JJOCT7 R4M10 Quality

Judge Bishop (Flame)

It’s time to take down the Modern Major General! For an extra fun fact before we get into things, all of the guns (and the bayonet) that Zafar has are all equipment that the Indian Military have used or are using!

Starting with the Gallery, they begin by getting eyes on their opponents with Bridgid’s Stand to make sure they are the ones to deal with the guards (setting fire to a nearby car if the duo are waiting), while Texas creates two E-POW (and likely larger than normal) flies to infiltrate the building and disable cameras (Planning/Logistics). The duo then make their move, Texas leading the charge without stopping while Bridgid covers the flank, the two rushing up the stairs as Bridgid cuts them up behind them to throw up a ‘blood curtain’ and weakening the steps in order to hinder their opponents. The two then meet up with the infiltrator flies where Texas begins to generate D POW flies and some regular bullet ants — the flies carrying the bullet ants into the armory to drop in and to attack officers after the flies activate the smoke grenades inside.

The duo take a quick route, cutting open walls for Texas to more easily rip open — this is then used further when busting in to fight Zafar, sending a blast of blood at him and the Chief before Texas and ODA rush forwards to simultaneously disarm the General and knock out the police chief, with Texas then finishing Zafar off by slamming him against a wall — it may not be enough given the General’s 4 Endurance, and there’s no real plan in case that doesn’t work, although their plans to dodge his gunfire are sound. Their Counterplay against their opponents is also of note, destroying Nat’s red stars and blinding her with a firefly and warding off Jyotsna’s attacks by repelling them with blood geysers being their defenses in the parking lot and Texas’s charge being pivotal in the floor above. Overall a solid strat and a fun read, getting a high **7**.

Moving onto Dead City Haunts, the two tackle Zahar Singf by having Jyotsna and Nat move together, with Jyo holding the girl up with her smoke, and moving as much as possible to avoid gunfire. The two start by having Jyo gather glass shards for Nat to use throughout the strat as shotgun-like blasts, before the two tackle the north and south officers respectively (Logistics), and then charging up the stairs with a smoke wall and taking more glass and any equipment the officers were carrying. The two next consider how to handle the Gallery, and have well thought out plans against both of their opponents: Bridgid is handled by trying to keep away from Outlando D’Armour while using ranged attacks, and if combat with the Stand is unavoidable Natalie fights with her sword and orbiting ninja stars (a bit stat-checky); and against Texas, smoke and glass to take out insects and wings, with Nat facing the girl in hit and run combat only to hack away at Stand limbs.

The route to Zafar taken is primarily Jyotsna taking out any immediate threats and Nat taking out the cameras, as they move through the office (using the blindspots of the southern cameras [Logistics]) and then into the Armory where the two take out everyone in there to take riot gear and smoke grenades — which are used in tandem with Jyo’s Nightbloom ‘eye’ to prevent the officers and Gallery from knowing where they are while still being able to pinpoint and take out them in turn with the weaponry they’ve acquired (Logistics/Tech). As they move in to face Zafar, they toss an officer at his desk while Nat blasts them with glass — if this doesn’t stop him from taking a shot, Jyo’s arm will, giving Nat time to create an Ultimate Glass Blast to blast the General and the Chief with tons of glass before beating him up and slicing him in two. A short strat, but a good job nonetheless (the most direct flaws I can see being minor mistakes in spelling or direction) — a **7**!

Judge Chaney (Logic)

A quick delib from me for a relatively quick race.

While ODA does some initial surveillance and warding against DCH Planning/Counterplay), Texas is the mechanical lynchpin of the strategy. (Competency/Logistics) While I may scratch at the timing and positioning cost of all these game actions, it’s a robust use of Texas’s kit to disable the stage obstacles in GWF’s dash to the finish. I do wish that more was written for the actual capture of Zafar given the ordinance he’s rocking, but the strat coheres well enough: [7].

DCH is a little bit harder to follow due to its structure: priorities aren’t as clearly delineated between sections, interference tech is given but not as contextualized within the match, and a few confusing sentences that took me a bit to parse. (Formatting) Nonetheless, the intent is clear: fight their way through. (Planning) My fellow judges gave the exact play-by-play, but my immediate thought is to the time cost of the various instances of (somewhat vague) resource gathering. (Logistics) It’s not a deal breaker, but it may leave DCH occasionally flatfooted. Despite the formatting and logistical concerns, the planning and tech are well met: [6]

Judge Wilson (Alpha)

Oh baby, it’s time for the boss-as-objective match, a lesser-used subtype of ‘Stage Hazard’ match! I remember back when I faced one of these down.. Too bad that’s useless information now, especially since it doesn’t even remotely line up with this match or its objectives! Ah, good times.

