Post by crezth on Jun 20, 2007 23:53:46 GMT -5
So I was digging through my old recorded games (on my Mac, which, sadly, lacks the Titan Expansion) and I came across a game I had named "HOLDOUT." Curious, I checked it out.
It was a game from a few months ago I played on GameRanger, as Zeus. 64 minutes of the best Greek playing I have ever seen, on my part.
It's not that I played with absolute celerity, reaching Mythic in 12 minutes and beating the enemy absolutely in 15, but it's that despite both me and my partner being ground into the dust by a Set player who showed unparalleled skill, we managed to holdout by innovative nomad tactics, raiding tactics, and rebase tactics.
Here's the lowdown:
I was playing Zeus, my partner was playing Thor. The enemies were Set and Loki.
My approach that game was a traditional build - I don't think I could have raided effectively, since it was a Watering Hole map with LOTS of chokepoints, so I decided to Zeus forward build and spam Hippikons and Toxotes.
The first 10 minutes of the game belonged to us. I and my partner developed not exactly a strong forward base, but a forward base that was developing lots of military units. The Loki player was, well, not so good (7 minute classical time), whereas my partner went with a Thor Fast Classical (3:43 classical time) and I and Set were in the middle (5:24 about.) Thor was spamming lots of everything, but most noticeably Throwing Axemen and Raiding Cavalry, while I placed the pressure on the Loki.
I didn't expect Loki to give much resistance, and he didn't. He did wall the chokepoints, but it was fairly easy to break through and harangue his houses. So I had my Hippikons and Toxotes do that (I mixed in Centaurs eventually and added Odysseus for backup,) while my partner fended off the Set. I didn't expect Set to do very much at all, or I at least expected Set to be an annoyance at most. I told my partner, "You handle the annoying Egyptian and I'll handle Loki."
Eventually the Loki's resistance vanished altogether (I remember it was because he went to break the fast,) and victory seemed within reach, but Set reached Heroic and the battle had only begun.
I reached Heroic soon, and so did Thor, and I destroyed Loki's base (he did eventually come back, amazed he had survived so long only to find the skill of his partner saw him through,) and Loki proved only to be an annoyance from then on out. But Set definitely knew his civ - with eloquent and constant power, he expanded and conquered, eventually taking out our forward base. Soon me and Thor were isolated, as my forward base moved to occupy Loki's home town. That proved to be my springboard for the rest of the game, as Set cut a swath through the middle of the map, taking out my home base (which was very poorly guarded, and I had learned that the Loki player had cast spy on one of my farmer's - agh!)
Very closely I brushed with doom, and so did Thor, as in our separate parts of the map we worked to keep alive. My gold miners evaded detection, and Thor was quite good at not dying (even though Set built a TC right behind him and began attacking with scarabs.)
My petroboloses allowed me to take Set's TC from the Loki player's "island", and with difficulty I held on to it, despite being attacked by a surprise siege-strike. I eliminated the Loki once and for all, and now his home town became my new central base.
My entire economic operation was restored (which was a VERY fortunate thing) and soon I had the resources to put up a fight worth considering. I got to Mythic before the Set player, and began constructing a combination of Helepolises, Myrmidons, and Hoplites. I sent a squad force out to do battle with Set, around the same time Thor made a comeback and began doing the same. Things were looking grim for Set, as I destroyed one of his gold-mining operations, and cut the same swath he had earlier, destroying two of his TCs. My strike-force returned home, however, so that we could take the fighting to HIS home, on the one front which we could not pierce in the Classical Age, a deadly chokepoint which provided 50% of his army. Thor did the same thing.
However Thor was faced with difficulties. On more than one occasion he had no TCs, but restored them with great skill and finesse. He soon struck a balance, destroying the TC and Temple which produced the Scarabs which had so harangued him, and turned the fighting on the enemy's most prestigious forward base: one guarded by four Migdols, five barracks, two temples and countless more watch towers, not to mention a Citadel Center. I applauded his effort from afar, as my own army began the attack.
I took the chokepoint with relative ease (5 helepolises is an amazing siege force) and my Myrmidons and Hoplites did incredible damage. But they proved to be lacking, and I backed them up with some Peltasts and Toxotes. Now the game hung in the balance - despite Set's economic superiority, his map control was now contested greatly, and his military control was being spread apart from having to fight on two fronts. He sent a squad of scarabs and priests to destroy two of my new Town Centers, leaving me with only two left, but I had built Fortresses on the chokepoint, and now the waves of battle were being turned against him. Victory seemed within reach, when...
"Set: g2g guys"
Ah! What an anticlimactic ending! Before it could be determined who the deciduous winner was, he resigned. While I and my partner won on technicality, it was an empty victory, doubly so since the Set was determined that he "won by default."
But what is the point of my retelling this war tale? Simply this: that the Greek have an incredible ability to come back, sporting units of every color of the rainbow. No strategy they cannot counter, no adversity they cannot topple, for their sheer diversity in units and their skills enables the Greek to defeat the oppressor, despite overwhelming odds, even when the enemy seems all-powerful.
