:06 AM)Alvendor Wrote:  If the opponent can safely kill your unit using less wits than it is worth with the method in the original post, it is only worth as much as the opponent needs to kill it. So think about for example how much your 1hp runner is worth if its within 5 tiles of opponents spawn and opponent has a mobi on the map?

Knowing how much ‘damage’ you can deal and take from your opponent each turn

What I mean by this is being able to understand how much damage you and your opponent can deal to each other if a full scale attack takes place. This ties up hand in hand with understanding when you can go for and win the game. For example, in the following replay, I was already up a few wits from trades that I made with my soldiers and Mobi and knew my opponent had 2 bombshells so couldn’t have many spare wits, this turn he decided to move his bombshells more offensively from the top of the map to the middle:





As he had 20 wits in bombshells invested towards the bottom of the map and I had quite a few spare, I knew that he would have a lack of offensive forces if I kept clear of bombshell radius. I decided to go for the win, and in the image on the left you can see I made sure the sniper (3dmg) was taken out and the bombshell could only deal 1 dmg to me, while dealing 2 damage to him. I left him with a total offence of 4 damage + 1 if he spawns another, no where near enough to stop me.

In this case I ignored counting how many wits we could trade and instead focused on how many units he had and how to reduce how much damage he could deal to me. What my opponent should have done was to keep his ground and build more soldiers/bombshells, as he wasn’t in a position to go on the offence.

Advantage

(04-10-2014 09:06 AM)Alvendor Wrote:  It is a mistake to think a small wit difference doesn't matter when the number of units increases on the map. A good opponent can realize this and try to do a lot of wit neutral exchanges to cut down the unit count and make the wit difference noticeable.

To figure out who is ahead purely by wit value ignoring everything else: compare the wit value of each player's units plus unspent wits, add half of the wit income to the player that is not the current one to move.

Individual unit tricks and tips!

Runner Efficiency

Avoid moving your runner twice to kill an opponent’s runner it costs 3 wits to kill an opponents runner more than 5 hexes away from your spawn and 2 wits for them to replace it, losing you 1 wit. Generally avoid moving runners twice if you can unless it is to kill a medic. There are some exceptions as gaining vision of your opponents side of the map for 1 wit can be great for making a big play that turn, but make sure to be careful in doing so.

An important note is that runners aren’t as useful the later into the game you get, especially on 1 spawn space maps . I personally keep the number of runners I have to a minimum so that I can spawn more soldiers who are better offensively sometimes you may be able to make a straight up exchange once you feel you know enough about the opponent, gaining the 2 wits invested in it back for an attack.

Soldier Efficiency

The Soldier is the most important member of your squad, I would dare to say that they are better than the specials. As bland as they may seem, playing around with them can turn out a lot more interesting as you look deeper into the game. I feel that the map with soldier value shown below again explains quite a bit behind a soldiers use. Never be afraid to spawn more soldiers if you have room, when all your most efficient spots are taken up for your soldiers, start filling up the 2 and 5 hexes away from your spawn and so on.




Medic Efficiency

(04-10-2014 09:06 AM)Alvendor Wrote:  To figure out what a medic is worth away from spawn:
We can spend 1 wit to move it next to spawn and be worth 3, therefore away from spawn is worth at least 2. If it is in a position we can heal soldiers as we move them out we can use the medic without moving it making it worth more than 2 wits. I'm thinking 2.5 wits is a good approximation.

Boosting a Soldier to 4hp is worth so much more than it’s face value. Looking back at the Actual Unit Value section, you aren’t just giving a 2 wit unit 4 hp for 1 wit, 50% of it’s value; of you move it to, lets say, where the furthest soldier is in that example, that soldier will be worth 5 wits + 1 wit for healing, and that heal will be worth 20% of the Soldiers value.

A medic in most places on the maps is worth 2-3 wits, so you shouldn’t be wary of your opponent killing it with a runner as that also costs them 3 wits. Try to move them as little as possible and offensively you might want to avoid killing a medic as it is 3 wits that are tied up that can’t be used against you.

You might want to spawn an additional medic in specific situations: On two spawn maps try out spawning 2 medics and focus on having an army of 4hp Soldiers, especially on Thorn Gulley. You will have to be a bit more defensive as you spend 3 wits on the extra medic, but it’s an interesting opening that you should at least try out!

