R4M2 Quality Delibs

Barry Burton (Judge Archerous)

Waves rise and fall as king and god clash. Sulka Kiisseli, unquestioned tyrant from Heart of the Rose vs. King Savage, who’s proven more than once that he’s still a Cause for Concern. One commands an army, the other stands with a newfound pair of allies to fend them off. This match is sure to be the stuff of legends, but the question remains. How do they fare?

Starting with Sulka, they begin by digging trenches around the museum in a bid to acquire as much mass as they can before their invasion truly begins. They use some of this mass to make their follower, Olli, more durable, as well as themselves, making them much more difficult to take down. Meanwhile, Olli uses his Ghostlight for reconnaissance, keeping tabs on the state of the Gallery. This move also serves to obscure the windows of the museum, giving the zombies and opportunity to get a sneak attack off on their opposition. Once setup is done, Sulka redistributes their remaining mass into the pile of stones besides them, making them heavier, and far more dangerous. The duo spend their opening moves doing as much prep as they can, prioritizing self buffs and preparing weapons suitable for a siege. A good move.

As the waves begin, Sulka sends forth a few corpses with the intention of setting off any initial traps, and maybe infecting Kid and Rasna while they’re at it. With their enemies distracted, Sulka fires their Meteor Cannon at them, adding onto the overwhelming force. Meanwhile, Olli sneaks into the building undetected with a bodyguarding ent, hoping to continue their reconnaissance while the chaos is going on behind them. During this phase, Sulka begins to target their opponents directly. In terms of priority, Rasna makes the top of the list, as they move to whittle down her stamina, as she has the means to give Sulka the most trouble.

Once the next wave begins, Sulka brings out a final attack, the Dead Man’s Silent Forest. It’s a heavy attack that, combined with the attacking corpses, gives a high chance of infecting their foes with illness. This, much like the whole assault, is a distraction for their true plan. Once inside, Olli steals the Nightbloom from under the Gallery’s noses, using his invisibility to get in and out, granting Sulka the victory they’ve been searching for.

Heart of the Rose presents a solid strategy, making good use of their resources to keep their enemies occupied, all while underhandedly taking the Nightbloom for themselves. For that, I’m giving this strat a 7. Well done!

Onto Kid, he spends his first moments getting worked up, creating a flood across the floor to create difficult terrain. Rasna and Markov, on the other hand, ascend to the second floor, creating as many weapons as they can to bolster their arsenal. Once they’ve gotten a well-rounded selection of tools, they start to demolish the second floor. The duo hides the Nightbloom in the gift shop, piled under a ton of merch and locked inside a display case. Given the natural defenses offered by the gift shop, mainly the lack of entrances and the plethora of cover, this is a smart choice. This opening works to slow down their enemies, denying them any chance of mobility by destroying the second floor. They must work within the confines of the flood. A strong use of their starting time.

Once the opposition starts to wade in, the duo get to work. They go over their tactics to deal with the various types of zombies. They target the limbs of the ents to immobilize them, effectively making them inert. Whenever a spider comes into line of sight, they make sure to take it out before it gets the chance to jump them. When it comes to corpses, Rasna takes priority in dealing with them, as she can afford to take on an infection way more than Kid can. She uses her arsenal to not only protect herself from the corpses, but to deal with them at ease. Meanwhile, Kid is on the hunt for Sulka, charging them as soon as they enter his field of vision. He opens with an attack from the vending machine. Whether they block it or not is irrelevant, as they’ll either take the initial damage or have to deal with the vending shrapnel from Knock You Out’s strike. If Sulka has a wall, the duo works to break it down, Rasna dealing with the Corpses and Kid rushing Olli, respectively. Once the pair is able to reach Sulka, they move to pincer them, taking care to distance themselves from Dark Disquiet’s deadly grasp while trying to corner the ‘false god’.

Of course, if Sulka plays defensively, so will they. The CfC duo will hole up in the gift shop, again taking advantage of the natural defenses it provides to outlast the oncoming hordes. However, Sulka can’t stay back forever. Either Olli or Sulka needs to get into the gift shop to acquire the Nightbloom, leading to a direct confrontation with Rasna and Kid. They anticipate this, and work to put a stop to the invasion for good.

This is a very thorough strat, making sure to cover their bases, going so far as to completely destroy the flooring of the second floor to deny their opponents the chance of avoiding the flood. In a short amount of time, they create a simple, yet quite effective obstacle for their opponents to overcome: two incredibly dangerous fighters rushing over a flooded floor. Thus, I’m giving this strat an 8. Well done!

Joseph Frost (Judge Flamechar)

I really want to put a Farewell to Kings joke here but. When I try to think of one it just slips off of my mind.

Starting off with King Savage, he starts his setup time by creating a swamp over the gift shop to hide the Nightbloom in before joining Rasna in destroying the floor above to prevent attacks from above (Logistics) — this also aids his ultimate plan to flood the room with a marsh to both hinder the swarm King will be facing while not being as much a threat to King and Rasna with their better mobility (and access to making lilypads). Speaking of, the strat then covers how they will handle each of the three types of zombies that Sulka has at their disposal: immobilising the Ents, keeping an eye out for Spiders, and keeping King away from the Corpses.