And that is why the Greek are a force to be reckoned with in AoM.
It was a game from a few months ago I played on GameRanger, as Zeus. 64 minutes of the best Greek playing I have ever seen, on my part.
It's not that I played with absolute celerity, reaching Mythic in 12 minutes and beating the enemy absolutely in 15, but it's that despite both me and my partner being ground into the dust by a Set player who showed unparalleled skill, we managed to holdout by innovative nomad tactics, raiding tactics, and rebase tactics.
Here's the lowdown:
I was playing Zeus, my partner was playing Thor. The enemies were Set and Loki.
My approach that game was a traditional build - I don't think I could have raided effectively, since it was a Watering Hole map with LOTS of chokepoints, so I decided to Zeus forward build and spam Hippikons and Toxotes.
The first 10 minutes of the game belonged to us. I and my partner developed not exactly a strong forward base, but a forward base that was developing lots of military units. The Loki player was, well, not so good (7 minute classical time), whereas my partner went with a Thor Fast Classical (3:43 classical time) and I and Set were in the middle (5:24 about.) Thor was spamming lots of everything, but most noticeably Throwing Axemen and Raiding Cavalry, while I placed the pressure on the Loki.
I didn't expect Loki to give much resistance, and he didn't. He did wall the chokepoints, but it was fairly easy to break through and harangue his houses. So I had my Hippikons and Toxotes do that (I mixed in Centaurs eventually and added Odysseus for backup,) while my partner fended off the Set. I didn't expect Set to do very much at all, or I at least expected Set to be an annoyance at most. I told my partner, "You handle the annoying Egyptian and I'll handle Loki."
Eventually the Loki's resistance vanished altogether (I remember it was because he went to break the fast,) and victory seemed within reach, but Set reached Heroic and the battle had only begun.
I reached Heroic soon, and so did Thor, and I destroyed Loki's base (he did eventually come back, amazed he had survived so long only to find the skill of his partner saw him through,) and Loki proved only to be an annoyance from then on out. But Set definitely knew his civ - with eloquent and constant power, he expanded and conquered, eventually taking out our forward base. Soon me and Thor were isolated, as my forward base moved to occupy Loki's home town. That proved to be my springboard for the rest of the game, as Set cut a swath through the middle of the map, taking out my home base (which was very poorly guarded, and I had learned that the Loki player had cast spy on one of my farmer's - agh!)
Very closely I brushed with doom, and so did Thor, as in our separate parts of the map we worked to keep alive. My gold miners evaded detection, and Thor was quite good at not dying (even though Set built a TC right behind him and began attacking with scarabs.)
My petroboloses allowed me to take Set's TC from the Loki player's "island", and with difficulty I held on to it, despite being attacked by a surprise siege-strike. I eliminated the Loki once and for all, and now his home town became my new central base.
My entire economic operation was restored (which was a VERY fortunate thing) and soon I had the resources to put up a fight worth considering. I got to Mythic before the Set player, and began constructing a combination of Helepolises, Myrmidons, and Hoplites. I sent a squad force out to do battle with Set, around the same time Thor made a comeback and began doing the same. Things were looking grim for Set, as I destroyed one of his gold-mining operations, and cut the same swath he had earlier, destroying two of his TCs. My strike-force returned home, however, so that we could take the fighting to HIS home, on the one front which we could not pierce in the Classical Age, a deadly chokepoint which provided 50% of his army. Thor did the same thing.
However Thor was faced with difficulties. On more than one occasion he had no TCs, but restored them with great skill and finesse. He soon struck a balance, destroying the TC and Temple which produced the Scarabs which had so harangued him, and turned the fighting on the enemy's most prestigious forward base: one guarded by four Migdols, five barracks, two temples and countless more watch towers, not to mention a Citadel Center. I applauded his effort from afar, as my own army began the attack.
I took the chokepoint with relative ease (5 helepolises is an amazing siege force) and my Myrmidons and Hoplites did incredible damage. But they proved to be lacking, and I backed them up with some Peltasts and Toxotes. Now the game hung in the balance - despite Set's economic superiority, his map control was now contested greatly, and his military control was being spread apart from having to fight on two fronts. He sent a squad of scarabs and priests to destroy two of my new Town Centers, leaving me with only two left, but I had built Fortresses on the chokepoint, and now the waves of battle were being turned against him. Victory seemed within reach, when...
"Set: g2g guys"
Ah! What an anticlimactic ending! Before it could be determined who the deciduous winner was, he resigned. While I and my partner won on technicality, it was an empty victory, doubly so since the Set was determined that he "won by default."
But what is the point of my retelling this war tale? Simply this: that the Greek have an incredible ability to come back, sporting units of every color of the rainbow. No strategy they cannot counter, no adversity they cannot topple, for their sheer diversity in units and their skills enables the Greek to defeat the oppressor, despite overwhelming odds, even when the enemy seems all-powerful.
And that is why the Greek are a force to be reckoned with in AoM.
