This was a real game, my third, and I'm going to use it to both introduce people to Strifeshadow, the new game being produced by Ethermoon Entertainment, which is currently in Beta, and to provide a little bit of instruction in the form of pointers to all the testers out there... If you have it now I'd expect the few pointers to be something you already know, but they should be handy for people getting added to the beta after the EM crew gets back from the IGF. (And Good Luck guys) To TheSparky, good game man, hope you don't mind me using it for the report. A few mistakes on my part and it would've been a heck of a lot closer. To all others, This isn't going to be a super-quality report, not even an animated GIF to be seen ('cause I can't replay anymore now that I've patched it ;) so you'll need to wait until the really talented people, like GRB, who I've seen around, stop playing and start reporting! Come on guys, let's see what you can do! Let's see some more quality stuff like YRM puts out, I know this doesn't really count, but I don't quite have all the time I'd like at the moment ;)

- Vaevictis666

Note: If you have problems with the images, try refreshing the page - all links _should_ be good...

The game starts out simply enough, myself (Vaevictis) in the lower right with a three tower build, and Sparky in the top right with a three tower build as well. The three tower build seems to do well, though speed is key. The above minimap is of the game 30 seconds in, where I have all three of my towers building, where sparky has but one. He caught up quickly, though, starting his third by 1:17. However, by 1:29 I had all mine built, and was working on my (Ar)Ikon Mine, scouting, and waiting for the next 90 Aether I would need for my workshop. Scouting started towards the left, and proceeded clockwise. By 2:10, my scouting kobold was heading north, my mine was complete, and my Gremlin Workshop was building. 2:13 has Sparky building his Gremlin Workshop, but without a Mine, and having about 200 Aether less than me.

At this point, Sparky appears to have told his Kobolds to all work on the workshop. It's not bad here, because they have nothing really better to do, but only one worker per building. And only for the Dark Elves. Accursed warp in all their buildings, and the Sylvans plant them. Except for Sylvan Weatherstones (as of Beta 1.1) all buildings built by Accursed and Sylvans do not need the worker to remain while it builds. Dark Elves do though.

3:23 has my Workshop complete, and me beginning the production of two Gremlin Carvers. My scouting kobold is also heading towards the Northeast corner, where Sparky is hiding. He is making what is the first real mistake of the game, building a second Workshop for his gremlins. There's a nifty feature for unit production buildings in Strifeshadow, called upgrading - upgrade the Workshop, and not only can you queue 4 guys instead of 2, but it will train 2 units at the same time. Exactly like having two Workshops, but it saves on space, and is actually cheaper than the second Workshop. And hey, some of the production buildings can be dual upgraded, allowing them to produce 3 units in parallel.

3:45, Both me and Sparky get our first gremlin, work on my Moag Pens begins. By elimination, I know where Sparky's base is, and I plant a spike trap or two outside the front door. Sparky decides he's gonna do me one up, and begins construction of a fourth Aether Tower. 4:15, I have two spike traps out front of Sparky's base, and he comes out to visit my kobold with a gremlin.

4:37, Moag Pens complete in my base. Two gremlins guarding the front door. 5:15, TheSparky begins work on his (Ar)Ikon Mine. 6:00 - 5 Gremlins on the move north. Behold this one in all it's glory as it gets stuck on a tree. It actually went between them, around the right one, and then stopped there. Go figure. 6:21, My fourth Aether Tower completes. TheSparky currently outresources me 1215 to 510 Aether, but I also have 647 of both Ikon and Arikon. 6:30, TheSparky begins construction of a Gremlin Turret. 6:40 I add two more towers to my network, allowing me to get resources from 1 more pool.

6:55: Combat begins. Two of Sparky's Carvers come out to visit. Only two of mine are up by his base entrance, the other three being about a screen below it. His Carvers are kind enough to visit my spike traps before entering combat, and my other three quickly rush to the scene. End result: I don't lose any Carvers, Sparky loses both of his.

