Game Report: Zeronix (Everdan) vs Jay Embee (JJEmpire64)

Zeronix (Everdan), as Sasha, vs Jay Embee (JJEmpire64), as Von Bolt

This is a continuation of the series I first started in http://www.takeyourturn.net/t937-gl-game-report-everdan-vs-mxdcyw2000.

Game link:
https://awbw.amarriner.com/game.php?games_id=280607

Map:
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I didn't do much pre-game analysis this time. My reason for picking Sasha was basically because there's rather high funding (22k per side) and 5 production facilities. Sasha is best able to exploit the increased production capacity that results. Jay picks VB, who is always a strong pick in T1.

VB's strategy will always revolve around being as aggressive as possible, making use of his +10/+10 stats to eke out advantages through good unit trades. As Sasha, my strategy will be to not get overwhelmed by VB aggresssion in the early and mid-game, and accumulate economic advantage until the late-game, where my superior funding will allow me to slowly push VB back.

Day 1-3

A very conventional opening by both sides - no skipped cities or weird strats. Jay gets first vehicle, and goes for an early tank as VB. I think this is a good choice - VB will aim to neutralize my increased economic advantage through efficient tank trading.

Game state at end of Day 3:

Day 4: Zeronix

At this point, I begin to study the map more closely. The two side fronts are rife with chokepoints and defensive potential. It is very likely that the two circled cities will be extremely difficult to flip later on. Therefore I decide to make an ambitious play and skip a capture to confirm my capture of that city on the left. Meanwhile, I build an arty on the right to contest the corresponding city on that side. I build a mech in the center because it won't hinder my capture phase much, and also to discourage any over-aggressive tank play there.

Day 4: Jay

Jay's tank moves down to harrass my center. He continues with a rather standard
capture phase, with no skips or weird builds. All inf builds this turn since he doesn't have the money for another vehicle.

Day 5: Zeronix

Since Jay didn't landgrab that city on the right, my arty can now move up to deny its capture completely, and possibly even safeguard my own capture of that city.

The mech moves up toward my central city. If Jay threatens that city next turn, I can move the mech into range, while building a tank from my base to safeguard it twice. That should provide sufficient deterrent to prevent any reckless attacks. If he doesn't, then I get to safely cap that city without the tank investment this early on - a win either way.

The bottom infantry in the center, which was straddling the line between a city cap and going for tower, decides to go for the city. I could have gone for the tower and airport first, but that would have meant it would take many turns to get back, and I need the extra body on the frontline to defend against Jay's tank harrassment.

I have more than 9000 funds this turn, so I can build a vehicle somewhere. I considered building from the central base, but decided not to so I could accelerate my capture of the backwards tower and airport. I also want to build more infantry on the right to assist in the possible city capture. That leaves the left as the only place where I can build a vehicle. I choose an arty over a tank, because:
1) The tank does not seem immediately useful there, since it would be too late to harrass any captures, and in any case I really don't want to tank-trade with Von Bolt before I have my tower.
2) I will definitely need arties to defend the chokepoints later on, in which case it's better to build it earlier on since an arty is the slower play.

Day 5: Jay

What I think Jay thinks at this point: Zeronix is well-prepared to defend the central city should I contest it. The arty on the left and an advancing infantry escort also means that my tank can't do much there. Therefore it'll be best used harrassing enemy infs in the bottom of the map, where Zeronix has relatively few troops so far.

Thus Jay diverts his tank towards the bottom. On the right side, one infantry moves into position to contest my city capture from a mountain. That's already good, but it's made even better by VB's innate +10% defense. The way defense works in AWBW, the more of it you have, the more efficient it becomes. E.g. on 0* terrain, +10% defense reduces damage by 10%, but on 4* terrain, +10% defense reduces damage taken by 16%. You get the point.

He builds a second tank to reinforce the first one, and an arty on the right to deny my capture of the contested city.

