Before we begin...

Thanks to YRM for letting me use some of his character models, they simply own. And thanks to Angel for sending me replays of great games like this one =] It's just a little over 1 MB big so no problemo right? Please maximize the window, and use as high resolution as possible. Anything less than 1024x768 is not recommended. Sorry if there's something I didn't explain correctly, please correct me in the comment section. Now on with it! 

Introduction

In this report, Angel{mit} faces off with DuDeY, one of his friends. Both Angel and DuDeY have been playing Strifeshadow since the alpha stage, so they are all but new to the game. They also know each others game style, since they have been playing together for so long, which might have some drawbacks ofcourse, but rest asure, we're up for a really great game tonight as these veterans square off!

The map used in the upcoming showdown is Forest Of Colors. It's a four player map with starting positions in each corner. As the game starts, Angel is in command of the Dark Elves in the north-west corner, while DuDeY is given control of the feared Accursed in the north-east corner.

First minutes

Angel is no coward, he starts the game by building no less that five aether towers in his base, giving him a huge resource intake early on, but unfortunately also forces him to delay troop production. DuDeY probably knows that Angel will do this, still he does not try to rush, but chooses to set up his own chain of aether towers. His only number four, but that is still a significant amount of aether. Both players soon start troop production. Angel orders one of his kobold slaves to construct a workshop for gremlin carvers, and on the other side of the map, the accursed DuDeY builds his first blightstone for skeletal slashers. Both players invest in ikon/arikon mines, providing them with resources necessary for high tech units.

Because both players powered hard in the beginning, they also built a bunch of traps. Traps are devices built by peons that attack enemy units that walks over them, just like the spider mines in Starcraft. These traps are placed in a strategic position in each players choke point, forcing any attackers to take damage. In DuDeY's case, attackers can't even get through his bone spurs without stopping to attack them, while Angels spike traps simply thrust spears into their enemies from the ground...it's quite nasty.

Angel is a bit more successful than DuDeY when it comes to scouting, his kobold slave gets a good look around the accursed base and then barely escapes the sharp swords of the undead defenders. For additional defense, Angel constructs a gremlin turret. Gremlin turrets are defensive buildings, like the cannon towers in Warcraft 2, or photon cannons in Starcraft. They attack both air and ground units.

First attack

None of the players attempt to rush, instead they sit tight in their bases and tech silently. Silently as in deadly, that is. Angel builds a dark elven conclave, in which he can train the dark elven cabalist and more importantly (for this game), warlocks. DuDeY constructs a strifeshadow node for necromancers, and an ebon boneworks. He also adds a spirit beacon at his choke. Spirit beacons are defensive structures, just like the gremlin turret. Soon enough two bone juggernauts and a ghostship are visible in DuDeY's accursed camp. Two necromancers and the juggernauts are loaded into the ghostship, which then turns towards the west and accelerates.

The accursed forces are then unloaded onto the ridge surrounding Angel's base, but as I previously mentioned, neither of these players are new to the game. Angel has a chaos manowar (transport) on it's way to DuDeY's base, loaded with a handfull of troops, and he sends it back to defend. The dark elven defenders are unloaded onto the ridge, and their presence is enough to force DuDeY to retreat his valuable tech units. In the picture below you can see the ghostship leaving Angel's base. 

Troops being unloaded from a chaos manowar (the creepy eye thing =])

In the spirit of YourRoleModel I bring you two big collages of screenshots I put together...it should give you an idea of how the two bases look:

Notice DuDeY's bone spurs at the choke. Inside the ring of spurs you can make out his blightstone. The blightstone heals all DuDeY's soldiers within a certain radius, making this an excellent position for it as any attackers will be met by constantly regenerated warriors. You can also see that both players have extended their aether tower network beyond their bases, using transports to move peons to their ledges to build aether towers.

