I typically trade as follows, adjusting slightly at times to help counter enemy tactics that I believe are likely to be used. More fetch are useful against the setups with more melee troops, while less fetch work best when playing against experienced players who may execute well-timed three-trow on your soulless hill.

• 3 trow
• 18 dwarves
• 24 soulless
• 4-7 fetch
• 6-12 myrms
• 1-3 zerks

I suggest you watch some of the films in the film pack to see how to set up and use these units in games. If you get all nine fetch you are more vulnerable to a three-trow rush. When playing against a good player, there just isn't enough room around the soulless hill to space nine fetch out well enough to protect them all. Melee units just don't pan out when attacking fetch or dwarves with trow support * a few are useful for nailing dwarves without trow support, or for delaying a trow while soulless pepper him.

Myrms are a better deal than zerks for the points. You can get three myrms or two zerks for six points. They're both speedy, and once they are hitting a dwarf he usually will die (zerks do strike faster and can kill the dwarf quicker than a myrm will). Of course, never send single units for a dwarf if trow are anywhere around. A myrm/zerk mix will help a little bit when fighting an enemy trow, so I usually throw in one-three zerks for this purpose.

As soon as possible, split your three trow up, one center, one to each side. You want to use them to get a nice lead here at the beginning. Be sure to watch all three of your trow carefully, or you'll have a dead one before you know it. If the three enemy trow attack one of your own trow, retreat that trow to the hill with the soulless while your other trow do their thing. It's usually best to save at least one trow, to have near your dwarves to kick any melee units that may try to attack your dwarves. Remember, whoever is behind in BC is forced to attack, while the person who is ahead is able to choose the terrain that they fight on. This is an obvious advantage for the person who is ahead, so don't get behind! The vast majority of people who have played me make their biggest mistakes in the first few minutes of the game.

Here are some ways to get ahead early in the game.

Kick dwarves that are too close together. If you can kill more than one dwarf with the explosion that results when you kick one, it's worth it.

Kick exposed fetch and wights. Especially fun if the wights explode near other enemy troops. =)

Let the dwarves blow themselves up. Remember that dwarves always throw where their target is going, so you can wander around near a bunch of dwarves and if they keep firing they'll hurt each other a lot more than they will hurt your trow. You can even do this against a lone dwarf. If he doesn't stop lobbing cocktails at your trow, run straight at him, then away, several times with your trow. He's likely to throw a cocktail straight up and kill himself.

Let the enemy dwarves kill their own friendly units. If your trow is being chased by a group of melee units and the dwarves are lobbing cocktails at your trow, run in circles for a bit and their melee units will be no more.

Kick dwarves when there are other units close enough to die in the explosion. I love to get a big pack of melee units chasing my trow when the enemy thinks he's safe because he has stopped his dwarves from lobbing cocktails at my trow. I run towards and on past the nearest dwarf until the dwarf is nearly surrounded by infantry with just enough room to get a trow leg in. Turn around and blamo, kick the dwarf. All the units next the dwarf are blown in the resulting explosion.

Also, if you notice an opportunity to wage a trow verses trow fight that you can win, do so.

The films in the film pack demonstrate all of these tactics.

Set up as soon as possible, so no enemy trow rush you before you're ready to deal with them. Getting the lead is absolutely key at the beginning of the game so that you may dictate the terrain you will fight on for the rest of the game. Use your own trow against your enemy better than he can use his trow against you. Learning trow offense and anti-trow defense are the first steps to a successful game.

Once the game has started, place all of your soulless on the raised hill on your side of the map. Note there is another hill on the east side of the map in the corner, which works just fine too if you want a little variety.

Always keep your dwarves spaced out, so that if an enemy trow decides to kick one, he kills that one and damages nothing else near the dwarf.

Do not let your dwarves fire when enemy trow are around. However, if you're not busy with something else, you can always do some careful control-click shots at enemy trow. Guessing where the enemy trow is headed allows you to aim your shots so you don't hit any of your own units.

