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This week: Deckswabber
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As with many games I have written about, there have been other guides and
articles as well. Hopefully I can give a slightly different slant; if not, I
apologise for the ensuing boredom...
Deckswabber is one of those games that is, to some extent, a coordination
effort, but to a greater extent it's all about planning. Some of its strategy
extends to what not to do, for that matter.
First, a breakdown of the game score rankings:
- Amateur 100
- Novice 250
- Expert 400
- Master 600
- Grand Master 800
A Grand Master ranking isn't all that hard to get once you master some of
the techniques, but it's not one of the trivial ones, either. Of course you
earn NP and Dubloons too, but we won't be mercenary enough to mention that.
Let's look at how the game works.
You have three ways that a tile will act when you land on it:
- Permanent: change colours but stay that colour from then on
- Swap: change colours back and forth between two colours after the first,
such as deck-red-yellow-red-yellow...
- Cycle: cycle colours in a forward sequence including reset to the original
deck (brown) colour.
It will tell you across the bottom of the board what your sequences are and
what colour you're trying to paint all the squares. The number of steps will
become important later as you get to the sequences that reset to unpainted deck,
but we'll get to that. You may change colours several times before settling into
a Swap sequence, too.
You need to develop two primary tactics, and then learn to apply them consistently.
First, figure out a pattern that will, if there were no monsters or special
items, paint the whole deck in one continuous run. The easiest one is the first
level, of course, where you'd just paint back and forth one row at a time until
done. Most boards have such a pattern, though some are harder to figure out
than others. If there's a pattern that only misses a few squares, but otherwise
completes the board, use that one.
Secondly, you need to learn how to "reach out" and change a single square,
while leaving the rest alone. Usually if you are in a Swap sequence, this means
running from a point across "fresh paint" to paint an unpainted square, then
retracing your steps to where you were. The effect is especially handy when
you for one reason or another have to skip a square due to an enemy.
Now, to use these tactics in a strategy.
Start out by painting in the pattern you've developed for this board. Try
to do it as quickly and completely as possible.
If an enemy pops up in the way, either wait for it to move, or run right through
it if you're up to full health. You might take a slight hit, but plan on picking
up a health flag later. Don't do this if you're low in health though--sometimes
they'll happen to follow along and will hit you a couple of times in a row.
Of course in the highest levels, the skeleton is deadly on his first hit, so
just panic.
(I don't try to get the time bonus, especially in the later levels, because
I find I get stupid when I hurry. You might not have that problem...)
If you do have to leave a few spaces, use tactic 2 to fill them in later.
Meanwhile, try not to get hit. The most important thing in any competitive game
is to stay alive long enough to score high, and this is no different.
Another skill you need to develop is the rhythm needed to repaint a line or
area when you've had to reset it to deck colour, either running away from an
enemy or going out to paint a couple of missed squares. Depending on the number
of entries in a sequence, you can run forward one, back three, forward two,
etc. in a pattern that will paint a few squares at a time. It takes a bit longer,
but when you get to where you have to cycle through 4-5 colours, you'll be glad
to have learned it. Like many games, practice until it's second nature to you.
Remember, paint as much as you can in big areas and leave those alone. Just
mess up a specific route from then on (if you're allowed to) and work to clean
it up. Lots of levels I just run around the outside after getting the centre
painted right.
Some might suggest to ignore the non-enemy objects that pop up, but there
are a couple of reasons why they're as important as the enemies. First of all,
you can prevent the box-explosion from resetting squares to deck colour (it
usually does that to all squares in that row and column across the board). Consider
that trouble-avoidance. The other is the treasure, either coins or treasure
chests, which will give you some bonus points. In either case, you're clearing
the way for something even better: a sword or health. You always have
one good and two bad things on the board at a time, and you should try to control
that situation.
Enemies such as the Techo will come toward you, so position that bouncing
sword between you and him so he'll run into it. If you have lesser enemies that
are dumber like the cannon, don't try to kill them because they might get replaced
by a smarter one.
If you need health, do anything you can to stay alive, including keeping your
feet dry. Also remember that the sword disappears when it destroys an enemy,
so you might clear the way for a health flag. Stay alive--it helps. Maybe it's
psychological, but I never seem to be able to restart after the 30 point penalty
and get anywhere after that.
Okay, that's about all I really have as suggestions. Many of you simply have
to play enough to get your skills up, and develop your patterns. I'll close
by giving you a description of my favorite patterns for the first few boards
(they repeat, of course, but the colour sequences get progressively harder).
I'm adding my own name for those boards just because I'm whimsical that way.
You'll never really get a chance to do one of these full patterns anyway because
enemies will show up, but just go back and clean up what you missed later.
Board 1 (Big Square Flat Thing)
Just paint back and forth. I start painting left to right and end up done
in the lower left corner. On this one, you can get the time bonus pretty easily
so I just run through any enemies.
Board 2 (Swimming Pool)
Paint back and forth like the first board, but vary at the sides to pick
up those 6 squares to the right and left of the pool. It's not as simple on
the second side as the first if you're not careful, but you'll get the hang
of it.
Board 3 (Four Corners)
Go back and forth, and then down the left, leaving the centre section with
2 sticking out of the centre on the left, top and right, and an entrance from
the bottom. Come around the bottom after doing the left side, and go up into
the centre, swinging out to catch those side and top pairs. Come around the
bottom again and get the right side, then sweep the bottom to finish.
Board 4 (All Hands on Deck)
Go up from where you start, left to the next way down, then sweep that whole
area at the lowest level. Back up the left steps from there and swing right
and up to clear those. Don't forget, your Blumaroo can jump any height, so don't
think you have to go one vertical step at a time. Then around the left edge
and sweep the 2 bottom rows.
Board 5 (Castle Walls)
I like to do the centre first, going around the edge of the water at the
same height until that's all the right colour. Then I go work on the corners
and get them right, so all that's left is the big outer perimeter. Only if a
box explodes somewhere will I go back "upstairs" to the middle or corners.
I'll leave you to develop your own patterns for the later levels.
Oh, one other thing. In the later sequences, if you go through the water at
some point, you might get your level out of sync to where you can't paint the
remaining squares the right colour. Just bop through the water again and it'll
get back right.
I spent quite a while learning that one--it never occurred to me that I had
gotten myself out of sync like that. Good choices come from experience, and
lots of that comes from bad choices.
Next: Korbats Lab
Articles so far in the series: Nimmo's
Pond, Pyramids,
Swarm!,
Scarab
21, Pterattack!,
Sakhmet
Solitaire, Chute,
Destruct-O-Match,
Neggsweeper
and Techo
Says.
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Docktor is Grand Master of Deckswabber and several other games. He holds the
Grand Master position in the "Game Strategies Guild" where strategies such as
presented in this article are discussed among the members.
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