EB Online Tournement Battle Report Thread

[tsidneku]

I played a test game against ACS at 36k. We agreed that he wouldn't use any Chevron upgrades, but I was permitted to (with what little money I had, I upgraded one archer unit LOL). It was a close enough battle, I did lose but the possibility of a victory was not nigh impossible.

I'm not sure what will happen if you bump it up to 40k and keep the current unit restrictions. I think you will find a lot more Hellenic factions upgrading their phalangites from medium-tier ones to elites or just buying more expensive heavy cavalry (for those that couldn't afford it).

[Maion Maroneios]

I could have sworn it was you. Maybe it was someone else? I remember it was against on of the better Mak players that wasn't IrishHitman. But yeah, I formed a triangle with my legionaires that was surrounded by phalanxes on one side. I threw my Pedites into your Thracian Skirms and Hoplites. You then tried to out flank me. I let you and draw your cavalry behind my triangle. I then lobbed all my spearmen at you cavalry and we had a running cav battle into the corner. I then ran my cavalry the hell away behind your phalanx and started charging it.

Then your cav came back and we had a final cav fight. Your general routed and my men finally surrounded your forces for the win. It was very close and its fights like that why I think that a chevroned up Rome is balanced vs Macedon @ 40K. If the Companions had managed to get around my Samnites in force, it would have been game.

I'll change mnai back to 40K tonight :-\ I rather get a game as Maks in before I do at 40K against ACS(preferably) or someone else. They are pretty much invincible if they preserve their cavalry arm.

I'll post the replay tonight. I could have sworn it was you. I think we fought another time and you were complainng about Burebista always hiding his archers in the woods. That was like his one and only trick. :-p

Sorry, I really don't remember that. I remember trying to play you twice, but I still had that crappy Wireless connection whic resulted in the battles ending before any clash at all.

Oh well...

Maion

[darius_d]

This is the first battle I fought with the new rules and, as I expected, my army was mauled very, very badly.
...
As such, I ask you to consider raising the cap to 40,000 again and abolishing the +1 chevron rule.

As you said - it was your first time game with 36K budget.
Instead of asking to change the rules now when the tournament has started, just try some more battles, improve your tactics and progress will be inevitable. See how Flavius Belisarius is doing with Makedonia.


Idea of coming back to 40K and abolishing chevrons it is actually come back to old balancing problems for romans and barbarians (besides it is unfair to all those who contributed their time to work with 36K budget over the last week).

If anything, I see more reason to force players to use light inf / auxilia units.
However, all results played so far in tournament should be respected.

[darius_d]

Back to topic:

I am very proud to announce my first win in the tournament.
I was playing Qartadastim against my nemesis Romani (Polybian) commanded by Agrippa.

this is the replay:
http://www.mediafire.com/?eijfgzvwy2y
Edited: new link

PS. This is not my first battle in the tournament - the first one played with Flavius Belisarius was interrupted by his connection problems and I should rather feel relief for that outcome :)

So, when Agrippa told me he took Polybian I knew I am in trouble, just recently I also was a victim of ACS's Romani Polybian army, and I expected from Agrippa the same deadly formation.
But what I finally saw on the battlefield was actually even worse.

Agrippa brought an army consisting of just princepes, and some triarii. Plus 2 elite cavalry units. No hastati. And no archers or other soft units. All densely packed in defensive style.
I was shocked to see that, so much that I simply had no idea for my battle plan.
My Carthage army consisted mainly of good Iberian infantry, some cheap archers and 2 solid cavalry units but since hastati were fully replaced by princepes I felt this battle was over even before it started.

That's why it took so long time before the armies clashed, because I initially was on the edge of leaving the battle, having doubts if army consisting of virtually just principes (no hastati, no auxilia) is ok.
Indeed, it is Agrippa who came with his army to mine. My troops made no move forward, because until that time I was desperately trying to figure out any reasonable tactics.

However, just before units engaged in fighting I managed to do some regroupments and finally as well as much surprisingly secured the outcome of the day.

I wanted to show some printscreens so I tried to upload them to albums on my account in this forum, but apparently this upload doesnt work. If someone can prove me wrong I have some spare baloons.

[antisocialmunky]

https://imageshack.us/

I wouldn't mind doing a screenshot prize at the end of this as well.

[_Agrippa_]

Hi to everybody, here is the battle between me and Maris..... , my legionaries have born less badly the wave of cavalry to the shoulders has been hard....but roma doesn't know obstacles:))

replay battle download : http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=6z1gkvnlxlb

[antisocialmunky]

Well, I played ACS's veteran Polybian Army with a 36K MAK-ATTACK army and here's the replay:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=f...4e75f6e8ebb871

It came down to the wire. Sheesh. I'm not convinced that the Maks are unplayable at 36K but they are rather tough. Its just very hard to find a good balance between their game winning cav arm and their infantry. I dunno, I'm not sure. Hopefully some of your guys can watch this and give some opinions on balancing the Maks.

