Battle Books: Shi

Today's Analysis:

Shi is really a stand up brawler. If you just stand there and try to duke it out with her, you are most likely going to fail and fail miserably. She's a quick character and very hard to hit, and she's very good at using her weapon, the Naginata.

But Naginata is also her weakness. Should Shi become disarmed, she would need to quickly recover that weapon to stand any chance of surviving combat. But, as I said, she's quick and can easily recover her weapon. Also, she needs to avoid taking any critical hits because just one crit can severely weaken her.

She is incredibly adept at hitting with her weapon. This is why most player should refuse to duke it out with her. Her power strikes will cause heavy damage when she hits, but it's her thrusts that will literally whittle you down as she will hit you more often with these.

As for non-weapon attacks, go with her kicks. They may not cause the most damage, but she's good at lining them up. Avoid using desperate swing, as she just can't hit for squat with it.

Shi is incredibly deadly with the smaller lightweight fighters, but she needs to be very careful with the powerhouses that can easily cause her critical damage. The last thing Shi needs is to have her weapon broken, and even when she can't do "red" or "blue", she will find it hard to fight back.

Over all, I think Shi is best suited for those that have played the game for some time. When she has her weapon, she hits often, so that makes her an easy character to play. But when she loses attacks or, heaven forbid, her weapon, she become very difficult. But no matter what, she's tough.

Battle Books: Wolverine

Today's analysis:

My first attempt at playing Wolverine was a dismal failure. I lost both fights with him quickly and was really annoyed that he wasn't a better fighter. This was my mistake. He's actually a very strong fighter, but he's got serious flaws (not in game mechanics or printing, but as a character in general).

The first thing I noticed as I started to delve a bit deeper, was that he doesn't have a whole lot of strong moves (character flaw #1). But what he lacks in moves he makes up for in bonuses. Many attacks get bonuses on their own above what he gets for his modifier. He also gets bonuses for attacks when he gets hit, and some of these bonuses are big.

Another thing he excels at is causing critical hits. Many of his attacks tell you to go to another page and apply the new page crit hits on your opponent. This can be devastating to other fighters.

He's generally not so good at escaping or defensive moves (character flaw #2), and when he's hit, he's stuck in berserk mode (character flaw #3), which limits your choices of attacks. However, he gets 3 defensive moves in which he can heal, so run in for the attack, then back out and let the healing factor do it's job.

Wolverine MUST avoid crit hits at all cost (character flaw #4). He's already severely limited to roughly 5 really strong attacks, and these are all red and blue. If he loses the ability to use these colors, it's going to be much harder to hit opponents and he's going to get seriously beat up.

Overall, Wolverine is one bad dude. Use his bonuses to your advantage, and keep him healing up. I would think Wolverine is a much more advance character, suited to those that play the game more often.

Battle Books: Witchblade

Ah, here we go again. I don't post often, but every once in a while, I manage to get something up here. Today's post is about Battlebooks.

I actually started sitting down and mapping out the books. I've got quite a few, so it's taking time and the results may change as I continue to do this tedious work. While I'm not going to give everything away that I've discovered, I will give out some basic info so that people can get a general idea of what each character is good or bad at. Of course, if I gave everything away, I won't have the upperhand against those that I play against. :P

Today's analysis:

Surprisingly, for a character that has a gun, she's a damn good close up fighter. Her jabs and punches are pretty strong. Her skills are pretty decent as well, especially Blade of Fury.

Her boxing skills are better than her gunmanship, but if you manage to hit with Precision Shot, then you'll want to fire off another shot again, as she will get a bonus to her Pistol attacks. If she ever manages to lose her pistol, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to pick it up as she's got other effective attacks (namely Jabs, Punches, and Skills).

Because she's a light weight character, it's very difficult for her to get critical hits against powerhouses like Thor or Thing. However, Witchblade is nimble and hard to hit for any great amount of damage by other lightweight characters. And if you can avoid the big blows from the powerhouse characters, she can be quite hard to hit for a critical.

When a critical IS scored on her, nothing could be worse for her than forcing her to do no red or blue moves for the rest of combat. When one of these colors is taken away, she's severely handicapped, take them both, and she's in real trouble.

If she's taking heavy hits, her best option is to escape and regain some life back. Her other defensive moves aren't as strong, which is why I don't think it's worth it to pick up her gun if she drops it.

All in all, she's a pretty tough, if basic, fighter. In my opinion, she's a good character for those that are new to the game.

Cookie Fu!

I'm pretty happy. I got some new Cookie Fu dice! I went in on an order with 4 other guys, and we all got some nice dice and some tasty cookies. If you don't know about Cookie Fu, the link is there on the right.

So, I got some new dice and some new fighter moves. I decided that I'm going to play a fighter in the clan of the Chocolate Ox. He's brutal, and he has been tainted by the evil of Bok Choy (which is denoted by a special black die).

I do hope the league will start again, because I feel that with the new dice and new rules, I can do much better than the last league. Of course I came in dead last, during the last season of the league, so I can't go any where else but up, right?

Here's my fighter:

name: Bai Sun
Clan: Chocolate Ox
Moves:

• Basic - Cacao Kapow: 1 Strike. If Foe has an even number of HP, +1 strike.

• Expert - Oxtail Flail: 2 Strikes. For each strike unblocked, +1 strike.

• Master - Sugary Nerve Strike: 3 strikes. If all strikes are not blocked, opponent is -1 fu dice next turn.

Bai Sun grew up one of the strongest in his village. He was the ultimate bully toward the smaller, weaker children. His parents, fearing he would turn to a life of evil and crime, pleaded for the Chocolate Ox clan to take him in and help him control his emotions and calm him down.

He excelled in the physical demands of the clan martial arts training, but had trouble with the philosophical aspects of the training. Compassion seemed to elude him, as in his mind, it was win at all costs. He never showed mercy to his sparring partners, and was constantly scolded by his mentors.

While in the market one day, heatedly discussing the merits of winning with another clan student, a man dressed in black approached Bai Sun and asked him to join him for tea. Having had enough of the current debate, Bai Sun agreed.

The man, called Hei Chuan, agreed with Bai Sun that winning was indeed very important. And while mercy should not be shown to an enemy, he did reveal that the mind must be as mentally tough as a fighters fists and body.

It was this meeting that began Bai Sun's walk down a different path. It was clear that Bai Sun was tainted by the evil of Bok Choy.