Round 5 - After Action Report

[ZephyrPhantom]

This was an idea that coinich already had and never really got off the ground, but I think with our current wonderful situation this would be a good time to revive it.

Basically the AAR is a place to discuss what worked this round and what mistakes we've made this round. Let's see if we can improvise and patch up our strategy for next round before the actual strategy thread is put up.

After discussing it a little in chat with Coin, I think some of our current problems are:

-Light to non-Light ratio - Shown especially by this round where we were stretched thin on Light cards.
-Reason to Suicide - something clearly was wrong if we suicided against a point and Kirch was very opposed to it.
-Deck Testing - We need more involvement with decks. Our deck choices weren't terrible, but we did something crappy to Kirch again. Is there a way to get 6-7 of the team putting some feedback on the decks in general.
-Holdout Deck - For a last stand when we're down to 1 person, we need to carefully preserve our cards. A holdout set of cards should be placed aside and be used only in the easiest matches to ensure that these cards aren't discarded until the end.

Best to start the discussion early, IMHO - if there are other problems we can discuss do post them here.

[coinich]

While I abhor suiciding for its obvious reasons, we cannot justify or condemn our decision based on the fact that NOW we know Eva was point.  We did the best we could with that shitty situation.

I think the Light-NonLight ratio had something to do with it.  The archives aren't very clear, but I'm trolling them for other teams' vaultbuilding threads.

Also, I like that the entire team is involved with all aspects of the war.  Having one person make decks, and worse, trading off week to week won't work.  We need perspective and we need criticism.  If you don't like taking a deck, by all means call it out as kirch did.

Ultimately, thank you for making War still enjoyable.  I'm very glad I'm with the team we are without any further dropouts and where we all participate as we can.  This is Round 5, not Round 9, we are still in this.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Also, I like that the entire team is involved with all aspects of the war.  Having one person make decks, and worse, trading off week to week won't work.  We need perspective and we need criticism.  If you don't like taking a deck, by all means call it out as kirch did.

I agree, and I have to apologize for not getting enough time to help out with the deck testing. If possible we need to get more feedback in on decks and such - I'm just not sure how, since RL is a complicated mess like it always will be, but perhaps if we planned it in our schedules somehow it might work. Added this to the OP.

Ultimately, thank you for making War still enjoyable.  I'm very glad I'm with the team we are without any further dropouts and where we all participate as we can.  This is Round 5, not Round 9, we are still in this.

We're standing with you to the bitter end, g'neral.

[RootRanger]

At a certain point in war, we will be down to only a couple players. Wins in the last few rounds are more important than wins in any other round, because they keep the team alive.
A win in round one means next to nothing. But if you are down to your last player, a win can help you pass two or three teams in the rankings.

We need a set of cards that can build diverse, strong decks. And we can't afford to lose those cards.

We need a "last stand".
This would be a set of cards, maybe 40 or so, that we will use in the last few rounds.
If our last stand can win three or four rounds, we will survive longer than most of the teams.

So here's what we do.
Use the cards we still have to create a set of cards, the last stand, that can make all kinds of diverse decks.
Only use the last stand on our general. We won't give the last stand cards to anyone else, because we couldn't afford to lose them.
We will lose more battles, and eventually be down to a couple members.
But if we still have a great last stand, we will be able to last three or four more rounds until we face a powerful team with a big enough vault to counter us.

Sound good?
If you want I'll start working on the last stand.

[ZephyrPhantom]

^Sounds good. I don't see why it cannot work.

[Boingo]

The dangers of the retrospectoscope--the most powerful and least useful tool in all of War.  Knowing what I do now about our opponents, we should have gone with the Deja hope deck vs Aether--a likely (or at least possible) win (and would have beaten another Point) and made Team heroes for just about everyone.  Instead we are reviled by some, but that's mostly just other teams wishing we suicided vs them.  Suiciding vs Underworld would have been a better option instead.  Not suiciding at all?  Still not convinced this was possible, though my deck was a little overbuilt now that I see what they brought to the match, but that's the problem with looking back.

Good idea to look to the future for a fall-back deck or 2 to keep preserved.  Our strength is the stall (and we're running out of any rush capability) so expect plenty of anti-stall decks and poison decks (neurotoxin or otherwise) since we have played a total of 0 purifies (or water cards in general.)  The antimatter deck will give the other teams some pause before going straight dragon/shrieker-type decks, but don't expect this to last long.

[coinich]

I like Root's idea of a holdout, and I think it will probably end up being a Vader Sader deck and perhaps a Novabow with Purifies if we can salvage.  Sadly noone's playing them against us.

