question about gameplay

[spadman]

I am new to card based games and have only now downloaded the demo. (am deciding if this is the kind of game for me) I am wondering if anyone has done an AAR of a game to show the decisions of cards chosen during dogfight and why they chose that particular card. Right now I am just picking card in yellow just to see what happens but am not really understanding what is happening behind the scene. I suppose it would have helped to play this game with the real cards to better understand. Any help is appreciated. I saw the review and story at the end of Computer Gaming Magazine and that is what intrigued me to give it a try.

spadman

[Guest Mike]

I did see something like this on here a while ago IIRC - I'll have a look.

Edit - have a look

here

My own experience is that it takes a while to get used to the inter-relationships between the cards - when to use a tight turn instead of a barrell roll, and whether to try to avoid that 2:2 with your last Ace Pilot card when he's got 5 cards and 3 bursts left but you've only got 3 structure......

I tend to follow a few simple rules when I can remember them.....

1/ When avoiding fire there are 4 levels of card - the most common is barrel roll, then tight turn, vertical roll and ace pilot getting rareer.

The more structure I would have left if I was hit then the "lower" the level of card I'll use initially. I'll sometimes use a higher level card to avoid smoking.

2/ I'll usually take 1:1's "on the chin" - again as long as I'll have lots of structure left.

3/ The ore cards my target has the more likely he is to be able to avoid my fire, so I'll often try to soak up some of his defensive cards with 1:1 or 1:2 cards before unleashing a 2:d or 3:4 "killer".

4/ 1:2 cards are probably the most lethal ones there are - they can take up a lot of space in your hand but can also give you 2 hits per burst - nasty!

5/ Do play "tight turn" against an agile opponent trying to manouvre, all other things being equal - sure he can always use agility to scissor you, but that's still a card he has to use up.

6/ Cards and horsepower are life. Try to keep an advantage in both - when following an enemy diving or climbing don't do so if you will lose so many cards you'll be at a substantial disadvantage when you get there!

Conversely do climb if you're enemy is on your flank or tail and you have more cards than him, or zoom climb & he doesn't, or if he has lower HP than you - you'll be relatively better off at high altitude. Having 1 hp when your opponent has 0 hp is quite a nice feeling!

And lots more.....but you should go and play it more!

[bartbert]

Remember that if you can't remember what a particular does, you can always right-click on it to get a pop-up description of the card, how it is used, and it's rarity.

As noted above, there can be a lot to consider when deciding what cards to play, or even IF you should play a card. Just because you can play a card doesn't mean you necessarily should.

[Sixxkiller]

Hi Spadman,

First off let me explain that I had never even heard of DIF the card game before I saw it on the Battlefront site. So it would be awesome for you to go pick up the card game after you buy this game, but its not important to playing the computer version.

I do not have time at present to play and do an AAR for you, but I will if you give me a few hours with the girlfriend i will. But just for the time being, I will run through the deck of cards and the "plays" to help you to become more familiar with the game mechanics.

Maneuvering= a card to get your enemy into an advantaged or tailed position. Can be countered with Ace Pilot or Tight Turn.

Tight Turn. Can be used to fight a manuver card or to counter an IMS (In my sight) offensive card. Can be trumped by a siccsors card.

IMS1:1 IMS1:2 IMS2:2 IMS2:2 IMS2:3 and IMS3:4 and IMS: Destroyed Cards are offensive and the first number in say IMS(1) states the position the enemy needs to be in order for you to play this card. The position 1 is Neutral (where you are facing head on to enemy). Position 2 is Advantaged (or when you are facing and the enemy has his side to you). Position 3 is Tailing (or where you are facing the enemys tail) IMS cards can be played according to the planes BURST rating. So some planes can play a IMS2:2 card while not being in the advantaged position.

IMS cards can be countered by tight turn, barrel roll, vertical roll, or ace pilot.

sicssors cards are used for turning a disadvantaged position into an advantaged one. So lets say you have the enemy facing your side, then on your offensive turn, you can play this card and you will end up being the advantaged one.

Sicssors cards can be used also to trump an enemy playing a tight turn card. So lets say you use a manuver card and the enemy plays a tight turn to counter you, you can use sicssors to trump his tight turn card.

Barrel roll is a card that can be played to counter an enemy shooting at you with an IMS card. Can be trumped by an ace card.

vertical roll is used to change altitude 1 level in either up or down direction. This is the coolest card in the game in my opinion. You can for example at medium height dive 1 level at the start of your turn. Then if you play the vertical roll card you can dive one more level down, or go back up to the height you were (medium in this case). This is done to pick up cards through the dive for you and can in certain situations take cards away from the enemy.

This card can also avoid being hit by an IMS or an OTS (Out of the Sun). I will explain OTS next but the Vertical Roll and Ace Pilot cards are the only cards that can be used to counter the OTS. Barrel rolls do not.

