25-05-2003 07:43									#1
	Japanese Tough 2 on 2 Recorded Game Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

I played a 2 on 2 game this morning as the Japanese with a random computer ally and two random computer opponents. Difficulty was tough, speed slow, map style Great Sahara, everything else normal I think. My ally turned out to be the Aztecs, and the opponents were the Spanish and Maya. You can watch the recorded game here - I'll gladly welcome comments from anyone.

Right from the start I had a wood crunch since my starting woodcutter camp only had 3 spots. Luckily my starting city had a second forest with 3 more spots, but I had to spend the food for a second woodcutter camp. I got my second city up pretty fast - I built it to the north since I was in the south and my ally to the east of me (so I figured the enemy had to be north). I researched Military last of the opening 4, and I started a tower on the north side of my second city just before the 4 minute mark.

Then I got rushed by the spanish. He attacked with 4 or 5 hoplites and a single slinger, literally seconds after I started construction of my tower. I rang the town bell, but I had no military, no tower (and thus no attrition), and no barracks even. I panicked for a second, but then I started a barracks back at my capital while he hacked away at my city. As soon as it finished I queued 2 bowmen, and sent them in one at a time as they were ready. The lone enemy slinger did some damage to my bowmen, but I was able to stop the attack. I had 3 heavy inf (unique unit - I forget the name) follow up the bowmen and I finished him with the combined force. The city survived but not by much. Nonetheless, this little incident has given me a great confidence boost in my ability to handle the rush!

Then I resumed my boom, got my tower up, and researched first level attrition. I built a stable and pumped out 3 horse archers for an ill-advised raid northward into spanish territory. I managed to kill a few civilians and even a caravan, but overall I don't think the raid was worth the resources invested. Meantime I got my third city going. He attacked again, at my third city, but I had built up a few more ground forces by then and I quickly dispatched his attack.

I continued booming until the 20 minute mark. By now I was in gunpowder and had several bombards ready along with a sizable infantry force (half heavy, half gunpowder). I also had a fort near the border which I was using as my staging area. I marched up to the border and set my bombards loose on a stable just across the border, and then on a tower. I took them both while fighting off some spanish units with my infantry, but then a pretty big mayan force showed up. The Mayans were coming from the northeast while the spanish came from the northwest and northeast, and I was having a hard time keeping them from getting into my "backfield" (the bombards). So I retreated back to the cover of the fort and regrouped.

I attacked again around 24:30, this time with I think 5 bombards. He had 2 cities near the border, one to the northeast of my fort and one to the northwest. But I ignored them and went right between towards the capital. It was a risky push since once again I would have units coming at me from two sides. But I was able to reduce and capture his capital very quickly and then micromanage the infantry to keep going after attacking enemy units wherever they showed up. The mayans appeared again with a reasonably sized force, but I cleaned them up with major splash damage assistance from my bombards (they may have been cannons by this point - I forget).

After the capital elimination timer ran down and the spanish were eliminated, it was just a matter of time. By now my booming economy was giving me more than enough of everything. I just kept pouring in the troops, eventually supplementing them with some air power. It took a while to win (territory victory in the end), and I actually had to regroup at one point after taking some losses. But the outcome was never in doubt once it became a 2-on-1 (though my ally was never much help).

Anyway, I hope some of you watch the recorded game and offer me some feedback. I'd love to hear what people think of it.

	27-05-2003 07:47									#2
	Inflate your Upload Space

Pretty good, I wrote down the beginning 8 minutes of your build order and used it myself. Had a pretty fun game, first time I beat Tough Comp too, beat them in the Information Age (I like taking things slow with a huge infantry army 3 nukes and some stealth bombers.

The only problem is you need a barracks quicker, around the 6-7 minute mark in order to defeat their first early rush.

	27-05-2003 08:27									#3
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Well, my early build order was not actually my ideal order since I was interrupted by that rude Spanish rush! But up until the rush, and as soon as I defeated the rush, I thought I built up pretty smoothly. Thanks for watching it by the way.