Fight tactics

Fight tactics are set on the fighter profile (manager) page. This is where fights will be won and lost.

You may change your tactics as often as you like and you should adjust your tactics to suit the opponent that your fighter is facing. Although you cannot see all your opposition's skills, you can get a hint to what type of fighter they are by checking out their striking, wresting and BJJ skills, which you can see on their fighter profile page.

The sliders

Tactics are presented as a set of "either/or" sliders. E.g. you can choose to make your fighter do head kicks OR low kicks OR a combination of both. All sliders can be imagined as a scale of 0 to 100.

Slide the slider TOWARDS what you want to do. So if there's a Punch vs Kick slider and you want to do punches, slide it towards the word punches.

Absolute sliders

"Absolute" sliders have no common sense factored in at all, to give you the highest level of control over your tactics. If you set an absolute slider to 50% across, you will do 50% of the tactic on the left and 50% of the tactic on the right. As with all sliders, move it closer to the option you want to do more of.

Example - takedowns. Let's say you have a well rounded fighter. You want him to keep the fight standing half the time and go for a couple of takedowns in the round, to possibly spend 50% of the fight on the ground.

Don't set the "try takedowns" to 50%. This does not mean 50% of the fight will be spent on the ground, it means that for every 2 moves your fighter does, one will be a takedown attempt (on average).

Do set the "try takedowns" value to about 10%. For every 100 moves, your fighter will go for around 10 takedowns (one every 10 moves). Remember though that this is only an estimate - the fight engine works on random numbers so in reality, it could be significantly different. Once your fighter has taken the fight to the ground, you can then set the "stay on ground" tactic (within ground tactics) to 95%+, meaning they will stay on the ground once they get the takedown.

Non-absolute sliders

There are also a few tactics that are "non-absolute", which do have an element of common sense factored in.

Example - aggressor vs counter. If both fighters had 0% aggression, without the common sense factor, they would just circle eachother for the duration of the fight.

This common sense approach also applies to;

aggressor vs counter (standing).
aggressor vs control (clinch).
aggressor vs counter (ground).

Additional

Additionally, the ground tactics will be manipulated depending on the current position. For example, if you have your opponent's back, you're more likely to go for a submission than if you are in half guard. However, this intelligent variation in your fighter's gameplan can only manipulate your designated tactics so much. If you tell your fighter to NEVER do something, then they will never do it. If you tell your fighter to ALWAYS do something, they will always do it.

Example - if you set your fighter to 100% stand up, they will do nothing but try to stand up, no matter what position they are in. Standing up when you're mounted is practically impossible so whenever your fighter tries to do this, he'll waste a lot of energy. Instead, set your fighter to something like 80% stand up and the intelligent variation will decide when is a good time to try and stand up and when isn't.

Tactics hierarchy

Some tactics are of a higher standing and priority than overs, in a sort of family tree effect. For example, in order to see how many leg kicks your fighter does, we first go through "single shots vs combos", "punching vs kicking", then "high kicks vs low kicks" before then choosing between "body kicks vs leg kicks".

Understanding the hierarchy

The hierarchy works on a % chance basis, working down from the top. The easiest way to explain it is through an example.

Let's say you're lazy and you've not set your tactics. Here is a breakdown of the % chance of each move happening in the standup hierarchy, if every standup slider is set to 50:50.

So you can see that the higher up the hierarchy a selection is, the more important it becomes. If you actually wanted to do an equal spread of everything, you'd need to tone down drastically your "takedowns", "try to clinch" by a lesser extent, "combos" by a smaller amount etc.

Aggressor vs counter is not a pure 50:50 slider, so is not included. If you set that slider to 50:50, you'll probably attack about twice as often as you will counter but it all depends on how much your opponent attacks etc, so is more complicated.

Number of moves

The number of "moves" that happen each round will depend on how aggressive each fighter is. You can expect something in the region of 100 moves in a 5 minute round, with a variation of around 40 each way. These 100 or so moves will be spread between the two fighters, depending upon their aggressiveness, self confidence and morale.