Probably one of the toughest games I've ever played and wonderfully amazing to watch. GG ACS.

[Flavius_Belisarius]

Great and epic game ! Maybe mac isnt not unplayable at 36k but their at least tremendously hard to play.

[athanaric]

Regarding the Makedonia problem: I just watched the replay of Maion vs. Aulus (the one Maion uploaded). Here are my 2 cents:

- I'm reasonably impressed by ACS's skill and patience in infantry battles .

- While Maion used a well balanced force, Aulus' army was more of an oversized kill squad . Meaning too few light units, especially cavalry.

- Three units of either kind of extraordinarii is too much. Additionally, if one of the players can field three units of Equites Extraordinarii, I don't see why the opponent cannot use two units of Hetairoi.

- There is a unit cost problem, which I suspect lies at the bottom of the Makedonian players' problems:
Some factions just get some troops cheaper. For example, Pahlava gets cataphracts for a lower price than Hayasdan. AFAIK the SPQR has to pay less for decent heavy infantry than other factions.

- I'm strongly against using chevrons. It screws up the balance IMO.

[Flavius_Belisarius]

Dont look only at the state, there is a reason why cataphracts are cheaper for some factions. For example, the hellenich cataphracts have such a bad moral. The problem ist just because the roman infantery is so extreme cheap like you already said. A example, the leavy troops of the hellens are as expensive as the roman standard infantery in the polyiban era.

Hetairo are very expensive with 4600 money. To take more than one of them in a 36k game is possible but than you get a crappy infantery and the only chance to win the battle for you is the cavalry. ASM won against a roman player like you can watch with 2 Hetairo but it was extreme close altough he used his cavalry excellent.

[athanaric]

Dont look only at the state, there is a reason why cataphracts are cheaper for some factions. For example, the hellenich cataphracts have such a bad moral.

Pahlava and Hayasdan have one virtually identical unit: the Zrahakir Netadzik/Shivatîr-î Zrêhbârân (heavily armoured HA). Their stats are identical with the exception of range, which is slightly better with the Pahlavân guys. And yet those Parthians are actually cheaper than their Armenian counterparts.
With the Romans, it is even more evident: their strongest cavalry unit, the Equites Extraordinarii, costs more than comparable Hellenistic or Eastern cavalry. So, there are definitely factional differences not directly related to the quality of the units.

[Fluvius Camillus]

Hmm... Looks like I will have to get some free time to finally defeat you all in this tournament...

~Fluvius

[Aulus Caecina Severus]

Since I played in multiplayer, I have never played a Battle like this (note the capital B).
It during a lot, and was a true masterpiece of strategy, thanks to ASM.
It is worthy to be watched until the last second.

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php/3198519044/furiuos.rpy

My mistake was to too expose my cavalry on the left side ...
thanks to this error I have lost my general too soon

Also ASM has been shown to do the formation in a very intelligent manner.
Indeed, he has not put in the field any missile troops, and he take many levy hoplites to protect the phalanxes.
He take superior cavalry because hellenic medium cavalry is as good as my extraordinari.
But only his Hetairoi made the best work, they are still alive and have overwhelmed my last 3 infantry units.

Was very very fun, at the next ASM!
I think that I never have found anyone as strong as you in this game.

[antisocialmunky]

CHECKPOINT

It would have ended it sooner if I didn't resue my left flank. If I had let it die and instead defeat your left in detail along with those annoying cav remnants I wouldn't have had so many problems....

Great game nonetheless.

@Debate - Maks have trouble at 36K because their units cost more but are usually superior to the enemy's. It really is a quality vs quantity issue. They require alot of cash. I will paly a few more battles later to see if htey need rebalancing.

PS. FB is changing to AS so his wins/losses will be transfered there.

[JinandJuice]

Won a battle against Alsatia. Here's the upload.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ow2dywyweyn

[tsidneku]

CHECKPOINT

Flavius_Belisarius' record should be 1-3, I ought to be 3-1. Refer back a page for the upload.

I played two more matches with Flavius_Belisarius last night.
He has posted the last match already, a couple posts above. He was victorious in that one. ASM, please update the scores accordingly when you have a chance. It ought to be 3-1 for me, and 1-3 for Flavius. Thanks.

Game #3: Flavius_Belisarius vs tsidneku

This one was extraordinarily close. I snuck by with a victory with some effective cavalry charges to route his remaining forces. I think the victory was decided when his general fled from the battlefield.

[Flavius_Belisarius]

Yep true, we played four battles, i won the last one, he won three.

[antisocialmunky]

Done :).

