Okay, so I was playing with my friends yesterday and we got into a bit of a heated discussion because they, in my mind, forced an outnumbered fight instead of allowing the enemy team to choose between fighting with baron gnawing on them or a turret blasting them. I made a picture afterwards to discuss it in more detail, and it dawned on me that there isn't any strategic threads on the LoL forum for BBF thusfar, so I figured I'd start one.

Now, this situation I was referencing from yesterday centers around forcing the enemy team into making a decision on forcing a fight at baron, or chasing to a turret and having a go there.

I was bot lane farming (as AD Carry's are meant to do) and the rest of my team was in our jung, near blue buff. They had just ward swept baron, so the enemy team knew where they were, and, by virtue of minion LoS, knew where I was too, so they knew they had a numbers advantage. We had wards in baron's river, so we saw the whole enemy team coming, but they made a mistake... they split. Their support and AD carry went below blue buff, and the other three went above. Now, my team, in my mind, should have retreated west from blue buff to the top lane second turret, thereby forcing the enemy team to fight all of us (as I had ghosted and was on my way back up) either under our turret or at baron, since that was their goal in engaging (push us back and get baron). Instead, my team sat in a group in the blue buff bush and tried to initiate a 4v5 fight, then bitched at me for farming on bot.

It was one of those moments where I am reminded of why I joined BBF and how happy I am to be a part of a team. Anyway, afterward, my friend Paul and I talked for like 30 minutes about why our team forcing a fight was a mistake. I finally convinced him of the merits of my line of thinking. Consider the pic and tell me what you guys think. I am of the opinion that allowing the enemy to start baron or try to fight under a turret is a much better scenario than standing your ground and having a fight in jungle. What do you guys think?

"It was one of those moments where I am reminded of why I joined BBF and how happy I am to be a part of a team."
This. It's frustrating when I go 12/3/15 and still can't win. Being with BBF allows for communication with teammates, and, for the most part, you're not playing with eggheads. :P
But enough gushing about the clan

I would say that in the situaion you were in, your team should have jumped the AD and Support, which would have left the other team at a 4v3. Adding to the fact that you could have potentially cut off any runners, and it's not a bad situation.

All in all, even if the 4v5 wasn't avoidable, sometimes lanes just need to be farmed so you don't lose tower. If they knew they would have had to fight 4v5, they should have retreated to a tower to do it.

So we just had a game where we were pushed back into our base with 1 inhib down, 2 exposed, all turrets dead (but the nexus turrets). I says to the team "Don't fight outside the base, if they take our other inhibs we can't stop them, we need to fight at our last two turrets." It's what I affectionately call Alamo Mode. Anyway, the enemy came in, started attacking our south inhib and 2 people went out to... I don't know what, help them? Anyway, needless to say, they got jumped, and killed and it was a 3v5 under our nexus turrets. No chance.

So, I figured I'd come on here and reiterate the purpose of Alamo Mode. If the enemy team comes in and you have no inhib turrets left, give up the inhibs. They are not worth dying for because a death at that point pretty much assures the other team of a win. I have lost count of the number of times I've come back from being pushed all the way back to the nexus turrets, the enemy team gets cocky, takes out all the inhibs and force a fight under the nexus turrets. It's a much wider open area than ANYWHERE else on the map, so it makes it easier to get to their carries. If you can turn the tables and get an ace at that point, you can do damage to their base, potentially win the game.

Also, this highlights the need for people to step back and listen to the guy calling the shots. Granted, this was just a practice clan pug, but if someone steps in and takes a leadership role, I find it's good to put your trust in them. Win or Lose, at least you are moving as a cohesive unit, which is the name of the game of LoL.

Fighting under their turret is something that should be avoided at all costs. You try to siege an enemy tower, on the other hand, if you're ahead by having your AD carry get free shots at it as your team pokes at the other team so they either have to leave that tower and give it away or force an initiative of a fight that they should be too weak to succeed in.

That's sort of what I observe on the streams I watch, for the most part, if that makes any sense.

So reading that great article Asaph posted on my LoL 101 thread, I started doing some thinking and watched a couple replays with me as AD Carry, and it donned on me that there is a single area that is being overlooked when we play. I build my AD Carries around Armor Pen, Survivability, and Tons of Crit Damage. 33% on runes, 10% on masteries, and that nasty IE, puts me at 293% additional crit damage. That's where the 2700 headshot from Cait comes from. But, as I watched replays, I realized my damage on turrets was laughable. I don't build my AD Carries to be turret mashers and that's when lightning struck my brain.

I once played a Karthus with no boots, all mana runes+masteries, 4 archangels, a Rabid Deathhat, and a Lich Bane. When I finally got my Archangel full, I literally 3-shot turrets. 1200 or so AP with a procced Lichbane is stupid powerful. I do LB on Gragas and Lux too, and I remember proccing it before blasting a building and the damage is INSANE. So it got me thinking tonight about AP Mid and how to maximize teamwork.

Since my AD Carry is a WTFBBQDPS on champions, but kind of laughable on turret damage, I propose that the AP Mid work in a Lich Bane and then when we are in a position to push a turret, I (or the AD Carry at the time) peel off to another lane to clean/push while the AP Mid procs their LB and just lays waste to the turret. In this way, I (the AD Carry) is able to free farm more (and we all know how I feel about AD Carries and their farming) and effectively split push, while the main 4-some is able to take down turrets damn fast. If the enemy responds to me split pushing, I simply haul ass out of there (or get caught and die), but the 4-some pushing the other lane potentially could take down another building objective. If the enemy chooses to stop the 4-some, free farming for the AD Carry = win in teamfights.

We were in a game tonight where I wanted to farm more even though I was at 300+ cs, and a couple folks were like "come on, let's push to win". I didn't feel I was ready (primarily because I screwed up my build order and felt dirty and slow), but I went along anyway. We rolled them and won the game, but afterwards I was talking to one of my brothers-in-law (I have like 5), and I was saying "What if the enemy team did stall us? I would have sacrificed free farm to try to push to win, only to be stymied", and it got me thinking about the Lichbane/AP Mid and free farming AD Carry. If the others are able to successfully push objectives (mind you this DOES NOT equate to fighting enemy teams), I strongly feel it's in the best interest of the team for the AD Carry to go minion hunting.