Another situation is against Bombshells and Mobis you may want to position a medic behind the victim of 1dmg or hit-and-run to make their positioning less useful. Rendering those 8-10 wit units less useful for 3 wits is awesome.

Heavy

I follow a straightforward rule with the Heavy: Only spawn it if it will stop you from losing in the next few turns or will guarantee you a win in the next few turns, and I’m confident in this. The Soldier and Sniper both outclass the Heavy when spawned normally, but there are situations where bulk and 3 damage can come in handy, especially if you don’t have a medic at hand.

Mobi

The Mobi can be used to increase efficiency of your units when moving them, gaining a few wits by making a few hit and run trades and reducing your opponent’s units HP. A few efficient hit and run trades are:

Killing a 2hp runner with a soldier costs 2 wits, costs the opponent 3 wits, net gain 1 wit.

Killing a 1hp runner with any unit, net gain 0 wit, reduces their spawns by 1

Moving, attacking a 4HP soldier that has moved twice, sucking back, moving next turn, attacking the 2HP soldier, sucking back, costs 5 wits, costs the opponent 5 wits, net gain 0 wit, reduces their spawn count by 1. This trade is harder to use, so you may only be able to use this advice if you are top masters and above. This move forces your opponent to have 5 wits returned to them that they used to make that soldier, so if they keep replacing it they could run into problems with having too many wits to use and too few soldiers to use them. The following picture shows an example situation of this:



Keep an eye out for signs of an adorable player spawning 2 mobis, if you time it right and make sure to attack mostly damaging units, it could win you the game through overwhelming the opponent.

Killing Adorable snipers is worth 4 wits unboosted, 5 wits boosted. Make sure a trade is worth it before killing a sniper that is vulnerable.

Scrambler

I like to liken the Scrambler to a very expensive soldier, that if used correctly is also a win condition. In most cases, if you scramble a unit on your opponent’s side of the map and the Scrambler doesn't die you win. There is already a guide written by arguably the best Feedback player, Blckace, and he explains it very well in his guide with easy to follow bullet points http://www.onemanleft.com/forums/showthr...ight=guide

Some key points:

The Scrambler has the potential both to be a game winning pawn or a game loser. Games are won not by scrambling a good unit (unless it's a special) but through that unit being used usefully by killing a sniper or special, getting key damage onto the base or by making a move that the opponent was unprepared for. Having 1 unit in range of scrambling and a row of soldiers behind it to protect vulnerable units reduces the impact a Scrambler can have whilst putting pressure on if the scrambler is present.

One unit that can be extremely key is the Heavy. Scrambling it gains 3 damage, plus if you can have a medic in range to heal it up you have made a massive return on wits. Just note that even healing it up that much you may want to still sacrifice it; the heavy takes a lot of wits to move, and if the opponent hasn't got a sniper it can take them up to 5 wits to kill it.

Using a medic to counter chip damage from Bombshells and Mobis (if they do) works well with the above!

Using 3 health Soldiers against Scramblers is a lot more favourable than against any other race as by having only 3 health soldiers in range of the scrambler it reduces the wits it can waste of you by 1. This is minimal though, and Feedback can easily alternate between Scramblers and Snipers.

Likewise advice based on the above for Feedback; the race can pivot between Snipers and Scramblers depending if and where 3 health and 4 health soldiers are being placed. In fact if a player decided to abandon 4 health soldiers just spawning snipers can be more than enough. Rock paper scissors!

Bramble


I don't play Veggienauts very often as I find them quite hard to use. However, from watching replays of veteran Veggienauts players I can understand some of their significant strengths and weaknesses. For example, here is Pharmafan’s replay showcasing most of the tips tricks and ways to be flexible with the Bramble, it certainly taught me a thing or two! Make sure to understand why he took each turn a certain way such as spawning a thorn to use as the uproot thorn next turn and uprooting to move it across the map.

outwitters://viewgame?id=ahRzfm91dHdpdHRlcnNnYW1lLWhyZHIVCxIIR2FtZVJvb20YgICA6OKv9AsM

Also, some key things you may need to learn if you're to take full advantage of the Bramble:

When you plan to use it, plant it a turn early and spawn 2 thorns in the direction that you plan to use it in. This will let you attack with them, retract your first thorn and allow you to attack the same unit with the bramble again. Expensive, but it is really useful for >Killing a non-adorable sniper, killing Scramblers, dealing an amount of damage that the opponent wasn't expecting (especially effective on Bombshells and Mobis) and providing a much needed extra damage.

