THE HOSER REPORT

HOSE KNOWS Questions and Answers

Q: What's your favorite style, and why? A: A hard choice, but I favor the PLU. 5 of my 15 gladiators are PLU. Why? The PLU seems to be the most balanced of the ten styles. Many more opponents you can challenge and beat. When your LUA runs out of gas, defenses are limited to dodge, which is usually not that good until 20 or 30 fights (and it burns energy you can't spare). The PLU can be fought like a psuedo-LUA, or can pick up a shield and offer good defenses. A PLU can also dodge. Initiative and riposte are generally very good. Even when my PLU's are in their "defense" minutes, they make good attacks at a low endurance cost. Weapon options are also good. Learning is good when you can stretch your fights out past 2 minutes. The only down side seems to be that decisiveness is weak. What more could you ask for? Q: How can I run a WST best, offensive effort, activity level, etc? I've got one with great potential, but he tends to clomp around swinging like a wild man with double-vision. A: Why do you guys keep asking me about styles I don't run? Actually, I have started a WST, and am experiencing these problems. My initial strategy was to go slow and parry in minute 1, then come out to end the fight in minute 2. The idea was to make the fight go longer, and increase the number of skills per turn. Unfortunately, the parry abilities of my WST were not so hot. So, I tried 10-10-N. He clomped around swinging like a wild man with double-vision. That's no good either. Inasmuch as it was against experienced scum, I may try it again. The root problem of ineffective (or wild) attacks remains. I see two possible causes. RSI has made references to offensive efforts/activity levels/kill desires causing wild attacks if they don't match your fighters favorite or preferred levels. Could this be? Based on my own experience, I would say no. I have an experienced BAS who runs well at 10-10-10-B, and an experienced TPS who takes opponents apart at 10-10-10-B. If you subscribe to the above theory, then this shouldn't happen. Who knows, perhaps it is levels that don't match the fighter. More than likely however, it is lack of attack skills (which of course is a function of lack of experience). I don't know how many your fighter has learned but when you get some under your belt, the clomping will be a thing of the past. Think about this - it's better to make wild attacks than to have your opponent making the attacks, particularly when you have poor defense. Try 10-3 or 6-3. Use the slash tactic vs. any opponent who isn't a scum. Or, the bash tactic with a bashing weapon vs. any opponent. Be sure and test parry ability. If your opponent is exhausted he will be easier to hit. Let me know how it works. Q: What has RSI said about the HOSER REPORT? A: I was considering about that for some time myself. Since over 2 years had gone by since my departure, and RSI has claimed major program changes, I felt that the time was appropriate to start a strategy newsletter. I have been contacted by Paul Brown, it appears that RSI is supportive of this (although they were not too wild about the name). I think the benefits to themselves are recognized. A complimentary subscription was requested by; and is sent to, RSI. Their desire to keep tabs on what is being published about their primary product is certainly understandable. It is not intended for the HOSER REPORT to be a vehicle to unfairly bash anyone. I have recieved some questions and other items critical of the moderator. Since I intend to print almost anything which has a factual basis, it stemed appropriate to extend RSI the opportunity to respond to criticisms. So, you may even see statements from RSI appear in the HOSER REPORT. Q: Do you remember the time when I asked you how I should run my LUA (name witbeld)? Well, here is his total stats: ST=12 DEC skills 2 Expert: INT, PAR CN=12 ATT skills 2 Average skills/turn = 2.08 SZ=9 INT skills 7 Record (witheld) WT=16 RIP skflls 3 WL=15 PAR skills 10 SP=13 DEF skills 3 DF=13 He has no problems against BAS and the likes, but always loses to LUA.... Do you think he should try the parry tactic? I'm very reluctant to use it. He does not dodge well against the other LUA, I'm not sure why. His 13 SP is pretty quick in my opinion, but he never seems to get the initiative. A: The first thing you should start doing is start challenging BAS. On the parry tactic: 10 parry skills for a LUA is pretty damn strange considering initiative or dodge is usually the dominant skill of this style. Between my 3 LUA (2 of which are in AD), I don't think they have 10 parry skills between them. The fact that he is only expert despite 10 skills plus attribute increases (you didn't tell me what the natural stats were you hoser!) suggests that while his relative parry is good, on an absolute basis he doesn't have great parry ability. It is worth a try in this unusual case, use a good lunging weapon that has some parry value (LO. SC, SH) with an off-hand parry weapon (SH, DA, ME - SH preferred). Do not use the parry tactic in your opening minute, or desperation. Dodging - He only has 3 skills, and hasn't hit expert (even with whatever attribute increases were done). I'm not surprised that he can't dodge. Even for an experienced LUA, I feel the dodge tactic only functions to reduce (not eliminate) the number of hits per minute. Not nearly as effective as a parry defense, plus it costs endurance to dodge. Initiative - He doesn't seem to have many initiative skills for the total fights he has (of course not - he's busy learning parry!). You never said what his armor & weapons set up was. Try dropping weight to the minimum to gain initiative (CN and WL are good so the chance of dying is pretty miniscule), make liberal use of the lunge tactic. Q: Do "tactics" really work? A: To the best of my knowledge and experience, all tactics will have an effect on your gladiator. Personally, I use all of the offensive and 2 of the defensive tactics. I do not use riposte or responsiveness because I don't have the correct fighters, and I can't remember which letter is which tactic on the turn sheet. The experience gained over time should answer your question. If not, get in contact with someone you can trust, and arrange a series of "fixed" fights. Use a "challenge" strategy, they use an "if challenged strategy. The only thing that changes is that you (or they) switch or omit tactics. Perceptive readers will recognize that over a series of fixed fights there will be learning, which would confound results. This can be minimized by each fighter raising attributes to the next even number. Or, raise CN since it has no effect on skills. Remember, only raising to odd numbers can affect skills, odd numbers represent break points (except in AD, which is a different story). Alot of trouble to go to, I find it easier to believe that tactics work.

