DiogenesDog vs Milryth

Hey guys, mind if I use your replay to do a BR? You do? Heh ok.

Welcome to the second report in my Strifeshadow series. This game is between the players above, duh. I hope I will not make as many mistakes here as in the last part. I'm sorry the first part looked weird. This part should look ok in lower resolutions.

The map is called Forest Of Colors. It's a four player map with start positions in the corners. Dio starts out as blue Sylvans just above the right bottom corner of the map, and Milryth starts as orange Sylvans, near the upper left corner. Same race matchup z:[

Early Game

Both players does a four tower build, both pretty exposed to rushes. Good thing they both did that. Milryth get his Defence Center a bit before Dio does, but to make up for that Dio starts his production upgrade earlier. This is a typical same race matchup game so far. Dio is lucky with his scouting, and finds Milryth with the cute little faerie he sends out, and gets a good look around. She doesn't get a scratch =]

Milryth on the other hand doesn't hack (cough) and sends his faerie to the top right corner, where he finds nothing but a good spot to set up camp with some friends and drink beer (Milryth, not the faerie). By the time Milryth's tired little faerie reaches Dio's base, she is slain by two vicious Elf Rangers! Nooo!  (Hey can we now use Mariah Faerie instead of Deon Peon? Just asking.)

Mid Game

As none of the players decide to rush, the game continues to the phase where both players expand their Aether tower lines. Dio claims the sources insinde his main base (the mains are surrouded by high groud with one choke point.) Milryth isn't content with just the Aether he can get in his main, instead he expands his towers to just outside his choke, about a screenwidth.

In the first offensive strike in the game, Dio moves his first squad of about eight Elf Rangers towards Milryth's base. They march to the west at first, not wanting to run into any defenders. Before it is met by enemy troops, the squad manages to lay one tower in ruins. Milryth was also moving to attack, and Dio's troops slipped behind his army, giving them time to attack the tower before the defenders could get there. After a brief skirmish both sides back off, and each player withdraws to his own territory.

No real battles occur for a while now. Both players have invested in Ikon/Arikon mines. There are brief fights in the middle of the map, the players advance and strike once and then backs off, always trying to get around and flank the other army. In strifeshadow, troops deal more damage from the side and from behind. This is a typical sight, notice the interface, and replay buttons =]

Dio now advances his line of Aether towers, and builds a few outside his choke, just like Milryth did earlier. He protects the farthest one with about ten Rangers, while growing his very first Weatherstone. Unfortunately for Dio, our orange friend Milryth will not let this go unpunished. He attacks with a force of Rangers that is a bit bigger than Dio's. However Dio only has to stand his ground untill the Weathersone is finnished. Milryth's troops focus on destroying the tower, and they do so with ease, since the towers have low hitpoints (just a bit more than the Rangers.) The Weatherstone then finnishes, and after a short battle, where indeed many soldiers perish, Milryth backs off with the smile on his face one gets from accomplishing his mission.

Knowing Milryth just lost a part of his army, Dio counters with everything he has, which is a bunch of Rangers ;). He encounters a squad of Rangers, a Weatherstone and a formation of towers. Coming from the south side, Dio avoids the Weatherstone and manages to tear down no less than two Aether towers before being forced to either fight the defenders or run home. He does what any sane man would do, put his tail between his legs and run. He doesn't succeed. Perhaps Milryth had researched Engage, because he killed all but one of the attackers. Engage allows your troops to pin down your opponent's troops when they are hit, for a brief period of time, but enough to keep them from running.

Late Game

After this battle, the same race matchup syndrome strikes again, as both players grows an Elder Oak Grove. In addition, Milryth grows an Archery Range to produce Elf Scouts. Dio immediately starts producing Unicorns, while Milryth doesn't use his Elder Oak Grove for a while, instead he makes Scouts (archers). After a while he orders the production of Oak Spiders.

Trying to repeat his previous endeavor (first attack), Dio strikes from the south, attacking Milryth's choke with a force of Rangers. This time he is not as lucky, and is met by the bulk of Milryth's army, and he retreats home. Seconds later, he does the exact same thing with four brand new Unicorns. At first it looks like the Unicorns will reach the same poor result as the Rangers, but they begin to lure troops to the south, then dancing backwards and killing them one by one. The first to die is an Elf Ranger, but soon others follow, not even the Elf Scouts can match the Unicorns.

Only one unicorn is lost, while killing almost the entire infantry part of Milryth's army, leaving some Rangers and Oak Spiders to fight on. The killer horses then retreat home. But Dio didn't make Unicorns just to ambush lowly Rangers, did he? Nope.

Soon enough, five Unicorns gallop to the west, they keep to the south, avoiding detection. They gather just below Milryth's base, at the left edge on the map. Suddenly four of them vanish, only to re-appear on the high ground surrounging Milryth's base! The fifth Unicorn follows his friends after a few seconds. The squad then tears down a tower close to the ridge, and moves closer to the choke point. Milryth has nothing he can throw at them, he has no Unicorns of his own and his Scouts aren't enough. The Unicorns can lay waste on another tower and then the Defence Center, effectively ending the game!

Congratilations to the winner, DiogenesDog! Good game both of you. (I wasn't there but so what? :))

Lessons learned:

-Weatherstones are nice

-Teleportation owns :P

-So does replays so you don't have to observe or even know the players ;)

That's all I have to offer this time! More on the way though, so stay alert!