A Bitter Pattern

[Asophix 45]

Hi All!

This time, we have two games to bring for you. @ Lord_Chris  and @ Asophix  played after a week again, this time on a much larger playing grounds of Swamp. On this cross-shaped map there are vast estates, with plenty of marshland in the outer edges of each peninsula and a stone circle guarded by a dragon in the middle.

As in previous games, both players were placed in opposite starting positions and the game was played on minimum settings, with added weapons and food. Lord Chris played in the bottom left, while Asophix was put in the top right.

Game 1 - On Short Notice

The first game brought a very active early skirmish. Right from the outset, both players placed their first few buildings and rushed their Lords to the bottom right village in order to get a foothold. Asophix - in green - came through the swamps and the forest, wetting his stallion's horseshoes. Lord Chris - in blue - chose to ride along a tad longer pathway, and as he reached estate proper much earlier, he started capturing the village.

The countdown had still a little while to go though, and as Asophix approached, both lords summoned their aides halfway to gain the upper hand. There was a huge difference in the summoned units' power, and with the countdown broken, the blue player started preparing for the usual cat-and-mouse game to keep distance from tempered Arthurian swords.

Lord Chris has however not taken into account that mounted Knights are much faster compared to Shield Maidens, and suddenly he found himself stripped bare of mount, as part of the green group charged him down. As the Shield Maidens ran back to defend and stopped to fight with the green henchmen, Asophix broke out of the fight and used a few Knights and his Lord to assail the exposed blue Lord. The swift strike of three elite units quickly ended the fight in Asophix's favour, in a measly two minutes.

      

Game 2 - Gnashing Teeth

After the rather short game, a rematch was immediately agreed.

In a rather similar manner, the early game brought sweaty palms for both sides. Asophix decided to rush out with his lord much faster, cutting the map in half rather than going for a quick capture of either estate, as it would risk him being put out of position. Knowing how powerful Knights can prove, Lord Chris assumed as much of a forward position in his estate but held back to defend. The initiative remained in the Arthurian player's hands and using the maneuverability of his loyal guards, he rode up and summoned them in the nearby treeline. The green Knights triumphantly destroyed the initial buildings of the Ice player, causing great disruption but not ending the game right away.

After the skirmish, Asophix pulled his Lord back, allowing a breather for Lord Chris, who still had his power off cooldown. Identifying the defensive Stone Circle in the middle of the map, he rode there, softly pressing the green Lord away. As he captured the circle and Asophix decided to develop his economy further, Lord Chris made use of his confidence and leveraged his summons. He bypassed the green Lord, called for his trusty Shield Maidens to stall Asophix long enough to gain a head start, as he was rushing to the nether lands of his rival. He could cut down the granary and a few buildings before bailing out from his adventure.

           

Ever Get that Feeling of Déja Vu?

At around 5:30, Asophix ended up on Lord Chris's territory again. Seeing how the green Lord can unavoidably deal damage, for a moment he charged forward to the enemy estate once more. The distance there however was enormous, and he was desperate to turn back and rally back home, as Asophix employed a daring tactic using his Lord and his summoned Knights to take victory by conquering the enemy keep. The Ice player thankfully returned in time and he stopped the countdown successfully. Asophix used the time bought to extend his economy back home. As the Knights timed out, both lords momentarily exchanged sights on the Ice Keep and the green player pulled out.

Lord Chris was persistently locked on the troublemaker and chased him all the way back to the green estate. In the meantime, Asophix garnered enough honor to rank up and construct a Barracks along with an Armoury. All the time within arms reach, Lord Chris barely failed to catch his adversary and met the resistance from the first light troops. Thus, he summoned his Maidens to net a few pick-offs and stall the enemy forces, as he rode home.

     

Getting to the Mid-Game

Soon came a moment of peace, relatively speaking. The blue player added a lot of iron mines and stabilized his royal food supply, while the green competitor built more on his already established industry. Asophix has sent starting troops to claim the northwest estate and Lord Chris invested a little bit of funds in getting more light troops to build camp in the middle estate, later in the southeastern village as well. Apart from a few skirmishes, the green player managed to sneak in his Lord once again and destroyed the enemy Granary. The Lord traversed out out of the pickle successfully, even though blue Archers killed his mount off.

Both players continued reinforcing their first choice of footholds, with Lord Chris opting to fund an army entirely off of gold, and Asophix scraping the bottom of the barrel for a mass industry of Fletchers and Tanners, which was slow to pay off, but the healthy industry could generously fund it. The green adversary was also choosing to rank up fast, so that more siege engines and Royal Table knights could be recruited. The middle estate was eventually stabilized by the blue player, who made use of his estate ownership by erecting a Siege Camp and creating several Fire Ballistae that could pick off probing Siege Towers containing a few crossbowmen.

