TAF - How do you approach Seance?

Games
1

I was playing Addams with a few pals last night after league and we had some Seance blunders that got us talking about our different approaches.

We broke it down to these three

1 - Shoot the swamp like champ
Pro - Points and hopefully a controllable swamp kickout
Con - Miss the shot and you’re dealing with the power, ball is out of control

2 - Hold the thing flipper out as a pass
Pro - If this is consistently safe, it’s a great option, either as a live catch on the left or a dead pass from R to L
Con - Often too close to a center drain, then you’re scrambling to save it

3 - Let it drop into the left inlane, ready to nudge
Pro - Very quick and clean setup for the next ramp shot
Con - Looking like a bonehead when the ball bounces off the inlane divider into the left outlane

I always try #2 if I’m playing an Addams for the first time. If it works, I’ll stick with it. If not, I’ll try my luck with #3 which seems to have about 80% success. I wish I was more consistent with the swamp shot, but I usually don’t like to risk it when the power is running.

Which method do you use? Or something else entirely?

2

WOPR - “The only winning move is not to play”.

Time it out!

3

Cryss Stevens it.

3 Likes
4

I was gonna say . . . what Power do you have to deal with?

IFPA has been “Power Free” on TAF since 2014. Thanks Cryss! :slight_smile:

5

Yeah, I suppose timing it out makes sense the most sense competitively, but I guess Seance isn’t really the crux of my question. That’s just where the conversation came up when playing last night.

In general, how do you deal with the ball on the thing flipper when it’s not thing flips?

6

i’ll deal with holding the flipper up and letting it fall. Even if it goes towards the middle it’s still at a sharp enough angle to get some flipper on it

7

2 all the way for me in competition. If I’m playing for fun, I take the 5x Swamp shot because it’s so satisfying to hit. Too dangerous for competition I feel.

I’m ok with scrambling to save the ball off the center here. If you make an early enough decision about whether it’s left or right flipper, it shouldn’t be too bad, and sets you up for the next Seance shot.

9

I typically hold the flipper and do a controlled drop into the inlane…at least that works on my machine. The notion of a pass with the flipper up always leads to the ball hitting the top of the left sling and then bouncing around uncontrollably.

10

The timer stops after 2-3 seconds if you don’t hit anything. I would know because this “genius” idea occurred to me in a match recently.

11

I play a taf where holding out thing flipper isn’t consistent, however, I can always light-nudge when ball rolls down miniflipper for 2-bear lane.
Then ramps.
I’m always extra cautious about the power when starting multiball, but if you can’t shoot past the magnet for relatively easy ramps, you’re going to have bigger problems globally.

12

Hmm, are you sure? When I’ve played TAF recently and Seance starts I tend to trap up and wait for The Power to time out (30 seconds I believe). Then take a shot at the ramp (switch hit enables Power again).

I usually trap up again and don’t usually get another chance at a second shot

This would suggest that Seance timer never stops

13

Okay, I’ll test this out if I get a chance. Timing out the power is much closer to 10 seconds than 30 though. Seance itself is only 20 seconds.

14

Ah ok, my timings are certainly out, (I thought it was one minute for Seance). So yes - 20 seconds for Seance and 10 seconds to timeout The Power.

So now I’m much less confident in my assertion that the Seance timer stops… Still, like I say, with that sequence of trapping up and timing out The Power I don’t ever remember having a chance at a second shot, but if the Seance timer stops (and The Power timer doesn’t) I guess it should be possible?