Day 6: Zeronix

I make an ambitious play on the right. I start capturing the city, with my arty moving into range to block. I know it can be harrassed, but the harrassing inf will have to take a shot from my arty all the same, so I'm confident I can come out ahead in the trade.

I make sure to keep the defending arty within 6 tiles of the base so that I can safeguard it with a tank if necessary. One possible response to this by Jay is to move his central tank 6 tiles to the right, threatening to first-strike my arty. If I don't do anything, my arty will be forced to retreat next turn, giving VB a favourable exchange in first-striking my inf.

Allowing that would be pretty bad, so I build a second arty on the right. Now, if he does attempt to threaten my arty there, my arties can guard each other, and I can also build a tank from that base the following turn, allowing me to kill the tank should it try to attack an arty. The great thing about this is that I still don't need to commit to building a tank there.

In the center, my inf starts capping the city that Jay gave up on pressuring. Jay's tank is currently parked on a city that's rightfully mine, but as I'm not in position to cap it this turn anyway it isn't actually a fund loss for me. I move an inf into capture range and move the mech one up, one right to guard that inf. This is actually a tactical oversight by me - I didn't notice that this allows the tank to first-strike the mech. Instead, I should have moved it two to the right, where it would have been safe.

I have 14k this turn, and I built an arty on the right, which leaves me with money for one more vehicle. I could build a tank this turn, but again it's not really going to do much immediately, and I would much rather prioritize an arty in the center where it will safeguard my cities. Thus my builds for this turn are two arties, bringing me to a total of 4(!) arties without a tank yet. Definitely somewhat unconventional, but I think this was the best line to take given the matchup and how the opening phase played out.

Day 6: Jay

Jay decides not to hit my mech in the center. Instead, he parks the tank on a city I was within cap range of. I think this was an acceptable decision. It's difficult for me to provide a full explanation in this short space, so I suggest interested readers do the calculations for themselves and come to their own conclusions. Nevertheless, here are my thoughts:

Firstly, let's look at what would have happened, had he chosen the other path. Simulating a VB tank first strike on my mech, we find that VB can expect to achieve a 9-2 split. That's 1700 net gain in unit value for him. However, the crippled mech doesn't affect my grasp on the central front all that much, since I can immediately build a tank to reinforce, and all my captures there are completed anyway. I also get meter charge this way. His way of denying captures for a couple turns gets comparable value, but without charging my meter.

Secondly, we can look at this from a strategic lens. Yes he gets some short-term gain by attacking my mech, but since he is attacking so close to my base, I can easily defend and push him back. The initial attack does not translate into some sort of permanent advantage. On the other hand, he can hope to hold the bottom front for a couple more turns, which makes it more worthwhile to attack there.

On the right, Jay's inf moves onto a mountain and gets a really nice 9-6 split on my capping inf. The arty moves into position to deny a capture. One infantry on the right moves within cap range of a neutral city.

Jay builds an AA from that base to pre-empt a B-copter on my side. More than anything else, the proactive AA signals an intent to fight for control of the bottom, since if all Jay wanted was to defend his top right, a reactive AA would be more than enough to counter a copter from me. Jay also prioritizes tower capture in preparation for a potential fight at the bottom.

Day 7: Zeronix

The mech misplacement from the last turn comes back to bite me this turn. I really want to move my central arty next to the mountain, where it will safeguard an inf capture and force Jay's tank off the city, but due to my error, the mech is unable to safeguard the arty by sitting on the city beside it. It's unfortunate, but I have to make the best of it. The arty takes up a suboptimal position parked on the city, and the mech moves to guard it. I build a tank from the central base to double-guard the arty to make it super-safe.

I really need to do something about the bottom. The B-copter build this turn is extremely valuable since it puts a hard stop to a lot of potential tank aggression by Jay. I move the factory arty toward the center to contest neutral cities. One benefit of having the fighting occur in my home territory is that my infs are much quicker to reach the battlefield than Jay's; this is now made apparent as my infantry form a line to shield the arty from the tank.

