Your Battle Strategy for the Final Battle

[nerd4hire]

I've been reading a lot of posts lately suggesting the Scoobs planned the final battle badly. So here's your chance. How would you have done it better?

I'm going to have to rewrite the background a bit to make a few things make sense:

"Once Sunnydale is evacuated, the First cleans the city of all firearms and high tech equipment that could be used against him. Phones, and all other methods of calling out, don't work. The Bringers are guarding the perimeter to make sure no-one goes for help."

In order to make the First's 'Release Hell on Earth' spell work, a spell is cast preventing stuff like the rocket launcher from Him, or the revolver from Killer in Me from operating within the Hellmouth area."

OK, here's the deal. You're in charge. Your Number 1 priority is protect Spike long enough for the amulet to work. Number 2: Prevent the Uber Vamps from escaping through the seal once it's opened. Number 3: Protect Willow. Number 4: Should any Ubies get into the school you must prevent them from accessing the sewers, and escaping into Sunnydale proper. Number 5: Guard the rear to prevent a rear-guard attack from the Bringers.

So what did Buffy, Giles, and Wood plan badly? How would you have done it better?

 

[Lee]

Ok, Ive always thought they should've destroyed the school to the ground, so the Vamps couldnt get out, cuz, sunlight, but thats not really sensible.

Ok. So basically, here's the setup:

Buffy, Spike, Faith, Kennedy, and Rona are in the basement, along with half of the remaining potentials.

Giles, Anya and Amanda are together.
Wood, Andrew and Rona are together.
And Xander, Dawn and Vi are together.

Some more of the potentials would be spread out evenly around the school and all possible exits.

Once Willow had performed the spell, she would be taken outside, where Chao-Ahn would protect her, with the remaining potentials.

Ok. I go on about the bad round up all the time, and Im not that great myself! lol!
Can't wait to see what Hitome comes up with 😉

 

[nerd4hire]

Here's the thing. If you don't protect Willow in the early rounds, the plan could fail. Who's protecting Willow while she does her spell.

More importantly Spike has to be protected. Also he needs to be at the front. How do you accomplish that?

Why is there so much power at the rear-end guard under the Lee-plan?

 

[Lee]

Here's the thing. If you don't protect Willow in the early rounds, the plan could fail. Who's protecting Willow while she does her spell.

More importantly Spike has to be protected. Also he needs to be at the front. How do you accomplish that?

Why is there so much power at the rear-end guard under the Lee-plan?

Damn you!
Damn you and your excellent brain!!!
Sometimes...envy...its not a good thing...

 

[DigificWriter]

Here's my plan:

The gang splits into three groups. Group 1 consists of Buffy, Giles, Dawn, Xander, and about half of the surviving Potentials; Group 2 consists of Anya, Andrew, Wood, and the other half of the surviving Potentials (including Vi, Amanda, Rona, and Chao-Ahn); Group 3 consists of Faith, Willow, and Kennedy.

Group 1 heads into the Hellmouth itself to take on the UberVamps, while Group 2 acts as backup (they can send people into the Hellmouth in case Group 1 needs help, but are mainly there to deal with any UberVamps who get past Group 1).

Kennedy and Faith have the job of protecting Willow while she casts the spell. After the spell gets cast, the threesome joins Group 2.

I mentioned above that Group 1 would head into the Hellmouth to take on the UberVamps, but didn't mention Spike and the Amulet. Once the Slayer spell was cast, Group 1's objective would switch from distraction to protection, as they would converge around Spike to keep him protected while the Amulet did its damage.

Note: As it stands now, a version of this battle plan will be appearing in the finale of the AS7, as we have decided to emulate Joss in using the Slayer spell, although we're doing it for different reasons.

 

[BillieHunter]

Well...I'm not exactly a good planner. But hey...it was light outside. Instead of randomly stationing the Scoobies...use them to help get the vamps that ran up, outside. They said don't let any of the Turok-hans get out...why not? They'de burn up anyway...they just wasted extra strength and firepower trying to kill them all before they got out of the building...

 

[nerd4hire]

Wood says if they get upstairs the Ubies can get access to other buildings, and from there access to the sewers. They want to prevent that. Wood positions the Scoobs to that purpose.

