Basics of positioning : Possibilities, Consequences and Anticipation

Glimpse of Luna is a game on which players have to take decisions about there units all the time, trade or not trade? Push forward or go back? Prelan guide here On Trading and Central Control | GoL (glimpse-luna.com) gives you clues to take such decisions but before making a move you have a fundamental step to do, it is to identify what you can do and what will happen.

In order to to able to take the best decision, there is 3 questions you have to ask yourself for every unit on the board:

1/ What can this unit do and what does it gain?

This is the step on which you identify all the possibilities available.

2/ What will my opponent be able to do in response?

This is step on which you identify the consequences of the possibilities.

3/ How can I take advantage of the opponent moves

This is the step on which you anticipate in order to mitigate or even deny the consequences.

About Gain :

When thinking about the gain, you have to have an open mind and not only think about moral gains. Of course the most basic gain is killing an enemy to reduce moral but gain can also be much more. Some exemples :

- Advancing a unit to contest more space

- Take a position to be able to kill a unit next turn

- Back a unit in a safer position

- Free a space for another unit

Before going into a visual explanation, some tips to help you find the different plays available :

1/ Dont hesitate to go look at Streamers. When they play they often take the time to explain what can done before play which can be very helpful to better understand of to take better positioning

2/ Always take the time to look at all the possibilities of all your units before starting a move. It is not because you can take an advantageous trade that it is the better thing to do. The unit trading can perhaps have another play possible which could be better

3/ Identify possibilities and consequences comes a lot with experience of the game. The more you will play the faster you will see the possibilities giving you more time to check consequences or find the more complex plays. Nonetheless at start it is best to not try to find complex plays in risk of running out of time. Try to keep it simple until you have enough confidence and experience to try more risky moves

Now lets move to practice and explanations :

Here you can see the positions of starting units in a Nordur vs Arachnids match.

At first we will look at what Nordur can do :

As looking at all possibilities to each unit will take too much time and space, I will just analyze what the 7/4/1/3 Pioneer Lorik can do.

At first lets look at what Lorik can do and what does it gains :

In this position, Lorik can move to 3 free spaces or don t move.

The position in white doesn t gain anything as it will reduce the control Lorik is providing.

Position in green and blue will allow Lorik to contest more space putting pressure on opponent units and deploy zone.

Don t moving is a neutral state

NB : Lorik can also move to 3 other tiles if the Nordur units move first but it is either same as white position or equivalent to the neutral state

Now lets look at what the opponent can do depending of Lorik move.

If Lorik don t move, no enemy unit can reach it next turn so he is safe.

If Lorik moves to blue space, Only the 7/7 Master can reach him and kill it. The 3/1 Warrior is not bringing anything unless he suicides alone.

If Lorik moves to green space, he can be killed by 3 units next turn.

Let s look at how anticipate the opponent plays.

If you move Lorik in blue position, the opponent 7/7 can only go the tile 2 if it wants to kill Lorik. Lorik is a Pioneer and the 7/7 a Master so if you can kill it you will reduce the moral by 3 by only losing 2 of yours. The tile 2 can be attacked by the 12/11 Hero, or the 7/5 assassination Master. It can also be attacked by the 3/1 warrior + the 5/5 pioneer going into melee. All those plays allows to kill the Master but it forces you to put units in the front which can make them vulnerable.

You can also move the 5/5 pioneer in the space Lorik was into allowing him to to kill the 7/7 Master by range attack next turn with the 3/1 warrior going melee in addition.

If Lorik goes into green tile, the situation is quite the same, you can kill anything that just get your Lorik by using different combinations of units on either tile 1 or 2.

And thats just for Lorik, before moving Lorik, take the time to look at posibilities for all other units because perhaps, the 5/5 pioneer or 7/5 Master can get better positions but not being able to avenge Lorik if he gts killed.

I know it seems to be overwhelming at first and also with the time bank, you can lose much time to think at all possibilities but with practice and experience, you will identify the different plays faster and faster to a level that sometimes you will directly see the best play gaining a lot of time.