Now we come the the next difference between Strifeshadow and Starcraft. Mining. See here two kobolds and a mine. One going to, the other from. Simply put, this is a waste. In Starcraft, Vespene (the closest harvesting analogy) didn't produce itself unless a peon was there, so it is advantageous to keep one in there at all times. In Strifeshadow, Ikon/Arikon Mines produce constantly. When a worker enters, they grab all that is available and bring it back. And them workers can carry a heck of a lot of it, too. Like over 600 units of both Ikon and Arikon (from a dual-purpose mine, like the one on the left) in just one trip. So unless your workers need to travel more than 4 or 5 screen widths, there's no real improvement with multiple workers. It's either 200 every 5 seconds, or 400 every 10 seconds. Take your pick.

But back to the game. The time is 7:23, and Sparky's scouting Kobold enters my base. I have no troops. He takes a few shots at my Moag pens before heading toward my Outpost. 7:31, my Carvers are ignoring the threat in my base as I build both a Carver and a Moor Moag there. So they head into Sparky's base. For reference, 5 Carvers kill one Kobold very quickly. However, killing the Kobold takes long enough that Sparky's Gremlin Turret is able to kill one of my Carvers. Them turrets are just downright evil. 7:41, my four carvers are taking on Sparky's mine, which has been converted to Ikon production only.

7:50, mine dies to 4 Carvers. 8:05, Moag and Carver finish in my base. 8:17, my carvers sneak to the rear of Sparky's base and assassinate an Aether tower, blocking harvesting from the pool it was beside, and the tower that was feeding into it. 8:30, my Moag and Carver kill the threat in my base. Sparky comes at my 4 Carvers with 2 of his own, and attempts to lure me towards his bad-ass Turret. Look at me chasing him ;)

9:00, Sparky now has equal numbers of Carvers at his base, so I back off to my spike traps. 9:40, my Moag upgrade is complete, allowing my Carvers to mount the Moags and produce Moag Raiders, a quick, damaging, ranged unit.

10:15. Things have been quiet. Then Sparky attacks my position at his base entrance. In the lower left, you can see my Raider and a spare Moag, and the results of that battle cause Sparky's 6 Carvers to flee from my 3 Carvers and a Raider. 10:50, he comes at me again, but by now I've mounted my spare Moag. By 11:05, we've both lost a Gremlin, and I'm trying hard to keep my Raiders away from Sparky's Carvers so they can stay alive. It didn't work. That explosion on the right is one of mine.

11:20, Sparky's remaining 3 Carvers head towards my base, and I kill one that gets distracted. My remaining Carver and Raider remain at his base. 11:31, a kobold outside of my base gets smoked rather quickly by Sparky's Carvers. 11:45, Sparky's two Carvers run into two of my Carvers and two Moags as well. Long story short, un-injured units hose previously injured units. At this point, things are pretty much entering the end-game. My carvers mount up and head north along with an extra Moag for my spare northern Carver. Behold the evilness that is ranged units which shoot lightning. They are currently re-crippling Sparky's Ikon production (Notice the I on the mine, signifying singular Ikon production. Mixed production produces Ikon and Arikon at 40% the rate of an exclusive mine.)

That mine dies a horrible defeat at 13:56 elapsed game time. This is followed shortly by the destruction of his Gremlin Furnace (allows production of Grenadiers) and some Aether Towers, before I started getting hit at by that Turret from way back when... As is known to happen, my four Raiders defeated the turret, but not before the rapid application of 10 damage a pop shots killed one of the Raiders. RIP, 16:09.

16:24, having lost all his units and having my units pound on his Dark Elven Outpost, TheSparky concedes the match. Good Game.

Well, there it is, maybe not the first period, but hopefully the first of many StrifeShadow reports by me. And maybe next time I'll even do a collage or animated gif or something ;). I'd post the replay here, but it's a Beta 0 game (ie before Beta Patch 1) so it's not like you could play it without a bunch of trouble ;) I wish all testers good luck in games, and may you avoid really nasty crash bugs and all that jazz ;)

- Vaevictis666

Oh, and next time I'll try and put a bit more care into player name colors and such, right now I just did a nice quick Global Replace because I'm tired and I want this out before I go to bed...