Puppet Masters and bribing in general

AeroSoul

Weeder
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Messages
16
Heya guys,

I have searched the forums for it and although I found good information, it's heavily outdated. I've been playing since round 5, most rounds intensively, but some rounds passively. Since a long time I decided to try out Puppet Masters, so here's what I'd like to ask about this route.

What is currently the best ratio for puppet masters? The old forums and old posts in the current forum only speak of when it was still steel walls, but no real useful info about armoured cars. And because different parties seem to disagree about which is more important; ninja's or armoured cars?

There was a discussion about Political Bribers being so underpowered, with stats close to gardeners, that someone suggested for a small tweak for it's initiative to fire before Puppet Masters, to provide some leverage between the bribes you do or dont want your Puppet Masters to bribe. Any word about what Azzer thought of it?
Does anyone even think it's worth having them in your staff?

And last but not least, how do people feel about cloners and how do you use them? I know although they fire at ALL and at a pretty high initiative, their stats are pretty hardcore, right? How could I balance my staff to make use of both Puppet Masters and Cloners, without losing too much Puppets and in a way my Cloners actually make it out alive for last tick?

Sorry for the long post, but I figured it would be easier to answer more specific questions rather than a "how-to-play-with?"-question.

Thanks, and if all stuff is useful, I'll combine it and send it to CFalcon for the Help Thread.
 

flameharvester

Head Gardener
Joined
Dec 16, 2007
Messages
437
All I can suggest having never played the route, is account mail recon. He proved two rounds ago that Puppet masters can be competitive in the higher ranks as a member of Fashionably late.

Im sure someone else can assist you though.
 

Dax

Hydroponics Developer
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Messages
3,126
Location
Northants, UK
Like your past experience, I only played Puppets when Steel Walls were in (Armoured Cars practically ensure success for modern Puppet players) - So my techniques always focussed on me using Ninjas mostly, the Puppets as a secondary (3:1 ratio), but keeping enough score up top for 5-10m Steel Walls in case a really good bribe target tried attacking me.

Nowadays, I'd probably have that 'emergency fund' invested in SGT, as they filter out most INN and weak NLD/NLT, leaving Puppets to bribe what you want - Useful ****.
 

Coruba

Head Gardener
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
266
Location
New Zealand
I personally love that route. The hardest part really is bribing AD routes which imo you should try to do first. In reality though unless you have cheap LET flak you are likely to fail.

My usual plan is start off suiciding on a nano - these are you life blood - they multiply like crazy. Second try the POM's. From there on its much of a muchness. The problem being is by that stage you probably around rank 100 upwards and the target get bigger and harder to hit which is why again I say you need AD routes early.

Hope my few words of youthful experience helps
 

Max

Garden Designer
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
1,015
Location
London
Yeah the key to successful bribing is less about your own ratios and more about targets.

So whilst armoured cars are pretty beef in their armour - I would neglect them altogether and start with a high risk pure puppet setup.

With these puppets you want to go around bribing the lethal flak to protect them - as mentioned Nanos but also Iron Golems and Sorcs are excellent acquisitions.

For offence - bribe some PoMs to help strip the flak out of the way before your puppets fire. This will allow you to focus on the good stuff!

For defence - try to grab some SDs and Stunbots to accompany your SGTs. This will prevent all but the most determined players from landing on you (although puppets prefer to be pretty land thin to keep good targets in range!)

Oh - and don't be afraid to suicide naff units that artificially boost your score - you'll inevitably pick these up from all targets (gardeners, harvesters, hippies, yobs, etc.)
 

LuckySports

Landscape Designer
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
1,243
Location
Nonya
The ratios change with the targets.. The best advice I've ever seen someone give with puppets was.. "Change your ratios according to who you want to hit"

There is no perfect ratio..
 

willymchilybily

Landscape Designer
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
1,418
Location
uk
Just to reiterate what was said before really. Ratio is not as important as target selection.

Personally, though im no pro with the route, i like to get poms first which then open up routes to attack that may have been painful previously. It also allows most importantly you to block innocents so you bribe more useful units with the all targetting puppets.

Trying for sorcs and golems is good. Or a petrol bomber player without tl is also good.. This gives you the all killing factor that will pick off weaker lethals and non lethals that arent innocent. This helps alot as you will now have almost all of your late firing puppets fire power targetting lethals.
Now go for it dont be afraid to die a bit. As the poms wont die easily and sorcs and golems can be re-bribed generally. Using the innocents and nld/nlt youve bribed to flak the lethals.

.......in answer to your actual question......
If you are set on flaking instead of playing in this way id take armoured cars over Ninja and wouldnt bother with cloners once puppets are done. This is simply because ninja and cars cost the same but cars survive. If you dont have poms blocking innocents you will waste your firepower first tick taking out innocents and other junk. So you need to fire a second tick to bribe annything worth while meaning you want to have lethal flak still alive. They are also better when facing a pom as they wont get blocked by the pom unlike ninjas, so when the hippyvans fire they cant strip your puppets so well. So lsp cant sweep them.
 

AeroSoul

Weeder
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Messages
16
Thanks for the advice guys.

Now another question:

So apparently bribing heavy armoured units takes a different approach. Anyone experienced or have some useful tips for bribing armoured units?

I heard different methods, like lethal flakking and/or using RPG's to strip armour. These were the 2 main methods, anyone ever tried anything else?
 

Martin

Garden Designer
Super Moderator
Community Operator
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
970
Location
England
AeroSoul, take a look at the below link - similar questions were answered in this thread. It's a bit vague and not as in depth as others have answered above but it contains a post by me, which let's be fair is better than a blow-job from a bikini model.

http://www.bushtarion.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5945
 

No-Dachi

Official Helper
Joined
Dec 15, 2007
Messages
975
Location
Oslo, Norway
AeroSoul, take a look at the below link - similar questions were answered in this thread. It's a bit vague and not as in depth as others have answered above but it contains a post by me, which let's be fair is better than a blow-job from a bikini model.

http://www.bushtarion.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5945

I've read your post, and I can assure you; that depends on the skill of the bikini model.
 
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