Formations

The following article attempts to explain the concept underlying the execution of a Neunwelt Tactic in Assault Lily. It does not come from an official source, but rather is pulled together from an understanding of what Neunwelts are based on: soccer (or football/fútbol if you prefer). This article seeks not only to instill an idea of what "positions" mean (AZ/TZ/BZ), but why Lilies might occupy those positions, and also, what exactly is going on between Lilies when they do a Neunwelt Tactic and why they need to do it at all. The hope is to deepen your appreciation for the Assault Lily world.

The Problem to be Solved

To begin with, let's revisit what a Neunwelt Tactic is: nine Lilies pass a magiesphere around to charge it with their own magie, generating a kind of magical bomb. They then shoot the charged magiesphere at their target Huge. If it hits, the magiesphere destroys that Huge. This tactic is not without its risks however, because upon charging the magiesphere, each Lily vastly drains her own reserve of magie, leaving her relatively weak and in grave danger against Huge. If the Neunwelt misses, if the magiesphere is dropped, or if other Huge knock the magiesphere away (or even steal it!), then the Lilies performing the Neunwelt are suddenly in dire straits. This is why the Neunwelt Tactic is often reserved for powerful foes that Lilies can't take down with CHARMs, such as Gigants, Ultras, or particularly dangerous irregulars.

For ease, for the rest of this article we'll be using just "Gigant" to denote "the target Huge," as they are the most common target.

Conceptualizing the Field

It's all but unheard of to encounter a Gigant without an escort of lesser Huge. That is to say, it's not nine Lilies versus a single Gigant. Rather, it's usually nine Lilies versus dozens if not hundreds of Huge, and the Gigant. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, magiespheres are magical bombs, and particularly when fully charged, are unstable and heavy.

This makes "pre-charging" a Neunwelt too much risk for too little return. The magiesphere might fizzle out, and lugging the heavy orb takes too much effort. Furthermore, while they can be fired from CHARMs like a bullet, the Gigant and its escort are a small army and occupy a great deal of space. "Sniping" a Gigant in this fashion is unlikely at best. Though this is only meant as an example, imagine trying to hit a target with a cannonball, fired not from a cannon but a rifle, at a distance of 1 kilometer or more. It's certainly not easy (in fact, technically impossible, but just go with it). Therefore, most Neunwelts are performed fairly close to a Gigant, and certainly within range of its escort.

Now, try to imagine it: a team of nine Lilies, beset by dozens if not hundreds of Huge, many of them as big as they are or even bigger, with a massive and towering monster firing lasers out of its eyes or whatever not too far away, all doing their best to kill those Lilies. Moreover, the Lilies must pass a bomb between them and charge it before they're overwhelmed or any of them get injured and can't contribute their magie to the magiesphere. They can't stand huddled in a group or they'd be too easy to take out. Yet to spread out means they must individually fight lesser Huge to open passing lanes and give themselves space to charge the magiesphere...

All this to say that successfully completing a Neunwelt takes some strategy, not to mention skill and training.

Now This is Soccer

So now the team of nine Lilies are spread out on the field and each fighting lesser Huge. Immediate problem: how do they know where each other is? How do they know who to pass to? This problem is solved by establishing a formation. A formation stipulates where each Lily is meant to fight in relation to one another, as well as to the Gigant. In this fashion, just by looking at the Gigant and knowing your own position on the field, the Lily knows roughly where every other Lily is, too.

This doesn't just take into account left-or-right of the Gigant, but also the conceptual front-to-back relative to the Gigant. Because Lilies are generally fighting their way through the Gigant's escort in order to close the distance to the Gigant itself, it becomes useful to establish distancing "ranks" so that you know how far you can move up. After all, if you just charge in recklessly, you're going to get surrounded by Huge. You also want to maintain sufficient distance so you're spread out enough that there's less danger of area damage, and because one side of the battlefield might be more open than another, making passing safer on that side.

Three Zones

The first concept to understand is that of the front-to-back distancing, called "zones." This concept is of course similar to soccer but also is not unfamiliar to people who play video games which have a front line and a back line in combat. Only here, we have a front, mid, and back line. The front line is called the Attacking Zone (AZ), the mid line is called the Tactical Zone (TZ), and the back line is called, easily enough, the Back Zone (BZ).

Attacking Zone (AZ)

The AZ is the front line of combat. It's always in the thick of it. Any Lily that stands in the AZ is essentially a kind of tanking role or melee DPS role for their legion. Because they are always the front rank, they are always surrounded in Huge. To stand on the AZ requires exceptional skill at dueling Huge one on one. In a sense, you could say these usually are "blade mode" Lilies. They also most often are the ones who make the finish shot and destroy the Huge (though middle shots in the TZ, and sniper shots in the BZ, are not unknown).