The time spent for each move depends on the move in question. Some moves may take a lot longer (e.g. submission attempts).

If you have any more questions, please ask in the forum.

Mixing it up

It's worth noting that whilst you need to have a set of tactics that suit your fighter, don't make them too predictable. If all you do is throw punches, your opponent will know what is coming and will manage to avoid more shots than he would do if your fighter was also mixing in leg kicks or the occasional takedown.

Physical attributes

As well as your fighter's fighting skills (e.g. boxing, kicks, punches etc) obviously affecting how successful your fighter will be at certain actions, your fighter's physical attributes will also affect what tactics suit them well. For instance, a taller fighter will be more likely to land a head kick but they will also be easier to take down and easier to submit because of their long limbs. Additionally, because they have less muscle bulk for their weight compared to someone stockier, they will not be as powerful and may also have a weaker chin. For more information on these effects, check out the fighter skills and the create new fighter pages.

Setting tactics

General tactics

Follow my orders vs See how it goes: During a fight, your fighter will assess how well he thinks he is doing in each area of the fight (standing, clinch and ground work). Depending on how intelligent and experienced he is, he may decide to change his gameplan. However, if you don't want him to change his gameplan at all, you can say so using this tactic slider. The only exception is if you tell your fighter to never do something (e.g. never go to the ground). If that's the case, no matter how badly he's doing in the other aspects of the game, he won't take it to the ground.

Swing for fences vs Stick to gameplan: If your fighter is losing with X seconds to go, he will abandon his gameplan and just start swinging for the fences, looking for a knockout. If your fighter is on the ground, he can "swing for the fences" on the ground too... although it's a slightly inaccurate way of putting it, basically it just means he will look for a finish more than he would have done previously.

Swing seconds: (Swing seconds is a number entry limited between 5 and 180). It is basically the value of X in the sentence above... With how many seconds left does your fighter abandon his gameplan (if he is losing), and just look for the finish.

Fight for decision vs Stick to gameplan: This is basically the opposite of "Swing for fences vs Stick to gameplan". If you are winning the fight, your fighter will begin to fight for a decision and be more cautious. This should help prevent your fighter from being KOd or subbed by someone who's hit their Swing Seconds and is going hell for leather.

FFD Seconds: Applies to the above new addition. This is the same as swing seconds but for the Fight for decision vs Stick to gameplan slider. Set this to 100 seconds and with 100 seconds left to go in the fight, your fighter will fight more cautiously.

Note: These two sliders operate in a more regimented way than the swing for the fences sliders. Swing for the fences just means an increase in aggression, but that aggression is a sliding scale. As the fight time runs out, your fighter will become more and more aggressive. With the fight for a decision slider, it's more fixed. If you set the fight for decision vs stick to gameplan to 50%, as soon as they hit that FFD seconds mark, they'll drop their aggression by 50% in all areas.

Knockdown follow vs Don't follow: If you knock your opponent down with a strike, either in the clinch or whilst standing you can either follow them to the mat or allow them to stand back up and continue the fight standing. Unlike the other sliders, this is not a 1-100 sliding scale, instead you have 3 options. Always follow down, never follow down or sometimes follow down. If you leave the slider in the middle (sometimes follow down), then your fighter will use his intelligence and experience to decide whether he should follow his opponent to the mat. If the fighter is close to being finished then your fighter will be more likely to follow them to the mat. The system will also look at who has the ground advantage, whether your fighter is set to be aggressive on the ground, whether he has good ground and pound etc, when deciding whether to follow down to the mat.

Standup (Aggressor)

All these tactics apply solely to the standup aspect of the game.

Damage vs accuracy: Damage is basically throwing nothing but bombs whereas accuracy would be jabbing away looking to score points. Throwing more damage shots will tire your fighter out but if you choose full on accuracy, you will hardly ever score a TKO.

