“INVERTED” Wins- the ultimate victory!

The most challenging but strategically satisfying way to win a game of Factions: Battlegrounds involves— scoring LESS points than your opponent??

There are 2 ways to win a game of Factions: Battlegrounds. The most common and straightforward path to victory is to score the required number of victory points before your opponents.

The other way is to not allow your opponent to have a unit on the board for 2 full rounds. This way (winning by “siege” as we call it”) is also fairly common. Most of the time, winning by siege comes as a result of attempting to win by victory points. Typically, a large lead is built, your opponent doesn’t have enough gold to recruit units, and they lose the game before you are able to score the last couple of points.

Usually we’ve referred to winning by siege not necessarily as “winning”, but rather as the opponent “losing.”

Lately, however, I have been going for a third version of winning… one that is strategically challenging and exciting… an “inverted win”.

What is an “Inverted Win?”

An inverted win is simply when you win by siege, but your opponent has more victory points than you. Seems simple enough on the surface, and occasionally it happens because your enemy will make a grave tactical error, but knowing how to get inverted wins through your own tactics can make you unstoppable!

Winning by siege usually is a longer, drawn out process, involving a slow takeover and building up a force that eventually overcomes your enemies units and takes control of the resource centers… but winning by siege in the form of an inverted win is typically the opposite- fast, aggressive, and not a lot of build up. The price to pay for a masterfully quick win is usually losing some of your units.

Keys to achieving INV-W’s:

Change your objective (or at least be open-minded!) When beginning a game of Factions: Battlegrounds, my mindset has always been “how am I going to score as many points as possible?” The question to ask when going for a victory by siege is a little more complex– it should be “how am I going to eliminate all opponent units and prevent them from recruiting more?”

Keep close tabs on your enemy’s warband. Check the gold costs of the 3 units they remove prior to the game.. If they remove a couple (or all) cheap, low- cost units, then going for an inverted win might be a great strategy. If your opponent is left with no units on the board and the most affordable option they have left in their warband is more than 2 gold, they could be putting themselves at major risk for a sudden loss without even realizing it.

If an opponent removes affordable units like these from their warband, they could be subjected to losing by siege, because their most affordable unit costs more than 2 gold (if they have no units on the board and cannot play a unit for 2 reinforcement phases, they’d lose the game!)

Watch your enemy’s gold! Going hand in hand with knowing the cheapest enemy unit available to recruit, make sure that you are in the know about how much gold your enemy will be getting each round. Controlling the resource centers is a huge part of this. If your opponent is bringing in 5 gold per round with no units on the board, then they are going to be able to play pretty much anything they want during the reinforcement phase, taking an inverted win off the table.

Make sure you know how many resource centers your enemy controls, particularly gold mines, when weighing if you should go for the inverted win.

Attack the enemy Base Camp tile. This is where IVW’s get really fun. It is important to eliminate all of the enemy units on the board (more on that next)… and a really good way to do that is to significantly limit enemy unit access to the resource centers. The best way limit access is to force them to attack by crowding them as soon as they enter the battleground… now, you will definitely lose units and fall behind on the scoreboard- but bringing the fight directly outside your enemies basecamp will restrict their gold access significantly, making it harder to get new units in the long run. Units with elite mobility can run up and make the first attack, and then slower, more durable units can follow them up and surround the base camp.

Units with elite movement are great at interfering with enemy units trying to reach the resource centers.

Focus on eliminating units- not scoring victory points. Those cheap units that cost 1,2, or 3 gold? Those units produce resources when ignored. The only way to get an inverted win is to clear the board, and the only way to do that is to treat each and every unit as an equal threat. Forget about the value of points, focus on clearing everything. Consider this… You have Genie Khan, and could use Wave of Blades to take out 2 “little” units that will score you 3 points total… OR 1 unit that would score you 6 points total.. When playing to win by siege, you take the 2 units out every single time. 2 units on the board = double the resources, double the opportunity to get gold mines, and double the activations. Remember, you are not trying to chase 30 victory points, you are trying to clear the board!

Area effect spells are an excellent way to clear the board quickly- even if they don’t score a lot of points. Whenever you get the chance to take out more than one unit, go for it!

