Free-Fire Zone

By Bryant Durrell December 28, 1996

Feng Shui Sites

3 Grove of Willows
3 Fortress of Shadow
3 Blessed Orchard
3 City Park

Monarch Foundations

2 Ice Healer
2 Darkness Priestess
2 Fire Warriors

Monarch Thugs

2 Fire Assassin
2 Fire Martyr
2 King of the Fire Pagoda

Monarch Stuff

3 Brain Fire
4 Mark of Fire
3 Ice Diadem
2 Avenging Thunder

Ascended Foundations

2 Pledged
2 Student of the Shark
2 Liquidators

Ascended Thugs

2 Triumverate Dealmaker
2 Blade Freak
2 Adrienne Hart

Ascended Stuff

3 Open Season
4 Shadowy Mentor
2 Family Estate
3 Bite of the Jellyfish

Notes

I added the Kings when I realized that all the Monarch Assassins were Fire characters; that's when the Fire Warriors got in as well. Open Season and the King
work excellently together, since you can use all your small characters to attack even if one of them fails, and spread the damage around at will. My best effort of this
type to date gave me two Feng Shui sites in one turn, while smoking another one with incidental damage. I am unsatisfied with the Ascended thuggery; I'd probably
be better off replacing Adrienne with, of all things, a couple of Fists of the Bear. They're Enforcers, so they benefit from Open Season, and they require fewer resources. The Triumverate Dealmakers are cheap Ascended resources that give me a little extra Power, so I'm happy enough with them. The Blade Freaks are not that great, don't provide a resource, but are still the only Ascended 3 Cost for 4 Fighting character. Maybe Tooth of the Snake would be better. At that point, I probably want to drop the Family Estates in exchange for, perhaps, Lodge Politics. The Shadowy Mentors provide my comeback potential, although it's not very good comeback. The sites are more important there; City Parks mean I sometimes don't care if a site's taken, as do Fortresses of Shadow, while Grove of Willows and Blessed Orchard penalize you for attacking me. The real deterrence, of course, is the Avenging Thunders and the Bites of the Jellyfish.
It's called Free-Fire Zone because there are lots of Fire characters and because of the Open Seasons.

Last modified: September 20, 1997.