"Always trying to improve, but still sucking"
-YourRoleModel
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| Two StrifeShadow Games...and Other Stuff ;) | | | Author: | | | IP: | AC96BF9FXXXX | | Date: | 05/20/01 10:05 | | Game Type: | Strifeshadow | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 4, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for xld.aldogrez: 8.8276 |  |
Hi. Before you get all excited and think this is the big ffa I'm releasing later, it's not. I recently recieved StrifeShadow Beta, and after playing a few good games, I figured I'd put together a report before I left for the summer.
This report is 4.732 Megabytes, yes, I have a 56K too, deal with it.
This report contains two SS games, I was originally planning to do more, but writing up games was harder than I remembered, and I might try to get another report out by the time I leave, we'll have to see ;[. The first game was played between Kosher_Man and I, and was a really well played game by both of us. The second game is a game I played against YourRoleModel, well played by both of us until I was contained =[.
Now before I get into the games, I just want to give my bit on SS. The first two games I played I thought that all the races had basically the same units, except they looked different and had different names. After I played a few more games I learned that the units had different costs along with different hitpoints, attack rate, damage dealt and so on. Overall, it's a great game created by people who are still making changes to make it even greater, and I think once all the bugs are worked out, more eye candy is added and it's optimized it will sell a lot of copies. Now onto the games.
 The first game with kosh was played on DeathValley, what I believe is a 128x128 map. The map is fairly open, and contains a lot of Aether Pools. When you start out on the map a cliff is either below you if you're at the top position, or above you at the bottom position, making two chokes. I chose the Dark Elves and began as blue at the bottom right position. kosh randomed to Dark Elves as brown and started at the position opposite me.
As soon as the game began I immediately pressed P to select an idle worker. I then hit Z and Q, the hotkeys to basic buildings and Aether Towers.
Aether Towers are placed near Aether Pools, and are the game's basic monetary unit, if you want to call it that =/. Once the Towers are constructed they begin to send the aether to the Town Hall. Towers can also connect other Towers further away from the Town Hall to the Town Hall, making no early expansion Town Halls necessary. In other words one Tower ten pixels away from the Town Hall would not be able to send at all, so you would build another Tower halfway in between the first Tower and the Town Hall to be able to channel the Aether from the Tower ten pixels away to the Town Hall, there =].
I made three towers with my first three Kobolds (Dark Elve's peon), and after my first tower was completed, I send it to scout. I have to wait until it's completed because Kobolds build all their buildings, unlike Sylvans and The Accursed, who can warp them in.
 My Kobold doesn't take much time finding Kosh, as there is only one other starting position. I see our builds are basically identical, but Kosh had started his towers before me, I blame my lag =[. Before the game Kosh had been telling me his DE vs. DE strat, which was beginning a Mine after his workshop, setting it to 75% Arikon, and make carvers/warlocks. A mine contains Ikon and Arikon, another type of resource, and they can be set up to 75%/25% of Ikon/Arikon, 25%/75% of Ikon/Arikon, or 100% of one and 0% of the other. Ikon is needed mostly for upper level fighting units, while Arikon is used almost exclusively for spellcasters.
Kosh is up to six towers, and after hiding behind a tree I see a Gremlin Workshop building. The Gremlin Workshop is the basic unit producing building, and without any other buildings it can produce the lowest level of fighting units, the Carver, a melee unit. I start my own Workshop when Kosh's is about 1/4 of the way done, again because my towers were started later.
Later looking at the replay I see that once Kosh's Workshop completed he waited a bit before making a Carver, giving me time to catch up.
Now after our Workshops are completed our builds diverge. He builds an early Mine to get warlocks faster, and I decide to power a bit harder, and make two more towers before constructing a mine. We both upgrade our Workshops at the same time. The Workshops start out with the capacity to build only one unit at a time, but when upgraded two can be produced at the same time, and if you dual upgrade after the first upgrade you can produce up to three at a time.
 I take another look up at kosh's base and see a Conclave, the building used to make spellcasters for the Dark Elves.
I continue expanding my network of Towers as well as making as constant amount of Carvers as I can. I set my Mine for 75% Ikon and only 25% Arikon, since after playing and losing to Blank DE vs DE I learned Grenadiers simply own mass Carvers, even if they're backed by warlocks.
After I collect enough Ikon I construct a Gremlin Furnace, which allows production of Grenadiers from the Gremlin Workshop. Grenadiers are the Dark Elve's land siege unit, and they basically own everything that doesn't fly. I continue my Tower network northward, and construct a Gremlin Turret to protect some of the more vulnerable towers. A Gremlin Turret is the Dark Elve's static defense, and is also helpful to distract units from attacking my Towers until I can get units up there to back it up.
