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Game #580 | 2-2 Rematch

Jean_de_Metz vs  HellBrick vs  Skuns453Lirik902 vs  xlnt


Match Details

Played:2017-06-17
Rating 2 - Nice Game
Amount of Humans:4
Kind of game:   PBEM
Game-value: 63
Result Player Classes Races Team Points Extra Points Missed Points Quitter Rate
1 Jean_de_MetzDreadnoughtHumans1900here
1 HellBrickArchdruidTigrans143210here
2 Skuns453Lirik902TheocratHalflings200-32here
2 xlntNecromancerTigrans2-130-30here
Posts to the game:

Reserved for a report.

user
Published on Mon, 19 Jun 2017 18:59:03 +0200

Written by xlnt
wow Jean - if you always write this kind of reports, then i'll always be ready to lose in a spectacular way (;

What i saw of this game was a reaaaaaly bad map in terms of currents and a player that capitalized on that with the fly-ing scouts. I tried to fight with shades and figured out they will always lose and i didn't do well in scouting wars - Jean was ALWAYS playing with revealed map!!! Next thing i know is some tier3 units are close to me... so i figure i have to beat them with numbers and go make the best t1 unit - necro sun guards. I was sure i will take 2 dungeons and finish the game right there!! I could have gotten the dungeons on autocombat! buuut no - Jean had them and disapeared... so i have 2 paths - go find his towns OR go down where he (i thought) can't see me. Down we go - killing some sites and making more sunguards (because i can't develop on the map, Jean's forces are nearby and faster than the sunguards). I saw a big fat kittens army and went on to fight it. The rest is history - my stupid leader died and Jean was NOT scared of the defenses i had. We talked on chat about how they have to get my capitol and i joked that they had 1 turn to do the battle or the game is over..... well it was  Great game guys - well played. Sorry i couldn't be a better opponent ):

user
Published on Mon, 19 Jun 2017 11:50:33 +0200

Written by HellBrick
I'm not sure there is a "one size fits all" solution for the drone usage. In our case sending a separate stack of drones worked out fine: IIRC, the drones were fighting one of the Sun guard stacks and successfully annihilated it more or less on their own. YMMV =)

user
Published on Mon, 19 Jun 2017 11:36:26 +0200

Written by Jean_de_Metz
I don't have screenshots of the strategic map I'm afraid. I'll check later. I had 6 towns giving me 146 RP in total <smiletext0> 
About drones...Honestly, I don't remember the details now. It was already 2 months ago.

user
Published on Mon, 19 Jun 2017 06:45:47 +0200

Written by Hiliadan
Yes but why send 5 Spy Drones when 3 can do the same job? <smiletext1> I know from experience that sending 2 Spy Drones together is like sending 1 because one of them will explode first and kill its target + the other.
But I guess it also depends on the HP of the target. If it has many HP, the chain explosions might still be useful (if the 2nd Spy Drone is not just BEHIND the first one, but did reach the target) as when the 2nd explodes because of the explosion of the 1st one, it deals damage to the target again.

But you can also have effects like a Fireball hitting 1 Spy Drone in approach phase and exploding 1-2 Spy Drones adjacent to it.

What I'm trying to study is whether it's more effective to send the Spy Drones in waves, together, or split in several stacks.

Published on Mon, 19 Jun 2017 05:46:24 +0200

Written by Skuns453Lirik902
Hiliadan, I didn't see the full fight, but for me obvious that if even one or two Spy Drones exploded adjacent to another Drone then they already fulfilled their task - to bring big damage in lines of sunguards   

user
Published on Mon, 19 Jun 2017 04:47:11 +0200

Written by Hiliadan
How many cities did you have to be able to sustain that much research and the production of expensive machines?

Also, I can see the interest of the Spy Drones vs Sun Guards but are you telling me that no Spy Drones exploded adjacent to each other? Based on my own experience, I would say you were very lucky if it didn't happen.

Would you have screenshots of the strategic map?

user
Published on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 23:28:12 +0200

Written by Jean_de_Metz
I've been planning to test dreadnought with other races but didn't have enough courage =) Indeed human dreadnought seems to be strong and comfortable to play.
I got juggernaut researched on turn 41. I had already got 2 of them by turn 49  Well, yes, I concentrated a lot on researching them and not the empire upgrades (I wanted to have all the kind of machines in my main army in order to see how they fight). 2 sphinx objects (1000 research points) helped me a lot here. 

