Alrighty, you all know the deal and why I am posting.
This round took a bit longer than usual and since we are coming down to the wire and there are fewer games for me to watch/review, I thought that I would do what I did last season and go more in depth for the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Grand Final/Third Place Matches. These last few posts for the season will have a bit more detail since I can afford to do it with only a few matches instead of the usual 16+ games per week.
Feel free to click the first spoilers to get the full description or skip to the second spoiler if you JUST want the results.
So, as usual, enjoy and watch the games if' you have the time ^_^
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Match 1 - wW v _XJL_
Prediction from last week (2-0).
Game 1
Map - Arabia
Civ Chosen - Mongol Maya Hun v Mongol Maya Hun
Flank 1 - Mongol v Mongol
Pocket - Maya v Maya
Flank 2 - Hun v Hun
Comments: I find these kind of games interesting in a very specific way. Having every civ matched up against one another creates a certain kind of balance to the game that makes things more skill based. What makes it MORE interesting is that both teams have maya as the pocket civ. A lack of early knights creates different possibilities for an otherwise standard game. On Flank 1, wW decides to drush as mongols while the _XJL_ opponent walls and goes 22 pop up. Drushing with mongols against mongols seems risky to me because of the possibility of 20-21 pop up and early scouts. This would render a drush completely useless and leave a very open and easy to attack fragile economy. Flank 2 both huns drush as well with _XJL_ getting some help from the pocket's scout to get a slight advantage but really the results turn out even with neither drush hitting the enemy economy. On Flank 1 wW does get the militia onto _XJL_'s wood and does some damage killing a vil and stopping the vils from working. _XJL_ goes archers. _XJL_ sees the opposing pocket walling and feudaling a bit early and suspects a sling. This was caught very early and made wW lose any surprise factor. Maya slings the 2 stable huns for wW and tries to win Flank 2 by +2 knight flood. The damage to Flank 2's _XJL_ economy is quite bad but is not sufficient to knock him out of the game. _XJL_'s pocket goes plumes and defends Flank 2. At Flank 1 it appears that wW has the advantage and makes _XJL_ stone wall to avoid having ~20 xbows get in. On Flank 2 wW loses MANY knights and _XJL_ appears to be safe. When _XJL_'s pocket maya imps, things go downhill for wW very fast. wW's pocket imps and tries to save things with EEW spam but it can't work. _XJL_ wins first game.
Civ Chosen - Mongol Maya Hun v Mongol Maya Hun
Flank 1 - Mongol v Mongol
Pocket - Maya v Maya
Flank 2 - Hun v Hun
Comments: I find these kind of games interesting in a very specific way. Having every civ matched up against one another creates a certain kind of balance to the game that makes things more skill based. What makes it MORE interesting is that both teams have maya as the pocket civ. A lack of early knights creates different possibilities for an otherwise standard game. On Flank 1, wW decides to drush as mongols while the _XJL_ opponent walls and goes 22 pop up. Drushing with mongols against mongols seems risky to me because of the possibility of 20-21 pop up and early scouts. This would render a drush completely useless and leave a very open and easy to attack fragile economy. Flank 2 both huns drush as well with _XJL_ getting some help from the pocket's scout to get a slight advantage but really the results turn out even with neither drush hitting the enemy economy. On Flank 1 wW does get the militia onto _XJL_'s wood and does some damage killing a vil and stopping the vils from working. _XJL_ goes archers. _XJL_ sees the opposing pocket walling and feudaling a bit early and suspects a sling. This was caught very early and made wW lose any surprise factor. Maya slings the 2 stable huns for wW and tries to win Flank 2 by +2 knight flood. The damage to Flank 2's _XJL_ economy is quite bad but is not sufficient to knock him out of the game. _XJL_'s pocket goes plumes and defends Flank 2. At Flank 1 it appears that wW has the advantage and makes _XJL_ stone wall to avoid having ~20 xbows get in. On Flank 2 wW loses MANY knights and _XJL_ appears to be safe. When _XJL_'s pocket maya imps, things go downhill for wW very fast. wW's pocket imps and tries to save things with EEW spam but it can't work. _XJL_ wins first game.
