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The Total Parry (An Ultimate Defensive)

In basic, Total Parries win. And win and win. Why, then, are there not a massive plethora of TPs? The purpose of this article is to examine the Total Parry from a Consortium viewpoint, and to reveal the how's, what's, and why's of the oft downplayed Total Parry.

Let us first talk about some of the facts and the environment surrounding the TP.

With that in mind what does Total Parry mean to The Consortium? A definition: "A warrior who "fights" by parrying attacks, and soaking damage and enduring until the opponent is so tired that the attacker falls from exhaustion or the attacker stands in exhaustion, unable to swing, while the Total Parry gets in a final, and maybe his first, swing for a win." Most managers term this a "scum".

Oh, there are variations of the parrying/soaking/enduring Total Parry. It can be designed to be somewhat offensive. But designs that make it "offensive" are most likely better fitted, and will win more as wastes (WS) or slashers (SL) or pikers (PS) or plungers (PL) or rippers (PR) or lungers (LU) or even other styles. Hence, The Consortium recommends that managers waste little effort on any TP version except THE SCUM.

What characterizes a Consortium TP Scum? What creates good damage soaking and parrying? There are two stats that create neither damage soaking (hit points) nor parry skills. They are WT (wit) and SP (speed). A real Total Parry needs neither. Another stat, SZ (size) can negatively affect the TPs parrying ability as there are parry skill reductions at size 15 17, and 21. (And gains at size 5 and 3.) What stats create soaking? CN (con) primarily, and then WL (will). One other thing creates soaking. That is armor and the weapon that one decides with which to parry. Hence "carry", the ability to wear lots of armor and hold heavy weapons, which is comprised of strength (ST) and con (CN), is necessary for protecting the Total Parry as it endures.

A yet-to-be designed/base TP starts with more parry skills than any other style, but is very weak in attack, initiative, defense and decise. Oh my! What then does this make a designed Consortium Total Parry need to look like? (Note: Primary stats are CN and WL.)

Note: Although WT and SP are "none", neither hurts the TPs ability. They merely take points away from the needed ST/CN/WL/DF

Rather than provide an exact design, perhaps offering a variety of actual Consortium TP warriors and their results would be more helpful.

Recently graduated: (The Consortium has over 200 graduated Total Parry fighters.)

Note: 14(+3)-21(+2)-12..., means 11ST started, trained to 14; 19CN started, trained to 21, 12ST start...

There are several worthwhile comments about these above six warriors:

Here are current warriors (the base design) running in arenas and doing as well as those above. 

 

     14-19-8-5-21-5-12
     21-14-8-6-21-7-7
     19-19-3-3-18-12-10
     21-21-7-4-19-8-4
     12-19-7-9-19-9-9
     16-18-10-4-19-9-8
     13-20-9-8-20-5-9
     17-19-11-3-19-3-12
     15-21-9-7-21-4-7
     16-19-6-9-18-6-10 (This one started life on Noblish Isle DM93)

What would be The Consortium "perfect" design? (One which has not been had, sadly.)

21-21-3-3-21-3-12

But, perhaps, this one would be preferable -- 19-19-3-3-19-3-18, and have fun burning to 21-21-3-5-21-5-21.

While the design is important for a TP scum, so are the operating strategy and the weapon and armor selection. Let's start with the armor, as it is the simplest. A scum almost always goes out to fight in APA/F. Why? While the heaviest possible, this is the optimum sponge, absorbing the most damage from when that opponent hits. There are "tweak strategies" where perhaps less armor is employed, but realize that 99% of the time a Consortium TP wears APA/F

Weapon selection is an interesting topic for discussion. By and large, the ME or LG are the Total Parry's best friend. There are quite a nice selection of weapons available and suited to the TP. A scum, usually low-witted, however, tends to use very few of them. Using Assur's weapon requirement chart, which he publishes here in DM93 periodically, the first group of weapons are suited, but TP-limited by wit and deftness. (Code: ST/SZ/WT/DF requirements.)

Leaving, then, these weapons as the most likely for the scum.

Off-hand weapons play an important part to the Total Parry winning ways. The interesting thing about off-hands is that a manager can place almost any weapon there (except two-handed) and there will be no statement commentary indicating unsuited or not-quite suited. Hence, any weapon, even unsuited, can be used as off-hand, as long as SZ/WT/DF requirements are met. (For example it is not unusual to see a WH as an off-hand weapon with the LG primary hand on a Consortium warrior.

