[The Dogfather]

Cog Battle Total time: 44 minutes
I previously wrote a post outlining what it takes to solo a VP or a CFO, but in soloing a CJ requires much more of a different approach. The VP and CFO each have small cogs where you can lure and keep the small ones all while killing only the larger ones. This method is the best to use because it reduces the amount of SOS cards and unites you need to use. The problem with that technique is that in the CJ, there really aren’t any small cogs, 8 being the smallest one which will still take plenty of LP each hit. You still can use this technique and it is still helpful, because lure seems to work better on a row of two 8s and two 12s than on 4 12s.

The first thing you should definitely do is be familiar with your gags. Know what cogs you can kill with one hit or two (using lure bonus and no bonus). Once you have that understanding, you then need to come prepared with plenty of TU unites. There is no limit to what you can bring, just do bring enough that makes you feel comfortable. Also, since you will not be using the method of luring and keeping the small cogs, do come prepared with plenty of SOS cards, specifically Barnacle Bessie, Flippy, and Prof. Pete.

The cog battle round went smooth with the exception of a few missed lures (as always) and stuff. I used my level 7 gags to kill off most of the first set of cogs and used the appropriate gag combos to kill plenty of the lured cogs thereafter without getting hit much. I saved my presentation for when I feel like I really needed it. After I used up my level 7 gags and most of my level 6 gags, I started using some SOS cards and TOW unites. After I started to get low in LP (down to 12), I used my presentation (which we all know lures for 15 rounds) and used my doodle to TU myself for a few rounds (LOL). He was nice enough to fill me up completely because I did take care of him before my solo, LOL. After luring and killing more cogs the cogs stopped coming out and I was so relieved, but I knew the worse part was yet to come.

Cannons Round
Out of the whole CJ, this is the round that really worried me the most. The reason is because if you are fortunate enough to get to this round, you will have used many SOS cards and TOWs by now that would require you to prepare all over again in countless VP (SOS Shopping) and CFO battles if you don’t seat enough toons in the jury.

After killing all of the cogs I noticed I had the option of choosing from one cannon. In preparing for this round, I did many CJs just to fine tune my cannon skills and I noticed that the cannon does have a “sight” that you can aim through. If you look at the cannon from the top to the right, you will see a small slant. This slant if pointed at the seat will aim the cannon directly at the seat. The only thing you will have to know how to do is adjust the cannons up and down aim.

After selecting the cannon, I waited for the timer to drop from 60 to 25 seconds before I started seating toons. During these 35 seconds I was adjusting my aim (still not seating any toons) so that when I do begin to shoot at 25 seconds I will definitely not miss. The reason I chose to shoot at 25 seconds is because it takes the cogs more than 25 seconds to retake your seat after your toon occupies one. In waiting until 25 seconds ensures that the seats you take will not get taken by cogs.

At 25 seconds I shot my first toon and seated one. I moved the cannon to the left and up a little bit and shot the second one, seating again. I continued to repeat this technique seating 3 and then 4 toons. On the last seat I shot but the toon hit the seat just before the timer ran out. My toon hit the seat just a split millisecond before the timer hit zero. Although I did see my toon take the seat, then after all the jury is shown I noticed that there was a cog sitting in that seat (ugh!!!), so I ended up with only 4 in the jury.

Boss Battle (Scale Round) Total Time: 27 minutes
Although I only seated 4 toons, I still felt comfortable because this weight of 4 (5 would have been better) is still sufficient enough to out-scale the 10 cogs. To start off I ran to get evidence from the stand and here is where I had a major choice, where do I scale from?

Scaling From Afar
Well to me, the best place to scale from far is to run to the left and scale in between the jury stand and the scale (just next to the gavel that is sitting there). So I ran to the left and stood next to the gavel scaling from afar. As I was scaling I watched the cogs to see when they begin to target me. They target you just like the VP and CFO does, and since I was alone I knew the majority of them were targeting me, the rest were targeting the scale. I paid close attention to the cogs and started thinking of the best time to jump or dodge the noticed they throw at you. I noticed that the cogs will have their evidence at hand and this is the exact time they target you. This is the best time to start dodging to the side because the evidence they throw at you will only go towards the direction when they targeted you. So if you throw evidence at the scale and move a little to the left or right, any evidence that is thrown at you after the cogs target you will miss!