On the right, my arty takes his mountain inf down to 4 health. I note that Jay is not able to reinforce that inf this turn, so my damaged inf moves out of arty range and attacks again to bring it to 2 health. I didn't get the city, but I did win the engagement, and can safely retreat next turn. My arty is also well-positioned to continue denying capture of the neutral city.

On the left, my arty rolls forward uncontested, into position to deny a city capture, while my infs move into cap range. Realistically I don't think I can capture this city safely, since Jay has sufficient infantry nearby and can easily reinforce this front with both tanks and copters. However, pressuring him here will force him to divert resources from attacking on the right, easing my defensive task.

Taking a step back and looking at the big picture, my economic advantage means I am slowly pulling ahead of Jay in vehicle count and unit value. If I can hold the bottom front and minimize fighting for the next couple of turns, my superior vehicle count and quick reinforcements will eventually force Jay to retreat.

Day 7: Jay

Despite having an inf in cap range, Jay decides not to start capturing the neutral city on the right. I find this decision odd. Yes, I will be able to disrupt that capture with an inf attack, but Jay would have gotten a 6-7 split favouring the defender. Such reverse first strikes are very rare in AWBW and should be exploited whenever possible. As such I consider this a minor mistake.

Instead Jay parks tanks on those cities to continue denying their capture. Since I don't have any infantry in cap range of the rightmost neutral city, Jay's arty is freed up to move toward the center.

Jay also produces an arty and copter on the left in response to my pressure there. I think this was the right move, as Jay does need to prevent my arty from rolling forward unopposed there. However, it does take a lot of steam out of any potential attack on the bottom front, and makes my defense much easier. Meanwhile, my arty isn't threatened yet so it can continue to hold position, denying captures.

One thing I notice is that Jay does not move an inf into cap range of the leftmost city I currently have an inf parked on. Instead, he timidly moves it onto the mountain, out of range of my inf. Maybe Jay was afraid of the first strike, but seeing how it can be easily reinforced I don't think I could have attacked it anyway. In fact, hanging back there delays any potential attempt to capture the very same city. I thus classify this as a minor mistake.

Day 8: Zeronix

This turn is pretty critical.

Let's get the minor things out of the way first. My arty on the right retreats a step, just out of range of tank fire. I build a tank from the right base base, which serves a dual purpose: it can move left to reinforce the south, or it could move up into position to shield my arty, along with the infantry now heading for the neutral city. I have the flexibility of doing either, depending on what Jay does with his turn.

On the left my arty continues to zone Jay out of the neutral city, while my infs pull back to a more defensible position. I build an AA to counter his copter. Looking back, I think I misplayed the infantry movement on the left. Yes, I did need to retreat a step or two, but I retreated too much, which allows Jay free reign to take up better offensive positioning the next turn. More on that in the next turn review. I classify my play here as a minor mistake.

The meat of this turn is, of course, the handling of the south. I think it's easier to show the final moves and then explain why they work.



Discounting the capturing inf, I have 8 units to Jay's 4. My arties achieve excellent coverage of the two cities - if not dealt with, Jay will be forced to retreat next turn. However, he can't really attack into my formation. Everything is safeguarded multiple times. The only potential weakness is the arty behind the mountain. It is possible to 2HKO my road inf, then plant a tank on a city to cripple that arty. However, everything involved in that attack would definitely be lost to the counterattack. Jay would suffer unacceptable losses of 2 tanks and an inf.

Here I want to highlight the placement of 2 infs beside the tank on the city. The act of "strangling" a high-value unit with low-value ones is a general technique applicable to many situations. By placing low-value meatshields directly beside a high-value enemy unit, you force it to either waste its attack hitting the meatshields, or have to move away to allow something else to hit the meatshields, making it unable to attack anything deeper in your formation. In this case, it doesn't matter, because Jay is unable to clear my meatshields in the first place, but this would have saved me from an extra tank attack if he'd had one more inf capable of hitting my road inf.