Aggressor vs Counter: If you are the aggressor you will throw the first shot more often, but will counter less (obviously). If both fighters are set to aggressive there will be a lot more action in the fight, whereas if they are both set to counter, there will be a lot of circling around doing very little. The aggression setting will affect the popularity of your fighter.

Stay standing vs Try takedowns: These takedowns are purely shoot takedowns, not clinch takedowns. If your fighter is set to takedown your opponent frequently, he will be slightly easier to takedown because he is not so eagre to stay on his feet.

Try to clinch vs Stay on the outside: Self explanatory. If you wish to clinch, do so using this tactic. Remember that a 50% clinch setting will mean they try and clinch every other move, not that 50% of the fight will be in the clinch.

Single shots vs combos: This is the top level of your standing strikes hierarcy.

Punching vs kicking: If your fighter doesn't have muay thai skills, don't ask him to kick!

Head punch vs body punch: Do you want to go for the knockout or try and wear down your opponent's stamina?

High kicks vs low kicks: High kicks are purely head kicks, whilst low kicks includes both leg and body kicks.

Leg kicks vs body kicks: Either leg or body kicks. Body kicks do a bit more damage but are easier to counter.

Standup (Counter)

Counter Strike vs Counter Grapple: If you try and counter, we first decide if that counter attempt is a strike or an attempt to grapple (clinch or takedown). If the attempt is a strike, it we then look at your aggressive striking breakdown to see what type of counter strike it will be. If the counter attempt is a grappling technique, we then look at the next slider option below.

Counter Clinch vs Counter Takedown: A further breakdown from the slider above - a counter grappling attempt can be either a takedown or a move into the clinch.

Note: If you are trying to counter at all, your fighter will try and counter all the time but missed counter attempts are not reported in the fight commentary: Only successful counter attempts will show up.

Allow Opponent To....

Allow opponent clinch/takedown/break clinch/standup: If you want to allow your opponent to do any of these actions, tick the relevant box. If you want to defend the clinch attempt, takedown attempt, don't want to let your opponent break the clinch or standup at will, leave these boxes unticked.

Note: Allow opponent standup only applies if you are on the bottom on the ground. If you are on the top, it does not apply.

Clinch

Aggressor vs Control: This tactic and the one below may seem quite similar so here's some further explanation. Aggressor vs control is the higher level in the hierarchy. Aggressor is whether you are the one instigating the move, whereas control means that you will concentrate on preventing any successful attacks from your opponent.

Stay standing vs Try takedowns: This is above the next tactic in the hierarchy.

Stay in clinch vs Break clinch: Of all the "stay standing" moves, this is a further breakdown of whether to stay in a clinch or break the clinch.

Strike vs Stall: This is a further breakdown of the "aggressor" tactic. So theoretically you can be an aggressor but use that move to stall, however contradictory that may sound.

Attack head vs attack body: This includes all types of strikes.

Punch Head vs Elbow/Knee Head: This used to be called "Dirty Box vs Muay Thai". Move left to use punches, move right to use knees and elbows

Elbows to head vs Knees to head: A further breakdown of tactics from the above slider.

Punch Body vs Knee body: Punches require boxing and knees require Muay Thai primary.

Pull Guard vs Takedowns: Pulling guard is easier to do but you will end up on the bottom (with your opponent in your guard).

Groundwork

An additional note regarding the ground tactics only. Unlike in the standup and clinch sections, there IS an amount of common sense factored in here, affecting how likely your fighter is to go for a finish, control or go for a stand up. For instance, if your fighter is in mount, he will be less likely to stand up and will look to punish his opponent with strikes. If he is on his back, he will be more likely to go for a submission than his tactics will suggest. However, if you set any value to 0 in the tactics, he will never do that type of action, no matter how appropriate it may be.

Ground top vs ground bottom: Do you want your fighter to stay on top on the ground or work from the bottom? Working from the bottom they will try and get to guard and stay there, whereas on top they will look to advance to mount or back control. A fighter who is on the bottom in a bad position will often look to reverse to top position, even if they are set 100% to work from the bottom. Basically they view a dominant top position is better than a terrible position on the bottom.

