PWP: The Do's and Dont's of 2v2 Battles

WSNPP: PWP #1 – The D&Ds of 2v2 battles

Welcome to the second edition of PWP guides and just to clarify something. PP as the end of WSNPP does not stand for ‘Puzzle Pirates’, as my friend keeps suggesting to be a pain, and that the title does not suggest that I will be talking about ‘Dungeons and Dragons’.

This edition is about the Do’s and Don’ts of 2v2 battles. This guide won’t be about game mechanics to use in 2v2 battles rather, it’s about teamwork. Teamwork, the wonders it can do. So many tactics that can be utilised and so many people lack this. Believe it or don’t believe it however please note that one player telling the other what to do is not teamwork... >.< Thou’ shalt be a “ “ (Put whatever insult you want in the quotations ;P)

Well moving along, I know many get that frustration when their teammates turn out to really bad when they say that they’re pro and I got that 2 times today, yay. Regardless of that both players on the same team should communicate with each other and work together as a team. Shouting, ordering and being annoying can definitely break a team in half, decreasing chances of winning.

Something that comes up every now and then is a raging teammate since you took a village in the middle of the map. Why does he rage? Because apparently that one village is closer to his side of the map therefore he is the only one allowed to take it and after 2 turns one of his units capture the village... yay finally. Now that is just some insane reasoning and it is pretty hard to deal with people like them.

That being the overview I’ll list the Do’s and Don’ts:

Dosss:

- Communicate with your teammate

- Discuss tactics

- Cover and help each other

- Give advice when need be but do it in a friendly way

- Control your temper

Don’ts:

- Yell at your partner

- Order your partner around

- Insult your partner

(Feel free to add more to the list)

Now on to the actual reason of this guide: D&D’s on tactics of 2v2 games.

Generally you and your teammate would want to support each other all the time: if one player is attacking the other player should also help by protecting flanks, supporting your friend with healers/ leadership bonuses etc, help trap the enemy or defending your occupied territory.

In a 2v2 it is much easier to pull off ZoC defences as you have larger amounts of troops to cover the field as well as cycling units from the front line. Villages are of great use in 2v2’s as well 1v1’s. Not only can you get gold from the villages but you can use them as a bait to lure away a few guys protecting your main target which should be the Opponent’s leader.

Builds in 2v2’s tend to be a whole lot different than 1v1’s. There isn’t the real need to have a well-rounded force rather it might be better to have one player spam horseman as a special strike force whilst the other teammate spam defensive units as support and cover.

It also depends on the race of yourself and your teammate. A good combination would be a lawful race and a chaotic race for you’ll have players good at both night and day however you might not have large amounts of firepower needed compared to two chaotic or lawful races. However since healer abilities and leadership abilities are not affected players can send them to support and buff the main attacking army during night or day.

Combinations don’t have to have at least 1 chaotic and lawful race rather it is sometimes better to have two lawful/ neutral or chaotic races. Elves and Knagllans are a good combination since elves, versatile they are with their level 1 healers, high defence on forests and well rounded melee/ranged units are good support for attacking dwarves with their strength and defence. Whilst the dwarves may be slow the elves cover that aspect for them and whilst elves aren’t particularly good at dealing pounds of damage in a turn, dwarves cover that aspect.

There are many other combinations but overall you want two races that have advantages covering each other’s weaknesses. Each race is balanced itself but I find that having two different races (orc/undead) is better than just having the same one for both players (loyalists/loyalists). However in some cases when playing a random race you and your teammate will both get the same race, so what do you do?

Well the most simplest approach would be to just recruit normally as you would for that race however for maximum potential have you and your teammate discuss what he/she will concentrate on (pierce/slash melee) and what you will concentrate (magic/ranged pierce/ water units) etc. This way you can both build a more specialised army that can save money in some cases (depending on your race). When playing a 2v2, consider each other’s races and determine what each person should do. Dwarves are epic on mountains so get your knagllan player to take the mountain sides and hold those positions.

Elves are good in forests so get them to ambush sites or chokepoints with forests to snipe with their bows. Most maps are balanced so you’ll find that half of your army may be on your friend’s side and vice versa. This is alright so don’t freak out, rather it’s the best outcome you can get. Balanced maps will have a certain amount of trees and mountains on each side. If you have say 3 mountain terrain hexes and 3 forest terrain hexes on your side but 6 dwarves than half your army is not fighting at its true potential. The same would go with our Elven friend, thus having 3 dwarves on your side and 3 on your friend’s side will allow you to both maximise your unit’s potential. Nice and long hey? I hope this helps and I apologise for any spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors.

Next Edition - Edition #2: Auxiliary Build Orders

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