Sword fighting
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Sword fighting is the noble art of Piratey combat and can be struck up via a Puzzle Challenge or Brawl, or joined after a Sea Battle when the two Crews meet face to face.
A Swordfighter groups the falling pairs of blocks into colors, then uses the corresponding breaker pieces to shatter the groupings and send vicious sword attacks to his foes. These attacks fall onto the victim's screen as either silver pieces that slowly turn to breakable colors, or the more sinister and potent swords, that hack through other pieces before breaking into silver blocks. It is in the balance of building attacks to shatter and leaving space to defend that lives the art of a Swordfighter.
Controls
When Sword fighting, pieces fall in pairs from the top of the screen. You can move the falling pieces with the keyboard as follows:
Shattering Pieces to Strike Blows
Pieces come in four colors, and there are two different types: solid pieces, and cutout 'breaker' pieces that cause shatters.
When a shatter piece contacts a solid piece of the same color they shatter. The shatter also goes on to clear every connected piece of the same color. These shatters send proportionate attacks to your opponent.
Of course your opponent will also be shattering pieces and striking blows against you, at least if they're not a lily-livered coward quaking in their boots.
In order to inflict devastating blows, the diligent student of Sword fighting will need to master the art of creating large solid blocks of a single type of piece. Even better is shattering multiple large blocks in cascading chains of shatters.
Striking Greater Blows with Blocks
When pieces of the same color are placed together in arrays of two by two or more they solidify into a single block. When these solid blocks are shattered they send full swords to your opponent, rather than the wimpy single pieces (often called "sprinkles"). The larger the block, the greater the sword that results.
Note that vertical blocks will produce vertical sword blows, and horizontal blocks (which are somewhat more difficult) create horizontal sword blows, which can be devastating at the right time. Using Chains to Enhance Strikes
A more advanced layer added to Sword fighting Strategy is the skill of chaining. Chaining is done by setting up shatter pieces within your board so that setting off one shatter event causes another (and, perhaps, another, and another...). These chains multiply your attacks by their order in the cascade. The puzzle will display the multiplier as the chain progresses ('Double!' 'Triple!' etc.)
How Sword blows turn into Pieces
Sword strikes made against you fall on your puzzle as silver swords of varying size. After your next drop these swords will break into silver blocks. On the next turn those silver blocks will show a sword image (like regular pieces but without the color). Finally, on the fourth turn the revealed silver blocks will turn into their respective colored pieces and can be shattered or joined like any other.
Minor Blows or 'Sprinkles'
When an attack contains shattered pieces that were not formed into large blocks, then individual silver pieces are sprinkled onto the board on the first drop. Because these have skipped the sword stage, they revert to their normal color on the third turn after falling.
Using Damage Pieces to your Advantage
These silver damage pieces may be very frustrating, but they can also work to your advantage if you know what color they will turn into Thus you can actually use your opponent's attacks to build up your own. To accomplish such daring feats of strategy you will need to carefully study your opponents strike pattern. His strike pattern is determined by the type and color of his sword.
Swords
You will notice that as a new player you have a 'Foil'. Other Sword types can be acquired in the game, by order from the Ironmonger or from other pirates. Different Swords have different strike patterns, which can be seen by mousing-over the sword in your Booty panel (or in a trade window, for that matter):
As you can see, these different kinds of Sword have different strike patterns. The color of the guard and pommel determine where the four block colors fit within the sword's pattern.
Some swords are clearly better than others for certain play styles, although there is dispute about the most deadly of blades, and different sword masters have their own preferences.
Choosing a Blade
No blade will guarantee a win and even the lowly foil can be devastating in the hands of a master swordsman. You should, then, choose any new blade based on your own play style and the theme of your pirate.
Many have studied the intricacies of sword construction and use. The nuances of each pattern could be (and have been) debated at length by some of the best swordsmen in the seas. This is not the place for it. Instead, some simple guidelines:
If you shatter frequently in small, sprinkle attacks, try a stiletto, dirk, short sword or poniard.
If you are a builder and like to make large, solid sword attacks go with a long sword, saber or scimitar.
Finally, these swords are relatively balanced between the two and thus differentiate themselves in subtler ways: foil, skull dagger, cutlass, falchion, rapier and cleaver.
Search the forums for much more detailed discussion of Sword Patterns Examined.
Strike Patterns
Strike patterns work from the top-down, so for example, were one to destroy a 2x2 block using the Foil in our example then a 1x4 sword would fall onto your opponent. Were it to fall on the left side of his board it would turn into, from the top down, blue blue red red. Were it to fall on the right, yellow yellow green green.
Analyzing and reacting to the strike pattern of your opponent's blade is central to the Mastery of Sword fighting. Knowledge of a blade means you can use its strengths against it.
As any Pirate worth his salt knows, no amount of book learnin' will make a Dread Pirate out of ye. So get practicing!