[_Agrippa_]

what a Win!!!! a big battle all to be seen wow..., me against Alsatia.....

replay download : http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=5v9yycfn6qd

[Flavius_Belisarius]

This was a battle between me (Arche Seleukia) against Agrippa (Romani).
http://www.speedyshare.com/881321519.html

At the begin the seleucids advanced to the roman army. The left cavalry arm of the selecuids (hetairoi and persian heavy cavalry) and the rigth one (Horse Archers) surround the romans at their left and rigth back. The horse archers of the hellens opend their fire on some principes, hastati and extraordinarii. The first line of the roman infantery charged into the phalangnits of the seleucids, while the seleucid heavy cavalry took down the most of the roman cavalry. Also the horse archers of the greeks took down in melee some roman heavy cavalry. After the romans had lost their most cavalry the seleucids continued doing hammer and anvil strikes on the roman back. During the battle the rigth wing of the roman infantery tried to sourround the seleucid left wing, but they were caugthed by some kelto hellinko auxillary troops and finaly defeated by seleucid heavy cavalry. After the fall of this roman troops his general died and the battle was so almost over.

gg to Agrippa, it was a great game

[tsidneku]

I've fought two tournament battles versus Alsatia. I'd say he needed to approach me with more hoplites on the flanks to prevent to counter my cavalry.

Here are the replays: both battles were victories for me.

Game #1: Alsatia versus tsidneku - victory to tsidneku

Game #2: Alsatia versus tsidneku - victory to tsidneku

Just defeated my first Romani in the tournament, Agrippa. He went very infantry heavy in his army.. no ranged mercenaries at all.

Game #1: Agrippa versus tsidneku - victory to tsidneku

I played two games with ACS. One was a victory for me, the second was one for him.

Game #1: ACS vs tsidneku - victory to tsidneku

Game #2: ACS vs tsidneku - victory to ACS

[antisocialmunky]

You know I've just played a few Mac battles and I have to say that their army composition isn't horrible - it about where all the other hellenic factions are minus the hordes of AP the easterners get to deploy. Instead they get more defensive options. The only problem are the hordes of HI that Polybian Rome spits out. Not sure what to do. To be honest, its not completely game breakingly bad.

I'll tally the games in a few hours or so.

EDIT: Checkpoint. Please check your updated totals.

[vartan]

http://www.mediafire.com/?zx1mztmjg1m


I lose against Mithick here.

http://www.mediafire.com/?kcuqmzqyezn

Here I win against him.

GG Michel,
Vartan

[Parallel Pain]

I always forget to save replay =(

So I guess other people will have to report. I think I lost 3 or 4 times. I remember loosing against ASM, tsidenku, and JinandJuice.

[JinandJuice]

got your back there pp, here's the replay.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yydnztkzydj

[_Agrippa_]

battle #2 Agrippa versus Alsatia

replay download :http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=d...4e75f6e8ebb871 Victory of Agrippa



nice battle Alsatia

[antisocialmunky]

CHECKPOINT

Victory Against Saba For Me :)
http://www.mediafire.com/?e0lnznml1zw

I consider the battle against darius_d a draw since he could have ran waway form me forever. GG btw.

(I've played like 4 games owning people as Macedon so that's why I only have 1 Baktria)

In case anyone cares, current factional rankings are:
Pontos: 7 - 2 = 5
Romani: 7 - 5 = 2
Baktria: 1 - 0 = 1
Carthage: 1 - 0 = 1
Hayasdan: 1 - 1 = 0
Vartan 1 - 1 = 0
Makedonia: 0 - 0 = 0
Sweboz: 0 - 0 = 0
Arche Seleukia: 2 - 3 = -1
Getai: 0 - 1 = -1
Saba 0 - 2 = -2
KH: 0 - 5 = -5

The Top 3 players are:
tsidneku 7 - 2 = 5
JinandJuice 2 - 0 = 2
Antisocialmunky AND darius_d 1 - 0 =1

Tsidneku and Pontos are running aware with the game lol.

[JinandJuice]

I had forgotten to upload this one.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ydit1tzjkzd
I won against Parallel Pain again.

BTW, how do we count the top 3? most wins or most kill/death ratio?

[Parallel Pain]

Saba got a win!

Replay (hope it works, first time uploading)
http://www.filefront.com/13986451/Tourn-Alsatia.rpy//

Battle: Parallel Pain vs Alsatia

Alsatia forgot to bring ranged troops and a total commitment to avoiding a headlong engagement lost him the battle.

I think the fact that Saba got a win deserve to be in bold and underlined lol

[_Agrippa_]

battle #1 : Agrippa vs ParallelPain

victory of Agrippa

replay battle : http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=d...4e75f6e8ebb871


nice battle ParallelPain