What Makes A Winning Game?

From: Thomas John Bress 
To: fm-users@gamerz.net 
Date: Friday, November 07, 1997 11:00 PM
Subject: What makes a winning game?
What makes a winning game? That is a very good question. I believe that there are many keys to excelling on Firetop Mountain.

Flexibility

You have to be flexible in your strategy. I remember my first exposure to Firetop Mountain. I read the rules, looked at the spell list and saw that if you could cast permanent amnesia on your opponent you could finish him off at your leisure. I was convinced that no one had thought of this before so I was determined to try it out in my first battle. I opened P S. Might as well go for Permanancy right away, I figured. My opponent hit me with amnesia on turn 3 and that was the end of that plan.

I like to think of gestures as beads on two strings. Each bead is part of a pattern and hopefully is part of overlapping spells and threats of spells. The mage with the better pattern should be the winner. Breaking the pattern should not be done lightly. This theory explains some of my opinions on good strategy:

  1. Stabbing frequently is bad strategy, it disrupts your patterns.
  2. The short mind control spells should be used frequently (they break your opponent's patterns and can be incorporated into your own patterns).
  3. Monsters are effective because they put your opponent into a defensive pattern, not because of the damage they cause. Think about it, how much damage do your monsters usually do to your opponent? Probably not much, but you can prepare some nasty offensive spells while your opponent is worrying about your monster.
  4. The big damage spells (storms, fireball, lightning bolts) must be used carefully because they are difficult to blend into your patterns. They end in claps or repeated D's so you tend to lose connectivity and initiative when you complete them.
  5. Invisibility and blindness are good because your pattern is hidden from your opponent.

This list could be longer, but I just wanted to emphasize that you need to take the long view when you play FM. It is a little like pool. Good players can sink the balls in the pockets, great players also make sure that the cue ball ends up in a position that lets them sink another ball on the next shot. Connectivity and flexibility are key.

Spellcasting and Shadowcasting

FM has a strong element of bluffing, I like to call it shadow casting. A big part of FM success is being able to predict what your opponent will do. Usually you have perfect information, you see all of your opponent's gestures and he can see yours. Outside of blindness and invisibility, the only way to make it difficult for your opponent to guess your battle plan is to cast shadows at him. "Shadowcasting" means you start a spell, try to make your opponent commit to a defense, and switch in midspell to something else. It can also mean threatening multiple targets with one or more spells in a single turn. In either case you try to make your opponent counter the shadow instead of the actual spell. A classic ploy is to use one hand to cast DS. Your opponent reacts to the threat of Confusion and you continue with DSP, continuing to anti spell. By switching spells and leaving multiple threats and targets you can keep your opponent off balance.

Here is an example from a game I played a while ago. In the first four turns my opponent summoned an ogre and I hit him with anti spell. I continued to SPFPSD. Now my opponent only had two hands so he could only mount two defensive spells. But I now threatened to complete Permanancy on myself, Charm Monster on the ogre, and Charm Person on my opponent. Three spells with three targets, plus the attack I was mounting with my other hand! There was no way my opponent could defend against all of them so he was forced to guess my intentions. In another game I was summoning a giant: 

RH: ...WFPSF
LH: .....WSS
My opponent cast counter spell on me to prevent the summoning but I took a chance and clapped and summoned an ice storm instead. My opponent's counter spell protected me while he froze.

Shadowcasting can give you a chance at escaping FoD when all seems lost. Here is a situation from a past game where my opponent really had my back against the wall: 

Opponent:
RH: PWPFS
LH: FFFFF

Me:
RH: ..PSD
LH: ..WPP
I had just cast counter spell on myself so I was not paralyzed. My opponent saw that I was threatening Charm Person so decided to paralyze himself to cancel it. I continued on with RH W, LH W and went invisible one turn before the FoD could be completed. This plan had the added benefit that if my opponent guessed what I was up to and paralyzed me instead of himself the paralyzed hand would be P and I could still surrender before the FoD was completed.

Momentum and Initiative

The great thing about FM is that each player submits his moves simultaneously. This does no prevent initiative from being a key factor, though. As a game unfolds one player or the other will build momentum and will have the initiative. This allows him to be on the offense and puts the other player on the defense. The defensive player MUST take back the initiative if he wants to win the game. It is often worthwhile to allow your opponent to damage you or summon a monster if you can use the opportunity to grab the initiative. As mentioned above, damage spells end in claps or two D's and so they tend to make you lose momentum. Monsters, especially the big ones, can also make you lose initiative because you now have to protect them from being charmed. If you have a troll on the board and your opponent casts PSD you have to decide whether to protect yourself from Charm Person or the troll from Charm Monster.

Style and Strategy

One of the things that I like about FM is that different players have different styles. There are different ways you can approach this game, here are a few samples:
  1. Maximum Carnage: Offense is key, you try to inflict maximum damage quickly
  2. Monster Mash: You try to summon lots of monsters to keep your opponent occupied while you cook up a potent offense
  3. Trickery: You don't go for damage at all, you try to hit the opponent with FoD, Disease, Poison, Permanent Amnesia or the like.
  4. Weather Wizardry: Build up resistance and go for storms and elementals (This happens more often in Melees than in Duels).
  5. The Wall: Play defensively and wait for your opponent to leave you an opening.
  6. Perpetual Paralysis: Basically one-handed play, both players end up using one hand for perpetual paralysis.
  7. The Ninja: Player's main goal is to keep opponent off balance through confusion, amnesia, fear, blindness, invisibility, etc. and attacks at leisure.
Most players have a preferred style or styles (mine is a combination of Trickery and The Wall), but you need to be able to defend against all of them if you want to succeed on Firetop Mountain. Initiative and momentum come into play here as well. A particular game will often switch between styles as the momentum shifts between the opponents. The player who uses their momentum to establish the game in the style they like best will often be the winner.

Have you noticed that there are some players you can beat consistently while there are other players, perhaps with lower scores, that can beat you most of the time? I believe that this is an issue of style as well as of basic ability. If your opponent has a style that is similar to yours then it will be a test of ability alone. But if his style happens to be one that you are not adept at defending against then he will likely beat you if he can establish the game in his style. For example, if you like Trickery but detest monsters you will be in trouble if your opponent puts you on the defensive with an ogre and a troll on the board. One of the keys to being successful on Firetop Mountain is being flexible enough to adapt your style of play to that of your opponent. You cannot go into a game with a fixed style or fixed battle plan. Your opponent probably won't behave exactly the way you would wish him to! Your goal should be to grab the initiative as soon as you can and THEN try to establish the game in your favorite style.

In summary, my answer to "What makes a winning game?" is that it takes flexibility of style, continuity of gesture, a good sense of timing, and the ability to cast shadows as well as spells. It may seem like a tall order, but that is what keeps me coming back to Firetop Mountain.

Martin Gregory
Last modified: Sat Jun 20 21:55:59 CST 1998