OTS1:2 OTS2:3 OTS3:4 are pretty much the best offensive cards seeing as they cant be countered by regular tught turn and barrel roll cards. Plus they are the best graphic in the game when they are played.

Half Loop are like super sicssors cards except you can play them in neutral or any situation where you are disadvantaged or tailed. Can only be countered by Ace Pilot cards.

Ace pilot are the best cards in the game. They can counter any card played in either offensive or defensive situations.

Hope this helps. I will try to do a tutorial for you if you have any other questions.

Welcome to the game Spadman

-Ray

[spadman]

Thanks guys for your quick responses. I will admit some of your wording still seems greek to me as I do not understand some of the concepts such as this comment

This is done to pick up cards through the dive for you and can in certain situations take cards away from the enemy

That does not make sense to me how you could take cards away from the enemy as it seems to me you both get cards because you are going lower.

Stalin and Mant, you can be sure I have printed out your comments for playing out through the next game.

Thanks again and if you have time for an AAR sometime in the future let me know.

[spadman]

BTW, is there a way to digitally download the whole game? I probably would have bought it already if there was a way to get it immediately.

[Sixxkiller]

No problem Spadman. I will do the AAR tomorrow and let you see it. You just need to play a bit and this all wont be Greek to you my friend.

And in case you havent played many Battlefront games, people are always willing to help here. Its a rather big community now but there are still great people that will always take time to explain even the smallest question. Remember an online game is only as good as the people that play it. DIF is lucky in that it has more than its fair share of great people who play. And you may not know it yet, but the developers of this game are always reading these boards and are even online to play the customers occasionally. No other game companies do that with such regularity.

And if it sounds like I am a walking advertisement, well I am. If this wasnt such a solid game I wouldnt waste my time here. After you get the hang of it you should try the Campaign included in the demo. Thats the meat of this game. And soon there will be many more campaigns to come.

Ok well I will post the AAR for you sometime in the afternoon 10 november.

-Ray

[Fenrir]

The site wargamer.com has a excellent AAR, written by Dan Verssen and an beta tester, just do a search of their articles and you should find it.

This is how i first heard about the game. And i've been hooked since the beta demo came out.

[spadman]

Thanks MantaRay I would appreciate that very much. Today is my day off so I will look for it later this afternoon. I played it for about two hours last night with some of your helps laid out before. Still have to look to remember what the HP and other parts of the planes stand for and what they mean in the game. Lights are starting to come on.

Fenrir, I will also look for that AAR. Thanks

[Sixxkiller]

Hi spad. I have played the game and took the screenshots (42 of them hehe). i still need to cut the size of them down as they average 2.25MB per and when I convert them to Jpeg files they are still quite big at 75kb but better than 2.25mb hehe.

Its more of a during action report haha. I have invented a new term.

Anyway the girlfriend needs the computer for her computer science class today so she will have it all day, but I will go to the library a bit later and write it up for you. Wont be a visually appealing experience for you but it was a decent game to show you some stuff and why NOT to do some stuff hehe.

Anyway I will do it as fast as I can but it will take some time. I will link it here when I am done.

-Ray

[Guest Mike]

Originally posted by spadman:

Thanks guys for your quick responses. I will admit some of your wording still seems greek to me as I do not understand some of the concepts such as this comment </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />This is done to pick up cards through the dive for you and can in certain situations take cards away from the enemy

That does not make sense to me how you could take cards away from the enemy as it seems to me you both get cards because you are going lower.

</font>

[spadman]

I am beginning to see some of the things that are being talked about. I even beat the AI the last two times I played. Which probably is not saying much compared to human players but I had lost five straight before that. Of course I also noticed that I was playing with some tired pilots.

[bartbert]

Yes, you really need to watch out for pilot fatigue. You are allowed to create up to four sets of pilots per nationality. When one set of pilots are flying, all the others of that same nationality are "resting" and recovering fatigue, so rotate through your pilots to keep them fresh.

[ChuckK]

I suppose I need to suck-it-up and go read the .pdf manual, but I need some help.

In the last couple of games my leader has been advantaged or trailing the AI leader and none of the in-my-sights cards in my hand turned yellow during my turn. I don't think I had an offensive maneuver card to play but I don't understand why I couldn't just open fire on the plane I apparently had the drop on. We were at the same attitude if I'm remembering correctly.

Thanks! -Chuck

[bartbert]

Every In My Sights (IMS) and Out of the Sun (OTS) card has two important values: Bursts and Damage.

Every aircraft is also rated with a Burst value (usually 0 or 1, but a few have 2). Leaders can improve their aircraft's burst rating temporarily by getting an improved position (+1 for advantaged and +3 for Tailing).

So, you have to compare the burst value of the aircraft (modified for position) to the burst value of the card in order to determine whether the card can be played. If the burst value of the aircraft is equal to or greater than the burst value of the card, then you can play it.

