Keep the ball in play as long as possible and hit whatever is flashing.

TAF: Bear kicks for me. If you can, on your machine, consistently back hand bear kicks, you can really use this to your advantage. The sweet spot of 45 kicks (lights a room), 50 kicks (extra ball), and 55 kicks (lights another room) is what I am going for every game. Once that's achieved, go for 99 kicks +. Big points. Even during multiballs, smash that bear kick. My record so far is 23 kicks in a row. It's also nice that when you light room using the kicks, they will not start until you miss a kick shot, so you can potentially start a few modes at once (the sweet one being Raise the Dead/Extra Ball/Graveyard at Max, then start the quick ball multi ball).

If I lose control of the bear kick shot, that's when I will pop a train wreck/hit the chair/hit the book case.

I love the strategy in this game. So many ways to play it, and every once in awhile you get those perfect mode stacks and the ball is flowing.

MM: Hit the lights that are flashing. Bash castle. Start multi with everything lit. Rinse, repeat.

+1

MM: Concentrate on getting the catapult, joust, peasant, troll, and damsel objectives. Try to stack as many madnesses as possible before going for madness multiball. Hit trolls enough in madness multiball to light blue troll light at center of playfield completing that objective, otherwise making thru individual troll modes is a pain to get that light lit.

Save bashing the castle for multiball rounds if you can, then pound it while the ball saver is on.

If everything works out as planned you'll have all the blue dots lit except for the Castle Crasher after all the dust has settled. Then you can pound the castle and try to get to Battle for the Kingdom. On the way to battle for the Kingdom you'll have stray balls that will go up and strike the castle to help you out, but playing in this method keeps you from the "bash castle over and over" style of play that many people complain MM is noted for, and it's allowed me to defeat the King of Payne many times.

I've also think that hitting the castle gate from the left flipper leads to many more recoverable balls than hitting the castle gate with the right flipper. Your mileage may vary.

Enjoy!

Jeff R.

My machine is set up completely different. I can barely make the bear kick ramp shot with my right flipper. I've been thinking that I should do a rebuild or check the angle of my table. It's the only issue I have with an otherwsie perfectly tuned TAF.

Making the bear kick with the left flipper is a much better option because the ball will always come back around and feed back into that same flipper. You just have to try to steer the ball away from the left inlane so you dont activate THING FLIPS. Just shoot clear of the chair and you're on that ramp every time. I'm pretty much doing the same as smokedog, just not as many in a row

Also, a good ramp/mode/ramp/mode/ramp/mode strategy will get you through the mansion pretty quick. The best I've managed so far is just under 3 tours in one game. Missed the 3rd by two rooms.

Good luck.

TAF I really play the modes more than any other machine - everyone of them, as the points in comparison to other things really makes a dif. I live for the triple jackpot.

When I've toured the mansion and completed all windows again, I then consentrate on hitting the left ramp over and over and collecting infinite 10M shots until I drain.

As for MM, my strategy is the play whatever is beside it =)

... I shouldn't say that, I don't dislike it, but I've usually lost interest by the last ball.

For TAF, it really depends on whether or not I'm playing in a competition or not. If not, then it's Ramp/chair all day. Hit the ramp to relight the chair, hit the chair to collect. A key skill is being able to post pass, as the ball loves to end up on the right flipper. It's a much safer shot backhanding the chair from the left flipper. If you look at the 3 million mansion room panel, you can line up the shot and hit it very consistently.

In competition, I will try to go for a multi. It takes a game or three to get dialed on the chair shot, and you often don't have that luxury in competition. I will start the multi, go for a jackpot, but also use a ball to try to learn the chair shot. If the chair shot seems to play nice, then I will start picking up mansion rooms.

On MM, I always super skill shot > loop pass to right flip (or try to!) Regular skill shot is pretty worthless. I then go for the first castle, since it's easy, then work towards the second castle to the point of lowering the drawbridge. Then I start going for ramps, loops, etc. to build up the multis. In non-competitive play, after I have some/all of the ramps/orbits done, I then try to beat the second castle since it lights EB, then go for EB/multi at the saucer.

Trolls always happens "naturally" - I never actually shoot for the standups, even if that's the last goal needed (castles is better). Same thing with Castle locks - I rarely aim for them unless I have only one left to go.

If I get multi early (like by accident) I go for castles since the jackpots are crap.