By Zach Shephard

Combat is a gift from the gods. Without combat, we might as well be playing Go Fish (another game driven by pure strategy – never ask for eights, it’s a statistical nightmare). After all, we’re not playing this game with peace in mind – we’re playing because we want to smash our opponents’ faces in.

As such, combat is not something to be taken lightly. Chaotic though post-apocalyptic feuds may be, they can still experience their fair share of orchestration and precision. You need to enter combat with a plan, lest your opponent take advantage of your lack of preparation.

So what is there to combat that really needs to be discussed? Attackers swerve for accuracy, defenders swerve for speed, tactics are played, a combat bonus is drawn, and the fight is resolved. Simple enough, right?

It may seem that way, but that’s not the case. The real key is knowing when to make your move, and when to save your resources for another time. That’s exactly what we’ll be going over today.

SAFETY FIRST – Look both ways before crossing the road.

Suicide, despite what one may think, tends not to be the best way to win a game (unless you’re a Pike, but that’s a completely different story). I know, the idea sounds crazy, but hear me out. Often times, a mistake of newer players is to attack just for the sake of attacking. It’s very important to take a look at the total speed your opponent is likely to achieve in any particular battle, and figure out what kind of accuracy you can throw together. Remember that your opponent’s base speed at the start of the combat will be equal to the highest speed of the participating defenders – that’s before he even swerves anything. Any defending combatants will have the option to swerve to add their speed to the defensive total, and in the case of a vehicle on defense, non-focused maneuvers can be swerved to contribute their speed as well. As an attacker, your close-combat total accuracy starts at an impressive zero. However, any unswerved combatants you have can be swerved to add their accuracy values to the offensive total.

This is where you want to crunch some numbers – find out exactly how much speed your opponent can get to before you commit to an attack. Obviously you can’t account for any tactics he may have in his hand, so just deal with the cards in play. Then, determine what your total accuracy could be and find the difference between the two numbers. Once you’ve made good use of that abacus you got for Christmas, you can see if attacking would even be worthwhile – just keep in mind you’ll get a combat bonus before the battle is over, and try to fit that into your estimation.

One thing you can do is find out the probability of certain combat draws in your deck before the game even starts. For example, you may want to figure out what your chances are of having a 25+ on your combat draw – a particular deck of mine will get such a draw over 80% of the time. As such, when I’m trying to determine whether or not I should attack, I do so under the assumption that I’ll draw at least a 25 for my combat bonus.

KNOWING WHEN TO SWERVE – Is it really worth avoiding that squirrel in the road?

Just because you can swerve a card for accuracy or speed doesn’t mean that you have to. There are plenty of reasons to leave units unswerved during combat. The first (and likely most intuitive) of which is that there’s no reason to swerve if you already know you’re going to win – overkill doesn’t score you any bonus points in this game.

Also keep in mind that the damage bonus printed on a unit or vehicle is not automatically applied for winning a combat – the card must be swerved after a winner is determined to add its damage to the end result. So, rather than swerving that Slaughter Guard for his accuracy, you might want to save him until you’ve won the combat, at which point you can swerve him to toss an extra two points of damage your opponent’s way.

Another reason not to swerve on offense is to save your resources for defense. You could make an all-out, massive attack in which all of your units swerve – but in doing so, you leave yourself very vulnerable to your opponent’s attacks when his or her turn comes around.

Often times, your units can actually do more damage to your opponent’s vehicle by defending than they can by raiding. When your units raid, your opponent’s vehicle can use his maneuvers to swerve for speed and increase his chances of winning. When your opponent assaults a mission, however, he must engage in combat with your units there and try to use his accuracy to overcome your speed. Vehicles will often have much more speed at their disposal than accuracy, being that maneuvers are such an easy way to gain this defensive attribute. Consider the options of waiting until your opponent comes at your units during the assault phase, and making him pay when he does.

TIMING YOUR ACTIONS – The “pass” button is your friend.

There will certainly be times in the game where you’ll foresee your opponent’s actions and want to act accordingly. For example, when you’re on the attack, you may have zero accuracy to your opponent’s twenty speed. You’ve got a decent chance of winning when the combat bonus hits, and your opponent realizes this, so you assume he’ll go ahead and swerve his vehicle for +20 speed. To counter this, you’ll play the Reckless Charge in your hand for +30 accuracy. And, being that your action comes first and you already know what’s going to happen, why not just play the Reckless Charge now instead of passing?

Because then your opponent knows not to swerve his vehicle, as it won’t do him much good.

In the above example, you’d want to pass on your first action, forcing your opponent to swerve his vehicle for that extra defense. Then, once it’s your turn to make a move, go ahead and play that Reckless Charge.

However, be forewarned – any time you pass in an attempt to make your opponent waste some of his resources before you drop a bomb on his head, keep in mind that he may pass as well, in which case combat immediately moves to the combat bonus draw.

To wrap things up, let’s take a look at what we learned about close combat today:

• Safety First – Before making an attack, take a look at how much speed your opponent can get, and how much accuracy you can get (based on the cards in play). Don’t attack just for the sake of attacking when there’s no way you can win.
• Knowing When to Swerve – Be sure not to swerve a unit or vehicle if you want to use its damage bonus when combat comes to a close. Furthermore, don’t swerve any attackers that you might want to save for defense on your opponent’s turn.
• Timing Your Actions – Sometimes you can lure your opponent into a trap by passing and making him waste a resource before you unload on him.