Pincer Formation

The Pincer Formation takes the opposite viewpoint of the Turtle strategy. Instead of playing for time, its a much more aggressive strategy. Its designed to make your opponent pay for the raid attempt and to inflict a mild form of a psychological attack. Players who like to raid and craft characters based around forts and raiding will find this strategy very appealing and easy to implement.

The primary benefit of this strategy is that your opponent will lose units. For those who don't know, if a unit dies while raiding another player, they will randomly lose between 1-3 LP. This can be a hefty cost, and can put a dent into a person's raiding timetable. This is especially true for less 'dedicated' players where normal units may form a large, or all of their army. As characters not from the square can have LP ranging from 5-20, it means that realistically, the player can only use their characters a specific amount of times before it becomes too dangerous. While the Turtle formation may deal losses, it is only incidental to the overall goal. Here, it is very different. The defending player is purposefully choosing unit types and gear to maximise kill rating. It has a lower overall defence success rate, but it has the advantage of potentially sabotaging your opponent and giving him a really bad day.

Unit Type 1 - Hawkeye
Weapon - Shigeto Bow/Amenowakahiko
Armour - Leather Jerkin
Accessory - Ranger Ring/Orichal Ring
Skills - Critical + Double Attack/Resist

Reasoning - The Ranger is King of Defence. There is no question that any player will find these stalwart units to be the supreme unit for considering in a fort. The answer to that is simple. Unlimited Range. Rangers have the bonus that when they are on defence, they are able to hit any part of the map from their starting position. So right from Turn 1, where both sides usually have to spend just getting into contact, the Ranger is already eliminating key targets. And this is where the Rangers 2nd advantage lies. Their target priority. The main offensive force of most raiders is magic. As many characters have high natural physical defence, relying only on melee to win raids is one that won't work for very long. Given how hard it is to defend against magic, a good mage can significantly make raids easier to handle. That being the case, if you are able to take out your opponents mage it drastically reduces his chance of winning. As the game tends to class Sisters and Mages as higher priority than melee, this means that the AI controlling the Ranger will usually target softer targets first.

Ranger weapons don't tend to be that good, until you are able to get the Hama bow. These bows are far and away much better than your standard bows as they not only have high attack, but they also grant a sizable amount of Luck. This makes them the perfect weapon for Rangers. For armour, I chose the Jerkin because of 2 main features. The first is that it gives a decent amount of Luck, and the second is that while its defence is not as high as the other classes it gives a good amount of buffer hp. Since your Ranger would presumably not even be within range of enemy characters until around turn 3 (or later), that extra 15hp or so can provide more short term survivability than adding a few points of defence. Plus, it gives Luck. Choosing between the Ranger Ring and the Orichal Ring is more dependent on the stats of the ranger and your playstyle. The Ranger ring gives him some strength, and the all-important Hit so that he doesn't miss. The Orichal ring gives both strength and Luck, the 2 most important stats for any offensive unit. Both are good choices, so if you feel like your ranger has very high Tech and he is unlikely to miss, go for the Orichal ring. If you want to be absolutely sure none of his shots are wasted, equip the ranger ring. I should also note, that while the ranger skill is Crit, the Hawkeye skill is Resist. So if you want to reach Crit IV, it is advisable to not change his class until after he maxes Crit. Otherwise you'll end up with a Crit III Hawkeye, which isn't really that good.

With Unlimited range, a habit of killing mages, and very high damage output this unit is a must-have for any offensive fort defence. With high Agi and high tech, it will also make your ranger attack first, attack accurately, and get those powerful Crit and skill activations. Oh, and he can also be pretty good at dodging as well.

Unit Type 2 - Berserker
Weapon - Tabar
Armour - Leather Jerkin
Accessory - Ring of Destruction/Surcoat
Skills - Double Attack + Critical

Reasoning - The Berserker stands tall over other melee classes because of 1 aspect. Its strength. Not only does the Berserker tend to gain strength more easily than the other classes, but it has a higher maximum cap. While 5 strength might not seem like much, given the right kind of equipment that can translate to an extra 3 points of normal attack damage. When including the effects of Double-Attack and Critical, it becomes even more significant. The Tabar as the weapon of choice is simple, it is the most destructive weapon out of the axes available. Combining high base attack, reasonable hit, and good stat-ups makes it the weapon of choice for offensively minded players. As with the ranger, I chose the Jerkin for the berserker. While providing much less survivability than other potential armour pieces, its Luck and HP are unparalled provide the most offensively orientated stats among the armour types. As for accessory, people may wonder at why I include the Surcoat. An item which for the most part looks defensive or utility in nature. And its because the axe really has quite a low accuracy rating. It is pointless to have massive attack if you miss half the time, or even 1/4 of the time. So I include the Surcoat there for those players who want a little insurance that their axe will do the job. The Ring of destruction as the premier offensive accessory should be self-explanatory. It is a quest item so should not be difficult to acquire.

My next post will talk a bit about how the general strategy of the Iron Wolves guild army, and how it facilitates the use of good fort defences.

by galen_swiftblade

Source: http://forum.ein-herjar.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=736