R1M16 Quality Delibs

Judge Donkey Kong 64 (Logic)

As the players themselves have noted, the teams are rather mechanically similar: multiple bodies on the field with versatile skills (Paper Alibi, Bollywood Fame 4), material shifting Stands (｢April Fools｣, ｢The Fine Print｣) and an athletic userbeast paired with a ranged support. While each side has its nuances that can put it over the edge in particular situations, their vast similarity in tools and the emphasis on sabotage means that strats will turn on their details.
Brief note for PINDROP, check markdown formatting using redditpreview.com, the first section got collapsed into one paragraph since there weren’t additional new-lines between them.

Technically, “April Fools [uses] the paintbrushes on its fingers to paint other objects,” but I’ll tentatively allow “consenting Stand Users” such as Jon who is now carried by Taffy...or at least, a Taffy Alibi as the genuine article attempts early sabotage on DCH’s cart. This initial play shows decent allocation of Alibis (Logistics), but since little detail is given to how DCH may react and its cover is vague, distracting Clownery, I’m unsure of the efficacy of the sabotage. (Counterplay/Competency) Ultimately, it doesn’t harm the strat, but thoughts to interplay always helps express and persuade the efficacy of such tactics.

The Logistical/Competency play continues, with Alibi’s dismissed and cycled out for new ones to gather resources, ｢April Fools｣ switching items to lighter weight materials for ease of carrying, and hiding items that can’t be carried on this first trip. The lagging Alibis are a good piece of foresight, prepping for the second lap by lagging or backtracking. (Planning) Meanwhile, the users themselves also focus on distraction and sabotage. While I’m a bit skeptical that DCH will fall for dummy items (Counterplay), I think Taffy might be a bit overburdened between item gathering, copy making, cart interference, and Alibi creation/NPC interference. (Planning/Logistics) Not terribly so, but prioritization would help here.

These tactics continue into the Apartment Complex and Final Stretch, introducing novel material based traps and defenses against DCH and VULTURE, largely focusing on using Alibis for mass tactics. I elide over these sections partially due to the reliance on earlier tech.

While I have some minor gripes that this strat could have been edited a bit for concision and direction (Planning/Formatting/Readability, although some of this is formatting for markdown, I felt that some reorganization to separate general techs and streamline the progression across sections would work well), more detail in how specific interactions are prioritized and executed would be appreciated. (Competency/Counterplay) Nonetheless, the strat still coheres, and PINDROP gets a high [6] from me.
I find myself wanting to shuttle my analysis of DCH with PINDROP’s, their strategy is broadly similar for Section 1: multiple bodies fanning out through the warehouse to gather and hide material/supplies as a member tends to the cart. I’ll raise my Formating point of condensing similar information into subsections and paragraphs here, especially with the emphasis on Kalari and David splitting up.

My criticism is similar to that of PINDROP’s; while there is a Narrative throughline for some of the specific tactics, I find that the more Logistical aspects are a bit thin. It’s more than plausible that you can tell the Construction workers to sabotage PINDROP, but little is said beyond “knocking Paper Alibis off their routes.” How do you take leverage or focus such sabotage? Similarly, while the VULTURE section is not meant to be a major mechanical challenge, I find myself wanting more on how that DCH handles that section and their opponents beyond turtling through it. (Competency/Counterplay)

Given my comments on PINDROP, I find myself with little to say for DCH. The intentionally more open-ended nature of the match may give less immediate mechanical purchase (as exact physical distances might), but I would have liked more specificity with the extent match elements and your opponents; what you have written is coherent, but could be given more specificity. A high [6] is reasonable here as well.

Judge Klonoa (Flamechar)

Another match with three areas! This time, players race to collect the most supplies, able to make additional laps after dropping everything off back at the end of the third section.

Starting with PINDROP, I will immediately stamp out the misconception that higher Agility guarantees higher speed - the stat has been in the past specifically reworked so it would not be used as an argument for a higher movement speed. In the context of the strategy this is a minor matter, with Taffy painting Jon into paper to make movement generally easier (whether by being carried or just being lighter), but it is better to warn against such thinking now than letting it become a much more damning part of a later strat.

Onto the strategy itself, they immediately focus on reducing the capabilities of DCH’s cart: by using a Taffy clone or other methods as distractions for the real one to sabotage it by turning as much of it (wheels prioritised) into Paint as possible - while I cannot guarantee taunting will work given the fact that personalities/emotions have little to no mechanical relevance, the bigger issue I find is the lack of consideration for if the distractions don’t work and Taffy is spotted.