Sulka of course is the main priority, and for the King is on sight — and out of sight they take care to not be jumped, destroying lamps at range and using ranged weaponry to check for hidden foes (Planning/Logistics/Counterplay). Once the cult leader or her lackey is spotted they throw a vending machine to open up with either a direct hit or with a burst from its contents (with a weaponised Sundial to Counter any living shields), before King rushes in with a taxi to smash up Sulka and anyone in his way while Rasna attacks at long range — and when engaging in full, the two space themselves out to limit the effectiveness of Sulka’s ACT 1 (Logistics) while having one of the two charge in if Sulka is targeting the other with ACT 2 (Counterplay). And if their offense doesn’t work, they move onto a defensive position around the Gift Shop, sniping Sulka and Olli from afar and tearing apart anyone coming their way — and by placing themselves right where the Nightbloom is, they’ve left Sulka with only one option to get to their prize which is going straight to it, where King and Rasna are waiting (Logistics). Add on some Contingencies for the worst case scenarios (or if the Water is ignored/attacked) along with some fun Narrative flavor, this Strat gets itself a solid **7**!

Moving onto Sulka, they decide at the start that they won’t be heading into the museum themself: using their setup to carve out trenches to collect mass (while avoiding near doors or windows to have an entryway for the undead [Logistics/Planning]) and to reinforce the clothing of themselves and Olli — the latter of whom is keeping an eye on the protector’s preparations with his lamps. Several plans are made for complications such as if the Nightbloom is moved or is held by Rasna (Counterplay/Planning).

The Plans for their waves of zombies is well thought out as well: a first wave to trigger traps and prevent last minute preparations (with each moment of weakness caused by the Corpses used to launch a deadly marble at them through the ghostlight [Tech]), and then a second wave with an Ent used to sneak Olli into the museum onto the second floor while a more focused attack is made by the rest of horde, with the corpses acting as a distraction to get the Spiders to get an attack off (Logistics). If the spiders can’t, then they’re repurposed into a chaotic vortex to otherwise grab the defender’s attention. Sulka also prepares for if the duo decide to come for them, taking the gravity of an Ent and using it as a weapon — and if Rasna is caught out they plan to send her into the sky and plummeting back down into a heavy stone.

The last wave uses primarily ents, which are sent flying with Sulka’s Stand ability and a gunshot to overwhelm King, with two Corpses to get the both of them coated with sickness. With this, Olli swoops in to steal the Nightbloom, having been weightless the entire time as Sulka pulls him to them outside. Overall a good strategy, with my biggest concerns being a slight misunderstanding with how King’s water works and that for all the Contingencies in place you didn’t end up considering that there might not be a second floor for Olli to hide away on — but nontheless a good job, getting a **7**!

Chris Redfield (Judge Alphamon)

Here we are once again folks, it’s the f- second match of the fourth round, wowie! And boy do we have a slobberknocker prepared for- what? Whaddaya mean the CQC is- no? Really? Drop the sports announcer bit? Fine.

I’ll start with Carrots for Charlie, since it’d make the most sense with the aborted bit. We have a densely packed strat with little jabs, hooks, and crosses galore- and of course, brutal maulings and weapons the size of cars, one of which IS a car- that starts off with a bit of lighter faire: doing everything they can to flood the place and hide the absolute shit out of a flower!

Now, to retract a bit from that, why is it important? Well, it’s the Instant Lose Button, so hiding it where the sun will refuse to shine- regardless of time of day- is always a good decision! Surrounding the Instant Lose Button is good counterplay- especially for the zombies- and a quick, pungent jab at gravity. I’d repeat it, but mine would turn off and I’d hit the ceiling.

The strat is built on, and focuses on, the moment that Sulka finally comes in range. It is the absolute lynchpin, and it is even guaranteed by the layout of the match! No matter what, Sulka has six minutes to obtain the flower. If all other plans fail, he will have to enter CQC eventually. It is for this reason that all the weapons are created (and often thrown), that the area is flooded, that Kid’s heart rate is pushed up to sprinter heights, that the flower is so tightly guarded… all for the one, final opportunity to take Sulka down.

In his own thoughts, Kid is here to drown a man. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and the strat’s density of play and throughput align with that ethos. I will give you an 8 for your efforts.

Who’s up next? You guessed it: It’s Heat of the Roment, coming back with another Sulka-led, or more accurately, for this’n, Sulka followed- strategy hot off the presses!

The first two minutes of prep time are used quite effectively, with the majority of the remaining setup (mass, concrete, potential holes, items) and the easy shotcalling (using invisibility and the window to just, watch where your opponent is putting the thing you’re after) leading to a plan suited for the potential environment. It’s also good to keep the minion in a spot of invisibility, given that the opponents are only not allowed to hit Sulka, rather than the minion.

The called shots with opponents’ kits- namely, of course, draining the swamp by blowing holes in the building- is always a good use case, and Sulka just standing outside menacingly plays well into his control fantasy, or goal, as it is. It’s his perfect plan, why sully his hands with it directly, until the final moment?

Following that, the strat is made of large, sweeping plays, with each following the crux of the last to make the next more impactful: the first wave weakens, the second wave kites and mollifies, the third takes the crown. It’s got a very natural upward flow to it, which I like.

There were a couple of spelling mistakes and grammar errors I noted in my notes, but I have no specific examples on hand and these delibs are due within the next fifteen minutes, so just the usual note of, please have someone read-check it before turn in time.

With that all said, I believe this strategy is deserving of a 7!