Also, the burst value of the aircraft is "expended" as you play cards with a burst.

For example, if your aircraft had a base burst rating of 1 and he was tailing the enemy leader, then he would have a total burst rating of 4 (3 + 1). If he then played an IMS 2-Burst:2-Damage card, he would have used up 2 of his available 4 bursts. He could then play another 2-Burst card, or two 1-Burst cards, but he could not play a 3-Burst card.

There is a wingman skill called "Spoil Aim" which casues the enemy leader's burst value to be reduced by 1. So in the above situation, the tailing leader's total burst rating would be 3 (1 + 3 - 1) if the enemy wingman had the Spoil Aim skill.

I don't know what the particular circumstances were for you in the games you were playing, but I suspect that you had high value burst cards (probably 3-Burst) and weren't able to play them because you didn't have the burst rating for your aircraft.

[Sixxkiller]

A better way to do it may be a color key. Just have 3 colors on the map segment and a key in the unused portion of the web page. Then no problem with sight problems.

-Ray

[spadman]

Well, I would say I am hooked. Am planning on buying the game come payday.

Hey Manta Ray, I am anxiously awaiting your AAR. Are you still planning on doing one?

[BremerWeltmeister]

I am making a AAR about one game, I am posting now the first part, I have to study now so I would try to finish it tomorrow. It is my first AAR so be nice

I have only the demo so the battle was my P40N versus Tonys of the AI, all the pilots were complete rookies.

I start at very low, while the japanese AI starts at medium, has the first turn and dives to low.

"We spotted 2 japanese airplanes at our 9 o'clock high, probably Tonys. They spotted us at the same time and started to dive at us."

My leader had a hand of one barrel roll, one in my sights 1:1, two in my sights 1:2, one in my sights 3:3, two maneuvering and one tight turn. I climbed to low and discarded the IMS 3:3.

I attacked with my leader their wingman and fired the IMS 1:1, which was not countered.

The wingman is now down from 3 ok 3 damaged to 2 ok 3 damaged, which means that he needs 2 more hits to be damaged and 5 more to be destroyed.

"We climbed up to engage them, and I fired a short burst at maximum range against one of them, which made a lucky hit, but no apparent damage was seen."

Now I played my both maneuvring cards against the wingman to fire my both remaining 1:2 cards, and both of the cards were not countered.

With the 2 extra bursts for the maneuvres I fired both the 1:2 cards, which were again not countered. (apparently has the wingman drawn only offensive cards, not an single defensive.)

After the first 1:2 the wingman was down from 2 ok 3 damaged to 0 ok 3 damaged, which means an smoking plane and lower performance and horsepower. The second burst lowered him to 0 ok 1 damaged, which means that the next hit is going to destroy the plane for sure.

"The jap was disorganized after my hit, and I could use the initiative go get in an good firing position and fire 2 short, precise bursts at him. Both hit him in the left wing, and they destroyed one of his coolants, which was smoking and forcing him to lower speeds. Additionaly was his wing structure all shot apart. The .50 cals are excellent weapons."

I end my turn and draw a IMS 2:2, a IMS 3:3 and an maneuvring, additionally I had one barrel roll and one tight turn from the first round left.

The enemy turn begins, and the wingman fires a IMS 1:1 at me, which I let pass.

"As I zoomed over the damaged plane, it fired on short burst and hit me with some stray rounds, but made no serious damage."

The japanese leader now joins the fun and tries to use a maneuvering against my leader to get in an advantaged position, but I couter it with a tight turn.

"The other enemy now tried to get in a firing position, but I was able to shake him with a tight turn."

Then the leader fires an out of the sun 1:2, an burst card which is more difficult to counter. (A vertical roll or the rare ace pilot is needed)

I have not one if those cards, and so the 1:2 in conjunction with the wingmans 1:1 bring me down from 4 ok 3 damaged to 1 ok 3 damaged.

"After the turn I lost the japanese, only to discover that he hid in the sun from me. He came in fast from 2 o'clock, fired an short burst at my engine which was hit and was running rough, but I could not notice an loss in performance."

My turn began again and I attacked with my wingman his wingman to finish him off. I drew an IMS 1:2 and a scissors, so I fired the 1:2. He countered with a tight turn, but fortunaletly (for me) the tight turn is countered by the scissors. He took 2 damage points, and his plane could not even withstand one single point, so he went "down in flames". The unfortunate pilot could not bail out and was killed.

"I ordered Jimmy to attack the damaged plane and told him about the battered left wing. As he closed distance the jap was trying to turn hard to the left, but this only fastened his demise. Jimmy was able to scissor him and fire a precise snap shot at the now exposed wing, which was ripped away and send the plane down in a spin of death. The pilot was able to eject the canopy, but he could not jump out due to the high gravitional forces. He was killed as the plane exploded in a fireball on the ground."