Perhaps you have heard about tournaments and you thought "I think that might be fun; I wish I were experienced enough to fight a warrior in a tournament, but I am uncomfortable doing it since I am but a newbie." Well, you should know that entering is simple; anyone, even an inexperienced manager can do it; and it is so much fun that you don't want to miss out. Let me tell you all about tournaments and give you a real life example of a warrior I entered from Noblish Island.
Key things you will learn in this example:
So, on to the spotlight.
The purpose of this spotlight is to give newcomers to D2 a sense or feeling or information about tournaments, in this case a Mail-In tournament. Hence, Orange of Distinct Colors, a current Noblish Island warrior, was selected as the guinea-pig.
So, a tournament. Four times a year RSI holds tournaments. Winter and Summer are Face-To-Face Tournaments where managers compete on-site against each other and can change strategies each and every fight if they wish. The winter Face Site has always been in Tempe, AZ (the RSI Home Site) while the summer event in held in varying cities east of the Mississippi. (The last one was in Tampa, FL and summer of 2020 will be in Cincinnati or Minneapolis -- COVID-19 allowing it.) (Note: COVID did not allow it and the FTF Tournaments became Mail-In Tournaments until such time as the FTFs are again safe.) The Mail-In Tournaments are done completely via mail and managers submit predetermined strategies for their entered warriors. (Each warrior is allowed a primary strategy and also a secondary strategy which will be employed against chosen selected styles.) It is very easy to enter as all one needs to do is send in a strategy sheet via mail or fax. Simple! Both events cost $7.00 per warrior and are great fun. Warriors compete in classes, thereby allowing similarly experienced warriors from all arenas to be fairly matched with each other. In tournaments, a warrior's chance to learn skills or earn stat increases is half that in normal arenas. Supposedly, the chances of dying are also halved.
I entered Orange of Distinct Colors from Noblish Island in The January 2021 Mailer. Prior to fighting Orange in The Mailer, I wanted to give him the best possibility to succeed. I wanted to prepare him for the Apprentices class. Classes are segregated by FE (Fight Equivalents). What is a fight equivalent? Each arena fight counts as one fight and any tournament fights count as a half fight. The Apprentices Class is for warriors with 1-4 FE. Having no tournament fights prior, I wanted to "max" Orange for Apprentices. By "max" I wanted him to fight with the maximum FE possible in that class. By doing so, I would optimize his chances to succeed. (Warriors improve via experience and skills or stats earned. Most all warriors fighting in tournaments are "maxed" at the top FE for their class.) In this, I failed. Hence, Orange went into the Mail-In Tournament Apprentices Class with only 2 arena fights (2 FE, instead of the desired 4).
Pre-Tournament, Orange looked like this: 17-4-6-21-10-5-21 Aimed Blow. Poor Endurance and Good damage. Ambidextrous (which adds one attack skill to his base). A master's rating in Attack. Most managers would define this as a "godling" or a very fine warrior design. (Note: new aimed-blows are known to die easily and quickly, both in the arena and in tournaments -- especially ones with very little CON.)
Orange did decently in the tournament, finishing 3-3 against the best Apprentices in the land. He also learned/trained well, earning 7 skills plus he came out alive! Perhaps a general fight-by-fight summary would prove of value?
First, let me list for you the two strategies I chose and my training regimen I mailed in for Orange. (Note: In no way should these strategies be deemed as common or starter strategies for aimed-blows as aimers are a special, odd, and differing breed!)
Normal strategy: 7- 7- 7- 6- 6- 5- 7 ASM/S 10- 6- 6- 5- 4- 3-10 0-8 = EP & FI 2- 2- 2- 2- 2- 2- 2 9+ = LO n- n- n- n- n- n- n D- n- n- n- n- n- D bu = none (dodge in minutes 1 and desp) Alternate strategy: (against TP) 7- 7- 7- 6- 6- 5- 7 ALE/L 3- 3- 2- 1- 1- 1-10 0+ = SC & FI 7- 7- 7- 8- 8- 8- 2 bu = SC (in primary hand) n- n- n- n- n- n- n S- S- S- S- S- S- D Training Regiment = all skillsStrategies, armor, weapons, backups, tactics, alternate strategy against, training, etc, etc are all variable, and explaining MY choices or normal Consortium choices would require a much, much longer spotlight. Perhaps another day.
As to Orange's tournament action:
Fight one against a sz7 ambi AB (apl/h lo/-) -- Orange jumped him and one-swing hit him for the win. Orange learned two parry skills.
Fight two, a lunger sz6 (ale/s sh/-) -- Orange swung first and hit, then Orange took a second swing -- a crtitcal hit -- and finished the fight. Orange earned a riposte skill.
Fight three, a striker sz6 (apl/f sc/-) -- The striker jumped Orange and one-hit him with the scimitar to finish it quickly. Orange learned a decisiveness skill.
Fight four a ripper (parry-riposte) sz 8 (asm/-, sc/-) -- Finally a longer fight! Orange swung twice and hit. The ripper riposted and swung wildly. Orange threw a critical hit and knocked the ripper down. With the opponent on the ground, Orange threw two more critical hits to finish him off. Orange learned a parry skill. (Hey, 3-1; maybe Orange is going places!)
Fight five against a sz6 lunger (arm/l, lo/-; with the lunger lacking the WIT for the LO) brought Orange's thoughts of glory back to earth! It was all the lunger's fight, with him swinging four times, and Orange dodging one and parrying one, but the other two hurt. Orange learned a riposte skill.
Fight six ends Orange's tournament as he opposes a sz3 apl/l fi/- aimed-blow. It was a great, but sad, fight and it went something like this: bad guy punches, orange dodges; bad guy kicks and Orange parries with the epee giving bad guy some damage; Orange ripostes and swings, but bad guy dodges; Orange throws a critical, but the bad guy crit dodges; bad guy grabs the initiative and makes a critical punch which connects with Orange's jaw and the fight is called. Orange learned a defense skill.
I am pleased with the 3-3 and the skills learned. It is not at all a bad result for a two-fight warrior in the Apprentices class. Presuming, I can keep him alive, Orange will very likely fight in more future tournaments.
Written by: Whitey, Distinct Color Manager (Consortium affiliated)