SFR, Inc.

[ddicerc]

OK, "Canadian" is our word for it (from the Chill Wind Campaign), but you all know the style-bunch your whole army on a terrain, usually your home, and then cast magic until the cows come home, someone loses by attrition, or everyone gets bored and quits. (I've also seen this done by two missile armies with Towers playing "Who Gets the First Bullseyes?".) The opposing strategy is try to get one 8th face, then hang on tight and try to run for your 2nd. If that terrain is down low, you will have almost no shot of getting it before your opponent cripples that army or wipes out your 8th face army. Plus, once he's knocked you down a few health, he can then try to move in and outrun you.

So, two questions:
1) Is there a better anti-bunching strategy? Is it dependent on army build?
2) Is there a rules fix that could lessen the impact of this strategy?

We tried an army size restriction in the CWC in which no one army of any player could end the turn with more than 1/2 the original army size in that army. (Kin did not count for this.) This forced everyone to be a little more aggressive, since you couldn't even keep more than 1/2 your original army in reserves. It did make it harder for a player who was down to regroup, however. I'm not suggesting this as a DD rule, but would like to see some fix to the "defensive turtle" strategy (which afflicts games other than DD, but I'm not going there.)

[chuckpint]

I think it's very heavily dependent on army build. If you have an army rich in gold magic, a very good strategy is to get an eighth, then put them all there. When the next person turns a terrain up to 7, then you path a few high maneuver units over, and Rock to Mud the other army(s). Take your second march, out-maneuver the others, and you win. This is called a "Path to Victory". A variation on this is the "Flood to Victory". You get an eighth, but someone else has one as well. You Rock to Mud the other army at an eighth, cast a Flash Flood (turning it down to 7), and Path a unit or two over. Second march, out-maneuver the others and you win. Having Fly, Rend or Trample (or other SAI maneuver) in your army stops this (usually). Wind Walks on your eighth face army also stop this.

However, that assumes that you're trying to win with 2 eighth faces. If it's a tournament game, and all you need is the most health in play, then you just pull all your army into one place and kill as much as you can of the others. If you then bury as well, then you're guaranteed the win. So all you need are armies that can cast a lot of offensive magic. And with your army "all bunched up" it's harder to hurt you.

How to fix this? Well first you have to convince me it's broken. It's just another way to play the game. I have yet to see a totally winnable strategy. Every strategy has its weakness.

[ddicerc]

It's not that it's a "broken" strategy, it just, well, makes for some tedious games. In friendlies you can scenario-rule it away. I guess I'm not really upset about tournament use, since tournament armies will tend to be more specialized and particular-strategy oriented. I'm sure if I play in a regular tournament event I'm just as likely to play Canadian as anyone else. I've played a number of games in which a "sit everyone down and wait for the other guy to attack" is a viable, and even a very strong, strategy. The problem is there's no incentive in some of those games for anyone to move at all. At least in DD if you all squat and shoot or zap, sooner or later someone's going to get the lucky roll that gives them the edge they need. (Try original Mage Knight for a game that gave no incentive to attack-they had to fix that one over the next couple of expansions.)

[Deeghter]

Actually I can't see anything bad about this Canadian style tactics except that it might get boring. But who stops you from pulling back your melee specialized army into reserves and move them to your "Canadian's" home terrain to beat the s.... out of his army??
If he pulls back into reserves then, then he won't be any danger anymore (if he doesn't play Amazons, of course!).
Well, I know it's not easy but I think it's the only way to spoil that Canadian style playing!?

What do you think?
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[slcobbs]

I have the perfect army to stop this turtling as I call it or Canadian styles. However, I'm not going to post it until after Gencon. Which is where I plan on playing this army. SO, I'll post the details then along with how the army performs.

Scott C

[MikeD]

I saw Canadian strategy in play at Origins as well, and have an idea or two to try at GENCON as well. That's the great thing about Dragon Dice, there always seems to be a counter strategy, and you don't have to spend a bunch of cash on a few dice to win either.
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Michael DeZearn
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[ddicerc]

One way to stop Canadian play is with another Canadian army. Jonathan wrecked Robert's Canadian Pelters on the frontier by bunching his whole Leopard Rider/Troll army, with some brutal results.

Joe also used an interesting strategy against a Canadian army (I forget which event): He kept Pathing a single unit to an unoccupied terrain, turning it up one, then retreating. Eventually that dislodges at least part of the Canadian army, unless of course they want to lose.
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Steve "DDice" Braun
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2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[slcobbs]

[dead_mike]

[slcobbs]

Were there any spells and/or strategies in particular that you were worried about while using this army (like heavy counter-attack SAIs in the defending army, or even a scalder save-heavy defending army)?[/quote]

There were many spells and strategies I had to worry about.

1. Lots of Counter SAI in the army
2. Blue Magic = Lightning Strike
3. Feral Hide & Wind Walk combination

In fact John Monnett beat me with an all Frostwing army. Blue magic just hurts if you don't roll well.

Scott C

[Deeghter]