Are You a Good Tactician?

[Andre]

i tend to overanalyze and plan 3 moves ahead for all the PCs in the group. and yet there is nothing i can do about it when the other players mess it up. so i have to rethink stuff. and... well my roleplay hurts for said reason.

I have the same problem. I often feel I've lost some of my tactical ability with the new edition, then I remember that I often played OD&D and 1E with multiple characters. Some of my parties were every bit as good as navy Seals.

Controlling one character and convincing the other players to work together requires a completely different skill-set - which I desperately need to improve.

 

[magnas_veritas]

I'm okay. Not great, but okay.

My two issues are that I'm bad at teamwork, and don't react well to changing events. However, I know how to pile fire onto a target, especially with surprise, and I'm very good at preparation. When playing RTS games, I get very dangerous if I'm not taken out early.

Brad

 

[two]

group dynamics

Part of my frustration with combat is that, being a tactically-minded person, it's often clear to me what the party should do -- as a whole.

Trouble is, I'm just one PC. There are four other's all doing their own thing.

It's hard to get a plan together for the whole party. Some people actively don't WANT to plan; it makes them feel like they don't have control or something.

So -- often I see what should be done, bite my tongue, and watch disaster unfold. About every other fight I "save" a member of the party from their own actions. That's my job. That and kill stuff.

It's irritating in a way but, it's also ok. Everyone needs to have fun. D&D aint' a wargame. So -- we play sub-optimally. Very, very sub-optimally. But we laugh.

 

[Altalazar]

Funny how 35% of the responses are in the top 10%. But it is possible that only brilliant tacticians read this thread...

... I put myself one notch below the top. Mostly because of my experience playing other games - especially Advanced Squad Leader - ASL, at tournaments. I discovered I did very well. I've also done well in tactical on-line games. And I have done well in playing D&D as well. But really, without more empirical means (by way of tournaments between all the best players) one could never be sure where one stood in the grand scheme of things.

 

[kirinke]

Meh. Average here.

General tactics for my two characters, both elves, both relatively low level.
Pepper the bad-guys with arrows. If they have good-npc shields, buff and wade in with swords. After you pepper em with arrows, wade in with swords. Oh yeh. Anything that can cast charm/dominate spells gets the first arrow. The second arrow goes to the thing with the numerous sharp teeth and healthy appetite.

 

[Haradim]

Below average, I suppose. I just go with the flow; there's almost always someone else playing who is quite happy worrying about such things, be it GM or player.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had to put any particular effort towards tactical thought in pen and paper games. I seem to survive, though.