Leaving aside the snake pick draft process, and rushing out to five cities with zero defenses after meeting the musketeer opposing player, the other huge mistake from luddite was somehow not seeing the attack coming from Cairo. The power spike from two musketeers is 18k on the Demographics, completely unmissable if you're paying even the slightest attention. Scooter saw the attack coming ahead of time without even having met Cairo just from watching the "Rival Best" numbers! Given that the early musketeer rush was literally the only possible strategy Cairo could employ against the Artillery player, this was a spectacular misplay in every way. (Then Cairo botched the tactics of his own attack, somehow only razing a single city with two musketeers against a defense consisting of four warriors - strength 2 against strength 9 with two movement points, what?!)
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[NO 73 PLAYERS] Lurkers Monitoring Variance
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(August 13th, 2023, 07:00)Sullla Wrote: (Then Cairo botched the tactics of his own attack, somehow only razing a single city with two musketeers against a defense consisting of four warriors - strength 2 against strength 9 with two movement points, what?!) Cairo was worried about an anti-tank or artillery popping out of the capital at any moment. That's why he never committed to attacking the warriors and always kept himself in position to attack something else besides the capital. I don't know if Cairo could have known when the musketeers first arrived how far luddite was from a unit right at that moment.
Was a choke ever going to be enough? Because no matter how good a choke he put in place, it cost him resources when Vikings with Civil Service, circumnavigation and the GLH existed in the game, never mind Joao with Communism. It was rush or die. Zerks are basically as strong as musketeers when fighting over water given the free C1 as well. So it didn't really matter if an AT popped out after Cairo attacked or not and had injured musketeers: he needed to take out Luddite ASAP and a choke would never achieve that. Straight out rush and decapitate him, then play clean up.
The problem is he chose a unit that required multiple things. Like yes the city raze is going to mean he is essentially dead, but even still Scooter had access to WEs to counter by time he could bring online.
Maybe Yuris could have settled 1 less city to be faster? Obviously maybe his micro could have been a tid bit faster, but I doubt it would have been fast enough. Was his leader correct? He got cottages up pretty fast, but maybe org for early game savings could have shaved off a bit. Overall he chose one of the slower combos. It wouldn't have been early muskets or ATs and early bureaucracy has proven can get to WEs in time, so his combo essentially maybe was just good against Oxy. Cairo's rush 100% could have been faster and I'm still confused by the delay. (August 14th, 2023, 16:14)Thoth Wrote: Yuris could have rushed if he'd taken Arabia instead of Byzantium. St 10 Camel Archers are plenty good enough to rush with and they don't need Iron Working, Iron, and Horses. Just Horseback Riding.This was actually my thought early on. Amazing how fast Camel Archers come online, and they're there long before war elephants.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out. (August 14th, 2023, 16:25)Commodore Wrote:(August 14th, 2023, 16:14)Thoth Wrote: Yuris could have rushed if he'd taken Arabia instead of Byzantium. St 10 Camel Archers are plenty good enough to rush with and they don't need Iron Working, Iron, and Horses. Just Horseback Riding.This was actually my thought early on. Amazing how fast Camel Archers come online, and they're there long before war elephants. Key ingredient in a rush is speed. 'Phracts are powerful units but they're too slow for a rush. They're also vulnerable to resource denial as Scooter is explaining to Yuris. About the only thing that could stop a 3 city Camel Archer rush is a 2 city Musketeer rush as that doesn't need HBR just Bronze and Pottery.
fnord
Yuris wasn't picking just for a rush. Just rushing someone is very chancy in this setup, with artillery already in play and a bunch of other possibilities still on the draft board. Phracts are a sustained advantage for a very long time and have some chance of at least holding up against any other advanced units in this setup. It made sense to pick them when he did. Arabia to rush the guy with Bureaucracy and elephants is better only in hindsight - Yuris didn't know that would be his neighbor.
Phracts are only an advantage if you can get them into play. Unlike Musketeers, Artillery, and Canel Archers they require two strategic resources. Which means they are very slow to get into play and are highly vulnerable to resource denial tactics. Camel Archers are superior to Phtacts in both speed of deployment and in sustainability. This isn't SP where the AI will just sit back and let you get your shiny toys on the board.
fnord
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