Stick Position: If you want to advance only to half guard and work some ground and pound, you now have the option to do so. Elaborating on that half guard example, if your fighter works his way to half guard, he will not try and advance to side control, mount, or try to take the other fighter's back. Some may wonder why you'd want to do that, others may see the tactical benefit, given that certain positions are harder to counter than others.

Note that if your have set your fighter to only advance to half guard and he's in guard, he will still take the option of moving to mount or side control, over just sitting in guard. Likewise, if he's in side control, he won't work backwards to half guard and may still attempt to mount or take the opponent's back - this setting only applies if they are in the position defined.

If you leave this setting as "Back", the default, then that's basically turning the tactic off, as taking someone's back is considered the top end of the hierarchy.

Top and Bottom: The rest of the sliders and split into top and bottom positions.

Aggressor (Proactive) vs Counter: Is your fighter the one to go instigate any action on the ground or will they wait for their opponent to make a mistake and counter it? Someone who likes to counter is not necessarily less exciting or less likely to end the fight.

Stay on ground vs Get up: Once you're on the ground, do you want to stay there or get back up? Tip: If you want to get up, it's probably not a great idea to set it to 100% get up. This means that all your fighter will do is try and stand up, no matter what position they are in... Even if they are mounted they will just keep trying to stand up. If you set a small amount to "stay on ground" then they will try and stand up if that is possible but if it's not they will try and move to a better position before trying to stand up.

However, this is NOT an absolute slider, so setting it to e.g. 75% stay on ground does not mean you will try to get up 1 in 4 moves.

Finish vs control: Quite self explanatory. Lay and pray or go for the finish? If your fighter has a tendancy to go for the finish he will become more popular.

Strike/Sub vs Advance: This is a further breakdown of the Finish vs Control slider. If you set it further to the advance side, the fighter will look to move to a more dominant position before going for strikes and subs. If you set it to the left, they'll just go for subs and strikes in whatever position they find themselves in. Before this slider was introduced you can consider that everyone was set 50% on this tactic. Whatever setting you use, your fighter will still use his intelligence to decide what is the best course of action for that position. For example, giving your fighter a higher setting in Strike/Sub doesn't mean he's going to flail away like a drunk octopus if he's in half guard on the bottom - he will still try and advance position, just not as much.

Ground strikes vs ground subs: A simple enough choice, or is it?? Softening your opponent up with strikes will make them easier to submit.

Predict Opponent Tactics

Added in November 2014, you can now choose to predict your opponent's standup tactics. This is an optional feature for experienced managers. This can be considered your fighter's pre-fight tactical talk. Whatever you predict, your fighter will think that's what his opponent will do, so if you predict high levels of leg kicks, he'll be looking for leg kicks and will defend them well. However, if you predict your opponent won't throw many body punches, whenever he does throw one it will be more likely to land.

If you choose not to set predicted tactics for your opponent, the fight engine instead looks at his previous fights and makes a prediction of what he will do based on those stats. If your opponent has not faught yet and you don't make a prediction, your fighter will go in with a balanced defense.

Adapt to fight

This tickbox dictates whether your fighter will adapt to what's actually happening in the fight, or stick to your pre-fight prediction. Ticking it means they will adapt to the reality of the fight.

Depending on his experience, intelligence and your selection of "see how it goes" slider setting, he will adjust from the predictions to reality at a different rate. The more intelligent / experienced / high you set the see how it goes slider, the quicker he will adapt to the reality of what is happening in the fight.

If you want to leave this unticked, you can use this tactically, i.e. if you only really want to stop a takedown you can move sliders to predict a high level of takedowns by your opponent and your fighter will be on the lookout for takedowns, therefore defending them better than any other attack. Of course, this means he'll be worse at defending all the other offense from your opponent but if you don't think that matters, it's a possible tactic.