We've talked a lot about the game "Myachi Fu" on this blog before, but if you need a quick refresher, here's an article I wrote on the basic rules and strategies of the game. That little introduction gives you the basic concept, but it occurred to me today that my strategy guides have thus far been sorely lacking for one big reason: They all deal only with one on one games.
This struck we today as I was playing a big game against CMC, Unknown, S. Master, Shadow and Shadow's little brother who does not yet have a Myachi name. The strategies that you use in a one player came can be downright dangerous in a "Gladiator" style, everyone vs. everyone battle. The strategy shifts even more if you play on teams (which we did not do today).
After the game I found myself thinking about a few new strategic considerations for these types of games so I thought I'd share them with you:
- Keep Your Myachi Close. In a one on one battle you have the luxury of always being able to hold your Myachi away from your opponent, but in a multi-player bout this isn't always possible. When you find yourself surrounded by opponents you'll want to keep your Myachi close to your body, something you almost never do in a one on one bout.
- Get lost in the crowd. If you're facing off against aggressive opponents you might find that by playing strict defense for a little while you can gain an advantage just by letting your opponents gain strikes against each other. Of course, this can work against you as well. This strategy backfires if everyone uses it.
- Keep an Escape Route Open. Obviously the goal is to avoid getting cornered at all costs. You always want to keep an open escape route, but it's more important to keep from getting caught between two opponents so very often you'll find yourself with nowhere to go. That puts you at a serious disadvantage because now somebody can really challenge you without leaving their Myachi open for a strike. Whenever possible, make sure you have room to back away if you lose your advantage.
- Don't Focus on One Opponent. Your instinct in Fu is often to be relentless when you gain an advantage. If you have your opponent backing away, it's tempting to keep charging and in a one on one game, that's usually the best thing to do. But in a multi-player match you can't risk focusing all your attention on one player for too long. When you see bad defense, be aggressive, but if you don't get that strike in the first few seconds, be sure to assess the whole battlefield before trying to push it much farther. If not, you won't even see the next attack coming.
- Look for Locked Battles. This is really just the flipside of the last point. In addition to avoiding it yourself, look for opponents making this same mistake. Often people will get locked into mini one on one games in the midst of a larger battle and that's usually the easiest place to find a strike. If one player is focused on another and their back is to you, that's a good time to remind them to pay attention.
- Know Where Everyone Is. A multi-player battle is usually won by the most attentive player. Awareness of the whole field is an enormous advantage. In many games, more than half of the successful attacks will be totally unexpected. If you know that somebody is coming up behind you and they don't know you know, you can easily turn their advantage into yours.
- Know how many strikes each player has. In the same way you want to know where everyone is, you want to stay aware of how far along in the game they are. A player who is strikeless late in a game will be inclined to be more aggressive feeling like they have a strike to spare. A person with two strikes against them already will be far more likely to be playing hard defense.
- Avoid the Middle. In a one on one match, gaining the middle of the battlefield and holding it is vital, but in a multi-player match the middle becomes a dangerous place. Moving through the center of the marked out battlefield will be necessary and can be done safely, but you don't want to hang out there too long. Knowing where people are doesn't do you much good if they're everywhere.
- Control Every Motion. This also becomes more important in a multi-player game. In a one on one match you can often throw exaggerated Slashes, Verts or Fus because your hand is away from your opponent, but when their are multiple threats you'll want to shorten every motion you can. Your moves should be crisp, quick and planned.
- Watch for Predictable Patterns. If you're watching carefully enough, you'll notice patterns in your opponents motion that you can take advantage of. Suppose you notice that one player always spins left with his Myachi in his right hand when he's attacked. If you know that, you can position yourself to be in a great spot next time somebody looks ready to attack him. Everyone tends to favor one direction or the other when they escape so this may come in handy more often than you think.
- Use Teamwork. Obviously we're not talking about a team game here, but there will still be times when it's worth it for you to form a temporary alliance with another player or two. Imagine, for example, that you're in a four player game and two people have two strikes, you have only one and the fourth player still hasn't dropped at all. It would be in everyone's interest to attack the unscathed player in a coordinated fashion and it would be in your best interest to point that out. It's nearly impossible to successfully defend a 3 way attack so this will almost always work to even the game out if anyone notices the discrepancy.
Obviously a lot more could be written on this subject. But this is where I'm leaving off for now and I hope that all of our loyal readers will continue the conversation in the comments section below by offering some advice that they've learned in their multi-player games.
Keep in mind that I'm not really touching on "Battle" style (team games) in this so perhaps that will merit another article in the future.
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