So far in the beta I've really focused on the Sylvans as they held my interest the most of the 3 races. However this game involves The Accursed (Pitt) vs. Dark Elves (angel) which were both chosen. The map is Forest of Colors, a 4 player map involving walls with a narrow choke point surrounding each main. Expanding beyond the walls of your main carries great risk but also great reward as the resources within the main are few. Failing to invest in an expanded network invites assured destruction while doing so forces you to defend a highly strung out aether tower network.

Pitt starts at 1 o'clock and went with a power opening, quickly claiming all aether pools within his main and making a move for the expansion pools toward the center before making his first blightstone. I chose a more conservative opening, knowing the tendency of beta testers towards heavy infantry rushes, claiming the pools within my main at 5 o'clock with 4 towers and then building my workshop. During this time both Pitt and I scouted counterclockwise passing each other around 9 o'clock on the way to each other's mains. For choke defense I went with 2 spike traps and a gremlin turret while making carvers from my workshop. Pitt chose a similar defense of slashers at forward blightstones (for regenerating health, much like shield batteries in Starcraft) with scattered caustic ooze traps. The only action at this point was my choke defense quickly slaughtering a scout zombie.

Knowing that such a defense would hold easily against a carver rush, I quickly teched for warlocks for their dreaded shrapmetal spell by producing an arikon mine after getting 100 ikon for engage. This spell works well against most everything (much like psi storm) and, since I was expecting many slashers due to The Accursed's ability to quickly produce low-tech troops, it seemed a prudent choice. I also created a Moag Pens in order to produce the feared moag raider, a counter for basic infantry involving combining a carver and a moag, which requires only aether to produce and research. Additionally, many Accursed players tend to power skeletal slashers and spectral archers while teching to more powerful units and I intended to have the capability to produce moags, strike troops that counter such ranged units, to effectively eliminate them. Review of the replay revealed that Pitt chose to mass many slashers while getting a Strifeshadow Node in order to research necromantic binding to increase the effectiveness of his minions by allowing them to rise and fight again roughly half the time.

I finally have my first warlock and I feel comfortable enough to expand to the center, which I defend with another turret and a small group of carvers and a moag. At this point, I decide to provide some cover for my expansion and pressure Pitt by taking 5 carvers around to the right side and see if any towers are vulnerable. Finding the right flank sufficiently defended by slashers, I swing around to the left side and find a blightstone warping. I quickly attack it and force Pitt to cancel, after which I retreat back to my now expanded network. These actions are summarized in the graphic below.

1. Our forces rush towards each other while a dame casts agony on his bunched up slashers.
2. A warlock searches for another good position to cast another shrapmetal while carvers and warlocks battle.
3. Another shrapmetal is cast while slasher reinforcements being produced from 4 blightstones stream in from the north.
4. Pitt's first dire changeling quickly changes the tides of the battle, killing a pair of carvers before I could react.
5. The offensive eventually grinds to a halt on both sides and I retreat my remaining carvers and warlocks, while claiming the mine and expansion towers at the valley to my left (6 o'clock).

Pitt makes a claim for the 2 central mines which I see with an aether tower and decide to make a pair of turrets to pound on the mines and zombies from a safe distance.

This setback leads Pitt to engage once again with slashers and archers, as well as the dire changeling from before. I now am ahead slightly in aether income and have 2 mines bringing in ikon and have spent these resources on many archers as well as a pair of grenadiers, whose incendiary splash damage is ideal for taking out archers. Check it out below:

1. Pitt attacks my forward turrets that crushed his attempt to claim the central mines earlier.
2. My archers and a raider move north into a better position to protect my aether network, while warlocks ready shrapmetal to be launched on unsuspecting foes.
3. A pair of spectral archers are caught up in a whirlwind of metal while an aether tower is pummeled by some slashers.
4. The tower finally falls while archers continue to rain down fire upon the slashers as my grenadiers slowly approach the battle from the south.
5. The dire changeling kills a carver while my warlock unleashes another shrapmetal.
6. A raider and a marksman finish off the infantry killer while a carver watches closely, ready to engage any newly produced slashers.
7. A grenadier decimates a slasher, but lights up my own warlock a bit too. Along with many marksmen and warlocks, my forces push through the center, destroying blighstones and Pitt calls "good game".

Good game Pitt. I was outresourced aether-wise pretty badly initially, but my tech units paid off in the end and were able to turn the battle in my favor as I caught up in expanding to the center. It could have gone either way if you had gotten bone juggernauts to siege my middle expansion as they have horrendous range and could have destroyed my static turrets.