There's not enough time nor room to maneuver the party strategically... you can't even run back up the stair because your teammate is blocking it, all the while thinking "My team needs me now!" When entering a new level in the Cats and Caves, the warrior should go down first (you don't want the mage to do this, think Hiddens). He may even walk around a couple of squares (be careful not to wander into the line of sight of other corridors) if there are no monsters next to the stair just to reveal any Hidden type monsters. The warrior may give the signal for the rest of the party to come down once he deems it safe. If there are monsters setup next to the stair, go back up right away - This is to avoid activating more monsters and not giving the monsters a chance to move in closer to the stair. If you ignore these tips, at least pay attention to the speed the levels loads for each player. Let the mage go down last (and wait a bit if his computer loads the levels much faster) to avoid the chance of him facing Hidden type monsters alone.

In certain situations such as going down to level 6 (where there is no second entry point unless you want to fight your way back up from lvl 9. Besides, you wouldn’t have the required Clvl to enter other sections from town) and get swarmed right away, you may not be able, or be wise to escape back up the stair. The advice here is to always have TP as a readied spell when going down the Cats/Caves as a scout. In that case you should cast a Town Portal as far away from the stair as possible. The TP serves as an alternate entry point in case you die at the stair. But more importantly, you want to stay alive and try to escape via the TP thus giving the party enough time to react when coming down the stair. Also take note of the nearest wall from your entry point, the team can then gather there to make a Wall formation if it is not packed with monsters in between.

For checking new doors in the cats, switch to the Mage Shotgun formation. Mage checks door and cast Fire Wall as he sees fit. The mage can also cast Fire Wall into a door-less room without being seen - same as in the Deathspit and Chaoshowler section.

Use TPKill in Caves when encountering range attackers across an impassable (long way from opening) lava stream when there’s no way around it.

Mage with Holy Bolt staff may want to use up the charges by the end of the Catacombs since HB is totally useless upon entering the Caves, except against Diablo of course. You’ll probably need to make room for new finds anyway. With a HB flinging mage, the battle formation can be tighten up a bit by having the mage walk directly behind the warrior. Also, it will free the warrior from having to change from sword to blunt weapon. The others should try to leave all the undead for the mage with a HB stick because it is quite difficult to level him after the Churches without major mana consumption, (especially without Fwall spell) and because doing melee beside the warrior begins to make less sense due to the mage’s low Tohit. Make exception if you plan to make it to Diablo and you don’t have the Holybolt spell.

Catwalk Formation
A normal walking formation for corridor with enough room for 3 - This is almost a reverse of the SNIPER formation. The lack of good battle formation is also a major problem in the Cats. Most corridors are simply too narrow to have any formation at all. If the other 2 fall behind the warrior as they walk, he pretty well has to work alone since the rogue and mage don't have enough room for a "safe" firing angle.

The mage and rogue walks a few steps behind the warrior while the warrior hugs the outer wall. When monsters are activated they will be lured to the warrior/outer wall, exposing them to the rogue and mage's fire. If not a swarm situation the warrior can then move down (west) one tile, mage move up and whack beside the warrior. By hugging the outer wall you will actually activates even less monsters if moving one tile at a time like a good golem should. Some monsters will be activated 3-4 steps before the warrior steps into the hall; stop advancing or retreat a step to wait for the monsters to come to you. Otoh, if the warrior hugs the inside wall as he advances, he will have to be closer to the explored corridor before he sees any monsters, and he will have activated most of them by then.

This formation gives the warrior some room to retreat without going behind his partners and therefore exposing them to monster attacks. The BOW rogue should stay put a few steps behind, no need for her to get mixed up in the crowd adding to the confusion and pin cushion her partners when they need to retreat.

