BRAWL: Strategy

As you can see, there are still some parts of this website which are still awaiting our attention. If you have comments on basic BRAWL strategy, let us know. In the meantime, here are some letters we've received over the last few months.

The Basics of the Game

a BRAWL strategy article by James Ernest

Okay, you've read the brief strategy hints in the rulebook, and you're looking for more. Here's a short glimpse at what you should do next to improve your BRAWL game.

Pick a favorite character. Eventually, to survive in the toughest tournaments, you'll need to be good with all the BRAWL decks. But for now, get to know one character exceptionally well. Depending on your card mix, you should be able to choose a few of the following "tricks" to help your game.

Play slowly. Training Mode is a great place to develop new strategies. Think about every move you make, and discuss the options with your opponent as you learn. Some of the best tricks of any deck become apparent only through analysis in Practice Mode. And once you learn these tricks, you can start to apply them in real time.

Clearing Early: If you deal a Clear as your very first card, you should probably Clear your opponent's Base. They are only beating you by a half-point at that Base, but games are often won and lost by that half-point. Leaving your own Base as the only Base in play gives you the advantage from the beginning. Of course, this changes immediately as soon as the Hits start falling.

Protecting the Center: You will learn this technique if you play a few games in Practice Mode. If there is one Base you are clearly winning, you should do whatever you can to protect it. If there are no other Bases in play, you must resist the urge to play a new one! While your pet Base is the only one in play, it can't be cleared. Id your opponent puts a Base beside it, you must either Clear the new Base or protect the one you are winning by playing a new Base on the opposite side. Most important, remember that it's not about winning two Bases out of three. It's about winning the most Bases, period. If you're winning the only Base on the table, you don't need to play a new Base.

The Hit-Block: It's described in the rulebook, but this trick bears repeating. If you have a Green Block on top of your pile, and your next card is a Green Hit, look for the chance to Hit-Block an opponent's open Base. First, play the Hit on their side of the table (on the open end of a Base), then slam the Block right on top of it. You've given them one Hit, but you've made it very hard for them to grow. Decks with a lot of Blocks, like Morgan, are great for this trick.

The Burn: You don't have to play every card. If you are in a winning position, it's often best to start burning for your Freezes. However, this isn't the only time burning is a good strategy. Maybe you need a Clear or a Base very quickly, and you know there are more in your deck. Burn until you see that card, before the opportunity is gone. If you are burning for Freezes, you don't need to look at your discards. Watch the game and make sure you aren't losing your lead as you burn!

Count Your Cards. Basically, you must understand that the composition of your deck changes with every card you play. If you are playing Rent, you will have to use your Reverses wisely if you want to have a fighting chance of winning. While it's hard to track every card in your deck, it's easy to count three Reverses. If you pass all three of them, that's an important thing to know! Similarly, if you are playing Darwin, you will only have one Clear. Be sure you notice when that card is gone!

Count your Opponent's cards. If you know your opponent's key cards, you can try to count them as they get played or buried. Once Tess' three Nulls are accounted for, you know your points are safe!

Writing Off a Base: If you know your own weaker colors, you will know which Bases are worth fighting for. In the extreme case, since Crane is (10, 2, 2) in Hits, with Red being the 10, he knows that he probably won't win any Base he's hitting in Green or Blue unless he can Reverse it. Other characters' color balances aren't that severe, but it's still possible to favor one Base over another, if you are sure you don't have enough Hits to win it.

Ditching a Press: In case you ever need to, it's legal to play a Press on an unmodified Base. Don't forget this if you need to dig to the card beneath your Press!

The Closeout: This is a trick that relies on knowledge of your opponent's deck. If she is weak in a particular color, hit her side in that color whenever you get the chance. For example, Morgan has only two Red Hits. If you are fighting Morgan, you can prevent her from building up a chain of Hits. If you are any good at tracking, you can see when a medium-strength fighter runs out of a particular color. For example, Nickie has only four Hits in any color. If those four are spent, you know you can now close her out in that color.

The Fake: Sometimes it's possible to confuse your opponent by making a play that doesn't benefit you in any way. If it buys you even a second while your opponent pauses and tries to understand what you're doing, this can work to your advantage. But be warned: the fake is only worthwhile if you opponent is paying attention!

BRAWL Deck breakdown by Ian Cooper

I've done a quick, not too thorough examination of the decks (I'm pretty much just starting out at this game). I've come to some conclusions, based on my reading of the cards in each deck. Here are the results and my opinion regarding how they affect the game:

Bennett has the most bases and clears of any fighter, but a low number of hits. Thus he is relatively slow, but has great endurance. Bennett's best strategy is therefore to clear strongly held enemy bases, weakening the enemy as much as possible and carefully timing his attacks. Bennett's most dangerous opponent seems to be Morgan, who also has strong bases and clears, but greater hitting and blocking power.

Chris has lots of hits (predominantly red) and blocks in each colour. This makes her relatively fast and flexible in defense. However, she has no presses and few bases and clears. Thus she lacks strength in attack and endurance. Chris would do well to block, protect any lead and finish the fight as soon as she gets a strong position. Chris' most dangerous opponent would be someone like Bennett, who has good endurance, or Darwin, who has great strength in attack.

Darwin has the most presses of any fighter (tied with Mischo) and the most blocks. He also has lots of hits (mostly red). This combination makes him very strong and fast. But he has the lowest number of bases and clears, meaning that he lacks endurance. Darwin can simply keep pounding an opponent and blocking. Darwin's most dangerous opponent would be someone like Hale, who can withstand his attacks and outhit him.

