Epic 6-way free for all at sea
If you thought the five-way free for all at sea was epic, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Unconquerable and crew return to do one better in this ridiculous match (and when I saw ridiculous, I’m talking dozens-of-galactic-colossi-ridiculous). The players were Unconquerable, RapierX, DeadLegion, SonofShagrat, TimmyFred, and Unclean_Beast. Unfortunately, the former three players are pretty much in a league above the latter three, so it ended up being a 3-way free-for-all after a bit with the three non-top-tier players being easily eliminated. I’d love to see a free-for-all with all top-tier players, by the way.
Anyway, no, I’m not going to write up a detailed summary like last time. The last one took three hours to write, and this one would take much longer. I did, however, keep track of some thoughts as I watched through the replay (which you can download here):
- Air power is very important in protecting your navy. Strategic bombers will wreck even battleships in short order.
- Base defenses are important, but can be built on a as-needed basis. Especially on Roanoke Abyss, SAM missile launchers and tech 2 torpedo launchers can be hurried with lots of engineers as soon as you see the blips on the radar and they will be completed before the enemy units arrive.
- The Aeon strategic bomber’s homing bombs make them much more effective against naval units than any other faction’s.
- A few support commanders with weapons upgrades walking up on an island base can destroy it in minutes. As a defense, it is vital to control the sea near your base; submarines can pick off bottom-walkers before they arrive. If you do not control the sea but you do control the air, torpedo bombers may work too. If you control neither, craploads of walls and tech 2 point defenses may be your best bet, but it’s kind of too late after the enemy has walked ashore. Galactic colossi and monkeylords will also work, but they still have the same problem of only being effective after the enemy has walked ashore and is in your base.
- Renaming your ACU to “Tech 3 Support Command Unit” won’t change units auto-targeting by priority. Nice try though, TimmyFred.
- At one point Unconquerable lost air superiority (all of his fighters were killed, but he was at the unit limit and mostly building submarines at the time), but he controlled the sea around RapierX’s base. RapierX realized this weakness and spammed torpedo bombers. It is vital to control the waters around your base. Fail at this and all sorts of nastiness will starting walking up along your shores.
- Once you hit the unit limit, it’s really important to start destroying all of your old tech 1 and tech 2 stuff to free up units. RapierX still had a lot of tech 1 power generators around long after he hit the unit limit, which impacted how many torpedo bombers he was able to field.
- Beware the combined power of multiple tech 3 artillery and nukes. Unconquerable’s main base was leveled when DeadLegion’s four artillery sniped one of Unconquerable’s anti-nukes, and then one nuke out of a salvo of three was able to get through. The rest of the base fell in quick order.
- CZARs are probably the best bet to take out Galactic Colossi that have already walked ashore in your base. The CZAR’s beam weapon doesn’t even cause friendly fire damage.
- Speaking of Galactic Colossi, nothing is more scary than over a dozen of Unconquerable’s Colossi walking up along your shores and proceeding to demolish most of your base.
- Upgraded support commanders are absolutely ridiculous. The speed with which a pack of them can build structures is mind-boggling. Pack of Aeon SCUs get caught underwater by torpedo bombers? They can throw up some SAM missile launchers in a few seconds. Get caught unawares by battleship bombardment? They can spam tech 3 shield generators like nobody’s business.
- Apparently Unconquerable is conquerable! Congratulations to DeadLegion.
And now, a first for any write-up of a replay I’ve done: Screenshots!
RapierX’s heavily-shielded base shortly before Unconquerable’s Galactic Colossi walked ashore and trashed the place.
Unconquerable up to the same old tricks with his massive spamming of support commanders.
Unconquerable’s Galactic Colossi walk ashore in RapierX’s base and quickly start administering some punishment.
Ow! You shot me in the back!
The aftermath of DeadLegion’s base following the attack by all of Unconquerable’s Galactic Colossi.
Unconquerable’s last stand. This is his expansion base (following the nuking of his main base) being taken out by DeadLegion’s fleet. The bombardment ended up being irrelevant, though, as DeadLegion caught Unconquerable’s commander in the middle of nowhere with his torpedo bombers.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Wow. I cannt wait to watch, then play a ranked game while still under the aww of the top tier players. One day I shall get there…
March 28th, 2007 at 12:24 am
I saw it already, all I can say its that probably rapierx would had won (surpriselly) if he had constructed torp defenses and more point defenses in the shore as well, people dont construct many point defenses on water maps but Its my opinion that its the best thing to do, cuz they: 1._shoot amphibious units that are trying to get ashore and 2._ they can get tech 2 ships that are bombarding the shore as well.
April 1st, 2007 at 11:05 pm
the whole time in the 2nd half, i was watching unconq’s base….he had a total of 3 T1 PDs, 3 T3 AAs if i remember right and until the end only the perimeter of his base was shielded. i kept thinking ’someone get 10 strat bombers and get him right now’ or whatever….i didnt look to see where his ACU was precisely but i was amazed at his lack of defense which as you know, is made up by a wealth of offense.