Keep your fetch spaced out around the edges of the hill with your soulless on it. The melee units you have should also be near the hill, and may help guard the fetch in a multi-trow rush against the hill. Don't let your fetch fire at trow that are rushing the hill because the fetch lightning will deflect soulless shots, which do more damage. Instead, run away with your fetch so the soulless have more time to rain on the trow. If the enemy trow attacks your melee units, your soulless will have plenty of time to pepper him, while your melee units damage the trow as well.

I don't get wights because enemy trow can find them and kick them before they have a chance to enter the water, putting the enemy ahead in damage. If you can escort one wight into the water safely, that's nice, but enemy fetch can still zap them while underwater. I admit using wights can add a hilarious and stylish touch when blowing up newbies, but when playing experienced players they are a bad idea on this map. Personally, I never worry about it if the enemy does manage to get a wight into the water because I never cross the bridge with any more than a single dwarf and perhaps a trow. Of course, that means you have the lead so that you are the one who chooses the terrain you fight on. You do have the lead don't you!? ;-)

Note any satchels or dud cocktails on the ground at all times. You don't want to have any units too close to these.

Watching the films will help give you an idea how to set up your anti-trow defense.

Always use control-click when using dwarves to attack in the artillery wars. When using dwarves, target the ground in front of your target, and turn and run away from your target as soon as your dwarf lobs the cocktail. This takes practice to get the distancing and timing down. If you click your dwarf to retreat just before he fires his cocktail, he will retreat faster than if you wait for him to fire and then retreat. The distances change depending on your target. Dwarves can throw nearer to other dwarves with safety, but you should not throw cocktails as near to an enemy fetch because fetch range is a little further when they are using control-click to attack. Frequently, if you lob cocktails at a fetch from a safe distance they will use a control-click shot and cause the cocktail to be "carpeted" into themselves, heh. People tend think this is simply an unlucky occurrence, but it actually happens quite frequently when a fetch or two are shooting at a cocktail coming their way. You can also use multiple dwarves at once ? lobbing multiple cocktails often causes them to bounce a little farther which can hit targets just out of regular throwing range. This is riskier though, because if an enemy dwarf manages to strike close enough, he may damage several dwarves at once. Also, you can walk two dwarves up at the same time, and control-click in one place with one of the dwarves, and farther out with the other. Supposing neither dwarf was able to fire his cocktail before you assign both orders, the staggering of the control clicks should actually propel the second cocktail slightly farther.

All units in Myth require precision to use correctly, but using units like dwarves in an artillery war correctly is even more demanding. Whoever can control the most units simultaneously has an obvious advantage. While I enjoy one vs one games on BC Trow for a true complex test of skill between two players, team games are a big part of BC Trow and can prove to be quite fun. Team games allow more precise handling of the units since more can be controlled at once. The more team members you have that know how to play well, the better off you are.

When using fetch against dwarves control-click in front of the dwarf, if you successfully hit the dwarf while deflecting his cocktail, then continue to pursue unless you are forced to retreat. If the dwarf stops running for any reason, you should be able to hit him again and deflect any cocktail he may throw. Sometimes when fighting enemy fetch in an artillery war, I prefer to simply use my own fetch, in equal or greater numbers against the enemy fetch. Also, you can keep a dwarf nearby to force the enemy fetch to deal with yet another attacker half way through a fetch battle. When using fetch against fetch, be sure to space your fetch out and target a fetch in the middle of the enemy formation first.

Use your soulless * often times you can lure enemy dwarves close enough so that soulless can attack them while you use a dwarf to keep them on their toes. If they attack the soulless, just keep your soulless a safe distance away - out of cocktail range, but still close enough to pick at the enemy dwarves. Continue to carefully attack the enemy dwarves with your own dwarves and/or fetch. Or even use a single melee unit if you can get away with it. To kill soulless controlled by an intelligent opponent you must attack them from multiple angles, or outrun them if they are exposed. If you attack soulless with all your dwarves and fetch from only one angle, the soulless can do some damage, then retreat before you get close enough to attack. The soulless can repeat this several times using hills as barriers to slow down the dwarves and fetch. Make sure you close in on soulless from many angles, so they have nowhere to retreat. Conversely, try to always have room for your soulless to retreat after they do some damage* you don't want seven dwarves bombing them from all directions. I always have some fetch and/or dwarves all the way around the hill that the soulless sit on so that surrounding tactics will not be successful unless the enemy takes these artillery units out first.