Inside DuDeY's base the production of locusts has begun. In the picture above you can see two necromancers summoning locusts, they're in the top left corner with red spheres around their heads. Locusts are basically the accursed version of the zerg mutalisk in Starcraft. In Angel's base, a dame (spellcaster) has emerged from his dark elven conclave, is this really a place for ladies?

The Flying Menace

DuDeY's first two locusts now approach Angel's base. An unfortunate warlock, left behind after the first battle on Angel's ledge, is attacked by the flying assassins. In panic he casts shrapmetal on them (like psi-storm), but he cannot prevent his own death. Ironically his last hitpoints are taken by his own spell.

Another shrapmetal combined with heavy anti-air fire from a nearby gremlin turret drives the locusts away... for a while. The two bone juggernauts are again unloaded from the ghostship and the locust menace returns to protect them. Three gremlins fearlessly charge the juggernauts, but the omnipresent locusts end their lives. The juggernauts then open fire on a nearby ikon/arikon mine and destroy it. Soon Angel unloads six gremlins and a warlock on the ledge, but the accursed forces again retreat before he can harm them, leaving the dark elven forces full of frustration. Back in DuDeY's base three necromancers are busy summoning more locusts...

Juggernauts are siege units, just like the ballista in Warcraft 2. It can only attack from a distance, thus attacking them with melee units like gremlins is a good idea. However, attacking the airborn locusts with gremlins is not as smart.

DuDeY refuses to let up the pressure, and sends his three new locusts along with his two old ones to Angel's base to cause trouble. They kill a defenseless slave attempting to construct a gremlin turret to the right of the ledge (where all fighting has been going on) and then assaults a warlock on the ridge. The dark elven dame i mentioned earlier casts something on the locusts that most likely deserves it's very own X-Files episode. Whatever it was, it makes the locusts retreat in disgust.

Front Assault

At this moment, Angel has more aether towers than DuDeY because he has expanded beyond his choke, close to the middle of the map. DuDeY has only taken the sources in his main and on his ledge. But although Angel's income is greater, he has much less aether stored. He has 1085 aether while DuDeY has 3800. This is truly a bad thing for DuDeY as he isn't macroing very well. He does however hold the initiative, and he is the only one that attacks.

DuDeY now opens up his choke by destroying a few bone spurs with his skeletal slashers. He secures the area outside his base with five slashers and his growing force of locusts. A few of the slashers run into a gremlin turret next to Angel's most remote aether tower close to the middle and die.

DuDeY: It's amazing how much they move when you don't want them to

The distance between the bases isn't very big. To get rid of the turret, DuDeY advances his two bone juggernauts, and as Angel tries to engage them with gremlins he throws another factor into the fight. He has a dire changling. It's similar to the lurker in Starcraft, but it's visible and only attacks one unit at a time. The gremlins focus fire on a juggernaut, but retreats before killing it due to the dire changling. However, after the retreat, two gremlins attack again for some reason, apparently without an order to do it =]

Angel: It's amazing how much they don't retreat

After repulsing the defenders, DuDeY launches his attack. Skeletal slashers engage gremlins while juggernauts lay waste on the gremlin turret. The juggernauts then rain artillery fire down on the gremlins and two archers that have entered the fight, killing many. The locusts decide it's time to interfere as all the slashers have died to the dark elves. To counter the locusts Angel has switched from gremlin to marksman production (archers), and four more marksmen arrive to fight the locusts. (Angel has upgraded his two workshops and can now produce six units at a time (combined).

A juggernaut dies in the carver/marksman vs locust/juggernaut battle, and when the locusts move around to behind the marksmen to kill a slave building a gremlin turret, the second one dies aswell. Now two more slashers arrive, but it's too late. The locusts retreat home, and the slashers give their lives to prevent the marksmen from persuing them.

Revenge, Almost

DuDeY attempts to expand with an aether tower outside his choke, but almost instantly Angel kills it with a group of marksmen. Just as the tower is destroyed, DuDeY's locusts and some slashers appear. A warlock that was following the marksmen unleashes two shrapmetal spells on them. One hits the slashers and one hits the locusts, both perfect hits. However, only one locust dies, since the shrapmetal kills at a rather slow rate. DuDeY kills the warlock and then attacks the archers. His locust/slasher combo overwhelms them easily. 

