Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

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BashUgood
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Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

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Mentor/Mentee review
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Re: Game for IndyBrit

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Mentor/Mentee review 2
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Re: Game for IndyBrit

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Mentor/Mentee Review 3
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by IndyBrit »

Hey BashUgood - I'll take a look at these in the next day or so. Welcome aboard - I hope I can help you out a bit.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by IndyBrit »

Ok - game one (v. skyline2)

I'm not sure, but I think you won this one ?? You were much more solid than the other guy, but there were a number of things I think you could work on. Some of these didn't matter b/c of your opponent. I'm not a Japan expert at all, but I'll do a little research there b/c some of the things I saw may just be required by japan and I don't know.

1) Your deck is age 1 heavy. This is unusual but may be civ-specific. My general thought is there are probably some better cards later that you should have instead. Typically, you should have 1-3 age 1 cards max.
2) Your game needs a theme. You were sort of rushing, but not really, and a lot of your card plays were eco-longterm versus military short-term, but you didnt' go fortress age or anything. I'll look around and think on Japan some and see if I can make more specific recommendations there. You should decide a theme for your game, and each action should support the theme, subject to reacting to your opponent.
3) You were housed at about 5 min with wood in hand. This blunts your rush considerably.
4) You built the consulate at 6:30. I'm thinking that's typically early, b/c you don't have much export built up and you probably have better uses for the wood at this point of the game. However, I'd like to hear more of what you're doing there so I can think about it more concretely.
5) You may have had his FB at 6 min or so. Pikes are weak against ashis, it may have been worth a look (like by your dying explorer scouting his barracks).
6) you used th 15% atk card. You had 14 muskets at the time. 5 musket card = 5 muskets, 15% cards = +/- 2 muskets (15% of 14, but without the extra hp of 2 muskets). This again is related to your theme. Probably a resource or musket ship is better at this point of the game, giving you more hitting power earlier. I tend to play upgrade cards when I have more guys on the map.
7) Ashis are not the best raiders with skirms around. They are slow anyway, and then skirms are their counter. Horses would be better, but he didn't make you pay for this, so...
8) you had 1200 F and 450 G at 9:30. What is your theme? Use this for fortress or build troops, but that money in your pocket isn't hurting your opponent.
9) I think you stayed on ashis too long without cav or yumi backup. A few cav or yumis mixed in increases your staying power against skirms. He built too many pikes, but this could have been ugly for you if he had spammed skirms more.
10) When you were attacked in your base, your ashis ran home - all the way across the map. You may have been better off just raiding away with them and using ships/militia/ built troops to fend off the raid. He had 9 of his 13 villies next to your ashis unprotected. Instead those guys spent about a minute walking the map. Just something to think about - your troops standing on the map are a resource, and travel time is a wasted resource. Of course, if you need them to save your base, then you need them. Another reason cav are superior for raiding.

GG though. You have a lot of the basics and I don't see any deep flaws (decent scouting, explorer usage, keeping villies going). I probably won't repeat too much of this in future posts, but the theme concept is one you should definitely be working on.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by BashUgood »

Hi Indy..

Thank you very much for the response, I can see that you will be very helpful. :mrgreen:

I'll try to answer some of your questions...

1.) My deck is a little age 1 heavy because I hardly ever get to age 4 so I haven't put any cards in that age.

2.) I'm very glad that you mentioned the need for a theme because I know that I needed improvement but I just couldn't figure it out.
I know I couldn't blame the civ since experts make Japan work..
We'll have to discuss this more 1 to 1 because I'm going to need some more guidance with this theme aspect..

3. & 4.) I tried to get enough wood to build consulate for japan isolation for the miliatary bonus ( I forgot if it was an Attack or HP bonus )
I guess I still need to work on my early resource balancing..?

6.) I usually use the Ashi card 2x as my 2nd and 3rd HC shipments... maybe I made a mistake this game.

7.) Hmm maybe I should go stable first.. This could probably depend on enemies civ choice ...

9.) I've noticed also that I tend to stay with/rely heavily on Ashi.. I have to work more on a variety pack ;) especially since the patch the game is being routed for this sort of gameplay...

10.) Your right, I'm not sure why I walked acroos the map with Ashi.. bad micro on my part..
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

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Mentor/Mentee Review 4

This was a tough Japan mirror basically I got smoked.

Ohh this was the game vs. Ceasar I thought it was a different one :oops:
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by IndyBrit »

[quote=""BashUgood""]Mentor/Mentee Review 4

This was a tough Japan mirror basically I got smoked. :oops:[/quote]

Could be a great one to learn from. What's the ELO name of your opponent? Just curious as I won't be able to look at the game until tonight.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

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opps wrong game this one's vs. Caesar .. :neutral: need I say more...
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

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[quote=""BashUgood""]opps wrong game this one's vs. Caesar .. :neutral: need I say more...[/quote]

Ok - this one's easy. Click really fast on all the right stuff and none of the wrong stuff. 8)

I will take a look though. :D
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by IndyBrit »

K - let's talk about game 3 briefly (you versus sioux)

Early mistakes are more critical than later mistakes. You delayed 1:30 or so on your first card, and your TC was idle (with enough food) at about 3 minutes for a while. These things chip away at you later.

At 7:30 you were housed, and you built a consulate around then when you had little export to use. I think you need another guy or two on wood, and a second rax and more houses are of more value at this point in the game.

You beat him early with your Ashis. You should consider how he will respond. This game is paper-scissors-rock, and if you show mass scissors, expect that he's coming back with rock and be ready. In this case, as soon as you ran him off early, you should have spammed yumis. I think the cav are not a great choice against sioux b/c they always have those horse archers around. Yumis with an ashi shield, or ashi-cav with micro can work. You showed your hand with ashi and he responded.