Dwarves with a back-up trow for kicking melee units is a great combination to use against people who want to use several melee units against your dwarves. There is an interesting tactic that can counter this when the enemy uses the dwarves/trow combination when they are not near their soulless. You can use your own trow to follow your melee units attacking the enemy dwarves with enemy trow back-up. If the trow attacks the single melee units, your trow can do more damage to the trow than he saved himself by killing the melee units. This only works if your two trow won't be damaged by nearby soulless, though.

Carpeting with one fetch and one-three dwarves in a dwarf war can be a great tool to propel cocktails a little bit further to hit the enemy dwarves just outside of dwarven throwing range. This is only useful when you're ahead and the enemy is attacking near your soulless hill with a dwarf or two (so fetch are protected from trow * if all enemy trow are dead, then they are obviously safe from a trow attack). This tactic forces the enemy dwarves to attack aggressively, or they will eventually be hit with a mini-carpeted cocktail. It works as a nice distraction and you can often use either your fetch or your dwarf to exploit a distancing mistake the enemy may make when they are trying to attack more furiously. For targets further away, two fetch and one to four dwarves work nicely. For even more distant targets, three or four fetch can be used with multiple dwarves. A disadvantage of carpeting with a lot of fetch and dwarves all packed together is that trow can disrupt things pretty badly if you can't disband the formation quickly enough. Note that kills you get from carpeting do not give you any damage (this is change from 1.2). However, it works nicely for maintaining a lead and still whittles down your opponent's army.

Another interesting tactic known as "Cocktail resurrection" may be used if you can protect a fetch and dwarf near the river. This tactic involves throwing a cocktail into the river, so that the water extinguishes it and it bounces up onto the edge of the river. Then the fetch may shoot near the cocktail to propel it rather accurately at enemy targets. It takes practice to get it right, but may prove useful on occasion.

If your opponent loses all his trow things change a bit ? you no longer have to protect your fetch or single melee units from trow-kicking. Water bouncing, cocktail firing, carpet bombing, and zigzagging single melee units after dwarves can become very important tactics in these situations. Check out the film "If I had a trow left" to see some of this stuff in action.

If you do not have the lead, you're in trouble. You aren't ahead, so you must attack the enemy. Be careful, keep your cool. If you have trow left, you may be able to sacrifice your remaining trow using trow offense tactics and reclaim the lead. If you're out of trow, things are worse. Use a few dwarves to pick your way back into control. Wage artillery wars on the bridge if your opponent will fight you there. It's much tougher to attack your opponent on his ground. You may have to move your entire army up to attack. Make sure you use fetch to clear the water of wights before assuming it's safe. Of course, you shouldn't be behind, so you should never need this section. ;-) But there are occasions you may slip up just a touch, and need that little nudge back to where you belong * in control! Once you're ahead again, retreat back to your soulless hill and force the enemy to come to you just as you would if you were never behind.

Ok, I must confess. I really have do not care for all the twelve minute BC Trow games I see on b.net all the time. I prefer at least 25 minutes, and the more time the better. The more time you have, the less likely a fluke is to occur. I enjoy playing the game to it's fullest. I do not enjoy cutting it short. Two good BC Trow players will barely scratch each other in twelve minutes.

Make sure unit trading is on, or learn to play without it. It's quite fun without unit trading actually, and forces you to adapt.

Lag can also be a major problem in this game due to all the delicate tactics that may be used * avoid games that will give you the disadvantage of lag.

You'll note that many people I've played simply drop out of the game when they realized they've lost, or curse and scream at my "cheap" tactics - then there are those who learn from playing, and used the experience to better their play. I do not play by any rules that anyone makes up for BC Trow variants; I do not care who accepts them or how many people accept them. Play BC Trow the way Myth allows you to play BC Trow. Restricting your tactical portfolio is not wise. Do not be discouraged when others slate you because you didn't play by their rules that they like to play with.