Hale has the most hits of any fighter (mostly green), lots of bases, and a good amount of clears. This makes him very fast, able to mount lots of attacks and to take punishment. However, he has no presses and few blocks, making him weak in attack and defense. Hale should clear any strong enemy attacks and chip away at his opponent. Hale's most dangerous opponent is someone like Morgan, who can block his attacks and match his endurance.

Morgan has many hits and blocks in green and blue, but few in red, making her fast and focused in attack, and strong but relatively inflexible in defense. She has no presses, making her weak in attack. Morgan's best strategy is to clear any red attacks, and block any others and go for a fast win with a speed attack. Morgan's most dangerous opponent is Darwin, who can keep her off balance with plenty of red cards and blocks.

Pearl has many hits in green and blue, making her fast and focused in attack. She has a good ability to clear bases and press an attack, and is a good all-round fighter in most areas, but she has no really strong characteristics. Her abilities make her able to mount a number of different strategies. Pearl's most dangerous opponent is Morgan, who can match her abilities, and consistently block her attacks.

Alex has a good number of clears and blocks, making her strong in defense and able to last in a long defensive fight. She has no presses and she is relatively slow. Her few bases make her unable to mount many attacks. Alex's best strategy is to outlast her opponent, blocking as much as possible, clearing pressed attacks, and looking for any opening to stop the game while she's ahead. Alex's toughest opponent is someone like Hale, who can match her abilities and outpace her.

Crane has many red hits, a good number of blocks of each colour, and a good number of holds, nulls and reverses. These make him focused in attack, strong and flexible in defense, and able to consolidate a gain, focus the fight and turn disadvantages to advantages. Crane has the fewest hits of any fighter, and he has no presses, meaning that he's slow and weak in attack. But Crane's good mix of special cards make him the most unpredictable fighter in the game. He will turn a strong enemy offense to his advantage, and he can lock in an advantage. Crane's most dangerous opponent is Darwin, who can overcome Crane's tricks using presses and blocks.

Gina has the most holds of any fighter, a good number of presses, clears, and many blue hits. Thus she focused, strong in attack, and can hold on to a winning position. However, she has few blocks and few total hits, making her defensively weak and slow to attack. Gina's best strategy is to consolidate any gain and clear any strong attacks, and then end the game fast. Gina's most dangerous opponent is Morgan, who can mount fast attacks, and block Gina's blue hits, making Gina's hold cards ineffective.

Mischo has the most presses of any fighter (tied with Darwin), making him very strong in attack. However, he has the least blocks of any fighter, making him weak in defense. In other areas he is average, making him flexible as regards strategy. Mischo's toughest opponent would be someone like Hale, who can match Mischo in endurance, while overcoming him with speed.

Rent has the most reverses in the game, as well as many bases, making him very hard to pin down. On the other hand, he has the least clears of any fighter (tied with Darwin), and no presses, meaning that he's weak in attack and easily tired. Rent's strategy would be to wait for an opponent to commit to a strong attack, then reverse it, using the enemy's own strength to defeat him/her. Rent's most dangerous opponent would be Darwin, who can nullify Rent's reverse cards and overwhelm him with speed and defensive strength.

Tess has the most null cards in the game. This makes her able to focus the fight. She is a good all-round fighter, but her lack of presses make her weak in attack. Tess should look for an advantage, and then focus on that while trying to nullify her opponent's gains. Tess is most threatened by Darwin, who can defend against her and win with strength and speed.

BRAWL Strategy by Ryan Keane

After taking a look at the updated Beat People Up site, I thought I'd send in some comments on the multiplayer variants.

BRAWL:

We often play round robin with players essentially playing two games (one on their left, one on their right), as described on the site. However, we quickly found that, since the decks are designed to be fighting over at most 3 bases at any time (hence 3 freezes), fighting over up to 6 bases is too much for the decks to handle (i.e. a faster player will often lose because he can only freeze 3 of the possible 6 points available to him, and the slower players can just continue to play bases while you're already out).

Thus we play where each player starts with their own base only on their left, and each arena can only have a maximum of 2 bases in play, so you can freeze 3 out of the 4 bases you might be playing for. While certain decks (those with lots of clears) can handle the normal 6 base game, I think our 4 base game is more similar to how the 2-player game plays. One problem is that the lower number of points available means more ties, but the new Double card may help this.

BRAWL! Multiplayer Variant submitted by Cedric Chin

This variant was based on a tournament I ran at Fanime Con. Instead of a traditional swiss style 2-player tournament, players play independent rounds of multiplayer Brawl.

In the first round, players randomly sit around a table with their Brawl decks. The winner is determined as the player with the most points. In subsequent rounds, players seat themselves with highest scoring player at one end of the table, second-highest scoring players to his left and right, resulting in the lowest-scoring player at the opposite end of the table. (If players brought the same deck, the Tournament Organizer should try not to seat them next to each other. Otherwise, the player who scored fewer points has priority.)

If decks are provided by the Tournament Organizer, after each round, decks are returned to a common pool, ranked by the number of points scored by their previous player. The lowest scoring player selects his deck first from this pool. This gives the lowest scoring player both the opportunity to try a "better" deck, or replay his previously played deck to become more familiar with it. (Players should be told which decks have Null cards, since these are lower scoring decks, which decks have the fewest bases, since these are difficult to play in multiplayer, and which decks have Doubles, which increase the number of potential points in a round.)

Beat People Up, the Button Men and BRAWL Home Page, is (c) 2002 James Ernest and Cheapass Games.