Tactical Zone (TZ)

The TZ is the flex area. The Huge are not quite as thick here, since the AZ deals with most of them, but that doesn't mean they don't take on their fair share of Huge. TZ Lilies generally are one of two types: Lilies who are flexible and help the AZ or the BZ as the situation demands, or they're commanders who need to see the whole battlefield. If the AZ is "blade mode" then TZ is both blade and shooting mode.

Back Zone (BZ)

The BZ, being the furthest away from the front line, are usually support or ranged DPS type Lilies. It's the safest area (relatively speaking) and has the fewest Huge of all three zones. Usually the Lilies here are those who specialize in shooting mode with their CHARMs, or are supportive types who focus on using their rare skills to boost the TZ and AZ. Because they are in the safest area, they also facilitate passes to another part of the field, or just to keep the magiesphere safe for a moment. You can guess what mode their CHARMs usually are, I'm sure.

Five Lanes

While knowing where to stand relative to left-or-right of the Gigant is useful on its own, there's also a bit of strategy to the field itself and its left-to-right positioning. This is done by dividing the field, conceptually, into five different lanes. The center lane, the left lane, the right lane, and then two "half-space" lanes between the left/right and the center. Take this example.

As you can see, the yellow lines mark out the three zones and the five lanes relative to the Huge. The green dots are the Lilies, though this is not a typical or even good formation, more just a demonstration. The center lane is considered even in soccer to be the most easily contested lane. In AL, that means it's the one where you'll encounter the most Huge. Lilies generally don't want to stand in the center lane AZ ever because it means being right in front of the Gigant and thus probably the focus of most of its attacks. It's hard to get a good finish shot off due to that pressure, as well.

The left and right lanes are usually considered "safest." Because they are away from the center lane, there's not as much traffic there. But at the same time, they're furthest away from the Gigant, even in the AZ. This makes them ideal for passing or for easing pressure on yourself, but ultimately they're not considered attacking lanes because it's too easy to miss the Gigant if you take the finish shot from them.

Meanwhile, the half-lanes are considered the "prime" aggression zones. Just far enough away from the center to have room to maneuver, but close enough to hit the Gigant with a finish shot if needed. Additionally, you generally don't want to make passes horizontally or vertically, but rather only diagonally. In soccer this is because someone intercepting a pass will then just stride right between two players, neither of whom are in a position to chase. Diagonal passes means someone is usually in the position to recover, however. In AL, your sphere can be knocked aside or even stolen, so this sort of concept can be applied as well. And the half-lanes are those diagonal positions.

Rare Skills

Before we go any further, to understand why Lilies occupy the positions they do, it's good to understand rare skills. If you don't know, rare skills are a Lily's super ability, essentially. By activating it, a Lily consumes more of her magie, but gains the benefits of the skill. Though rare skills aren't unique, a Lily only awakens to a single rare skill, and it usually suits her personality and combat style, as if her magie is responding to her herself.

We'll summarize what they are below quickly, just in case you need it. Note this is only the more "common" rare skills, and leaves out subskills, boosted skills, aberrations, and "uncommon" or even one-off rare skills.

Brave — A "single target" buff skill. Touch someone and they become very awesome. Can potentially be used on one's self, too.
Circlet Bless — Most Lilies can activate only a single CHARM, but with Circlet Bless, you can activate two, giving you more power.
Hawk's Eye — Provides a "hawk's eye" view of everything around you. Literally a top-down view of the battlefield.
Heaven's Measure — Allows you to intuitively judge distance between everything, and sharpens your vision.
Heliosphere — Makes Huge attacks weaker, and also can generate actual physical shields of light.
Laplace — A magie supply skill. Literally refills the magie of your allies. Can enable two successive Neunwelts.
Lunatic Trancer — A "battle high" skill that makes you hit harder, but slowly makes you go berserk as well.
Phantasm — Allows you to pick a future world line you like, then telepathically transmit to allies what to do to obtain that future.
Phase Transcendence — Gives you unlimited magie for a few seconds, then makes you sleepy.
Regista — A package skill that boosts ally CHARM efficiency, shields the magiesphere from disruption, and telepathically communicates open passing lanes. Also gives an inaccurate "radar" of where Huge are nearby.
Shukuchi — Makes you really fast. No bells or whistles, just speed.
Testament — A "widening" buff that makes all other rare skills have a wider area of effect.
The Way of the World — Lets you intuitively know the vector of all things, like Huge attacks, and thus be able to dodge them.
Zenon Paradoxa — Combines Shukuchi and Way of the World into a single skill, though lesser effects of both.