THE MANAGERS CORNER

The suggestion came in that a table be published relating weapon effectiveness vs. armor. Not a bad idea, but room is lacking in this issue. It is upcoming. Please feel free to send in your observations. Mike La Plante did send in these additional notes on the tables which appeared in HR #1. To use 2 EP requires 21DF, 17DF if AMB (ambidextrous). To use 2 LO requires 17DF, 15DF if AMB. To use 2 SC requires 17DF, 15DF if AMB.. To use 2 SH requires a 7 ST. How many of you have problems relating SZ to the heights which appear at the top of he fight? I can't for the life of me figure out what the SZ of someone 6' 6" is, being accustomed to the 3 to 21 scale. The above mentioned manager sent in the following information, which was originally compiled by Brian Stafford:

SZ	Height	SZ	Height	SZ	Height	SZ	Height
3	4'11"	4	5'1"	5	5'3"	6	5'4"
7	5'5"	8	5'6"	9	5'7"	10	5'8"
11	5'9"	12	5'10"	13	5'11"	14	6'
15	6'2"	16	6'4"	17	6'6"	18	6'8"
19	6'10"	20	7'	21	7'2"

PROGRAM CHANGES - A FIRST LOOK

In the beginning of April RSI announced important program changes. I have heard accounts from two people of scums being knocked around like so many tennis balls, and of a scum vs. scum fight being called somewhere after the 10th minute. After reviewing 13 of my personal fights I have seen 1 where the mentioned changes came into play. Here is how it looked (I challenged):

Hose Worst(Hose Machine)	Tegeus Crontis (Those Who Rule)
19-3-0	26-31-0
5'4"	5'8"
ALE,F	N,N
SH,ME	LS
SH,DA	SS
TPS	PRP

MIN 1: TC CRIT ATT, HW deflects. TC out of control, TC CRIT ATT. HW deflects. TC CRIT Att, HW deflects, HW flies backwards, TC ATT, HW PAR, HW is forced back, HW twists, TC CRIT ATT, HW PAR, TC slips past, HW hit LA, TC ATT, HW PAR, HW pivots, TC CRIT ATT MIN 2: HW hit RL, HW knocked down, HW back up, TC ATT, (comment), HW deflects, TC exhausted, TC CRIT ATT, HW deflects, TC slips past, HW hit CH, (comment). HW frantic, TC ATT, HW PAR, TC ATT, HW CRIT PAR, clash, TC ATT, HW hit HE, (awesome blow), HW winces, TC CRIT ATT, HW hit LA. HW knocked down, (comment) MIN 3: HW hurt. HW motions, TC wins. The new changes are underlined (my strategy in minute I was 1-1-P). The main effect was to be an endurance cost to absorb energy by parrying. Hose Worst has tons of endurance, so it doesn't appear to have been a factor. What hurt was the "slipped past parry", but thats old news. Clearly more information is needed, changes will continue to get coverage as they develop. By the way, if any of you would like to develop a coherent shorthand system for detailing fights, I'll be glad to use it. Lastly, using my usual good discretion, I think its time to leak news from an unidentified source about "...the release of a number of changes to the game ....under wraps for the last couple months ... to address the reasons people have dropped out." Whatever happens (next month?), I'm sure its nothing but good news for RSI customers. Remember, you read it in the HOSER REPORT first!