You can do the same above, but replace the second thorn attack with a unit for a much more efficient attack. It's a lot more predictable though.

Don't rush straight into a Bramble if you can help it, it takes a lot of wit investment for it to get going (8-9+ however many thorns, second most expensive is Bombshell 11 wits tops!)

Bombshell

You may have noticed that all maps are designed so that if you spawn a special and move it, the first 3 hexes around your base won't give it that great a position. The same goes for the Bombshell but even moreso as it costs 3 wits to move it's position instead of 1 so be careful in choosing it's final position. On top of that, attacking a spawn spot is in most cases not too great a move so a bombshell there won't be as useful as say one covering your wit space.

Bombshells are more defensive than offensive, while it is possible to rush one generally it's pretty difficult and harder to get out of a tough spot if you do so. Soldiers surrounding your Bombshell while you chip away with 1 damage on enemy units is a recognized effective tactic. Just be wary that The Mobi and Scrambler both have ways to kill a Bombshell on it's own.

The Bombshell is worth 10 wits on it's own + boosted, and thats if it sets up right after spawning. Make sure to keep an eye on where a Bombshell is going to be set up if they move it and don't set up, as them successfully controlling a key area could be an immediate loss

If you need vision close to your opponents Bombshell, spawn + move a runner 4 spaces away, and spawn a medic (or move the one already there) to heal it next to it. This is especially effective if the runner is on a vulnerable wit space, such as on Thorn Gulley.

The Bombshell despite it's power is poor at assaulting on large maps, whilst you can't rush them, they can't rush you. If you spot them spawn one, take your time to make sure you make your army efficiently or look for weaknesses away from the bombshell(s).

For if you are weak in a particular matchup...

In my personal opinion, Soldiers are more reliable and worth more than Specials when comparing cost to what they do. The exception to this is Bombshell, who is arguable more reliable than soldiers due to their bulk + situational offence in exchange for mobility and flexible offence. Keep this in mind though when going up against a race you have a tough time with, as this can help you not have to rely on your special as much if you can't use it well vs that opponent.

Bonus tip!

Make all your moves that are visible to your opponent first, then the hidden ones all together. This restricts how much your opponent can see

Thanks for reading this and I really hope this helps let me know if anything doesn't seem clear and I'll polish it up!

[[PETA] Doodat]

The replay Necro was talking about:
outwitters://viewgame?id=ahRzfm91dHdpdHRlcnNnYW1lLWhyZHIVCxIIR2FtZVJvb20YgICA6OKv9AsM

Great guide! I don't quite understand the trade for the 4hp soldier and double tapping it with soldiers:
Isn't the trade 5 wits for 4 wits, net loss 1 wit, reduces their spawn count by 1?

Edit: nevermind I misread the guide, I gotcha now.

[Necrocat219]

Oops thanks, that was meant to be in there, edited. Also... I used the wrong picture for the double tapping, whoops, replacing in a sec.

---

There we go, correct image added

[Poc 13]

Great guide! My only wish was this would showcase how to take down each race with another, I always play adorables and struggle against scally

[[PETA] Doodat]

Well this is a guide about efficiency. I think that creating a guide for race matchups would be incredibly big and would need to be a new thread.

[Necrocat219]

Thanks! Yeah I can work on a seperate guide on that as I haven't mentioned races and specific maps that much, and that's mainly because I don't play Scally's or Veggies very often, so I think I need to improve some more before I could do that.

[Poc 13]

Ok, one of you should Doodat

[Alvendor]

Nice! There haven't been many strategy threads lately, I've been missing them.

These tips will make the super Titan games harder though haha

[Necrocat219]

I'll be honest I wasn't sure to write this guide as I've learnt some of this upon returning to the game, and am pretty sure that everyone can take away something from this. But, better out that in .

[TheGreatAnt]

Great guide, Necro!

The issue when facing other teams is that there are different ways that each team can be played, so early assessment should be calculate to best advise your strategy in a given game.

(And this is why turtling was so bad because everyone had the same strategy and it just ended in a stalemate.)