Those who dont thibk there is any skill or strategy in playing this “match 3” game move on - this topic is not for you.
For everyone else lets share strategies on how you actually play the board. There are many resources on choosing the right team but very little on the main part of the game. Some of it is instinctive some is basic but i think there are a lot of nuances that newer players in particular wont know. Let me start off with a few
different players play differently. There is better play and there is worse play but there is also a certain style of play each player develops, for exanple more big bang or more conservative. It is useful to identify what your style is and the reasons behind it
your board management needs to change based on your team, opponent team and the type of battle. A passive tank generally means you can dump tiles in the center, trying to get as many combos as possivble. With Rainbow teams you are also generally trying to hit as many combos as possible. But a heavy stacking team requires you to be more precise especially if facing fast mana defenders.
make moves based on your mana breakpoints. Oh teams where i have 10 and 7 tile heroes i often try to make 4 tile matches as early as possible and instead of many other on the surface better matches in order to set me up for later. Where i have 9 and 6 tile heroes i actiively avoid 4 tile matches as it often messes up the combos i need to hit those thresholds. It is super important to know your mana thresholds and count tiles and count your tiles
watch out for sorceror class talents sneaking up on your heroes. If you see it happen it may be worth putting off a tile match for 2 turns. Falling just short of your mana threshold on a key herl because of this will lose you games
time specials. Use the correct sequence of sepcials. Take educated risks about when to cast. Its often ok to hold specials - dont think of “wasted tiles”. Think what you want to.achieve and what your window is to achieve it
gsnerally if you want more board changes work from the top and if you want minimal impact work from the bottom. Similarly in regards to working vertically vs horizontally
consider very carefully whether you want to set off diamonds. Is a cascade likely to work for you or hinder you? It may make sense to get one more 3 match, use a special then set off the diamond to charge again. Be especially careful of diamonds in rush
if you dont have a pretaunter invest in one. At 1 aether shrub is the best investment you can make in the game. It allows you to dump into a multi hit tank. Especially useful in tourneys and rush but also useful against fast and average tanks in any format
dont be lazy and understand opppnent specials and passives. An unplanned for dispel will lose you the game. Also understand enemy speeds and how to interpret the mana bar so you can gauge as closely as possible how many tiles before an enemy special is set off
If possible i go rainbow. But use any comvination between mono and rainbow, with a preference for less stacking.
In wars on ny ftp account i tend to stack heavily from teams 2 to 6 due to a lack of roster depth
This particular comment caught my attention because, as someone who routinely stacked 4/1 (due to severe roster limitations), I would trigger diamonds and the other special tile (which I’ve forgotten) in an effort to clear dead tiles as fast as possible.
I’m aware you prefer rainbow lineups, but any thoughts on that approach to colour stacked board play?
In general, unless you depend on tile -damage, the goal is to maximize your mana while minimizing opponent mana, so cascades often mean death if you haven’t got your defense up. Pick carefully, choosing whom to set off. Sometimes it is very important to set one hero of THIS turn, to avoid him firing together with that other one next turn…
Of course, there is balance, and if targets will fire anyway, that is where I focus tiles.
I often work back from my main target, which moves can I make to make that happen, and how far back do I want to go in regards to how many tiles are acceptable to send.
Tiles give diminishing return on mana on opponent, so sometimes better to fire many on one target in one turn rather than spending more turns
In short; If the tiles you need are in the board, move as little as possible to get them, if they are not, move as much as possible on minimal total mana-generation for the opponent
Diminishing returns are especially felt on slow heroes - if they are low on mana a huge cascade wont set them off. A fast hero on the other side will likely still be set off
Having a strategy in terms of which specials to fire first is vital if not stacking heavily. This may be influenced by the starting board but generally you dont want to try to get some tiles in all colors but rather the necessary tiles in one colors (there are exceptions).
In this example with the starting board i saw an opportunity to fire felton before hippo and before ludwig so all of my tile movements were focused on getting 3 yellow matches.
Based on the board i could have instead focused on getting loko to copy ludwig, c sabina yo negate hippo and ludwig or (less desirable) bonecrusher to take out ludwig.
Note timing is also super important. Once i fired felton i knew i could force ludwig to fire but i also considered that hippo would (most likely) fire on the 3rd turn. I would have held him otherwise and moved tiles (not into ludwig) until appropriate
Not sure why you deleted the post but firing off off color diamonds is a very valid strategy when stacking in order to get more of your color. I will in fact often take the opportunity to create those off color diamonds in favor of matching my colors, unless i know i have enough of my color to fire my specials.