Well now, we’ve reached the last match (that I can reasonably delib) in round 4, and I’m hankering to get right into it, so without further ado, we have Dolphin Cup Hijinks!

The opening moves of this strat rely heavily on the in-kit abilities to break glass and gather its shards, while I don’t doubt these abilities or the speed therein, this opening move provides for the rest of the strat, meaning that the necessary time investment at the early stages is a technical flux. While I’m not going to decry it as impossible, as the rest of your moves can feasibly be done with a low-ceiling glass count, I’ll point it out as a potential logistics issue.

We move onto the major counterplay sections, which like the former, focus on the very early game. Everyone is likely trying to head to the stairs, as a natural point and part of the objective, so it’s good to wrap your head around. While I feel that the plays on display aren’t particularly robust, with some stat-checking to hold the tech together, they are still on display.

We move onto the second floor, wherein Jyostna kills cops- nice- with relative ease according to stat-checking, and the party seems to move mostly unobstructed, likely with Jyostna’s smoke form, between objectives. The main one on this floor, aside from the dead cops, is the smoke bombs in the arsenal behind them, or around them depending on where they are.

The smoke bombs are then used to coat the hallway just past them in smoke. While incredibly useful in sealed buildings, any smoke grenade also requires time to puff out. Smoke doesn’t automatically fill the air, after all, but it also isn’t slow enough as to where it would greatly affect play. It’s worth bringing up regardless.

Moving into the very final section, we have a few last-shot counterplay options for the likely-encroaching pair that is Brighid and Texas before Jyo and Nat roll down the hallway, pick up an armed guard that they’ve hopefully defeated, and use it to bodyblock Zafar before the final ultimate blow, wherein Nat uses all of her very sharp glass in a final attack.

Now, a lot of what I’ve had to say up there can be boiled down into the same argument: time investment. A lot of it is waylaid or brushed off entirely because of existing stats, which can be fair, but some of it doesn’t add up without outside gutchecks. Mostly, in the end, Jyostna can see the remaining people, pointing them out to Nat, and then Nat can take them down or Jyo can shoot them: yes, I can surmise this as an avid reader, but it’s never explicitly stated that this is the case in the endgame of the strat. Sure, smoke grenades are hard to deal with but they’re not paralyzing; they’re mild irritants, unlike tear gas.

Now, I’ll admit that’s a strong gripe, but the strat isn’t without merit; there’s a solid foundation and technical understanding of the kits on display here, coupled with a very breezy read overall.

Outside of those final lines, the only thing I have to admit is that the guy you were fighting is actually named Zafar. Anyway, take this [6] I found!

Moving onto Girls With Rollerblades, we have a very calorie-dense lunch topped with a wisp of whipped cream- no to the food examples? Regardless then, the strat reminds me of poundcake.

The first major section is particularly robust, given that it is chock full o’tech made to force all of the guards’ attention onto the opponents. They’re so full it reminds me of a point I made in GWR’s match 8 delib, but I’ll save that for now, as they still have meaning.  With the major distraction in play, the pair convene at the top of the stairs after making them damn near impossible to get up. In the cases where they may not, there’s another brick- albeit a smaller brick than first- that covers most of the potential counters the opponents may think up decently. Once again, it’s purpose-built to cover a wide range of examples, so it’s supposed to be a brick.

The second major section, which starts with Chekhov’s Play (making Flies) from the first section, is built around a particularly fun game of keepaway! Namely, if we keep the camera and the guard’s eyes away, we’ll be kept away from a hail of gunfire! This is only helped by smashing cleanly through walls until you arrive at the office.

Before I move on, there’s a particular point of contention I want to float here: Zafar. Where every other character or potential possibility brought up in the strat has one, two, four or even six possible counters, Zafar has one plan attached to him: disarm and wall-choke-slam. Sure, the getting there is well-covered, but having only one plan when faced with what is the area boss feels inattentive, like the man himself is an afterthought.

Moving onto the final counterplay section, we have my gripe on display- a great many things, if not everything, that could go wrong outside of any moment where the members of GWR aren’t in the office is covered cleanly and clearly. Once again, it is robust and well-written.

With all of that tabled, I do still feel that there’s enough here to garner an [8]. The technical ability on display is more than enough to cover most bases, but there are a few bumps and scrapes on otherwise stellar work.