Before attacking Xlnt I discussed possible positioning with Hellbrick. He started to test this fight in AOW3 editor and found out that all the pikemen just came out of the town and approached my units. So I didn't even have to assault the walls. And it was a good idea to send a stack of drones to the stack of pikemen coming out.

user
Published on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 17:53:10 +0200

Written by Hiliadan
Nice and interesting report! Good to see a Dread win!
Looks like Dread Human is really one of the best, probably/maybe better than Dwarf, thanks to the Evolve of its Cavalry.

I'm impressed you got Juggernaut by turn 59. How did you do? You focused research mainly on class units? You didn't research Empire Upgrades?

Indeed Advanced Logistics is very good for Dread, especially with Engineers building roads.

How did your Spy Drones do in the big fight vs xlnt? I believe a full stack of them is a bad idea as they are very likely to explode on each other. It's better to scatter them a bit among your armies (and pray they won't explode on your units, but you can at least: 1/ put some in a 4th "empty" stack, 2/ put some with mainly ranged units).

Please someone (Skuns you can too) update the race of Skuns to Halfling.

user
Published on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 15:53:08 +0200

Written by Jean_de_Metz
Prologue


(Narrated by an unknown scholar whos poetic diction and eloquence are not subject to any judgement)


I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew,

Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.



In fact, we had both of them. Yes, both. Kittens growing into cruel beasts whos beneficial mutations in the immune system led to their capability to survive, grow and reproduce in various climate conditions. Even in underground. And we had poets who perpetuated animals in our history. 

- But where are these poets now? I've never met anyone. 

- In the kittens. Some manuscripts are missing here so we can't say for sure.


Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere.


No man can kill a beast, but no beast can kill a tank. Only by the means of devastating machines could we dominate over these cruel monsters. Golems were their leaders. And so we had 2 stars shining in the same sphere. 


- You must have been really forced to do all this...

- The world went mad. Otherwise how could we explain the alliance of theocrat and necromancer? Skuns and Xlnt, two villains with no nobility and honesty, gathered together and unleashed the war against us. 


(From another ancient manuscript, partially destroyed by vinegar):


O Skuns, take heed of yonder dog!

Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,

His venom tooth will rankle to the death:

Have not to do with him, beware of him;

Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,

And all their ministers attend on him.


This friendship will only lead to yours destruction...(this is the only text survived featuring Jean and Skuns in their last conversation before the latter left to the corrupted lands of undead).

Chapter 1

Everything goes fine.


(Narrated by Jean_de_Metz).

I had a perfect map this time. Having dealt with all my roaming sites pretty quickly, I concentrated on empire building and managed to create a very powerful dreadnought economics. Using engineers to build roads, I settled a lot and was able to produce machines in different cities.
My first contact with Xlnt was near his domain which I managed to scout very well with drones.


His strategy was interesting and very efficient since he countered my possible cavalry rush and threatened a lot - we had to switch to next level scouting in order not to be caught by these elite bastards.
The funny thing was that my troops were nearby at that particular moment. While clearing the roaming sites and taverns (I bought one more human cavalry and evolved it) I moved to the center of the map and suddenly was close to Xlnt. 


And a funny idea came to my mind: could I "steal" the two dungeons near Xlnt domain clearing them? I was pretty afraid Xlnt would clean them himself and get many units as a reward (and since necromancers do not suffer a lot from low income he could later rush me with tier-1 pikemen and units from the dungeons). 
So I started to carefully come closer

After careful consideration Hellbrick suggested I should attack like this (and it was better)


So the plan worked and Xlnt was forced to retreat to his city.

But it turned out I couldn't attack him cause my mounted units would have been smashed by 2 trained stacks of pikemen with life steal. 
The only good maneuver I could make at this point was to go here, embark, disembark again (yes, hurts), take the sphinx and later attack Xlnt from another angle.


While I was performing very well on the surface my cats were struggling in the Underground. Hellbrick definitely didn't get a very good start (I didn't comment a lot on what was happening with him there cause it was me who had advised him to start in the UG xD). He was running here and there trying to deal with all his neutrals. But it was him who played the key role in this match. 


Chapter 2

Everything goes bad =)


When I left Xlnt's borders he started to move to the underground entrance.