 

[Guestage_87]

Here's what I would do:

The answer is very simple, have Willow perform the spell two hours before they actually go into the hellmouth, they didn't really NEED to wait til the last minute to do the spell, Joss just wanted to make it dramatic I think. What that does is that it gives Buffy two extra people for the start of the battle, Kennedy and Willow. Same plan applies as in Chosen, except I would switch up Faith with Willow instead and have Faith help guard the exits. Willows sole purpose being down in the hellmouth would be to protect Spike using barricades or whatever having at her disposal, all while both try to take out as many Ubies as possible. Willow and Spike would be taking point during all of this, with Rona, Vi, Amanda and a few other following right behind them as the second wave of sorts, their goal is not only to take out the vamps, but make sure Spike stays unharmed during this battle. Then would be the other fifteen or so slayers to back them up. Bringing up the rear would be Buffy and Kennedy and a few other slayers. Despite herself, Buffy would need to step back, because if an ubervamp was tough enough to make through all those slayers, you would need the toughest and smartest one as back up to make sure they don't escape through the hellmouth. The Scythe will be handed off to whoever needs it the most at the time, think of it as an emergency kit, but it would start off with one of the slayers in front.

Meanwhile, upstairs I would make up the teams a little different. Giles with Dawn, Anya with Xander, Wood with Andrew, Faith would be on her own. Faith would be in the area that Wood and Giles took up guard in Chosen, seeing is that that seemed to be the most infested area with not only Ubies, but Bringers, she would most likely be able to handle that on her own. Andrew and Wood would be where Dawn and Xander were in the finale, basically a place where they would need to utilize sunlight, because they would be the most uneven team, you have Wood who fights very well, but then you have Andrew who doesn't at all. So the plan would be to have Wood fight all approaching ubies, while Andrew tries to lead as many as possible into the sunlight. Andrew would also have to try his hand at taking out Bringers if one would come due to the fact that Wood would be taking out Ubies. Giles and Dawn would be stronger int he area that Andrew and Anaya were in in Chosen, that area also got crazy with Bringers and Ubies, Giles fighting skills is above average so guarding that area wouldn't be a problem, his goal would also be to protect Dawn, as Dawn's goal would be to watch his back and take out any Bringers. As for the rear exit where Bringers would come in, Xander and Anya, who are about pretty even in fighting skills would take that area and try to ensure that no Bringers would enter the school without being a little knocked up, this also makes sense because the two would be able to protect eachother, hence no dead Anya.

Well that's my plan at least, might have a few flaws.

 

[WatcherWes]

though it wasn't outright stated, I figured that there had to be a reason to wait until the seal was opened to do the slayer spell, probably that Willow need a magical boost that the hellmouth could provide, to do the spell.

 

[nerd4hire]

Here's what I would do:

The answer is very simple, have Willow perform the spell two hours before they actually go into the hellmouth,

You're right of course, and that's a basic flaw in Joss's reasoning.

It's strange. Joss doesn't usually make that kind of mistake. You'd expect it from Noxon or Greenberg, but not from Joss.

I can't blame him too hard though. I made the same mistake. I have less of an excuse, because I've heard this "why have them all in the Hellmouth before you cast the spell" thing mentioned on other threads.

When I was rewriting the background, I should have said the Potentials have to be centered over, or in the Hellmouth in order for the spell to work. If they did it in advance from that position, the First would get wise and attack from below, putting an army of Ubervamps above ground in advance of the spell.

It's one of those things that would have been easy to justify, but Joss just didn't bother - like why didn't they arm themselves with guns to bring down the bringers?

 

[Joan]

Another little flaw is; Why weren't the Ubervamps proctecting the seal? Yes, it might have been because Buffy and the rest suprised them but any all knowing evil would surely cover all exits in case of an attack like this.

My battle plan: Get some huge bulldozers and completly knock the school down, let willow perform a spell to part the earth in some way or to make a crater beneath the school and all the ubies would be dust. No Spike dead(unfortunately). No Anya dead 🙂 Although getting the abnormally large bulldozers would be slightly hard that short notice lol

 

[nerd4hire]

Another little flaw is; Why weren't the Ubervamps proctecting the seal? Yes, it might have been because Buffy and the rest suprised them but any all knowing evil would surely cover all exits in case of an attack like this.