As always though you have to weigh up risk vs reward. I usually try to stack heavily either vs a passive tank or when i have shrub to absorb the tanks first hit - either way i buy myself more time to get my color which may include firing off the wrong color diamonds
Sausage fingers here, thinking about an edit and got it wrong.
I thought I’d highlight an “aggressive” style of board play as it is valid, albeit extremely feast or famine in it’s returns. Plus I am genuinely curious as to how that approach sits with someone like yourself, who is generally much more circumspect in his approach.
An interesting thread you’ve got going here, in my opinion.
It might be good to put together some stuff on how to play a “bad” starting board. It always amazed me how some players with fantastic heroes used to lose all the time in alliance wars because of bad boards (back when I was in an alliance ). I am sure most of them just gave up when they saw the starting board and threw tiles wherever until they lost, before ranting about it afterwards.
When moving tiles, I try to calculate the approximate chances of getting what I need. Sometimes there are two decent moves and the larger probability wins.
In the example above, I have a 20% (1 out of 5) chance at getting a red tile in the center of the column, creating a diamond.
I have a 40% of making that diamond next turn if a red tile replaces the top or bottom of that column (20% + 20%).
Edit: Bold incorrect info on top. Bad math below and can be ignored.
There is also the chance (20%) that the top of the column is yellow, allowing me to combo into another opportunity for a diamond. There’s also the slight chance that all three tiles come up yellow, creating a diamond. Etc.
Overall, my chances are more than 60% to create a diamond next turn, moving the green tile left.
I think you are greatly over-estimating your chances. For one, if you get a red on top of the column, that forms 3 reds and shifts the 2 interior red tiles up, removing the chance of diamond. If you get a yellow on top, it does give another chance, but there is also a chance of a purple following the yellow which lines up with purple at the top and you then get the same misalignment.
Maybe the chance is higher than 20%, but I doubt 60% chance of it happening on the subsequent turns.
Edit: not to say that’s a bad move, I would do the same, but I have seen occasions where this would start off an off color cascade.
You are totally correct about a red on top causing some chaos. I’ve been looking for an example like this in raids and overlooked that possibility, thinking I finally found one. I’m a dope.
20% from the miracle red in the middle
20% from the red on the bottom
->20% from a yellow on top, starting the process over tacking on an extra 8% (40% of 20%)
Subtract negative outcomes
20% red on top (In my terrible example )
If we get a yellow on top and a purple is the next top, screwing things up, that’s another 4%.
28%. Not even close to 60%.
Thanks for the correction.
I’d take that wild cascade, too, going with a 2-1-1-1 team.
Well, I have seen some wild replacements, for example, in the case above I could see 3 straight reds aligned… I mean you can take the probabilities, but the game will do what it does.
My number 1 tip: Don´t play your color tiles in the first move (or 5). You want to accumulate your own color tiles so you can build bombs and diamonds.
Once you start playing your own tiles your chances for diamonds drop down the toilet.
So yes if you are one of the people complaining that everybody else is getting diamonds and you don´t, it´s not RNGs fault.
Tip number 2: Learn to see how the board will behave after your move. Most combos, diamonds and bombs are predictable, they don´t manifest out of thin air. So do the combos you don´t want, they are just as much preventable as the others are predictable. 80% is visible 20% is RNG (by new tiles falling in), yet RNG gets blamed for about 120% of things that happen. And just to add: You can set yourself up for diamonds falling into place “randomly” by creating chances for luck, tiles falling in always have a 20% chance of being the color you want. You create 5 chances you get “lucky” once, you create 0 chances you never get “lucky”. So create the chances actively, but don´t expect them to work out every single time. It´s a numbers game, play the odds and you win more often than not.
When clearing off-colour tiles it is better to do it at the beginning of the match when you are less likely to fully charge an opponent’s special. If you do it later you are almost guaranteed to (unless they all just fired and you are red or dead ).
Always keep in mind that the odds are you will have less of the colour you just matched when the replacement tiles come in (barring some wacky cascade). You used 100% that colour but new ones will be on average only 20% that colour.
). I am sure most of them just gave up when they saw the starting board and threw tiles wherever until they lost, before ranting about it afterwards.
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