The most extreme form of strangling is complete encirclement, something I'm sure many of you are familiar with. However, I want to show that strangling is still a powerful tactic even when you can surround only partially.

Day 8: Jay

Faced with no way to break my formation in the south, Jay has to retreat. He retreats to a more defensible position behind the mountain, while keeping his infs within cap range of the two cities on the right I'm denying with my arties. His AA takes up an advanced position.

There are two ways for me to interpret Jay's decision here. One is that he is content to give up the south front, and redirect his two tanks to the west in order to break my arty-lock of his neutral city. In which case his AA is definitely out of place, as it will not be able to keep up with my copter should I redirect the copter to the right. The other is that he is intending to redirect the two tanks to the east, to break my arty-lock of the neutral city there. In which case he should definitely have moved at least one tank within 6 spaces of that arty to threaten an AA OHKO into a tank hit on the arty. Either way Jay's handling of the east front was suboptimal, and I think this is a mistake.

On the west, Jay's arty goes down the side to force my inf off the city, backed up by two infs. In the west-center, Jay takes up a threatening position with four infs and a copter, ready to attack my formation should the arty remain where it is. He produces a tank to counter my AA.

I also think Jay handled this side poorly. His arty does force my inf off the city, but he has no infs in cap range to start immediately capturing. Had he been able to threaten to start capturing immediately, I would have been forced to give up at least one inf to prevent this capture, whereas in the game I was able to respond in time with a new arty build and no material sacrifice. This is thus a mistake.

Day 9: Zeronix

On this turn I finally finish capping my tower, giving me a much-needed firepower boost against VB. On the east, I start capping one of the neutral cities, and move infantry into cap range of the other two. My formation this turn is planned around allowing my arties to continue to lock the cities, preventing Jay from taking them for himself. The arty on the road behind the mountain, in particular, must continue to lock that city, otherwise Jay could start capping and guard the inf with an arty, forcing me to either sac an inf to deny the capture or allow him to take the city. I build a tank against his AA.

On the west, I decide that I can take Jay's first strike against my infs + arty, and assume a formation in range of all five units. I build an arty to guard my west-most contested city, and a tank in the center for reinforcements. Taking advantage of Jay's overextended AA, my copter goes west to support the arty there. Jay's AA will have a rough time following it while remaining out of range of my tanks.

Looking back on this turn I think I should have directed a copter + tank to the left instead of just a copter. The tank is not doing much on the south front, and I already have reinforcements arriving from the eastern base. As it is, this tank will arrive a turn too late to do anything useful on the west. This is a mistake from me.

Day 9: Jay

Jay decides to attack in the west. He gets a great first strike, killing 2 infs and crippling my AA. VB's 120/110 stats aren't to be overlooked, haha. The western arty repositions toward the center to assist in the fight. Jay also pulls back from the eastern front. He builds tanks to increase his offensive potential. In the east he leaves a single arty to lock the easternmost neutral city, and decides to attack my inf with his for a 9-3 trade. I find this odd as I will definitely be able to kill the offending inf the following turn, leaving me up a unit for no apparent compensation. I would love to know Jay's thought process here, but until then I have to consider this a mistake.

Discounting that singular error, Jay's decision to attack here is a good one. As VB he has to get his value through direct brawling, where his stats will really shine. He will also break my arty-lock over his neutral city, which is a plus.

However, he won't be able to completely overrun me here, as I have reinforcements already on the way, and will be able to reinforce much quicker than he can. Note that a couple of his infantry are within attacking range of a newly produced tank from my central base. Additionally, due to having pulled back in the south, he allows me to cap my own neutral city without too much trouble. Overall I think this is an acceptable result for me.