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - THE NEW RECRUIT (PART 1)

Last issue I began to talk about character development and its importance, and offered some guidelines on "stable cleaning". Whh recent program changes, now is an excellent time to think about rebuilding with an eye to the future. So now that you've made liberal use of the DA and have those replacements in hand, lets focus on which you should keep, and how they should be set. The importance of being very picky about your new recruits cannot be emphasized enough. There is no rule that says you have to give every recruit a chance! At least not yet. More often than not, this would be a chance to lower your team W/L. At this point something should be said about all the articles one sees in arena newsletters about the "perfect" character. I don't think that it would be too hard to convince most of you that character design is a study in the art of compromise, and that a "perfect" character does not exist in the presence of constraints. I have seen a few articles that seem to be on track, but most have a built in flaw that might be referred to as the "law of averages". What I mean is that most show characters that have no really low stats (except for SZ, everything else is between 11 and 15). I would argue that this type of character is going to be "incredibly average", and have no outstanding strengths to take advantage of. This is the kind of gladiator that ends up with a 15-14 record. Above .500 to be sure, but if you have a stable full of this type you'll be forever in the middle of the pack. Only the #1 team plays free. In a nutshell, the Hoser theory of character design is based on the belief that some attributes are worth much less than others. By "neglecting" some attribute initially, points can be transfered to attributes which do more for you. Loopholes in the game design have existed since day 1, and been taken taken advantage of since day 2. RSI may tighten some loopholes with program changes (changes to SZ being the prime example), but the idea is still a good one to build your team around. The $64 question is which attributes are "worthless"? At this point, you should all have your original roll up rules. Even an expenenced manager can still make use of them. Lets get down to business. Get a sheet of paper, and down the left side write down each attribute. Across the top, write each skill area (if you're a non-conformist you can do it the other way around). Reading the roll up rules, make a mark at the intersection (cell) of skills and attributes. The marks are "y" for yes, "n" for no. and "?" for maybe. When you get done, you should have something that looks like this: ATT DEC DOD INIT PAR RIP DAM HP END ENC ST Y N N N Y N Y N Y Y CN N N N N N N N Y Y Y SZ N N Y Y N N Y ? N N WT Y Y? Y Y Y Y N N Y? N WL Y? N N N Y? N N Y? Y N SP N Y Y? Y Y? Y N N N N DF Y N Y Y? Y Y N N N N More abbreviations: ATT- Attack skills, DEC- Desciveness, DOD- Defensive actions, INIT- Initiative routines, PAR- Parry, RIP- Riposte, DAM- Damage, HP- Hit points, END- Endurance, ENC- Encumbrance. Note that some cells have a "y" and a "?". I won't have room to explain my reasoning in this issue, but keep it in mind. Skill have been seperated from the "capacities" (for lack of a better term) to illustrate a point. In general, it's much better in initial design to maximize skills at the expense of capacities. Why? Lets look at each capacity. DAM: Say you've just got a "tremendous" or "awesome" damage warrior (a BAS or similar brute). What good is it to hit hard when you can't hit anyone? To emphasize capacities, you must neglect skills (such as ATT). The hypothetical BAS (he could be any style really) probably won't be able to hit any parry style warrior (TPS, PST, PRP, PLU) using a ME and parry tactic. Think about it. The upcoming changes? Its anyones guess how much things will really change, or when it will happen. I'll believe it when I see it in my fights. Getting back to styles, we've just eliminated 1/2 or maybe 2/3 of the available opponents in your arena. Whats left? LUA? With a BAS? Not likely. SLA? A 50/50 proposition at best. As is other warriors of the same style (BAS in this case). That leaves STA, WST, and AIM. How many of these are active in your arena? What is your chance of getting one every turn? The point is as long as you can start a fighter with good damage you should be ok. ST & SZ determine DAM. HP: Its handy (but not neccessary) to have a good amount, but I can see little value in having excessive HP. Most every character I've ever seen designed to "take damage" does just that - stands around and takes damage! Hoping that your opponent runs out of END before you run out of HP is not a promising strategy. CN, WL, and extreme SZ determine HP. END: No skimping here. You need good endurance at a minimum, and an excess is not at all bad. ST. CN, & WL are the prime determinants of END. WT also has a small effect. If any of you attended tournaments, remember the display on the computer screen that gave endurance totals for fighters "A" and B"? It appeared that the effect was to "recharge" END points when "resting" (i.e., parrying). And, all other things being equal, a higher WT gladiator may indeed have a lower END cost per attack. The relationship is not easy to discern, and there is little that you can do about it. So forget about the WT effect for now. ENC: Being able to carry APA and heavy weapons can be advantageous early. As many of you have no doubt noticed, character abilities begin to out strip armor protection. This is especially true in AD, were even small warriors using average weapons can blow through APA like kleenex. If you are taking care of END and can do at least good DAM, chances are you'll have adequate ENC. ST & CN determine ENC. Once again we are out of space and time. I hope the above ideas have provided you with food for thought. Please don't hesitate with any questions, comments, or criticisms on anything in the HOSER REPORT, or having to do with the game. In the next issue look for character design to continue, along with analysis of any new program changes. With some luck and letter scrunching, more of your observations will also appear (including some really good stuff on the PRP from an anonymous manager). Jeff Morgan