Some people claim that BC Trow is "not complex" or "too stupid a game for them to play". Thanks to all the players who've played me. To the ones who declined, I hope you will give this part of Myth a try too some day and continue in the growth of your Myth skills to eventually cover all games/styles. BC Trow is not evil, I promise, in fact it's extremely complex and challenging. You'll find both hilarious and enlightening comments in the film pack, some good examples of tactical moves I've covered in this ramble, and let me tell you straight * you're going to find a lot of mistakes. Even my best games of BC Trow have a ton of these. Some I look back on and say "Doh! That was obviously a bad idea", "Forgot to watch that unit didn't I?" or "Damn, I was talking when I should have been fighting again." * and my favorites are when I say "Nice that move tricked me, but I learned from it * it won't happen again." But most common are the many situations that I look back on and realize that while I did ok, I could have done better by doing some things differently.

I've read many other BC Trow strategy articles in the past. Most of them have some good ideas, but lack a full understanding of the game. I've tried to cover things fully here, but missing items is inevitable. There have been a lot of strategies, and top players don't use the exact same strategies either. There are just so many variations with all the units available in this map. I look forward to hearing responses to this article, and most importantly, I look forward to seeing new tactical improvements made in this game. When you reach perfection, tell me. ;-) It's the goal to shoot for, though!

The film pack that I've made available to accompany this article demonstrates the things I've talked about in the article. See it all in action! They are all one vs one films. Larger team games are much more difficult to coordinate well, especially because there are only few people who know how to use these tactics as well as I would like them used to make a good example film. However, expect to see a nice big team game of BC Trow in the Tain before long. Anyway, I believe these films will do the trick, and they represent only a few games I've played recently of BC Trow.

Watch as hilarious chat reveals the logic behind an individual who likes to play BC Trow variants using their own rules. Is Placid a cheater!? You be the judge!

Watch as Placid completely eliminates his opponent while losing only one unit. Placid's opponent scores zero kills. I'd be hard pressed to find a better example of how not to play BC Trow. ;-) It has some sick humor value anyway. Might I add the guy was a great sport and challenged me to a rematch. People with an attitude to learn will persevere in the long haul.

Watch as Placid challenges BC Trow playing celestials to a games of one verses one. Placid screws up a good bit in one game, but manages to pull the win. One of the celestials got his icon from playing BC Trow 1.2 though, and he says that he no longer plays BC Trow in 1.3. Some interesting commentary from this "top player" as well.

Watch as Placid plays some tough competition. Check out the tough battle for the lead at the beginning. Placid does some nice fetch work here, until he notices it...heh. Very tough game all around, nice to see some of your own items coming back to haunt you eh? I'd also like to thank Ur Drago for helping me out with this guide * he definitely made it better.

Watch as Placid delays the enemy when is he ahead. Watch spectacular dud-aiming wars. Watch games that are barely starting when the time limit expires. Watch games that are completed all too quickly.

Watch all of this - and much, much more.

Oh yeah, and if you ever get bored, you can always try out the UH OH Celestials strategy in 1.3 and see where it gets you. ;-) Praise Bungie for 1.3! BC Trow is now a fun game, and a good game. Want to test a strategy out and prove you can beat all my silly ideas I blather about here? I'd love to play you in a game of one vs one! You know, it's dangerous to reveal this much, and I know that, but I've done it anyway. Sure, I might have a tougher time beating the informed people now * but my hope is that people will be able to take all this knowledge and perfect it even further. Expanding the boundaries of Vidness. Like I say, this is a damn complex game. Who will push the limits the farthest? Just Vid it * with Style!

You'll find even more of my ramblings in the films, many of them are filled with entertaining conversation* and I hope you'll watch them to see this stuff in action, explosions speak louder than words.

"Unfortunately some people consider carpeting cheap. So do it, and if they don't complain, keep doing it." - Placid

* a quote from an early BC Trow strategy article written shortly after the public learns of carpet bombing

Download the Placid BC filmpack suppliment here.