I think I have some better ideas for your card order. I think this needs real improvement. I'm looking around at some things, but I'll get back to you on what to try here. I'm going to put up a couple of posts on the theme business before we get there, b/c it's closely related.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

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Theme
Each game should have a theme - what is your goal? Survival is not a goal, it's a response. If you are not defining the game then your opponent will, and that's not good for you.

There are 3 basic strats that are the backbone of 1v1, although others exist. Rush, FF, and semi-FF. Rush is the idea that you are going to get into his town and end it or disrupt him so badly that the game is basically over. FF is the idea that you're going to jump ahead to age 3 in a time frame that he can't get to you fast enough, or you catch him off guard. Then, with either superior troops or superior shipments, you wipe him out in a fell swoop. I think of any strat where you're trying to click the age 3 button before 8 min or so an FF strat. Semi-FF is the idea that you intend to get to age 3 quickly, but you have some business to take care of first. You may want to build a small home defense, a raiding force, or simply scout him and see if he's rushing before going fortress. Anything up to about 12 min is a semi-FF, but even 9 min aging is probably a semi-FF.

There are flavors - like a rush can be HI, LI, cav, HI/LI, etc. The rush needs a goal to know what you're bringing. A harrassing hold him down rush can use LI, but a knock down his TC rush is going to need siege at least later. It also depends upon what you think he will bring to the event. If you think he's going to spam HI, you need LI, etc. You can also intend to rush early, then boom right after, or you can plan a lingering rush where you stay in age 2 do or die. But knowing what plan you are executing - whatever the plan is - is the key.

Your theme is a strat (rush/FF/semi-FF) combined with a specific goal. Hit him with mass HI at 8 mins. is a goal. The time frame is critical, and you should be aware of the exponential effect of time, especially right after troops become possible. At 5 mins., 5 dudes is a massive rush. At 6 mins. it may take 15 to be considered massive, and at 8 mins. it may take 40 guys to be considered massive.

Everything you do should support your theme. If you ask - is card X or Y better, you can't say unless you know your theme. For example, is 600 W better than 4 villies? Say it takes 4 villies 250 seconds to collect 600 W, the card in question will ship at 300 seconds (5 mins), and your theme is to rush the other guy at 6:30 (390 seconds). In this case, the 600 W card is clearly better b/c you will be until 550 seconds working off the 600 W card, and your theme peaks at 6:30. I.e. the 600 W supports your theme better than the 4 villies.

This is why, for example, the 5 Ashi is a better card in a rush situation than the 15% attack. You normally have 15 Ashis when you throw the 15% attack card, and then you head to the guys town (ok - you did this twice that I saw :) ). The 15% attack card at that point is worth at best 2 muskets (i.e. 15% of 15, but really probably half that b/c it doesn't add any hp, only attack), where the 5 musket card is worth 5 muskets. If your theme is to head into the guys town at that point in time, then the 5 musket card supports the theme better.

OK - another post on intermediate theme concepts will follow.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by IndyBrit »

Theme - part 2
The later you can make a decision without affecting the execution of that decision, the better. That's because you have more information about the decision when you make it. For example, if you wait until he's in your town, you have perfect knowledge (what guys he's going to bring) but it's too late to execute. If you build guys early, he may see what you have and respond. But if you can scout what he's building and make your troops just in time, then you have the optimum.

This relates to the theme as follows - you should make your theme decision a few minutes into the game in response to the situation, but not so late that you cannot execute the theme well. Therefore, if you are adept at several themes, and you can run them all off the same first card, you give yourself that much longer to scout and decide before committing to your theme. Typically, all strats are the same for about 3 minutes, so that is critical time to look at your opponents deck and decide what to do. You may even be committed to the general concept of rushing earlier, but be able to change the flavor of the rush later. This is particularly true when you get different troops out of the same building, or you can use the same resources for different kinds of troops. This is part of the reason troop shipments can be so powerful - you don't commit until you throw the card so you have more knowledge than when you had to commit to building certain buildings and collecting certain resources.

You can bet that Nature Phoenix's theme cycle goes along the following lines. First, he's adept at almost any theme, and has in mind exactly how to execute. Second, all of his themes look the same for the first 3-4 minutes so he does not have to be committed during that time. Third, he's familiar with all of the maps (natives, probable hunts, water, etc.) Fourth, he's familiar with the themes of the opposing civs and the indicia of what theme they've selected (look of the deck, which treasures they're favoring, which buildings are in their base, their score versus time). Therefore, 90% of the time, he's going to be picking the right theme. Lastly, and beyond the scope of this discussion, is that he's ready to change the theme at the first sign that his guesses have been incorrect to minimize the potential damage.

The good news is, you don't have to be that good to move up a few ranks quickly. Knowing thyself is a good bit of the battle, and a well executed plan that is not the perfect plan will often carry the day, and almost always puts you in a better position than having no plan at all and just trying to feel your way through each game.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by IndyBrit »

K - one more thing. You should read Sun Tzu's "The art of war" if you have not done so already. Sounds funny, but really you should.
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Re: Games for IndyBrit ~ Mentor Review

Post by BashUgood »

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Thank you for the info, my brain is now on overload and I'll be referring back to your post so to make sure it all sticks..

I can see this is going to take some time to better learn maps and civs so I know how to make the proper adjustments with my decks and playing.

I think I saw Tzu's post but I'll check it out more thoroughly.

We'll have to set up some time to meet up on ESO...
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