Forcing monster damage through

[awall]

Let's say you've just summoned a large monster (i.e. not a goblin) and your opponent doesn't have a charm immediately available. In my experience, the goal at this point becomes to get one or two hits in with the monster before it dies, while keeping it from getting charmed. I've managed to teach myself how to keep it from going over to my opponent, but I still have trouble forcing damage through.

What do you do when your opponent goes for Protection? It's almost impossible to disrupt (Maladroitness delays it for one turn), and countering it is very bad if your opponent dummies it for WFP. Meanwhile, once he gets it off, he has enough breathing room to move into charm, sniping your monster while he's at it.

It's not that I'm losing initiative to my opponent here, but I'm having trouble making the most use of the initiative I have. Having a fat monster running around the table is supposed to grant some serious advantage, but I've been having a bit of trouble making it work that way. Any suggestions?

[ExDeath]

awall said:

Let's say you've just summoned a large monster (i.e. not a goblin) and your opponent doesn't have a charm immediately available. In my experience, the goal at this point becomes to get one or two hits in with the monster before it dies, while keeping it from getting charmed. I've managed to teach myself how to keep it from going over to my opponent, but I still have trouble forcing damage through.

What do you do when your opponent goes for Protection? It's almost impossible to disrupt (Maladroitness delays it for one turn), and countering it is very bad if your opponent dummies it for WFP. Meanwhile, once he gets it off, he has enough breathing room to move into charm, sniping your monster while he's at it.

It's not that I'm losing initiative to my opponent here, but I'm having trouble making the most use of the initiative I have. Having a fat monster running around the table is supposed to grant some serious advantage, but I've been having a bit of trouble making it work that way. Any suggestions?

It's sort of a general question, as it depends how your opponent plans on dealing with the monster. Also on their life total. If I have something bigger than an ogre in play (which is rare; often I will summon an ogre instead of a giant off of WFPSFW) and they're at low health, I usually just ignore the monster and aim spells at their face unless they have an immediate threat going. With goblins, I ignore the goblin and generally just try to make another one, or make an ogre. With ogres, I go into full lockdown mode in protection of the monster, with the ideal plan of eventually getting a DSFFF and either para chaining til the game is over, or disease for a sure 4-6 damage and gigantic initiative. There is much more flexibility in the theory of ogres than other monsters due to their immense threat but low amount of health, so I'm actually the one on the back foot trying to defend everything.

I'm not sure why you're so worried about a dummy into WFP though. If you went WPPS or WWSF you're now a half-move ahead and they take 2 damage on the final gesture of cause light. That's the type of situation I want every time I summon an ogre. One strategy I found to never work is remove enchantment on the protection, because the P either falls on a turn where you need a W to counter charm, or it enables them to missile the ogre for 1. So, don't do that. Just paralyze and laugh.

[Slartucker]

One of my favourite tactics is to go for invis. If you land an amnesia and they don't have a P showing, you can go into invis without having to worry about the monster being charmed. If they counter it, they've likely taken damage and still aren't in a good position to deal with the monster. And with a monster on your side, even the milder invis offenses can net you quite a bit. If you successfully complete an invis weave without losing the monster, it's very hard for your opponent to recover.

Blindness is actually playable with a monster, since it blocks charms to both you and the monster. It's rare you'd have the spellflow for it, though, as DFFDD is usually just as effective, and of course DF also leads to FFF, about whose use in concert with monsters, the less said, the better.

exdeath said:

If I have something bigger than an ogre in play (which is rare; often I will summon an ogre instead of a giant off of WFPSFW)

How curious. I can think of several circumstances where I might do this, but not many. When do you take an ogre over a giant?

[ExDeath]

admin said:

One of my favourite tactics is to go for invis. If you land an amnesia and they don't have a P showing, you can go into invis without having to worry about the monster being charmed. If they counter it, they've likely taken damage and still aren't in a good position to deal with the monster. And with a monster on your side, even the milder invis offenses can net you quite a bit. If you successfully complete an invis weave without losing the monster, it's very hard for your opponent to recover.

That's an interesting tactic, I don't think I've tried it before, but I'll give it a shot if the situation arises.

exdeath said:

If I have something bigger than an ogre in play (which is rare; often I will summon an ogre instead of a giant off of WFPSFW)

How curious. I can think of several circumstances where I might do this, but not many. When do you take an ogre over a giant?

Oh. Well, I believe myself to be better than my opponent, so I don't do things that may allow him to gain large advantages over me. Although a giant may be a large advantage in the short run, in the long run it could end up costing me the game if I miss a couple of guesses. An ogre will never cost me the game. It's the same reason I will never summon two non-goblin monsters at the same time.