"D-matrixed Ultralisks, D-matrixed Battle Cruiser, D-matrixed DTs, see a pattern here?"
-Rychean
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| combination attacks | | | Author: | | | IP: | 132.181.XXXX | | Date: | 07/03/03 12:07 | | Game Type: | Age of Empires Series | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for zeenie: 6.0000 |  | This game was played sometime in April 2002 and was a 3v3 game in a random land map that consisted of a river running across the screen from left to right with 3 crossing points and the teams closeted top and bottom.
Introducing our constestants! The northern team (*cheers* *wolf whistles*) from left to right were the Brits (blue), the Japs and the Aztecs while the southern team (*boo* *hiss hiss*) consisted of Byzantines(Byz1), the Brits (red) and more Byzantines(Byz2).
Teams were largely equal in terms of player competancy with the northern team having two experienced player with the n00b(the brits) while the southern team having an expert player (Byz2) with two fairly experienced dudes.
The plan for the northern team was a simple one, to take out Byz2 as early as possible by using a combination of swordsmen and skirmishes to pillage him and restrict his resource gathering abilities before sending a battering ram to kill his town centre. We expected that he would simply relocate but hoped that this would give us some breathing space as Byz2 was notorious at hitting Imperial age early and churning out troops so fast that we would be swimming in his troops by the time we finished castling. The job of the brits was just to maintain his line on his side of the river.
Gameplay: The usual initial tactics of scouting and gathering of sheep opened the game and the initial target of Byz2 was located deep across the river from the Aztecs. As soon as the Aztecs had 12 clubmen and the Japs had 12 skirmishes, an attack was made on Byz2. The upgrade to Feudal age button had been hit before the war party left and all villagers were busy gathering mainly food and wood (for farms later). The Japanese contribution was restricted to this initial force (and subsequent micromanaging) due to forseeable demands upon the defence of the northern side of the river but the Aztecs welcomed this and proceeded with the attack. A house built as an early warning system by Byz2 was ignored and the war party came across the wood gathering facilities of Byz2. Feudal Age had been reached by this time and the clubmen were upgraded to swordsmen. Byz2, being the cool expert that he was, did not panic, but tried to save his villagers by hiding them in the town centre, but that suited the nothern team as it stunted his growth process. Care was taken to keep the troops well out of range of his arrows as the war party proceeded to dismantle all his outlying resource gathering facilities.
The villagers back in the northern camps were kept busy gathering resources and the proof of sucess in the early raid came when castle age was reached before Byz2 (even though he had reached Feudal first). A siege workshop was built and a couple of battering rams dispatched to take care of the isolated town centre of Byz2, although he had not been idle. Instead, he took most of his villagers via the back way and backed himself into the corner, later choosing to create calvary for hit and run attacks.
All efforts to locate and eradicate him were distracted as a major counter attack was in play over on the west side of the battlefield. The combined forces of Byz1 and the red Brits were forcing their way across the river and were being held back by the blue Brits fighting a valiant battle together with the mass producing japanese troops (stereotypical?). Things looked grim for the Nothern team as the waves of Southern troops seemed never-ending as five barracks and five archery ranges had been established with their crossing and were churning out the troops.
Aztecs rushed into the fray at this point, contributing a full force of swordsmen in order to drive the opposition back across the river, of which more than half were sacrificed, but the line held. Also, a small force was sent to attack the red Brit base in order to curb his production. Using a forrest enclave, three trebs pounded his base into submission while fifteen swordsmen and six pikemen kept any enemy troops away from the trebs by holding on to the forrest chokepoint. A castle, town centre and barracks were destroyed before a wave of troops from Byz1 originally destined for the frontline of the river were diverted to take care of the Aztec problem. At the same time, trebs from the blue Brits managed to destroy the forward troop production facilities and were steadily pushing the South back, and were ready to ford the river.
A troop of camels from Byz2 started roaming the Northern bases, killing villagers at will, but these were largely ignored for the primary objectives of wiping out the bases of the South. There were a large numbers of pikemen and swordsmen from the Aztecs and Japs that were produced from the long queues, all while micromanaging was in progress at the battlefront and these were more than capable of taking care of the marauding camels.
A more potent force was sent by the Aztecs to wipe out the red Brit consisting of seven trebs and a full force of champions at which point, the Southern team surrendered as Byz1 was down to one castle and one town centre which were both garrisoned after being surrounded and was unable to do anything while the blue brits brought up their siege weapons.
Key lessons:
1. Never give up. Even though Byz2 was attacked early was left pretty much incapacitated, he found the strength to relocate and start all over (prob with resource support from his allies). Given time, he would have been a force to be reckoned with, but his opponents never gave him time to recover.
2. Press your advantage. After the Aztecs destroyed the town centre of Byz2, a castle and town centre were built there to hold on to the gained territory as well as denying land to the South. As the attacks were being managed and manipulated, production facilities were kept to the max in order to replace lost troops. Needless to say, villagers were always kept busy and a good number of barracks/archery ranges/stables have to be constructed in order to speed production. At the same time, upgrades were being implemented which meant subsequent reinforcements were stronger.
3. Counter Attack. Its all very heroic to rush to aid your ally, but in order to do this effectively, you have to curb the problem at the source, ie, the enemy's base. There are arguments to aid your ally first, making sure he can hold the line, but an experienced player can be left to fend for himself while you do more damage long term by destroying the enemy base. At worse, your ally will have to relocate to your base and hold the line there, but the enemy would have run out of troops to replace those lost in battle, if a forceful attack had been carried out.
4. Multitype force. The final force comprised of longbowmen, archers, calvary, pikemen and champions as well as trebs. Even the initial force was comprised of two types of troops. Enough said.
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