Get used to losing units– and make it a good thing! If you charge at the enemy basecamp and focus brazenly on eliminating units, you WILL lose units and you WILL fall behind. When going for a win by siege, that is 100% ok and simply part of the strategy (as long as the enemy doesn’t reach the amount needed to win of course!!) However, that lead on the scoreboard can really lead to some false enemy confidence… being behind can provide cover for your masterplan. There is nothing like the opposing player being a few points away from what they think is a dominating victory…. only to realize they have 3 gold… and need 6 to get a new unit.

NEVER pull back– This is where the difference between a potentially long, drawn out regular win or win by siege and a quick, stunning win comes into play. When the board is cleared or you have a big resource advantage, pulling away from the enemy basecamp so you don’t get smacked on the Reinforcement Phase is a sound strategy. However, it leaves the door open for your opponent to establish resources, recruit additional units, and re-stabilize. When you keep your foot on the pedal- you probably will get hit hard during the reinforcement phase.. but you will have a more units waiting in the wings charging forward. Allowing your enemy the time and space to build up is a big, big risk. Losing a couple of units but never letting them establish an adequate resource pipeline can win you the game- fast.

Any ol’ Factions general can score 30 points, but only LEGENDS can snatch victory out of seemingly thin air with a stunning INVERTED VICTORY!!

Best factions at Inverted wins:

While an INV W can be accomplished by any faction, here are some of the factions that are best equipped for this strategy.

ZYAN:

Zyan is a great faction to focus on inverted wins because they have an abundance of fast, mobile units that can claim resources first, then span the board and crowd the enemy basecamp tiles. Zyan is particularly ruthless when it comes to crowding the basecamps because of the Skirmish ability.. This enables units like Sunfire Angel and Royal Swordfighter to make melee attacks as soon as enemies enter the board (when positioned correctly), effectively locking down the spaces adjacent to the basecamp. If your opponent does manage to clear their home area, Zyan’s control of the resource centers should enable a fast, strong second wave. Units like Unicorn Warhulk are very capable in this role. After a couple of hard fought rounds, your opponent may have a victory point lead, but they will have almost no resources… which means a likely inverted W for Zyan.

BAAZARIA:

Winning by siege is ultimately about controlling the battleground- and Baazaria is built for that. A typical win by siege for Baazaria looks like a gradual withering of enemies and regenerated undead slowly and relentlessly crossing the board. However, Baazaria also offers the perfect combination of units to speed this process up, and when the conditions are right, pull off some of the most surprising and fastest inverted wins in the game. The key is the Asanbosam units in the early game, using their high rank to move as quickly as possible to claim resource centers and attack opposing vanguard and other opposing early game units. Once this is established, the resources are flowing, and your enemy has a false sense of security from eliminating the Asanbosam and overcoming the first rush of battle, the Deathstorm Lich can comfortably wreak havoc with Deathwave. Your enemy will no doubt rush either the Lich or the resource centers, and a unit like the Bloodreaver Wraith can be the perfect answer, with good movement and a lethal melee attack. Once the board is cleared, it’s likely Baazaria will be a few points behind– but the enemy faction is not going to have the resources needed to recruit a unit that can impact the game any further. Inverted W!

DOOM SAND:

While other factions might be more equipped to get Inverted W’s faster, Doom Sand is probably the most equipped to achieve INV-W’s the most consistently. There is a lot of risk involved when playing this aggressively, and Doom Sand thrives on risk. The ultimate accelerator to winning by siege quickly is clearing the board. Doom Sand has by far the most multi-target and multi-space targeting spells of any faction- meaning they have the best board-clearing potential. Remember, when trying to pull this off the goal is to clear the board of enemy units, not to score the most points possible with a spell- so using Sandstorm, Fireball, Wave of Blades, or Meteor Storm when you can target more than 1 unit is MORE valued than using it when you can only take down or significantly wound a single enemy. With a clear (or almost clear board) Doom Sand can control the resource centers with ease. Taking these kinds of risks will no doubt leave your expensive units vulnerable to significant points for your opponent.. but with Doom Sand’s gold and mana domination, whatever enemies are left can be dispatched of quickly. Eventually, there won’t be anything affordable left for your enemy and their victory point lead will be irrelevant.