Re: MEPBM: agent strategy

From: Patrick F. McGehearty <patrick@convex.COM>

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000

In article <5b09i0$ju4@dfw-ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>,
Leo DiBenigno <dade-sc@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>In <19970107215600.QAA11874@ladder01.news.aol.com> ggiacoppe@aol.com
>(GGiacoppe) writes:
>>If you can; Get a team member with a scouting bonus to join
>>your company, it will help a lot!
>>
>>Gian
>
>Thanks again for everyone's help.  Can anyone discuss the best way
>to enter a pop center, refuse all PC's, steal/sabotage/kill, etc.
>and move on with as little risk as possible.
>
>Exact order sequence would be appreciated as I'm relatively new
>to this.
>
>THANKS!
>

Order sequence:
Challenges go before any agent actions
I think Assassinate is before Kidnap, but check your rule book to be sure.
Movement is after assassinate, but before scouting.
Scouting is at the end of the turn.

So your companies will "Move & Scout" or "Kill & Move" in general.
Challenges can stop the agent cold if he loses the challenge.
Avoid that problem by either having a high challenge, refuse challenges, or
keep moving so they don't know where you are.

Sample Methods:
1) Overwhelm them with power - agent company that consists of:
a) company commander who also has a very high challenge rank -
   typical order: challenge and  move
b) scout - either from a nation with scouting bonuses or has
   a very high natural agent skill (i.e. over 70)
   typical order: refuse challenge and scout for chars
c) assassin - agent skill over 65
   typical order: refuse challenge and kill or kidnap
   (kidnap is harder than killing)
d) assassin - same as above
e) assassin - same as above
(could have more or fewer assassins)

This company is very effective in locations known to be hot beds of
activity, since it can find and kill several people every turn.
The drawbacks are:
i) Need a high challenge, good scout and several assassins - hard to come by
   in the early game.
ii) Waste of lots of characters if hex happens to be empty
iii) If any chararacters in the company are doubled, the enemy can track the
whole company.
iv) A prime target for enemy curse squads - if they can curse the commander,
they can also get someone else the following turn when the company failed to
move.
v) High rank characters (i.e. high challenge) are more likely to show up in
popcenter reports.

2) Same as 1, but no challenge character
Company Commander does refuse and move every turn.
Advantage - does not need valuable high challenge character to form.

Options 1&2 are good for major army areas, such as the Gondorian front where
the army commanders are likely to be guarded.  Here you want to challenge or
assassinate the guards before kidnaping the commanders, so the guard does
not have a chance to interfere.  For more spread out fronts, you may not
want to spend so many resources at a single place.

3) Same as 2, except only one assassin.
Lower cost of characters, but only one kill per turn may be expected.
Good for secondary targets, not as likely to be doubled or targeted
by curse squads due to smaller size.

4) Mini-company - scout is also company commander, one or two killer agents.
Fast moving approach: commander moves and scouts every turn.  Drawback - if
commander is challenged and loses, company is in trouble.
No challenge approach: commander always refuses and moves or refuses and
scouts.  Drawback - moving slowly reduces targets and allows enemy better
chances to catch you.  Advice: don't always do one or the other, but favor
mobility.

5) Solo agent - low cost option, especially when you want to spread confuse
and spoil the enemy's plans.  Don't go solo into a enemy capitol if they are
known to be either an agent power or have high challenge characters.
Move&Scout, then Kill&move if you are aggressive.
Rfs&Move,Rfs&Scout,Rfs&Kill if you are cautious.

There are other options, but you notice the emphasis on keeping moving.  If
you stay in the same place, you will become a target or the enemy will all
run away.  Only in a few places (such as the Gondorian front) will that not
happen.  In that case, the Free have to keep sending in armies to keep back
the Dark forces, and the Darks can place many agents to keep then Gondor's
off balance.

By the way, the above is only the most general of ideas.  In actual play, a
key thought is "don't be predictable".  In my play, I'm always trying to
think of new variations to avoid being too obvious.  Sometimes these ideas
fail badly, and other times they work great.  You'll have to experiment on
your own to become a truly great user of agents.

References

Re: MEPBM: agent strategy
ggiacoppe@aol.com (GGiacoppe)
Tue, 07 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: MEPBM: agent strategy
jaede@acsu.buffalo.edu
Fri, 27 Dec 1996 00:00:00 +0000