Oh god, it’s…learning. We’re doomed.
-Tom
One of the things I learned was that I did not have the strongest performance in this initial round.
The player who had the best combined economic/military performance was Otagan. Otthegreat and myself were second, although Ot got his attack going earlier. So if I were to rank the threat level of players based on this first round, it would be like this:
Very Large Threat: Otagan
Large Threat: Otthegreat
Slightly Less Large Threat: Sharpe
Honorable Mention: Tom & Kelan for tenacity and adaptiveness
TBNL: Richard & Jason (2nd half of file was corrupted)
(This type of discussion is one reason I love tournements like this - you can always make So Many Lists!)
Honest question. Do I belong in this tournament? If this is slow-paced RTS, I’m thinking I shouldn’t be playing RTS. I don’t mind being the whipping boy, but if you’d all rather have better competition, I wouldn’t mind dropping out.
Honest answer: yes. You actually did fine in your early development but you faced the earliest threat of anyone in this round. Ot had a fast start and went on the offensive earlier than any other player in this first round. Your game may have seemed super-fast b/c of Ot’s early aggro. Take a look at the game between Otagan and Legowarrior and my game vs. Sadley to see different openings. The games are not always going to be as fast and aggressive as the game you played. The majority of these games were decided at the mid-levels tech wise, some of them going all the way to the late game.
Take a look at the replays both to get some ideas and also to see your game in context. You did fine, considering Ot’s vicious aggro. That damn Ot!
Thanks. I’ll try to check out the replays. I’ll also try to practice some, but I’m pretty obsessed with Battle Brothers right now.
Thanks for the assessment. @otthegreat did apologize for absolutely wrecking me, so he was polite about it.
I’m also not good, but it’s fun to play with people!
Seeing no objections, I just incremented the bracket. Round 2 pairings are now up. The deadline for this round will still be midnight GMT on Sunday, January 14, just with the matchups announced early.
Ah snap, I have to face Otagan this round.
I think you’re in fine company here. There seems to be a wide mix of skills and experience considering the relatively small player pool.
I can’t talk with any authority about Rise of Nations, but I don’t think it’s a particularly slow paced RTS. There’s constantly things to be doing and fussing over. The games can take a while to play just because the units take a long time to cross the map, may suffer attrition, and early units damage output vs buildings makes town centers hard to kill quickly.
@Jason_McMaster Did you look if the second half replay from our game is corrupt on your machine?
I emailed it to the email address in the first post
That one actually loads, which is a slight improvement, but I’m assuming there was not a period of about 10 minutes with neither player doing anything, so it’s still glitched.
I’ll include the updated version in the final pack since it at least doesn’t crash the game when you load it, but it doesn’t actually work. A shame, but nothing can be done about it.
To be honest, I got a call asking if I wanted to go skiing a little way into the game, so I decided to see if I could push for an early win. I don’t usually like to play that way, mostly because I don’t find it nearly as fun. Seeing as how successful it was, however…
I haven’t had a chance to watch the replays yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
So Otagan and I played our second round game today. It was a hard fought game but Otagan won: he attacked first, kept up the pressure and although I rebounded several times, I was never able to damage his economy. I think that replay might be worth a look.
It was extremely well fought. A bit of early raiding was effective, but the follow-up attack failed to accomplish enough in my eyes to be worthwhile given how much I expended in troops and military research for only a small amount of direct economic damage. I didn’t realize how much disruption I had caused via forcing civilians to garrison for extended periods of time, though. A follow-up attack of Turkish janissaries and bombard cannons was enough to knock out Sharpe’s military production, but it was still tenaciously fought until the end. Excellent game.
I’ve been trying different factions out and it’s reminding of why I think this is such a good game design: the factions are partially asymmetrical and yet more or less balanced. As I play each faction, I end up thinking “Wow, that faction can do some cool stuff.” For example, until my recent game with Otagan, I did not appreciate how useful the Turkish free siege upgrades are: they can invest in a ton of siege and then age up two or three times without spending resources. Otagan’s Bombard Cannons (which had started out as Trebuchets IIRC) blasted the poop out of me.
I love this game. I really wish the rerelease had caught on. :-(
I am so prepared for this round!
I will be satisfied if I manage to win even one game. Actually, that isn’t true. When this started I said I would be satisfied if I at least made a decent showing and stayed close in progression, and I believe I sort of already did that in match #1.
I was hoping to get more practice in, but have just been too busy. I am really enjoying the game again, though!
You don’t know what I’m prepared for though. I could be prepared to lose!