Game 2
Arena
Civ Chosen - Spain Frank Goth v Spain Frank Goth
Flank 1 - wW Frank v _XJL_ Goth
Pocket - wW Goth v _XJL_ Spanish
Flank 2 - wW Spanish v _XJL_ Frank
Comments - Personally, I think Frank pocket here is a major advantage. Since neither of them have that, it is more even. Second to that, I think Spanish on Flank is better than in pocket because it gives more options to the player. So wW has maybe a minor adv there. But _XJL_ having the goth v the Franks is also an adv because of the eventual paladin flood vs quickly made halbs. All in all, this matchup (civ wise) is very even and should produce a GG. Flank 1 wW steals a pair of sheep. Flank 2 wW steals a boar. Scout battle outside Flank 1 _XJL_ town leaves wW ahead slightly with all of them retaining their scouts to bother Flank 1 while _XJL_ loses 2 scouts. Flank 1 both boom. Pocket wW boom while _XJL_ goes conqs from castle built inside own base. Flank 2 wW goes conqs from castle built inside own base while _XJL_ goes defensive castle and monastary to boom. Flank 2 wW makes petards to get into _XJL_'s base but finds that he is well defended. @30 mins on Flank 1 _XJL_ tries to drop a castle near the wW base and gets 99% complete. One more hit with the hammer and it would have been completed Q_Q If I wrote out even half of the detail from this point on it would be a 5 page review. Game lasts a LONG time and there is no clear cut winner until about 1:50:xx of gameplay. _XJL_ eventually breaks into the trade line and does enough damage that wW cannot come back. _XJL_ wins.
Civ Chosen - Spain Frank Goth v Spain Frank Goth
Flank 1 - wW Frank v _XJL_ Goth
Pocket - wW Goth v _XJL_ Spanish
Flank 2 - wW Spanish v _XJL_ Frank
Comments - Personally, I think Frank pocket here is a major advantage. Since neither of them have that, it is more even. Second to that, I think Spanish on Flank is better than in pocket because it gives more options to the player. So wW has maybe a minor adv there. But _XJL_ having the goth v the Franks is also an adv because of the eventual paladin flood vs quickly made halbs. All in all, this matchup (civ wise) is very even and should produce a GG. Flank 1 wW steals a pair of sheep. Flank 2 wW steals a boar. Scout battle outside Flank 1 _XJL_ town leaves wW ahead slightly with all of them retaining their scouts to bother Flank 1 while _XJL_ loses 2 scouts. Flank 1 both boom. Pocket wW boom while _XJL_ goes conqs from castle built inside own base. Flank 2 wW goes conqs from castle built inside own base while _XJL_ goes defensive castle and monastary to boom. Flank 2 wW makes petards to get into _XJL_'s base but finds that he is well defended. @30 mins on Flank 1 _XJL_ tries to drop a castle near the wW base and gets 99% complete. One more hit with the hammer and it would have been completed Q_Q If I wrote out even half of the detail from this point on it would be a 5 page review. Game lasts a LONG time and there is no clear cut winner until about 1:50:xx of gameplay. _XJL_ eventually breaks into the trade line and does enough damage that wW cannot come back. _XJL_ wins.
Game 3
No Game 3
Match 1 Results -
_XJL_ wins convincingly over a very very good team (2-0). Quite possible they could win it all
Match 2 - PiA v VN
Prediction from last week - (2-1)
Game 1
Baltic
Civ Chosen -Viking Hun Mongol v Viking Hun Mongol
Flank 1 - Viking v Viking
Pocket - VN Hun v PiA Mongol
Flank 2 - VN Mongol v PiA Hun
Comments - Flank 1 PiA kills a VN vil making a dock which puts him behind in the early stage of Feudal and PiA double that side to kill fish early. It is a pretty even exchange because PiA loses some ships and VN loses some fish boats. Also on Flank 1 I found it a bit odd that neither player walled at all...It goes back and forth on the water for quite a bit. And because of the lack of walling VN from flank 1 forwards stables and seige workshops on PiA. It looks to be working well but then suddenly all production of knights are stopped by VN and VN is pushed back off of PiA's land. After that, PiA's pocket pushes back on Flank 1 before he can wall. Mangudai in the economy and the sea almost lost = gg for VN. PiA wins.
