Battle Of Wits

Have any of you written any? If so, what would be some good examples? Page here.

Some coming up with Shikamaru, but given it's him they're kind of Curb Stomp Battles Of Wits. Not much give-and-take.

edited 8th Nov '11 3:55:26 PM by alethiophile

Damn it's not easy being one of the only few people addicted to Battle of Wits you know?(Look at how small the page is.)

It's also not that easy to write. Gotta give Masashi Kishimoto and Yoshihiro Togashi credit for that. I'll still try though.

I'm planning on writing a couple for my Na No Wri Mo novel. A master of disguise/make-up artist using tricks and props to outsmart her opponent, and a tactician that uses his surroundings and outside forces to his advantage. They are pretty difficult to write. I find myself putting spaces between action when writing them, letting one character fall for the "trap" for awhile, but then coming back with a trap of their own, and etc.

Cool looking forward to it. I got a Battle of Wits between an ice user and a guy who can regenerate any part himself, even lost limbs, excluding the head. Can you imagine how that will go like?

This might be only a partial example at best but in Endless Conflict you have the myriad strategies and struggles between General James Jay Jameson and Swordmaster Khornan during Act II. Jameson stays one step ahead of Khornan first by subtly increasing the defense force size of Elysium then sneaking in reinforcements and supplies (one of whom is our protagonist unit Assault Team Bravo) even planning the direct counterattack that breaks the stalemate.

Khornan does however catch on that he's being played with in Chapter 16 and the arrival the Phoenix Corps element of the Preyaran Lancer Corps signals he's had to alter his original battle plans.

The two's strategic aims and plans underlie the grand strategy as a whole between the two leaders. Jameson intending to lead the Preyarans into a trap and Khornan intending to force the Terrans into a decisive battle.

But the Battle of Wits continues from there. At the end of the first book Khornan gets the last laugh since Jameson thought the battle for Preyara would end the war. But Jameson was wrong and that directly leads into the events of the second book.

There are several more (sometimes very) subtle ones going on throughout the series as a whole.

edited 9th Nov '11 8:34:28 PM by MajorTom

The guy with the power over ice freezes the regenerator's head. It becomes brittle and snaps right off. That's not much of a battle of wits, I don't think.

I have to write one soon, though. Na No Wri Mo is not the best time to come up with these!

It's not as simple as it sounds. You realize how easy it is to defend and counter when you know exactly where the enemy will aim for? The ice user had tried something like that. But all the regeneration guy has to do is to block it with an arm, break it off before the freezing spreads and regenerate a new arm.

edited 9th Nov '11 9:15:34 PM by PsychoFreaX

That seems really difficult, considering, you know, how painful frostbite and losing limbs is. I definitely see the ice guy having the advantage here.

1. ice man wins: when regen dude reaches over to break the other arm off, freeze that one too. Both arms are frozen and immobile, so he has nothing to break his arms off with.

2. regen dude wins: he buys a gun.

occam's razor, hurr hurr

EDIT: now that i actually read up on occam's razor that's not actually what occam's razor is. i guess this is Reality Ensues, or, I watched Darker Than Black.

edited 9th Nov '11 9:22:09 PM by Chubert

LOL

Well I guess I can't blame you for not knowing. But at the time, the ice user has less energy capacity than the regen and the freezing projectile beam would be one of his slower more exhausting abilities. Which is best used only when the enemy leaves an opening.

Pretty cool fight when you actually know what's going on though. Can't wait to realize it.

Oh and how about I make it so the regen also has the power to not feel pain. To make usage of his powers easier. Would that balance the fight better?

edited 9th Nov '11 9:24:02 PM by PsychoFreaX

I don't know. I mean how fast is this regenerator? It must be exhausting to regenerate, also. Conservation of mass and energy and whatnot. And honestly it doesn't sound like a battle of wits, more a battle of the normal variety.

I have to get my character through a Mobile Maze. It's... going to be difficult.

edited 9th Nov '11 9:26:56 PM by ohsointocats

Freeze his legs, go around back and shoot his head? Better yet, do a fake-out and freeze his chest instead, making his heart slow so you can shoot his head?

edited 9th Nov '11 9:33:07 PM by QQQQQ

Or better yet, just give both of them guns and see who draws quicker.

And yeah, of course the legs would be obviously the regen's second most guarded point. As for his healing speed, about around 2 seconds I'd say to regenerate an arm.

It's still quite a work in progress. But with some balancing, the fight can be pretty awesome .

edited 9th Nov '11 9:49:45 PM by PsychoFreaX

Who do you want to win? This is pretty important when making a battle of wits. Also, what does the regeneration guy have as an offensive move?

Why can't the iceman freeze healing man entirely? Also, care to explain where does all that extra materials for regeneration comes from? It doesn't have to realistic or plausible I just need a justification.

edited 9th Nov '11 11:25:22 PM by dRoy

Mental energy returning the body to a recognized stasis condition even materializing needed parts or something like that.

Oh and don't forget the regen could still dodge and the freezing ray thing is a slower exhausting move better used when the enemy leaves an opening. Plus it doesn't actually instantly freeze someone. But takes a few seconds to spread to the rest of them. Hence the technique of blocking it and breaking his arm off.

Anyways, to answer Heavy DDR. The ice user wins in the end. The regen doesn't have much more offensive abilities other than being physically a lot stronger than the ice user and... maybe... use their amputated limbs as an extension for an attack?

You think I should give the regen more power ups to make the fight better?

edited 10th Nov '11 3:12:53 AM by PsychoFreaX

It's pretty much a direct confrontation as we hear it.

Now, if you included a bunch of other factors, like a heated factory that one was lured to...

edited 10th Nov '11 3:31:05 AM by OuthouseInferno

Well the point is that the regen has a whole lot more advantage than you think. If you actually witness it, or just think about it. Also with regen being physically a lot stronger and faster, ice user will hardly be able to attack close range without it being defended, countered or both.

edited 10th Nov '11 5:26:44 AM by PsychoFreaX

Screw it. The regen has super strength to the point of being able to break out of the freezing attack on his own.

Doesn't really sound like your typical Battle of Wits. Seems more like a confrontation where they just have to think a tiny bit more than "keep punching till they're dead." A real Battle of Wits usually involves the characters actively plotting their enemy's demise by setting up traps, riddles, puzzles, etc. that too much/too little thought will end up screwing them over.

Well I was planning it to be a little more of a battle of wits. But now that I rearranged some things around there's only really one or two clever moves near the end.

Actually from the beginning I was planning for the regen to have that ice breaking strength. But thought he might not need it since there are quite a lot of ways he could counter the freezing attack on his own. Then I realize there were still a few obvious loop holes.

I mainly wanted that really cool scene in the middle of the fight where the regen goes up to punch the ice user who blocks it by grabbing it and pushing it to the side. Then starts freezing the regen, starting from the fist. But the regen twists his entire body, breaking the arm off and whacks the ice user away with his remaining arm. Oh well.

edited 11th Nov '11 8:42:29 PM by PsychoFreaX

Well, more on Battle of Wits. I'd say one of the smarter moves my characters did is how the ice user fights this villain who uses projectile thingos. The ice user creates a wall of ice to shield himself and the villain cnstantly tries to blast it down. soon the shield slowly breaks. But the ice user takes advantage of when a large piece of ice breaks off, then jumps and kicks it as a projectile of his own.