As for gathering, clones are managed quite well I thought: being used to either scout or hinder, keeping either away or in the way of the opponents. The scouts are also used to move items to a secure location while messengers report progress of each group to the detectives. Dismissal of scouts is prioritized once at the locations to gather, and items that aren’t being gathered in the first go around are hidden (Logistics), and a duo are made to move items left behind either by following behind or backtracking (Planning). Paper paint is used to convert items for easier storage until reaching the goal, and clones used to gather items are protected by a clone with painted-metal fists (Technical Usage), and more detailed defensive Counterplays are found in the final stretch.

I do however share the concern that players are at times spinning too many plates at once from creating clones, painting traps and supplies, and sabotaging for when the opponents reach the area (Planning/Logistics). On the other hand, I do believe this is a solid strategy that repeats upon a robust core strategy for each of the sections, and for that I end up giving this a **7**.

Moving onto DCH, this one will be shorter if only because the basis of the strategy is similar to that of PINDROP’s - using multiple bodies to split up gathering supplies and sabotaging the opposition (Logistics/Planning) and using their property-based Stand to make items easier to transport or making things trickier for the enemy. With the added factor of the cart, they keep one member (David) around it at all times, with a Scene planted in him to assist with the task. This ends up with him staying behind, which is then turned around into him using that to bury the items underground by weakening the ground with styrofoam goo and then using his art skill to blend the results in (Technical Understanding).
On the other side of operations Kalari increases the size of her squad with her influence: I do think the interference you have the construction workers perform are overall very vague however, as is the somewhat limited combat plan of “I charge at them with big numbers”. That said, the Contingencies against actions the opponents could make are thought out and no longer than needed, and the flow of the strategy as a whole is aided by some Narrative. Overall, a solid **7**.


Judge Banjo Kazooie (Alphamon)

Alright, let’s give a warm welcome to PINDROP!

Now let’s get a little more serious. I had trouble reading through this strategy, and while I won’t knock points off for these, I’ll bring up a few points: Dialogue is typically most easily served by changing paragraphs when the speaker changes; Try to put headers on all of your sections; italicize and bold points with meaning; proofread your work in reddit preview before posting.

With that out of the way, I like the shorthand on what the twenty clones are doing, and the function calls towards the end of the strat. While it is relatively easy to keep track of, given the rather large number of clones doing similar things, the stand seems to operate on if/else/until loops, meaning something like “scavenge for supplies” would be a very large scope problem, and paring it down would take specificity, and thus time… also a large leg of the strat, which may hamper more than help, so take that with a grain of salt.

That said, the clones moving things closer to the end goals, the clones performing ‘basic’ stopping functions like blocking hallways, and the clones' general utility were on display throughout the strat.

I genuinely enjoyed the many, many uses of April Fools on display. From creating the worst levels in Donkey Kong out of a hallway to creating spaces to hide items (yeah, wallchicken!) to being an absolute menace, I adore this wacky floating arms bot!

The final and most important factor in a footrace is time. Between Jon’s ability to practically scour the map with the exclusive use of Paper Alibi’s clones and Taffy’s ability to turn even the heaviest and most durable objects into paper, the pair have an incredible amount of leeway in this regard. I feel that this is used well, though a part of me thinks that the clones and their programming may take more time than stated to work properly. Not that they wouldn’t have it of course, it’s just a thought.

With my minor nitpicks out of the way, I feel that this strat earns a 7.

I’ll be honest, I had to read the strat twice. The first time I read it, it compartmentalized into Pindrop’s strat, and for that I apologize.

Among the opening moves, David makes use of his stand ability by lightening his own load, adding weight to that of his opponents’, and hiding materials. These are done with styrofoam, concrete, and concrete respectively. His use of his arts and crafts skill to make the ‘treasure troves’ nearly invisible is solid, and the plays are well-rounded.

Kalari’s constant use of that bollywood superstar charisma to get temporary allies and other boons, as well as accounting for her sheer size in multiple places is put to good use. The construction worker ‘army’ with its potential to make more handcarts and provide temporary assistance or relief is solid.

Time, a factor in racing matches, which this strat deliberately states it isn’t, is ultimately true. The strat refuses to treat the run as a race, thus making time an overall non-factor. While this may mean that their opponents will have consistently more time than they bargained for at locations, increasing the possibility of traps or other nonsense, I feel that the team generally covers their bases by countering April Fools directly with The Fine Print where possible, and keeping its major loot factors in sight.

I can see giving this a high 7 for its overall solid use of abilities, control of map factors, and abandonment of ‘time’ as a factor.