True, but isn't that more a flaw in the First's battle strategy, than the writer's. It could be said the First's arrogance prevented it from considering his opponent could mount an effective counter-attack. If you look at the history of warfare, this kind of thing happens all the time. The one that leaps to mind is the Wolfe/Montcalm battle of the Plains of Abraham

My battle plan: Get some huge bulldozers and completly knock the school down, let willow perform a spell to part the earth in some way or to make a crater beneath the school and all the ubies would be dust. No Spike dead(unfortunately). No Anya dead 🙂 Although getting the abnormally large bulldozers would be slightly hard that short notice lol

You mean, tip off the First?

 

[Primal Slayer]

Well if Willow did the spell even an hour before it wouldve brought down the quality of the episode, and brake the suspense, Joss wanted it to seem like everyone is failing until we see Willow(and the scoobies plan) perform the spell and then we would be like WOW(if not for spoilers) and then we know that they would stand a fighting chance.

OK, here's the deal. You're in charge. Your Number 1 priority is protect Spike long enough for the amulet to work. Number 2: Prevent the Uber Vamps from escaping through the seal once it's opened. Number 3: Protect Willow. Number 4: Should any Ubies get into the school you must prevent them from accessing the sewers, and escaping into Sunnydale proper. Number 5: Guard the rear to prevent a rear-guard attack from the Bringers.

So what did Buffy, Giles, and Wood plan badly? How would you have done it better?

I wish we knew how many potentials were left by the time Chosen came around since it would be easier to split everyone up.

Ok what I would do is first brake into about 4 teams kind of like what they did in the orignal.

I would leave 2 good experianced potentials with Willow to guard her(have them stand beside the door from the inside or outside)

Bring the more experianced potentials down into the hellmouth along with Buffy,Faith, and Spike.

Like the Willow plan I would have 2-3 potentials always stay near Spike since Spike knows how to hold himself in battle and if he cant take the ones attacking him he would have atleast alittle back-up.

Have Giles,Wood, Andrew, and Anya together upstairs from the seal since if any Urbers do get out they would be able to hold them off(since The Urbers were weak in the finale) and keep them at bay from escaping from any nearby exists, plus we know that Bringers were involved in the war aswell and this way everyone couldve watched their back. And the newer potentials can help them out with fighting but I would leave 3 of them out to aid Xander and Dawn in the backup-backup.

Have Xander and Dawn teamed up near the exit of the building, both are somewhat average fighters but since they arent the best I would arm them with swords and stay with their little plan but add more holes in the walls since if they see a group of Urbers coming their way, pull a rope and sunlight comes through thus dusting the Urbers or just let them outside the building and let them die.

I know it doesnt sound very different from the orignal battle plan but its still alittle different.

 

[BillieHunter]

Wood says if they get upstairs the Ubies can get access to other buildings, and from there access to the sewers. They want to prevent that. Wood positions the Scoobs to that purpose.

ahhh...I missed that little exchange in the episode...it makes so much more sense now....

 

[Guestage_87]

I just didn't get why it had to take place in the High School alone, if there was nobody in town, you'd think that the scoobs would have taken advanage of that and made the battle perimeter much bigger as in having the battle all across Sunnydale. So what if an Ubie gets to another building, Sunnydale is a secluded town, if it wanted to go to another town or city it would need to step into the sunlight. Plus, Sunnydale was destroyed anyways so having people protect the exits was pointless. The sewer exits I believe, but not exits to other buildings. The best plan of action would have been to widen at the area of battle. Probably also would have been best if Buffy recruited more "normal" people to fight, but then again, how would she get ahold of them if the phone lines were cut?

 

[nerd4hire]

So let's see if I understand this correctly. The First's plan is to unleash the demon's of Hell from the Hellmouth, and your counter-strategy is to let it.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I just didn't get why it had to take place in the High School alone, if there was nobody in town, you'd think that the scoobs would have taken advanage of that and made the battle perimeter much bigger as in having the battle all across Sunnydale. So what if an Ubie gets to another building, Sunnydale is a secluded town, if it wanted to go to another town or city it would need to step into the sunlight. Plus, Sunnydale was destroyed anyways so having people protect the exits was pointless. The sewer exits I believe, but not exits to other buildings. The best plan of action would have been to widen at the area of battle. Probably also would have been best if Buffy recruited more "normal" people to fight, but then again, how would she get ahold of them if the phone lines were cut?