Hiddens and getting swarmed
Protect your jujuman! Stay close to him, you could have walked by a bunch of Hiddens and not see them, then they would appear out of nowhere and ambush the mage. The Hidden type monsters (Hiddens, Stalkers, Unseen and Illusion Weavers) are probably your worst enemies in an Ironman game in the way that the team can get swarmed unexpectedly, and not due to any flaw of their tactic. If the mage gets singled out by Hiddens the chance of a mage’s survival is not good… it would be costly even if the mage manages to stay alive. The mage should cast Mana Shield if the spell is available, and stay close to your partners. The following tactic deals with all situations when swarmed by melee monsters. Think battle formation!

Sometimes the party just has to dig in and fight, for it is not always possible for the party to retreat. As soon as the party senses a swarm situation they should signal for battle formation. Three formations are presented here; they are the “WALL”, “CORNER” and “SNIPER”

Deathspit and Chaoshowler
These two spitters are really not as scary and tough as they would have you believe, that is, unless you have the misfortune of opening a door when the horde is right on the other side and attack you before you realize what hit you. If you see Acid Beasts (Boss = Deathspit) on Dlvl6 and Poison Spitters (Boss = Chaoshowler) on Dlvl 8, be extra careful when you see a Boss-light over the wall.

If the party is lucky enough to have found any Magic resist items, it’s a good time to let the mage borrow it for this task. Use the standard Mage Shotgun formation mage open door, Firewall, close door. Be quick about it, don’t let one off them jam the door. The warrior and rogue should be positioned one on each side of the door just in case the door is jammed. In that case, the mage should run for cover because he will be the target for the spits. He needs only to take a few side steps to get out of the angle of attack (the door blocks mostly all spits), just go straight behind the warrior or rogue while they whack at them one at a time. After the mage regains his composure, he can cast more Firewalls using the casting-into-opened-room technique to help out. Just make sure you don’t fry your partners in the process.

Unlike their nasty cousin Plaguewrath, Deathspit and Chaoshowler are actually nice little puppies. They just want to protect their territory like all good dogs do. Advance slowly when you are expecting them; don’t invade their privacy. If the party came upon these hordes in an open area...

DON’T PANIC! Calmly step back one of two squares, they won’t chase you if you don’t run and their limited-range spits won’t reach you. The easiest way to take them out is to cast Firewalls on them but Lightning and Firebolt does a nice job too. The rogue can also help out with a bow here. The important thing to remember is - when you retreat, don’t turn corners (if you can help it) they will only chase you until you run into a dead end. Simply take a step back. Btw, they do not move when attacked, so take your time and enjoy the campfire while they bake.

If other monsters accompany the Spitter horde and if you know the party can handle the monsters minus the Spitter horde, then just dig in and fight where you stand. Fall into the Wall formation as if there’s a wall behind you. Set a few Fire Walls into the Spitter horde as well as a couple more in front of the party for melee monsters.

Roomful of archers
How to kill a small room full of archers that won't chase -

This will require a coordinated team effort. The team should rush the room together, agreeing before hand (for example) the warrior would go in first and takes the right side of the room, then the rogue and takes the left side of the room. The mage should go in last and position himself 2 steps form the doorway (don't block the door) and take out the center column. This should effectively split the arrows between the warrior and the rogue reducing damages and the chance of stun/block-locking the warrior, and the archers would ignore the mage as a target altogether. The mage may also position himself a Knight’s Move behind the warrior and use CB safely.

Use the same tactics with a large room of skeleton archers. The different here is the warrior and rogue need not get too close to the horde, they are mainly acting as shields for the mage while he fires off quick successions of Holy Bolts (or Firebolts if HB is not known). The warrior need only get close enough for the mage to see the skels. The warrior can then stand still if he has enough Dex to block or use happy feet to dodge the arrows. The mage should try to walk behind and off to the side of the warrior to avoid strayed arrows. The rogue has two options here - Use a shield and take up position a bit away from the warrior to split up the arrows, or walk beside the mage (behind the warrior) and attack with her bow.

See also: Charged Bolt on Knight’s Move, TPKill2 - Hit and Run.