Around the time when I have twelve Carvers kosh attacks the northernmost portion of my base, where I'd just finished constructing the Turret. The Turret distracts his forces long enough for me to send my Carvers up to deal with them. My forces meet up with Kosh's, and after a few have already been killed by the Turret, my Carvers don't have too much of a problem. My first grenadier comes onto the scene during this battle, and I manage to kill both of Kosh's Warlocks after dodging two castings of Shrapmetal. Shrapmetal is a spell cast over a clump of units that harms every unit that's under it. I also manage to kill all his Carvers with the loss of only a handful of my own Carvers.
I send my six Carvers remaining from the battle up to Kosh's base to counterattack. They quickly take down one of Kosh's Towers, but I leave them on the attack command and don't pay attention to what they're attacking, as I'm extending my Tower network out westward. This quickly ends my attack, as Kosh brings a Warlock over and casts Shrapmetal over all six of my Carvers, then engaging my weakened units with his own. I manage to survive with one Carver remaining, but it's soon downed by a fresh batch of Carvers from Kosh's Workshop.
![[BobtheNewt] br.comers, i can count their sum iq on one hand<br />
[ProtectorofAiur] 7 fingered freak](users/endsp2/ss1/13secondworkshop.jpg) My Tower network now takes up the bottom third of the map, and with all the Aether, I add another Gremlin Workshop. As soon as my second Workshop is done, I quickly upgrade it and begin production. My other Workshop is at full production, and soon I gather eight Carvers and send them up near Kosh's base. I also send four Grenadiers up there, but one gets stuck in between trees, while the other three stop halfway to Kosh's base. After I find them and resend them to join my Carvers I attack the left side.
I think kosh had a little more Carvers than I did, but the range and power of my Grenadiers evened that out. Unfortunately for me kosh casts a nice Shrapmetal storm near the back of my units, hitting most of mine and hardly any of his. The spell weakens my Carvers significantly, and even the added firepower of my Grenadiers doesn't help me win the battle.
During the battle I catch a glimpse of a Manowar. The Manowar is the Dark Elve's transport, summoned by a Cabalist, which are made from the Dark Elven Conclave. The Cabalist also summons other air units, and suddenly i realize I have no anti-air. I begin a Stockhouse near my Town Hall, which is the building required for the production of Marksmen, the Dark Elve's ranged ground unit, which can also attack air.
If figure I'm doing pretty well now and have a fair chance of winning the game. Unfortunately I get disconnected as my last Grenadier surviving from that last attack is breaking up a clump of enemy Carvers.
After the game Kosh also told me he was planning to research Chaos Pockets, cast by the Manowar, which freezes one unit for a period of time, to counter my Grenadiers.
 Now since you know the basics of the game, I'll go onto Game II. This was played between KasparOwnzHasek aka YourRoleModel and I. YRM makes on the map Lava Crossing, a 128x96 map with not a whole lot of Aether Pools, but enough to last a thirty minute game with. The two starting positions are at the far east and far west of the map and are on plateaus. There are two entrances into each base, and the center of the map is a strip of land between two lava rivers.
I once again select Dark Elves, while YRM *I think* selected The Accursed. If not he randomed to them but anyways, he starts in the west position as blue, whereas I begin at the eastern position as...yes, hot pink, everyone's favorite StrifeShadow color.
We both build up to five Towers, then begin on our respective production centers, YRM beginning his just a bit sooner than mine. YRM's Tower placement is much better than my own, as I'm sure he knew the map better since he designed it himself ;-). Depending on how close the Towers are to the Town Hall or other Towers, the Towers have a transfer effeciency percentage. You want as high as you can get, and generally if it's below 70% it's not worth spending 250 Aether on.
 As soon as my Workshop comes online I make a Carver as well as upgrading so I can produce two. YRM does the same, producing a Slasher out of his Blightstone, the main unit producing building for the Accursed. YRM also begins another Blightstone, because unlike Gremlin Workshops the most a Blightstone can produce is one unit. For this reason Blightstones aren't as expensive as Workshops, but they take the same amount of time to make. After our unit production centers are complete we both make mines, also both setting to 75% Ikon and 25% Arikon.
I rally my Carvers to my southernmost tower, which is then right next to my choke. This leaves my top choke uncovered, and YRM will soon use this to his advantage.
When YRM gathers four Slashers he sends one up to my northern choke, and keeps the other three near my southern choke. He orders the Slasher at my northern choke to attack, and after thinking there must be more behind it, I send up all three of my Carvers.
YRM now decides it's time to send in his other three Slashers. They begin attacking one of my towers connecting two other towers to my Town Hall. If he manages to take down that Tower, I'll be forced to wait until I get another Tower up in its spot before I can resume intake from the other two Towers.