Angel's chaos manowar (the transport) is positioned about a screenswidth to the right of DuDeY's choke, and it's just too tempting. He attacks it with the forces he killed the marksmen with, and then continues on a rampage to the west. The locusts get to Angel's base first, and meet a group of seven marksmen. He doesn't want to attack the marksmen, so he swings to the south and kills a warlock and then attacks an aether tower while the slashers engage the marksmen. Unfortunately the slashers are outnumbered and most of them are killed. Some retreat home with the locusts. 

Payback Time

Angel constructs a gremlin furnace in his base, with the intention to build grenadiers. Grenadiers are siege units, much like the bone juggernauts. He also lures four slashers into his defenses and kills them easily, which DuDeY doesn't like. All he has to say about it is "OH MY GOD". That can't be positive =).

Now DuDeY has again expanded beyond his choke, below his southern ledge. Since he just killed alot of slashers and some locusts, Angel decides to attack. His forces of marksmen, gremlins and warlocks attack the newly built aether towers from the south-west, and kills them all before DuDeY can do anything about it. He then positions his marksmen just below the ledge so they can shoot at the towers up there. After he kills those three towers aswell he pulls his troops back to the middle. On their way they walk right into a caustic ooze trap, quite icky :]. 

Angel now has troop production maximized, and he still has less aether than DuDeY although his income is greater. Things are looking grim for DuDeY as Angels first grenadiers advance towards his base.

It Ain't Over 'till the Fat Lady Sings

To aid his defenses for the upcoming battle, DuDeY again seals his base with bone spurs, indicating that he is bracing himself for the final battle. He has three shade tyrants now. Shade tyrants are spellcasters that cast "leaping blight", which is similar to chain lightning for those of you who have played Heroes of Might and Magic. In case you haven't, it's a spell that hit one unit, then jumps to two others near the first one and so on.

The battle is far from over to DuDeY it seems, as he attacks once again with his locusts. This time he strikes in the top middle of the map where Angel has recently built an aether tower and an ikon/arikon mine. The locusts kill the tower and two slaves before being chased away by marksmen and a threatening warlock.

Final Showdown - the Fat Lady Sings After All

As revenge Angel lauches a full scale offensive, setting his entire army of gremlins, marksmen, warlocks, dames and grenadiers in motion towards DuDeY's choke point. For a while the bone spur wall holds him off. Meanwhile Angel's grenadiers upen up a can of whoop-ass and injects it with a rusty needle into the heart of the haunted spirit beacon defending the choke. Eventually the gremlins and archers destroy the bone spurs and flow through the openings at an incredible speed. Not even the shade tyrants can save DuDeY now, but hell, the leaping blight is cool as ice. The dark elves massacre the accursed forces and dance polka on their bodies.

Post Game Rambling

The winner is Angel{mit} just in case you didn't read the report or looked at the pics. This might seem like a beatdown, and if it does that's probably my fault, because as I understand it these players are about equal. Thanks for letting me report it! GG gentlemen, and...

Lessons learned:

-Don't be out-resourced

-Keep making units, spend all your money

-Don't attack marksmen with locusts

-I can't make large pics, don't know why, someone teach me :(

Angel's thoughts about the game:

AngelMIT (00:15:27): since he walled off 
AngelMIT (00:15:32): i knew he was gonna try to drop

AngelMIT (00:41:11): haha can me and dudey macro worse?
AngelMIT (00:41:16): rofl
AngelMIT (00:41:21): he died with like 2500 in bank
AngelMIT (00:41:39): we micro great!
AngelMIT (00:41:41): our macro sux
AngelMIT (00:44:05): he was making air
AngelMIT (00:44:13): but forgot that blighstones make units too!

That's all for now, I'll be back!