Puppet Master

[HWCEXT]

anyone got some good advice on how to play puppet masters with the injury system..,

i found some tactics on the old forums but they still used a lot of law/fame and insurance..

i'll probably be a solo this round and i'll also will have a active PNAP with wich i will attack a lot.

[Lupus]

http://www.bushtarion.com/forums_old/vi ... et&t=20528 (http://www.bushtarion.com/forums_old/viewtopic.php?highlight=puppet&t=20528)

hope that helps

[Fortune]

Lupus did u actually read the post made by HWCEXT? He already said he had checked the old forums.

Never played them but i understand that steel walls make them quite a defensive route and you have to remember that Puppets have high initiative meaning you are going to take hits meaning that when u attack having a large number of ninjas to flak is crucial or u will be totally wiped out before u can bribe. With injuries (please change it) i think you will get better survival rates for ur puppets when attacking meaning that perhaps u dont have to use as many ninjas to flak. Political Bribers are useless but SLT are good to disable innocent flak but u need a few hippies to act as sweepers.
Can't be more help because haven't played...

[Lupus]

no i usually only read the first line of most posts and skim read the rest. A lot gets lost in translation, but i was only trying to help, :( and he didn't say he found that specific thread as old forum search is dodgy.

anyway i will try and say what little i know about puppets.

there are two main ways of playing;

steel wall way or Ninja way. it all depends on how active your gona be. if you are not gona be active then mass on steel walls and sit back, which is a very defence way to play. Or if you are going to be active mass puppets and ninja and just hope that ur online when someone attacks you so you can run your staff. Massing ninja is useful as it allows a stronger offence and flak for your puppets.

your main targets should be poms, thugs(without tl's), sorcers (flak ur puppets with lots of gardies and once you have sirens bribing becomes easier)

but thats my two cents

[HWCEXT]

thanks guys.

and lupus i already read that post., but thanks anyways and i'll be more specific what i've read already..

[Alcibiades]

I played Puppets for the last month of so of last round. I found that Souls gave me the best advice. Mass puppets, Forget about steel walls, and buy ninja as LET flak then bribe to your heart's content ;)

I know this is the least helpful post so far, but the more puppets you have the better!

[CLem]

hmm simplest advice would be:

at the start - mass flk, steal as much land as possible, get enough traps and yobs, maybe bribe some gurus and SDs if you are still struggling to stop people from landing on you

when you get puppets:
- First stop go bribe POMs they are used at the initial stage to block the inns so you fire purely at "useful troops", use some ninjas as flk. you won't be bribing much from a pom so be prepared to take a few trips.

- Then next stop is Sorcs and sirens, they are the easiest thing to bribe that are useful in many ways, simply use poms and a large amount of normal flk and send in mass amount of puppets.

- Then it will be assassins heavy players, send in some poms and hopefully by now you have a chunk of other health LET like Sorcs that can clear the traps after the poms stop the inns.

- After that you can try a lot of other things. A lot of other things are great to bribe, attack dogs are gold mines and you can always attack people that mass Stunbots and SDs. Avoid Shield players with TDs and CWs also avoid striker players.

[Darryl]

I played (using the word very loosely) Puppets a couple of rounds ago, and agree with Alci about forgetting steel walls. they look like very very cheap flak, I agree, but the immobility renders them worthless. When people attack puppets, 9/10 times, they're going to crush you. I'd rather have my score and funds tied up in flak that's useful when attacking, as that is generally when you'll get the most bribes.

[Rosa]

Some puppet tactics with the injury system
-When attacked, leave troops you don't want at home. (Ex, you bribe 6 million zombies, leave them at home you'll get probably like 3 mill back from injuries and it'll boost your AR)
-Back then sleep mode was really important, but now you probably don't want to use it, as when you die you'll usually get 50 - 60 % of your troops back, but it'll also give you a huge AR boost.
-Sometimes you want to die. (Ex, sometimes your score is boosted so high by random useless troops and you can't seem to find any good bribing targets and someone attacks you, if you're online this is the perfect time to just stay your troops - you might want to run your puppets- then you're score will drop a lot, use this chance to find some random noob while your troops are still injured.)

[Silence]

Never played them but i understand that steel walls make them quite a defensive route

Wrong. They are offensive . forget steel walls and bribe like crazy.

and you have to remember that Puppets have high initiative meaning you are going to take hits meaning that when u attack having a large number of ninjas to flak is crucial or u will be totally wiped out before u can bribe. With injuries (please change it) i think you will get better survival rates for ur puppets when attacking meaning that perhaps u dont have to use as many ninjas to flak.
Fundamentally that is right shame its difficult to understand. I will decipher - have a decent number of ninjas as leathal flak.