I have two Carvers standing at my rally point that I didn't send up to my north choke, so I send them in to attack the three Slashers attacking my Tower until reinforcements arrive. YRM has specifically targetted the tower however, and my two Carvers take free hits at his Slashers, killing them as my three Carvers that killed the lone Slasher join up with two more fresh Carvers from my Workshop. This brings my total to seven Carvers, and I send them out to YRM's base to counter.
I'm forced to call them back almost as soon as I send them out though, as YRM sends two more Slashers to my northern choke. Two of my seven Carvers continue to YRM's base though, and begin attacking one of his towers connected to three pools. At the same time, having learned nothing from the previous attack, I send all five of my Carvers up to deal with the two of YRM's Slashers. I get rid of them quickly enough, and then send them back down to deal with the other two Slashers YRM sent to my southern choke. Before the second attack I'd constructed a Gremlin Turret to protect my Towers, and that keeps the Slashers occupied until my Carvers can get down there.
After all that's over I send my other five Carvers to help the other two. The original two Carvers managed to take down that tower, and now they begin attacking a group of four Slashers YRM sent down to help defend his base. My other five Carvers arrive soon enough, and after walking across a few nicely placed Caustic Ooze Traps, three join the other two in fighting the Slashers, while the other two engage a Bone Spur Trap.
Traps are just what they sound like, with each race having three different types. The first level is one you can place before you even build a fighting units production center, the second is after you produce that center, and the third is somewhere else ;-). YRM had just placed three Caustic Ooze Traps, the first level with two attacks, and the Bone Spur was the third level Trap, with the purpose being to be an obstacle. Traps are set by worker units, and can only be disabled by worker units without being set off. In other words if I'd brought a Kobold along with me to disable the traps I would have faired better than I did.
The units duke it out for a while, and when I get down to two Carvers left, instead of continuing to attack the Slashers, I instead order them to attack a Zombie Thrall (Accursed worker unit) constructing another Caustic Ooze Trap. This gives the Slashers free hits on my Carvers, and basically gives YRM the small edge that wins the battle for him.
My Carvers somehow find their way up to YRM's northern choke, and there they meet a Babbling Inferno, the Accursed's static defense building. Combined with another Caustic Ooze Trap and a few Slashers that soon arrive on the scene, my Carvers don't deal too much damage.
I go ahead and start construction on a Stockhouse and begin producing Marksmen to help combat both YRM's Spectral Archers, the Accursed's ranged units, which helped finish off my Carvers, and to help against Dire Changelings, a short range artillery unit that deals insane damage to Carvers, and melee units in general.
We both take a brief break from the fighting to mass our forces and tech a bit, myself going for Grenadiers to help against YRM's Slashers. After a little wait I send another Carver and Marksman at YRM to see how much damage I can do and to see if I can scout out any tech buildings.
 They meet up with three Spectral Archers and one Slasher, and after killing the Slasher my forces continue on to attack the Archers, at which point YRM retreats them.
In my opinion this is where I lose the game. YRM only has a slight lead in resources over me, but I do not try to expand my Tower network or build another Mine to increase Grenadier production. I also have about 1400 Arikon saved up that could have made a few Warlocks or Dames with, and teched up to higher level spells. Instead I just sit content in my base while YRM techs all the way up to Fell Dragons, and increases his Tower network to northern middle and just outside my choke at the south.
I manage to fight back a few of his early attacks with my Carver/Marksmen/Grenadier combo, but then when I try to break out I see I've already lost the game. I retreat my forces and decide to gruel it out. Soon after YRM busts in with around ten Slashers, three Bone Juggernauts, the Accursed's siege unit summoned by Necromancers, and a pair each of Spectral Archers and Dire Changelings.
My forces are quickly run over, and I leave the game just as a Fell Dragon, summoned by three Shade Tyrants, and the Accursed's air siege unit casts StrifeShadow on one of my towers, which is a powerful spell that freezes it's target until the Dragon runs out of energy.
YRM's diversionary tactics worked very well the two times he tried them, and I'll have to be more careful next time we play [;. I later watched a game between LTL and Pillars, and watched Pillars do the same thing. He scouted out LTL's base, found a weak point and began attacking it with just one Carver (it was Dark Elves vs Accursed I think), and after it was finally killed, LTL threw up two Babbling Infernos to help stop a full attack, figuring that's where Pillars would attack. Instead Pillars found another weak point and attacked there, shortly after winning the game.
SS will be a game huge on strategy, I just need to get more RAM so I can control units better =[.
Yeah, some of the quotes are from the Newt Dojo ;[.
Oh yeah, since like four reports are posted a week now, and almost all of them are getting ~40 comments, please comment on this, I'd like to get over 100 ;-).
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