Already you might have a sense of where Lilies with these rare skills might stand. For example, Circlet Bless, Lunatic Trancer, Phantasm, Way of the World, and Zenon Paradoxa are definitely seen on AZ Lilies more often than not. Brave, Heliosphere, Shukuchi, Testament, and certainly Regista are often on TZ Lilies. Meanwhile Hawk's Eye, Heaven's Measure, Laplace, Phase Transcendence Lilies are frequently in the BZ.

However this is by no means absolute. There are many things that may alter where a Lily prefers to stand. For example, many Boosted Lilies have Regenerator (take a guess what it does if you don't know) and therefore can afford to be more aggressive. Some Lilies can achieve an S-class with their rare skill; those that do that with Phase Transcendence no longer experience the downsides of their skill, making them far more suited for aggression. Meanwhile, someone with Heliosphere preferring support or command might be in the BZ instead of the TZ so they can focus on using their skill more.

Lastly, the positions themselves aren't absolute. A BZ Lily with Brave who can use it on herself (a state called Enrage) might move up to the AZ temporarily to help clear out Huge, then fall back again when she's at her limit. A Shukuchi Lily might zip everywhere on the battlefield as needed, shifting between AZ, TZ, and BZ.

It all depends on what the Lily individually wants, what her legion needs, and what the fight demands.

To Your Positions (Examples)

The following will provide a few examples of how a few legions in the Assault Lily world organize their formations. Not only will you be able to see how they're organized in terms of lane and zone, but also how a Lily's rare skill might affect her position on the field.

Team Hitotsuyanagi's formation is straightforward, with no real surprises. Yuyu is certainly Hitotsuyanagi's most powerful combatant, and she's right up front and center on the Gigant. Tazusa is her partner in the AZ, helping to make sure she isn't overwhelmed, and making sure she can get tagged in Phantasm should Tazusa have it active. Meanwhile, Kaede with her Regista is dead center of the formation on the defensive side of the TZ where she can issue orders and do what she does best. The offensive side of the TZ is staffed by Shenlin who helps coordinate tactically, and Mai can get anywhere with Shukuchi to help support her team.

Meanwhile, the BZ has all of the less experienced Lilies with their support-oriented rare skills. Miriam's Phase Transcendence might prompt her to move up when she's ready, but then she has a place to fall back to when she's drained. Riri's Charisma and Fumi's Hawk's Eye are both tucked safely away, and Yujia can snipe with Heaven's Measure with relative safety. Nearly all of the team is away from the AZ, making their passing safer and more stable but less aggressive.

Notice, also, that the formation is staggered and arranged in such a way that everyone has someone to diagonally pass to. There are horizontal passes (Riri/Fumi for example) but for the most part they're arranged to facilitate good passing lanes.

Meanwhile, Legion Gran Eple already looks quite different. They're more spread out, but also more concentrated towards the front. This provides them a pure balance of offense and defense—everyone can support one another, but they can also afford to be a little aggressive. Once again, they are positioned in such a way where everyone has someone to diagonally pass to. Meanwhile, there's a few surprises in store who is positioned where.

Most notable is Suzume, who has Lunatic Trancer yet is positioned in the TZ. You may have caught it in the previous example, but the TZ is sort of split in half between an offensive-leaning TZ and a defensive-leaning TZ. In this case, Suzume is on the offensive half, while Kanaho and Takane are on the defensive. Suzume is positioned as a center forward because she acts as a kind of pillar; anything that gets past the AZ, she mops up with her overwhelming strength. Meanwhile, that AZ has few surprises. Fujino's Circlet Bless, Himeka's Way of the World, and Haruna's Phase Transcendence are all offensively or tank oriented rare skills.

Meanwhile, the BZ mostly has little in the way of surprises, with Akari's Heaven's Measure allowing her to snipe freely, and Kureha being on the right wing gives her relative safety to make sure she can use Testament to buff the team. Because of Testament's defense self-debuff, however, she's of course positioned right next to Takane (Zenon Paradoxa) and Akehi (Heliosphere), either of whom can easily cover her. Despite having Regista, Kanaho is not the commander of the legion, but rather Akehi is due to her time in Herensuge, and from the back she can give orders as needed while focusing on defensive plays.

Formation Names

One last note to wrap up on, when viewing formation charts like this, they will often be given a formation "notation." You can see it in the Gran Eple example even: 3-2-1-3. This is read as how many people are in what zone starting from the BZ to the AZ. The reason why it has four numbers is, you may guess, because of the offensive/defensive TZ split. So in this case, 3-2-1-3 can be read "3 BZ, 2 defense TZ, 1 offense TZ, 3 AZ."