What I do worry about is that cordoning off those cards, especially if I don't use them, will hamper the team in further deckbuilding.

[kirchj33]

I believe the fact that we have sancs, miracles, saders, and vaders should be enough to make the fact that we have no purify inconsequential.

Regarding the suicide issue... we should do our best to deflect the attention to the situation within the community and handle the rest internally.  It will eventually go away as people find something else interesting that is war-related.  I think I was not taken seriously because of the time deadline / people already had their minds made up that this was the best choice.  I hope that moving forward, you all will take my suggestions as well-thought out and intelligent ones.  I didn't get my medical degree from blindly filling in multiple choice answers!

Another small issue I see, on a personal note, is that of my position in war....  I was originally made dogsbody, even though I was certainly not the person with the lowest bids.  I assumed this because the roles I had put as a preference were already filled - by frankly more qualified individuals than someone learning in their first war (deckbuilder, strategist).  As a result, I believe I might be filling our last position in battles as well?  I am hoping this is not the case, but just wanted to seek clarification. 

[ZephyrPhantom]

This is working great this time around. ^_^

Added the discussion of Holdout deck to the OP.

Regarding what Kirch said about roles, I don't think we are limited to those roles at all.  As Terroking once said in chat "We all do the same thing." The role we're getting IMHO doesn't really matter unless it's general or lieutenant - otherwise the true role seems to be "contribute as much as we can".

[valuka]

I totally agree with the last point deck. In W2 in Team  we has that Dark-Time duo, that keep us in play long time. But the problem is if we make just one our opponents can predict this. I would build two strong deck, maybe one is that Earth-Light duo other can be anything else. I liked very that Time-Light Hope - luci deck.
As Zblader said, i am very missing that we made some test with eachother. I know my timezone is not very fitting in yours sadly, all team decision made in that time, when deep sleep or party time in my country . When i visit the team chat, that is mostly empty. All i can do, is testing in trainer that deck, what the team wants from me to use it, and sometimes posting a deck idea from me.
Our beginning Vault was not so good i think, but i am very happy to fight with you guys, really. Thx, to call me to this team.
And my awful english knowledge don't help me to understand all...

[hrmmm]

(...)
After discussing it a little in chat with Coin, I think some of our current problems are:

-Light to non-Light ratio - Shown especially by this round where we were stretched thin on Light cards.

This is indeed a problem.
It not only about the amount of lightcards we have in the vault, its also about the amount of light cards we are usually going to use in our decks.
Now in the later rounds as we have bigger discarding amount, this gets tightened drastically, if we loose a deck with a high amount of light cards.

-Reason to Suicide - something clearly was wrong if we suicided against a point and Kirch was very opposed to it.

See point above. The point thing on that duel was not predictable and just bad luck.
About the suicide on #1 teams... at least we have now a pressure on the other teams (the complaining ones) not to suicide to them... only because we are one of the first teams that where in need of a suicide, doesnt mean other teams are able to avoid that.
At the point we had to give kirch the suicide deck, it was the best option we had @ this point (sad as it is).
This had nothing to do with kirch, but with the deck we planed to use for him (using a 46-card deck was just not possible).
Kirch can have my duel place next round.
I think we all support a circulation of duelsplaces/missing a turn, since we have < 8 duels/round.

-Deck Testing - We need more involvement with decks. Our deck choices weren't terrible, but we did something crappy to Kirch again. Is there a way to get 6-7 of the team putting some feedback on the decks in general.

I dont have that much time to test through all the decks... but if we could post images of the decks instead of naked codes, i would be able to give more feedbacks in a shorter time.
*Grabbing my own nose* - ill try to give more feedbacks on decks in general.

-Holdout Deck - For a last stand when we're down to 1 person, we need to carefully preserve our cards. A holdout set of cards should be placed aside and be used only in the easiest matches to ensure that these cards aren't discarded until the end.

Nothing wrong to start to plan a last stand.
Just be aware that our vault limits might not allow a totally cloaked deck untill we are down to 1 player left.
Better have +1 win and save another player/bigger vault, then saving 1 deck and being forced to the last stand.

[coinich]

Actually, Boingo said that he would be inactive most of this round, and volunteered to give kirch his slot.  As it is, our stickied roster and the official one by Kael should be up to date for the next round.  I do plan on having us actually rotate out, however, to keep the team playing as long as possible.  War ceases to be fun when you're stranded and your team's only fielding one or two people.