Soon enough, both players showed their true army compositions. Lord Chris steadily introduced Pikemen into his mix, as well as relying on Archers and siege engines to gain a battleground advantage. He started amassing the medium armor by the entrance to the northwest area, however Asophix was vigilant to react to it by heavily investing in a rapid response group of Macemen. Twenty "boys" poured out of the green barracks and made contact with the blue Pikemen, while the estate garrison mainly comprised of Archers provided what ranged assistance they could. The Ice Lord reacted with a squad of Fire Ballistae and Cats, but the Macemen disengaged and turned their attention to them, dismantling them and the Siege Camp into splinters. The concave of blue Archers thinned their ranks out quite a bit though.

         

Tipping the Scales

Getting itchy to teach a lesson to his adversary, Lord Chris bought a few Knights and sent a squad of Archers to the northwest estate once again. He rebuilt the Siege Camp too and brought the same siege composition to life, now adding a few Cats to his middle garrison. The rush to the Village Hall proved really mistimed, as the Archers quickly fell to the defense's responsive fire, and the Knights weren't numerous enough to conquer the estate quickly. Asophix used the preoccupied enemy to muster an even larger force of Macemen, who ran interception and killed off a few Carters, as well as the numerous but frail sentries of blue Archers. He also used Sir Percival to dispose of the central forces with a Holy Blast. After the air was clear again, the green player removed all resistance, except those Knights in the northwestern estate. The carters continued to be a valuable target to claim rich meat deliveries.

Asophix found himself in the clear and in front of empty protruding walls. His band of Macemen and Crossbowmen quickly took the lead and using the central estate, a green Siege Camp was quickly built and Laddermen soon poured out to conquer the walls, as well as Trebuchets rolled out to bombard buildings from long range. The exposed defender, Lord Chris quickly built forward Siege Camps to snipe the invaders with fiery bolts, as the green troops scaled his walls. This triggered a quick response from Asophix, sending in a band of Macemen to quickly destroy the threat. Blue Pikemen and the Lord also arrived to sweep the area and after the Camp was removed, the Macemen decided to raid the food chains and cause marginal damage along with destroying the Ice Granary.

A Test of Willpower and Economy

Lord Chris did not waver upon the destruction wrought on his industry. Using his vast real estate, he slowly rebuilt his food production in the back of his Keep, while slowly growing an impenetrable defense comprised of Archers, Crossbowmen and Pikemen. Asophix could not use his leather-armored troops directly in the confrontation, so he slowly tightened the containment and used his Trebuchets and units to destroy whatever building possible from long range. The Macemen went as far as to removing the blue Iron Mines. After scrambling a little bit to stabilize the forward outpost due to Lord Chris's recalled archer groups, the green player decided to bring in his few Trebuchets closer and commence with further bombardment.

This maneuver proved however fatal for Asophix, as another guerilla Siege Camp appeared and Fire Ballistae destroyed the now defenseless Trebuchets. Carters worked hard to keep the blue economy alive, and after the second camp was removed, the green Macemen rushed in to desperately cause whatever damage they can. They were no match for the keep's protectors. As the Macemen reinforcements kept coming, Lord Chris decided it's time to roll out a few Frost Giants and confidently march to the green territory. The giants were so fast that they arrived there relatively unscathed, working on crucial buildings, destroying a few in the process. They did not manage to kill the production though.

The next 45 minutes could be described as sweaty and stressful for both sides. Asophix maintained the containment, but the lack of trebuchets and a way to directly assail the blue Keep caused him to send droves of Macemen, eventually Swordsmen and Knights without proper protection against it. The lull between two attacks also allowed Lord Chris to muster additional hit squads of Frost Giants and force his opponent to spend badly needed funds into repelling them with Knights and Macemen elsewhere.

Eventually, Lord Chris managed to reach a state of impenetrability: he successfully dug himself in, adding the Ice Queen, rebuilding his economy and popping up Fire Ballistae constantly to thin out the sieging army. Asophix tried all kinds of different unit compositions, but all efforts were blunted by freezing attacks and concentrated fire from the defenders. The drawing of the line continued.

After 1 hour and 25 minutes, the conflicting forces agreed to a draw and a final charge, seeing how neither side can reach a decisive progress without committing a large mistake. A true testament of power from both participants!