He could choose 2 main ways where to go at this point:
1.Go straight to my domain (not sure if he knew the position of all the towns and troops there),
2.Go to the Underground (where, it seems, he wanted to go but was forced to retreat due to my activity).
Option #1 wasn't very good for me indeed cause I didn't want to lose my newly built towns. I had this stack as some defense:

But that obviously wasn't enough. I also started to produce some cannons and golems but was running out of gold very quickly.
Xlnt chose option #2, I consider it to be a right decision at that moment as the Underground under his domain was full of treasures. 

We also spotted Skuns going there too.

I was hoping our opponents lost sight of my army.


At that time Hellbrick was still fighting with his neutrals and I have to admit I made a mistake in calculations and suggested he should go and deal with them considering he had enough time to return to his big city and defend from Xlnt.

He didn't have it =)


Tigran pikemen were everywhere.

In fact, when I saw 2 powerful shrines near Xlnt's throne city I started to believe I could make it. Yes, attacking pickemen with mounted units is a bad idea but if you're buffed by 2 shrines and have a stack of drones to sacrifice...
I started to approach him.


In the underground Hellbrick got a chance to attack Xlnt in the field and, once again, after careful consideration xD and having heard my genious tactical ideas xD*2, he attacked Xlnt.

And lost


It was an awful loss which could have led to total elimination of my teammate hadn't Xlnt lost his leader in the fight =( 
And since he was in the void and I was near his capital (turned out to be a perfect timing), I decided to attack.
I had 2 main problems here:
1. I didn't want to lose buffs from the shrine but I couldn't prevent Skuns from summoning 1 chebub and attacking me removing them. He didn't do it and, I think, it was one of the biggest mistakes of our opponents.
2. I didn't want Xlnt to attack me, I wanted to attack him to get advantage from positioning my units in the way I wanted. Since we both had units with 28 mp in our armies, that was a problem. How to approach him in a way he can't reach me on his turn but at the same time being myself able to get to him on mine? I managed to do it in the following manner:

If you take a look at the screenshot you can see that 28 mp units from the center of the throne city can't reach me due to that vegetation grass hex (they have to go around). But on my turn I was able to reach the town with all my slow units due to the tree crusher ability.
So I attacked

And won. Xlnt was eliminated.

Chapter 3

Everything goes fine again


My leader went to the void and it was perfect timing for Skuns to strike but he was too far away from all the actions (and this in my opinion was another biggest mistake).
Only many turns later he came to my domain.
I'd been able to get a very strong defense by that time.
The problem was to catch his troops in the field with slow moving machines. I missplayed here, should have researched advanced logistics.

Wetlands made it even worse but I managed to solve the problem with engineers.

And was ready to attack. I positioned my troops in such a way cause it was the only option to have all 4 stacks involved in the battle (was running out of mp)
Before I show you the result I'm gonna add that at that particular moment another army of mine was approaching Skuns cities.

I decided to attack this town with 5 cadavers.

In order to force Skuns to use some CP (fireballs). And it worked.
Then I attacked

And it was pure victory


Skuns still had his leader with many troops alive but we were now 2 vs 1. Hellbrick completely recovered and was casting tier-3 animals being very close to tier-4 summon (just several turns left to research), I was producing t4. I do believe it was just a matter of time. After a certain break Skuns decided to surrender.
Thanks for the match, guys, hope the rematch is gonna be even more interesting!



Published on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 13:37:22 +0200

Written by Skuns453Lirik902
P.S. I've played Halflings, not Orcs.  Br-r-r-r <smiletext6> Boo <smiletext22> on these green faces 
P.S.S. Though I had an orc vassal and it gave to me a lot of quests for T3 rewards <smiletext23> 

Published on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 13:31:42 +0200

Confirmed by Skuns453Lirik902
Here the screenshot of our scores: Screen It looks like that I too hurried to surrender  

user
Published on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 21:47:15 +0200

Confirmed by xlnt
Confirmed by xlnt



Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100
System notification


2-2 Rematch
The game is already going on standard 2-2 settings, everyone was too slow to create it here including me xD

Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100
System notification


Information 2-2 Rematch
xlnt joined !!

Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100
System notification


Information 2-2 Rematch
Skuns453Lirik902 joined !!

Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100
System notification


Information 2-2 Rematch
HellBrick joined !!