Lots of articles focus on how to make the best warrior of a certain style, but fewer articles describe the magic boxes in your strategy sheet and what numbers to put in them to win win win. I attempt to give managers some guidance. Abbreviations: OE=Offensive Effort, AL=Activity Level, KD=Kill Desire.
Most of this series of articles will focus on OE and AL and not as much on tactics, but I will give counters to each strategy. A future article (or articles) will talk about weapon selection.
Caveat: This article is largely how Assur thinks of strategy and not everything in it is proven or scientific fact.
The first thing to consider is how you want your warrior to win. There are three main warrior types. Pure Offensive, Pure Defensive, and Hybrid. Once you know that answer, you have a better idea on how you want to fight.
AL: How much movement you put into the fight. Things Assur believes: Higher AL: More Initiative/Decisiveness, More Dodging. Lower AL: More Parry. The advantages of using your favorite AL are not nearly as clear as using your favorite OE. For many warriors, simply using 10 AL is often better than using your favorites. Unless you are a parry style, 1 AL tends to not be very effective (unless you're fighting a pure defensive).
Higher #'s on both OE and AL use endurance faster.
KD: A note to the Arenamaster on your warrior's willingness to keep the fight going. Higher=Greater chance for a death in the fight. Lower=Lesser chance for a death in the fight. Recommended for most warriors to keep it between 3 and 8 inclusive. 9-10 makes warrior fight somewhat strangely and while you will kill more, it affects your abilities in detrimental ways. Lots of theories on what KD actually does. Assur has no real clue, so he simply recommends 3-8.
Favorites. Every warrior has a 'favorite' rhythm. You find out your approximate favorite rhythm when you graduate. Many people try to 'figure' it out before they graduate their warriors to ADM. You can't be sure you've got the right rhythm, but sometimes you'll find that sweet spot. There are other articles that talk about possible ranges per style.
Pure Offensive:
These are by far the easiest types of warriors to master and create a strategy for. The tried and true strategy is 10 OE, 10 AL. Go out fast and hard! Feel free to modify with Lunge, Decise, Bash, or Slash Tactics. This strategy is very fast, very effective, and very taxing. But most fights are over quick, so endurance isn't typically a factor.
10-10-x-Decise tactic is the fastest strategy you can use.
If endurance is a factor for your warrior or because your expected opponent is going to try for a longer fight to wear you out, start lowering those numbers. Assur usually lowers AL first, then OE. After minute 1, Assur lowers AL very fast in the fight.
Assur rarely runs pure offensives lower than 7 OE, but runs virtually all AL's in different situations / with different warriors.
Question: Would it be better to try and find my warrior's favorites than to run with the tried and true strategy? Answer: Some warriors do fight better at somewhat lower numbers. But for a pure offensive, 10-10 is tough to beat. Assur has not had success with pure offensives without at least one of OE or AL on the high side (8+). The other is typically moderate or higher (5+).
Armor: Usually light or none. There are exceptions (tank offensives) but because of the endurance issues, Assur typically goes ALE or none for armor and no higher than S for helm (maybe a H on a warrior he really loves and doesn't want to die).
Countering the tried and true strategy.
Option 1 If you can't beat them, join them. It is always an option to try and counter with the same strategy. A huge factor in attacking first is "luck," so countering with the tried and true strategy gives at least a chance to "luck" into a win.
Option 2: Counter Tactic. If your opponent is using the Lunge tactic or Decise tactic, you can attempt to counter using the counter tactic. Response is the counter tactic to Decise. Dodge is the counter tactic to Lunge. Counter tactics are not automatic wins, but they do work.
Assur's best results with the response tactic is to use standard pure offensive numbers (5-10 OE/5-10 AL), wear armor, and use the Response tactic in both minute 1 and desperation. When I say "best results," I mean exactly that. Response is a fickle mistress. I've seen huge upsets using response as well as fights where my opponent ignored my 'counter strategy." For the Dodge counter tactic, high AL, max of moderate armor and dodge.
Option 3: Wait for an opportunity. Wear some armor and either fight on favorites or use the standard pure offensive numbers (5-10/5-10). This works best if you have some con and your opponent isn't just going to thrash you up.
Option 4: The fancy riposte tactic. The riposte tactic is tricky, because you have to successfully parry or dodge and then you have the chance to riposte. Assur uses the riposte tactic warriors who have good defenses but don't have good riposte.
Option 5: Avoid! You will most likely encounter at some point a warrior that comes out really fast and either starts a string of crit attacks and/or hits hard enough to simple thrash you up fast. As much as you may want to stroke your ego by beating the best, some times it is better to concede that your opposing manager has found a special warrior that you just shouldn't mess around with. Most commonly, these warriors are Strikers or Aimed Blows, but you may encounter Slashers or Bashers (or even another style) that you don't want to mess with. Duel2 has evolved and there are a lot of managers that are looking for and trying to create monster warriors. Sometimes, these warriors will have lots of tournament experience and learning that doesn't show on their record (See that 5-0 record that is the Duelmaster? He could easily have 20 or more fights from tournaments, and typically 21 wit to go with those fights).
-- By Assur