Maybe because then the Urbies could get away better since SunnyDale isnt as small as you may think it is, there isnt enough people to surround all the town and fight the Urbies. Containing them is the thing that has to be done in order they dont escape and go wondering around the world.

And it takes blood to open the seal, with noone left in SunnyDale there wouldnt be enough blood to open the seal in order to have the Urbies guard it, and its obvious they werent strong enough to open the seal themselves espically without the Firsts help.

If they could get out of the seal so easily The First wouldve had them all up there beginning of night pulling on a full surprise attack.

 

[Guestage_87]

Eh, then fight The First with Humis. Because apparentely there is no good way around the situation.

 

[nerd4hire]

"Hey, he'd never see it coming".

 

[Hitome]

Can't wait to see what Hitome comes up with 😉

Thanks Lee. 😉 I'm finally back. Vast amounts of school work and Buffy discussion just don't work together.

Here's my plan. So, basically I'm assuming that Willow had to do her spell when the Potential Slayers opened the Hellmouth. Even taking that into consideration. There are a lot of things Buffy could have done differently. Outside people are an option and getting into contact with Riley's group by leaving Sunnydale and using a phone might have been possible. If Buffy could have gotten Riley's group they could have easily demolished any exists from the school. Sewer exists might still be a problem though since you can't blow them up and the upervamps could eventually break through any blockades. Well, for my plan I exclude the Riley option. Let's say that Buffy tried to reach him and couldn't. It's the eve of the battle. Angel has just visited and given Buffy a pendant for Spike to wear that may or may not do something important. The existance of the pendant shouldn't change the group's plans since they don't know how (or if) it will work.

The plan:

The potentials are divided into two groups. About 2/3 of the Potentials will enter the Hell Mouth and another 1/3 is the rear guard. (my basic assumption is that there are enough Potentials left for my number to work if there are fewer I have a revised plan. For the battle I'm using 8 Potentials and two normal humans for the rear guard and 16 or so people in the Hellmouth. Faith and Kennedy come out of the Hellmouth number).

Since Buffy doesn't know what type of losses her group will suffer or how many ubervamps she will be fighting against, her best assumption is that she will face overwhelming odds and be defeated. He first plan of action is therefore to send away the people who are incapable of fighting the ubervamps. Anya, Dawn, Xander, and Andrew will be useless in a protracted fight. All of them have to leave before the battle. If I were Buffy I would send them away with Angel. If (probably when) Buffy's group looses these experienced demon fighters can take over finding and training the new slayers so that humanity does not fall.

Next, Buffy needs to place two slayerettes at the exit Xander and Dawn guarded. The light from the skylight should make any battle there easy, so it would be best if she chose her least experienced people to guard that exit. Faith or Kennedy should be able to tell her who is appropriate. The next exit where Anya and Andrew fought probably needs two Potentials and Robin and Giles fighting. Since neither man will last as long as a slayer but both are experienced fighters it is best to put them in the second most vital exit. The last possible exit that Robin and Giles originally guarded will be manned by four potentials.

Buffy and the potentials will open the Hellmouth at the same time Willow does her spell in order to distract the First and keep it from mobilizing all of it's forces mystical and otherwise against Willow. Faith and Kennedy will guard Willow. Faith is probably strong enough to take care of any problems herself, but it is better to be safe in this situation and include Kennedy. In addition Kennedy won't fight well if she's worring about Willow. After Willow does the spell Faith will take the sythe to the Hellmouth and give it to Buffy and Kennedy will get Willow outside into the sun and then join the group in the Hellmouth.

I would keep Buffy's plan in the Hellmouth exactly the same. If there are fewer potentials than needed. I will just cut the numbers in the Hellmouth since the ubervamps will get out eventually. I would love to use high technology, but for this plan at least I'm playing by the rules.

I can think of a few problems with my plan. In fact I don't think it was even possible for Buffy to win without Spike's sacrifice.