I noticed that after I grabbed evidence the cogs would throw only a small amount of evidence at me, maybe like 3 or 4 while the rest went into their side of the scale. I also noticed scaling from afar I was able to throw 5 or 6 pieces of evidence before I had to move to the side and dodge the cogs evidence. As time ticked on, I began to notice that the cogs started throwing more evidence at me and less at their side of the scale. Out of the 10 cogs, 5 or 6 were now throwing evidence at me and the rest at the scale. I also noticed that the evidence came at the same speed, but what was different was the frequency at which they threw their evidence. The frequency was increased because I was beginning to only get in about 3 or 4 pieces of evidence from afar before I would have to dodge to the side. Although the cogs were throwing more evidence more often, I was still able to dodge to the side with plenty of time. I kept using this technique because it kept me from getting hit. There were times that I misjudged them targeting me and resulted in getting knocked down and getting hit by some of the gavels there.

Other than the frequency and amount of evidence thrown by the cogs, I also noticed that the CJ can be your best friend. The CJ jumps up and tries to get you thrown off by knocking you down. What is positive with him jumping is that he throws off the cogs as well (good for you and bad for the cogs). After every jump the cogs will hesitate and not throw any evidence for about 8 to 10 seconds. This is when you want to barrel down and throw in as much evidence as you can. Since I was scaling from afar, I was getting in about 6 or 7 pieces of evidence before the cogs would start throwing at me again. Then the CJ Cycle would start over until the CJ jumps again.

CJ Cycle: From the time the CJ jumps and disturbs the cogs through the time frame where he jumps again. During this time, the CJ disturbs the cogs rhythm and slows them down. As time progresses, the cogs frequency of how often they throw evidence increases until the CJ jumps up and throws them off balance again.

Scaling from up-close
Once you start to notice that the evidence you are throwing is no longer hitting your pan, its now time to move into danger of the gavels. This is the tricky part because you now are in the harms way of those notorious gavel heads (OUCH) and are much closer in distance to the cogs (less time to react). Although the same cycle continued with the cogs (how much and how often they throw evidence) I realized that I had to change my techniques to keep from getting hit.

Where I chose to scale was from the closest side to the evidence stand; the side of the scale that faces the CJ. The problem with this is that you are not able to see the 10th cog throw evidence at you, and he is the one that will hit you the most because he is the closest to you. So I decided to judge the cogs evidence accordingly and followed the same basic rules I was following when I was scaling from afar.

Since there is not much room for dodging when you are scaling up close (too many gavels), I decided the best approach would be to jump over the evidence. I noticed a major problem with jumping because the 10th cog is so close to you that his evidence reaches you much faster than the remaining cogs. If you try to time your jumps to the main 8 cogs, his evidence hits you first, and if you try to time your jumps to the 10th cog, the main 8 cogs evidence hits you. So I knew I had to change how I dodged the cogs evidence.

I then started trying the dodge method and incorporate a jump to skip all of the cogs evidence and this seemed to work well. I would throw evidence just near the gavels and when I noticed the cogs targeting me, I would move up closer to the scale (this would make the 9th and10th cogs evidence miss me) then I would jump over the remaining evidence and hit the scale some more. Then the cogs would target me and I would move back and again the evidence would miss. By doing this i was able to get more evidence in and my scale cycle was more effective. This is basically a my good old "Stick and Move, Stick and Move" method.

Scale Cycle: One full round from the time to get evidence, to unloading, to going back to the stand and getting more evidence.


As I was scaling I tried to time when I would go and get evidence with when the CJ jumps. I wanted to reach the scale just after the CJ lands. As the CJ jumps and disturbs the cogs, I noticed that I was able to get in about 9 or 10 pieces of evidence, sometimes even 11 pieces before I had to dodge and jump the cogs evidence. Again, out of the 10 cogs, only 3 or 4 pieces of evidence were directed at me, while the remaining ones went to their side of the scale. As time ticked, the number of evidence that was thrown at me increased as well as the frequency at which they throw evidence. I noticed I was only able to get in about 4 or 5 pieces of evidence before I had to dodge and jump again. The CJ would jump again allowing me to barrel down on the scale and the whole CJ cycle would start all over again.

Unites and SOS Cards used for entire solo:
3 GU Throw
3 GU Lure
1 GU Squirt
1 GU All

4 TU Max
1 TU 80
4 TU 40
2 TU 20

4 Bessie
1 Franz
2 Flippy
2 Lil Ol Man
1 Prof. Pete

Never stunned a single cog during my entire time in the CJ! Always keep this in mind, stunning does not matter, scaling does!

This was surely a fun experience!!!

****A side note. The last SS where I am dancing is of different size because for some reason the final SS were not found with the rest so I had to extract it from the video I recorded.****










The Dogfather