GL Game Report: mxdcyw2000 vs the FANG

Introduction

With the restart of the Global League, we've seen the revival of many of the best AWBW players. This game commentary is an attempt to preserve just a bit of their gameplay for future generations to come.

Okay enough of the cheesy intro, and on to the good stuff!

Pre-Game Analysis

The Map

The map they're playing on this time is Eclipse.



Several things about this map stand out immediately, namely the short distance from the bases to the centre making reinforcement easy, the closeness of the contested cities in the middle, and the choky terrain in the middle that's ideal for defense. All this suggests that the battle in the centre will quickly settle into a relatively stable standoff where both players will seek to slowly improve their positioning and zone their opponents out of the centre.

The sides on the other hand are more open - good terrain for tank attacks. Given the distance from the bases and the wider spacing of the cities, there's definitely a lot more potential here for a dynamic back-and-forth battle, and most likely the sides will see most of the action in this game.

These three battlefields are separated by a narrow set of bridges, which is in itself interesting, as it means blockading your enemy for a turn and cutting off his reinforcements could be the key to decisive victory.

CO Choice

The CO Bans this time around are: VB, Hawke, Sasha, Javier, Eagle, Olaf, Sami, Lash. And we have a very interesting matchup right off the bat with Mxdcyw's Adder vs the FANG's Max.

the FANG (Max)

Of the two, Max is perhaps the easier choice to understand. Max's ability to break formations is well known - with 1 tower, his tanks do 97.5 base damage to infantry on 0* terrain, giving him around a 50% chance of getting a OHKO. With all the 0* terrain on this map, the opponent must carefully weigh what risks are worth taking and what are not. In particular, the bridges joining the 3 battlefields are all 0* terrain and in a single line, making them vulnerable to aerial assault. In the mid-late game, Max's opponent will thus find it difficult to switch fronts as this exposes units to attack by copters. the FANG clearly intends to use this to take the initiative and force his opponent into unfavourable battles.

Also, air units are fairly strong on this map, being able to cut right across the heavy terrain and switch fronts in the blink of an eye. The presence of two airports is clearly meant to allow you to counter copters with copters, enabling you to shadow the enemy across the battlefield with your own equally mobile air units. the FANG will aim to capitalize on this with the use of his boosted copters vs Adder's vanilla copters.

mxdcyw2000 (Adder)

At first glance, Adder may seem to be an inferior choice. But after some thought, I believe he is fully capable of contesting Max on this map.

Unlike Max, Adder's COP affects all his units, including infantry and mech, which will definitely be of utmost importance in controlling the centre. Mechs in particular will have a field day on thisw map. Standing on a mountain and with Adder's COP boosting their movement, each mech becomes a mini-tank in its own regard, a mobile swarm which Max will find difficult to deal with.

In addition, Adder does not suffer the indirect penalty, meaning he can use arties to hold the chokepoints down the centre and the sides.

Lastly, Adder's power bar charges much more quickly than Max's. With a mere COP and a tower, Adder's units all become 120/110, equivalent in stats to 1T Von Bolt. In addition, all his units get a movement boost, which means they can threaten more of Max's army. If Max is too aggressive in the early game, Adder will be able to capitalize on this stat boost and the movement boost to decimate Max's army.

Conclusion

To sum it up, Max will seek to capitalize on his offensive prowess by exploiting his powerful tanks and copters in order to take the initiative. Adder on the other hand will seek to nullify this initiative with solid defensive formations backed up by superior numbers of mechs and arties, two units which Max cannot use nearly as well, and in the mid-late game, possibly even Md Tanks, which Max also cannot counter efficiently. In that sense, Adder will likely play out as a slightly weaker version of Sami on this map.

Either way, it looks like a very interesting, asymmetric battle will shortly be unfolding. Stay tuned for the start of Day 1!