I was playing Champions of Vargacet earlier today, and I finally got some of the kinks worked out of my party.

For those who haven't played it, Leftley's Champions of Vargacet is a turn based, tactical combat game. Think Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem minus the story and large forces, and then throw in player-player combat and much more interesting units.

Before you start fighting the other players, you create four units. There are 13 classes; each has distinct stats, and perhaps more importantly distinct abilities, spells, and passive skills. Thing is, you only get to chose 5 out of what is around 10 skills for each class. Once you're done that, you get to chose a sub-class for the unit, which is where the real single-unit diversity comes in. The sub-class grants two abilities from another class - your berserker can be given some handy fighting abilities from the warrior class, or could even chose to have some wizard spells. The sub-class also affects your character's stats, something that you need to keep in mind.

What really makes things comes when you design how the units in your party work together. Do you want to create a bunch of knights, taking advantage of lots of health and a high defense, to be complimented with a priest who will keep that health up? Or maybe you want to make a team of fencers, taking advantage of their cripping fighting abilities?

My personal favourite aspect of Champions of Vargacet is in that design stage. Although I'm not particularly good at coming up with crippling party combinations, I have been known to win a few battles here and there.

Battles; you pit your strategy up against the enemy's strategy. There's a reason why its a tactical combat game, though. Most of the time you won't know exactly what you're facing until your units are on the field. Frequently, unless you're adequately prepared, you won't be sure as to what you're facing until there's an unexpected horde of reinforcements on the field, or your party has been crippled by an unforseen inferno cast by the wizard whom you had assumed was out of mana.

Since there are so many options in party customization, it can be hard to find a balance between a specialized party with skills that require a drastically specific execution in battle, or a nice versatile party that can face the unexpected, but might not be able to deal the right amount of damage in a pinch.

In my experience with Vargacet, I've learned something: your units take damage from the other units. Seems obvious, no? Well, just follow my logic: your own units can only deal damage so long as they're standing, and the same goes for the enemy units. The idea, then, is to take the enemy units out as fast as possible. This simple philosophy led me to design my party. Which I will now share with you.

Eagle
Class: Berserker/Warrior
Weapon of choice: Fire Axe
Purpose: To deal alot of damage fast, and take the early hits. Eagle usually dies pretty quickly, but with the 60 damage he'll do in his first hit, and choice target can be picked off before he goes.

Peregrin
Class: Archer/Archer
Weapon of choice: Longbow
Purpose: To kill. From afar. Peregrin can deal 80 damage in his first shot to the enemy, with a concentrate/headshot combo. In combination with Eagle's early damage, its usually enough to kill a single unit by the end of the second round. If not, by the third round an enemy unit is dead. Almost guaranteed.

Hawk
Class: Scout/Fencer
Weapon of choice: Poison dagger
Purpose: To know the enemy with spy, and to near ensure Peregrin's first deadly hit with spotting. By the third round, the odds can usually be taken down to 3 on 2 with Hawk using his fencer knowhow to stun someone long enough to continue the hurt.

Swan
Class: Wizard/Druid
Weapon of choice: Ice wand
Purpose: To make people hurt. And alot of people hurt, when possible. The average 40 damage from inferno dealt to multiple targets usually ensures that second round kill, and when things run right helps to clean up by the third round. Swan's druid skills also help to split up the enemy's party when the going looks rough.

This party obviously has some faults. There is no priest in any capacity in it, and so it can be a crash and burn sort of party. Since I have absolutely no healing capacity, removing any that the enemy might have is usually my top priority.

High defense parties can be difficult as well, especially when high damage can't be dealt from afar with Peregrin. A party featuring two or more knights who bolster their defenses to move in close tends to clobber my own party.

Anyway, Champions of Vargacet is usually online. Although there is frequently no one on it, just hit the connect link on its page. Keep it running in the background, and someone will come eventually. While you're waiting you can always fight the CPU (which isn't terribly difficult to beat, but it can be useful to test damage combos on, or whatnot).

~G
That Thing