More tactics

I've been doing some more thinking about tactics and it seems to me that the way you consider your tactics can be divided into rough categories:
Tactics based on your own abilities
As a fencer you will know your own strengths and weaknesses so will naturally favour certain approaches over others. You may be more of an attacking fencer, you may be more defensive, you may prefer stop hits or disengages etc. My tactics have changed over the last twenty years. When I was a young tyro you couldn't stop me flecheing. Fleche, fleche and if in doubt fleche again. Why? Because I could and it tended to work against the fencers I was facing at the time. Once I graduated to local competitions I discovered the joys of the flick hit and broken time and used to put them to quite good use in an attacking sense, again mostly because they were effective and a bit trendy. These days as I've slowed up a bit I tend to be.. well, let's say more tactical as I don't want to give away all my secrets, you never know who's reading!
So tactics you decide on may be influenced by your confidence in certain techniques, which could be categorised as personal tactics. I would stress that if after considering this you feel that you are strong in some areas... practice those that you don't feel strong about!
Tactics based on your opponent
If you are observing things as you should you will become aware of things that your opponent does that will influence your tactics. This could be either regarding a preferred technique or regarding the level of their ability. For instance, if your opponent is relatively inexperienced, then complicated techniques involving feints etc are unlikely to work on them because they simply won't see them and react in the correct way (i.e. the way you want them to). Or if your opponent has a very strong attack on your preparation then you will need to lure them in with a deception and then parry riposte. I suppose these tactics could be called immediate tactics
Tactics based on the fight situation
During a fight you will come across different tactical situations; you are ahead with a few minutes left, you are behind in the last minute etc. It is best to consider these situations before a fight and decide what you're going to do so you can embed a particular response into your mind without thinking about it. These can be considered strategic tactics.
Tactics based on the referee
Sometimes you may need to consider the referee in your tactics. If he is persistently not seeing your wonderful beat attack on the preparation then it's probably a good idea to try something different! There is no point in persisting with something that isn't working.

I hope this post has served to illustrate further that fencing should never really be just about getting on the piste and thrashing around. A serious fencer will constantly analyse the situation and practice tactics that will lead to success, not just during the fight but before and after it as well!