Political Bribers are useless
Wrong again. Use political bribers to stock up on hooligans - a key units for bribing along with sierns. Why hooligans? Units which cannot fire close are much easier then because you stop a fair few firing when they can fire =)

but SLT are good to disable innocent flak but u need a few hippies to act as sweepers. Wtf?

Can't be more help because haven't played...
Then why comment if it is all rubbish and havent tried from experience?

A couple extra points from my experience.
First of all, dont be afraid to suicide units you no longer need such as gurus. They are useful at the beginning but as the round progresses they are just keeping your score high preventing you from getting easier bribes.

Dont be afraid to attack at 30% - no negative law = no downsides :D - although if you hit higher up you get better injury, its your call, I always prefer attacking at 30% =P

Use sleepmode - if you have stocked up decemt units it is very frustrating to lose them all, sleepmode if your friend (unless ofc you want AR)

Oh, and also ignore what Lupus said, most of what he said is BS too =)

Finally - Take note of Rosa, I know she is v.good at playing solo, she knows those sneaky solo tactics which are a pain to beat

[HWCEXT]

thanks rosa and silence..,

got one little question though..,

i know steel walls don't kill, but i forgot if they did any dammage at all...

[Souls]

-When you're in the pre-puppet stage, stock up on hoolis, as much as you can. By the time you get cloners, gargoyle players shouldn't be that far teched, so you can get some early gargoyle LETs. Hooligans block them almost 1:1, and sending with gurus blocks the flak so you get a good bunch of them; Cloners are better at bribing last tick than Puppets are, just a lot worse at surviving. :P

-Forget Steel Walls. They're completely useless for the purpose of the route, and are only actually good as a minor deterrent to attacks; If they really want to attack you they will, regardless of steel walls or not. :P

-Get as many Sirens as you can. Once you have a decent number of sirens, units like TLs and Rangers, etc. come in to fair play as considerable targets. Sirens are your best friend :P

EDIT - And yes, Steel Walls do a little bit of AD, but that's it. :P

[tobapopalos]

Steel walls do a tiny amount of armour damage, but because they don't do any health damage at all they never fire in BRs. So they kind of armour strip for puppets, ninjas etc. but not to any great extent.

[Polo]

Steel walls do a tiny amount of armour damage, but because they don't do any health damage at all they never fire in BRs. So they kind of armour strip for puppets, ninjas etc. but not to any great extent.
Ninjas = R/M
Steel Walls = C

[f0xx]

Steel walls do a tiny amount of armour damage, but because they don't do any health damage at all they never fire in BRs. So they kind of armour strip for puppets, ninjas etc. but not to any great extent.

Hehe, don't you just love such comments :)

[tobapopalos]

Steel walls do a tiny amount of armour damage, but because they don't do any health damage at all they never fire in BRs. So they kind of armour strip for puppets, ninjas etc. but not to any great extent.
Ninjas = R/M
Steel Walls = C

Good point. I didn't really think that far ahead :P

[f0xx]

Let me give you a friendly advice which I find to work quite well:

When you are going to make a post:

1. Think
2. Post

Not the other way around ;)

[tobapopalos]

Let me give you a friendly advice which I find to work quite well:

When you are going to make a post:

1. Think
2. Post

Not the other way around ;)

It was very late/early and I was very tired from work/in a rush for work (delete as appropriate).

I just thought I would throw the last sentence in there and forgot that steel walls only fire close :P

[Enrico]

anyone got some good advice on how to play puppet masters with the injury system..,

i found some tactics on the old forums but they still used a lot of law/fame and insurance..

i'll probably be a solo this round and i'll also will have a active PNAP with wich i will attack a lot.

Get plenty of Puppets and ninjas, don't bother with to many immobile units, you want to be able to send away sometimes, and immobiles bloat your score.

Once you got puppets, forget about stealing much more land, again, it bloats you score, and gives you less targets.

a few hints:

If you know a PoM, have him help you by sending PoMs along with your staff and recalling them at the appropriate tick.
Very effective vs TL heavy Thugs, Sorc heavy sorcerers and Garg heavy vamps (preferably sans vampires) Easy free LETs.

When you find other bribers, record their IDs and spy them, often you will find targets they have hit, which they cannot return to... Nice way to get going!

Use pol bribers early on to build a defense with gurus, hools and SDs.

Be on the lookout for LET-flak that doesn't fire first tick... you don't want your flak killing all the good stuff before your puppets get to fire!

If at all possible try to bribe other bribing units: Hypno's and RO's!!

Get a number of fast LETs so people who want to attack you can't easily find out you ninja count. a few PAs and RPGs are ideal...

Best of Luck!