In order, here are the typical weapons used by Consortium Total Parry warriors.

ME/ME - BS/ME - LG/LG - LG/WH - LG/LG - BA/ME - BA/LG

Backup weapons are also important to Total Parry warriors as the primary and/or off-hand are often broken by all the parrying going on. What are good backup weapons? Any weapon can parry, but not as well as shields. And the backup weapons do count in the weight burden of the warrior, so do not overburden. The most common Consortium backups are DA and WH.

Carry and endurance need to be discussed to assure optimizing the TP. There should be no need, or desire, to overburden the TP which will negatively impact his endurance. Using the CIC information, determine the encumbrance, and armor and weapon your warrior accordingly. Since virtually all Consortium scum are going to be designed with 11 ST min and very high CN, the design will always carry what is considered the minimum 27 points.

BS/ME APA/F one backup DA or ME/ME APA/F one backup DA

If the warrior has 13+ ST, often a Consortium TP might look like this:

LG/WH APA/F primary backup DA

What is a good strategy? How might The Consortium run these types of warriors? A common theory is all one needs to do is use 1-1-1-P. We Consortium managers very seldom run 1-1-1. Giving the strategy some OE (offensive effort) and some AL (activity level) seems to cause that TP to swing/attack in the most surprising moments and sometimes early on. Many battles have been won this way. And, in general, the TP's endurance seems unaffected by these numbers. As to "kill desire" (KD), a mod/low number (not 1) seems to enhance that early swing. The Consortium does not want to give you the idea that this early swinging happens regularly, but that it does happen occasionally, Perhaps it is important to point out that average/typical AL/OE Favorites (learned at graduation) for the TP are LO/VL. Next most likely are VL/VL and VL/LO. (VL is very low and 1-2, LO is low and 3-4 as opposed to moderate MO 5-6, high HI 7-8 and VH very high 9-10.)

This is a typical Consortium TP scum strategy: 

 

                                    3-2-2-1-3-1-3
                                    3-2-2-2-1-1-3
                                    5-5-5-5-8-6-5
                                    P-P-P-P-n-P-P

Now when an opponent is a known good scum also, the strategy might change to assure optimal endurance: 

 

                                    1-1-1-1-1-1-1
                                    1-1-1-1-1-1-1 wins
                                    1-1-1-1-1-5-1
                                    P-P-P-P-P-P-P

There is more to "good strategy" than the numbers one chooses. To optimize any type of warrior, one must use the challenge/avoid. Any TP that fights an AB is likely to lose. At the lower levels (meaning DM rather that ADM) a TP loses to the aimer 90-95% of the time. A scum TP that fights a lunger wins 60-80% of the time. So if you want wonderful w/l rates like those listed above, you must challenge and avoid properly and always. (The Consortium often publishes an article on challenge and avoid in DM93. Wait for it, or find it, but certainly heed it.) To challenge and avoid properly, you must know styles of warriors in your arena. Hence, you must fight and keep records, and/or have friends/allies who collect and share styles, or use a common data base like that of Terrablood.com.) The most important challenge/avoids for a TP scum are:

One final item needs to be discussed. The Consortium has recommended that the TP is meant to be a scum, and all the previous information points that out. However, were one to want to design and run a more offensive TP, this is how The Consortium does it. (Out of the 200+ graduate TPs, only 4 are of this type, and they do not fare as well as the mighty scum; they all would have made better warriors under another design.) The main characteristics of the OTP (Offensive Total Parry) compared to the scum is that at least moderate (11+) and preferably high (15+, preferably 17+) Wit and at least 11 deftness are needed. This would mean they would have all or one of these stats (ST, CN, WL) reduced from the scum design. Lastly, it means that the final design will be much more in line with a very good LU or other better long term warrior able to compete in high ADM, like Primus. Here are some typical offensive Total Parries.

So there you have it. The Total Parry, Consortium-style. You have learned how to design, armor, weapon, run, challenge/avoid, and optimize a Total Parry. Prepare yourself for lots of wins and some quite long fights. Winning is FUN.

-- Agent Smith (from The Consortium Portfolio 5-9--2022)



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