Day 10: Zeronix

I counterattack in the west. The crippled arty retreats for repair, vacating a space for my AA to nuke Jay's copter. I also manage to kill 1 inf and cripple 3 more. Faced with the choice here, I prefer crippling fresh units to killing half-dead units because I am on the defense, and 1 fresh unit is a bigger offensive threat than 2 half-dead ones. (The calculus for attacking is different: you want to kill enemy units to reduce the enemy meatshield count.)

My copter parks on a good central tile, out of range of the enemy AA, and guards my own AA from enemy tank attack. The lack of anti-air on the left is starting to hurt Jay; possibly he should have gone for an AA on the west instead of a tank the previous turn. My arty takes up position behind it, where it is immune to enemy attack, and guards the tank on a city.

I also shift my eastern forces westward, shadowing Jay's units. I start capping the eastern neutral city, which Jay is not in good position to really prevent. I build some sorely-needed tanks, mirroring Jay's build choice. The arty-centric composition was fine for the early game capture phase shenanigans, but as we transition into mid-game I need tanks if I want to be able to take the initiative. I'm aiming for a comp where I have at least 2 direct vehicles per indirect unit. Anything less is probably too passive.

Day 10: Jay

Jay continues the attack in the west. He cripples my AA and kills 2 more of my infantry, and also joins a couple units to provide fresh, full-health units for his assault. A portion of his forces can't safely cross the center, however, and are forced to assume a more backward position. In particular the AA is one square too distant to guard the tank that attacked my AA.

In the east, Jay's arty abandons coverage of the neutral city, since I can't threaten to capture it anytime soon.

Day 11: Zeronix

My copter gets a free hit on Jay's tank this turn, but the rest of my forces disengage, retreating behind arty cover, as I didn't have enough stuff in striking range this turn to continue the attack. Still, retreating here isn't too bad since Jay won't be able to continue his own attack.

Taking a step back, it's apparent from the CO bar that both Jay and I sustained about equal amounts of economic damage through this attack. However, Jay has yet to capture the western contested city despite his attack, whereas I have been able to finish capping its counterpart in the east since Jay abandoned his pressure there. Moreover, as a result of rushing my troops west to reinforce, I now have a sizable force in the west capable of pushing forward in the coming turns, and it will be augmented by fast reinforcements from the 2-base side. This turn probably marks the turning point where I begin to take the initiative and fight for an advantage.

Day 11: Jay

Jay this turn takes up a strong forward position in the west, taking advantage of the fact that I am not yet ready to launch an attack there. In this way he completely safeguards the capture of the neutral city. The aggressively positioned tanks also threaten much of my position; if I am careless with my next turn he can roll forward and begin a much more severe assault on my position.

However, we do note that on this turn, even after completing production, his total unit value is still less than mine; a milestone in my economic game has been reached.

Day 12: Zeronix

In the west, I adopt a solid, defensive position, taking advantage of all the chokepoints to deny Jay attacking space. My tanks are also in position to do some serious damage to Jay if he leaves his units exposed like that. I build a rocket, which will help me advance forward safely while zoning out his units.

In the east, I move forward, taking advantage of Jay's absence there to claim space. In addition, I join the 7hp inf with the 3hp one, creating a full-health inf in cap range of the neutral city. I now have threats on both sides of the board, which Jay needs to respond to at the same time.

Day 12: Jay

Jay correctly takes a step back in the west. His frontline forms a single line, denying more than one square of attacking space per unit. The flanks are covered by terrain, and arties cover each unit as well. This is, of course, impossible for me to attack into.

In the east Jay steps forward as well, now threatening to capture the city on the right. and hoping to deny my capture of the neutral city. He sorely needs the income, after all.

Day 13: Zeronix

Since Jay has decided to split his forces, I ignore the clump that retreated and go after the clump that is threatening me in the east. My tanks take up good offensive positions, using the central passageways as a staging area. It is now decidedly unsafe for Jay to try and capture my city, since he risks being surrounded and destroyed.

In addition I manage to finesse the capture of the neutral city. My tanks hits Jay's inf, blocking it. Jay has no means of disrupting the capture now, and even the blocking tank can be guarded with an arty. I repeat the trick from before, building a second arty on the right to guard the first arty if necessary.

Day 13: Jay

Since I have prevented the attack in the east, Jay pivots back to the west, bringing infs into cap range of all three of my cities there. He builds a rocket to deal with mine.

Day 14: Zeronix

I respond to Jay's pivot, making sure every city is covered by an arty. On this turn I also build my fourth copter of the game. I am well ahead of Jay in both unit value and unit count at this point, and he also has to play around the threat of my COP. Furthermore, I have a secure lock on my income lead. Jay's only hope for a comeback - a decisive engage in his favour - is slowly fading.

Day 14: Jay

Jay builds a second rocket, and diverts the first toward the side. Clearly he hopes to push me back and capture my front city, but in return he suffers a significant loss of tempo. This, in combination with an imperfect defensive formation, becomes his downfall next turn.

Day 15: Zeronix

Strategically, there are several reasons why I want to attack Jay here:
1) I can reinforce more quickly than Jay, since the battle occurs on my 2-base side.
2) I have more units and more unit value than Jay in the area - 18 vehicles to 13, and similar numbers of infantry.
3) The rockets will not be able to influence the fight for another couple turns. In addition, I reduce their effectiveness by trading down with Jay.
4) I have COP available, which means I can enjoy 120/110 stats like VB on this turn.
5) If I don't attack here, Jay will force me back on the left and finally attain income parity.

All this wouldn't count for much if it weren't tactically sound as well, so let's see how I execute this turn.

First, my AA hits the road inf at (2,8 ), killing it and getting some charge. Then I activate my COP, bringing Jay's meter down to zero. I get a 2HKO on the tank at (3,8 ), then cripple the arty at (3,7). My tanks get first strike on his tanks at (5,8 ) and (6,8 ), and my copter cripples the inf at (4,8 ). Overall inflicted damage amounts to 2.7 vehicles and 1.8 infs on first strike. I back up the advance with indirects, and build two tanks and a copter in the west to make up for expected losses.

Day 15: Jay

My attack has exposed many units, but Jay doesn't have enough vehicles to exploit all the openings. Jay has 10 vehicles in the fray, which will be able to inflict roughly 5 vehicles worth of damage. However, my second wave will be much more devastating now that I have a foothold in his position, and my reinforcements will arrive much more quickly. Even in the worst case where I disengage this turn, my indirect support should guarantee a few kill confirms on vehicles, which will allow me to break even after considering last turn's gains.

Probably the best defense here for Jay was to kill the two tanks at (2, 8 ) and (3,8 ), clearing a path for his AA to kill my copter, while bringing the rockets forward and retreating elsewhere. I'd have been fine after this response, but at least Jay would still be playing.

Instead Jay attempts to cripple as many units as possible, hoping to cut my offensive potential. This is actually the exact opposite of what you should do when exposing troops to indirect fire. A tank on tank first strike will result in a 8-4 or 8-5 split on most terrain. However, the arty can knock that 8 hp down to 1-2 hp, the perfect amount for the now-crippled 4-5hp tank to finish off. I can thus use all my crippled units to efficiently get last hits. Ideally you would want to force the opponent to waste full-health units on those last hits. As such, Jay should have prioritized kills here.

Day 16: Zeronix

I wipe out all of Jay's troops. Note how crippled units were able to finish off weakened enemy tanks at (1,8 ) and (6,9).

At the end of the turn I activate my COP. After the beating he took this turn, Jay had a full bar, but my COP now slashes his meter in half, leaving him 45k away from his SCOP. I'm close to a third COP, and I bank money this turn, saving up so I'll have at least 40k the following turn to completely eradicate his meter.

It is in this position that Jay resigns.