Civ Chosen -Viking Hun Mongol v Viking Hun Mongol
Flank 1 - Viking v Viking
Pocket - VN Hun v PiA Mongol
Flank 2 - VN Mongol v PiA Hun
Comments - Flank 1 PiA kills a VN vil making a dock which puts him behind in the early stage of Feudal and PiA double that side to kill fish early. It is a pretty even exchange because PiA loses some ships and VN loses some fish boats. Also on Flank 1 I found it a bit odd that neither player walled at all...It goes back and forth on the water for quite a bit. And because of the lack of walling VN from flank 1 forwards stables and seige workshops on PiA. It looks to be working well but then suddenly all production of knights are stopped by VN and VN is pushed back off of PiA's land. After that, PiA's pocket pushes back on Flank 1 before he can wall. Mangudai in the economy and the sea almost lost = gg for VN. PiA wins.
Game 2
Islands
Civ Chosen - Viking Hun Japanese v Viking Hun Japanese
Flank 1 -Viking v Viking
Pocket - Japanese v Japanese
Flank 2 - Hun v Hun
Comments - A direct civ vs civ matchup. VN goes back docks while PiA looks to be going more aggressive. Dunno what else happened. Game cuts out :S I am told PiA won. Sad not to see. PiA wins
Civ Chosen - Viking Hun Japanese v Viking Hun Japanese
Flank 1 -Viking v Viking
Pocket - Japanese v Japanese
Flank 2 - Hun v Hun
Comments - A direct civ vs civ matchup. VN goes back docks while PiA looks to be going more aggressive. Dunno what else happened. Game cuts out :S I am told PiA won. Sad not to see. PiA wins
Game 3
No game 3
PiA advances after showing their mighty water skills vs a very good VN team. (2-0)
Match 3 - SlipKn0T v LobosR
Prediction from last week - (1-2)
Game 1
Baltic
Civ Chosen - Mongol Viking Hun v Mongol Viking Hun
Flank 1 - LobosR Viking v Slip Hun
Pocket - Mongol v Mongol
Flank 2 - LobosR Hun v Slip Viking
Comments - This is the one I called being an upset last week so I was hoping to see LobosR really show some major skill in these games. I was not at all disappointed in this one. It looked very even on water for a little bit. Out of nowhere though, Slip wins a couple of sea battles and all of a sudden is ahead by 1000 pts in score and in the driver's seat to win. They secure the water and double wall up and cruise to victory. Slip wins.
Baltic
Civ Chosen - Mongol Viking Hun v Mongol Viking Hun
Flank 1 - LobosR Viking v Slip Hun
Pocket - Mongol v Mongol
Flank 2 - LobosR Hun v Slip Viking
Comments - This is the one I called being an upset last week so I was hoping to see LobosR really show some major skill in these games. I was not at all disappointed in this one. It looked very even on water for a little bit. Out of nowhere though, Slip wins a couple of sea battles and all of a sudden is ahead by 1000 pts in score and in the driver's seat to win. They secure the water and double wall up and cruise to victory. Slip wins.
Game 2
Nomad
Civ Chosen - Mongol Maya Persia v Mongol China Saracen
Flank 1 - n/a
Pocket - n/a
Flank 2 - n/a
Comments - Game cuts out before it really begins but a surprise result. Wish the rec was alive :S. LobosR wins.
Civ Chosen - Mongol Maya Persia v Mongol China Saracen
Flank 1 - n/a
Pocket - n/a
Flank 2 - n/a
Comments - Game cuts out before it really begins but a surprise result. Wish the rec was alive :S. LobosR wins.
Game 3
Blind Random
Civ Chosen - Hun Viking Mongol v Saracen Viking Mongol
Flank 1 - LobosR Hun v Slip Saracen
Pocket - LobosR Viking v Slip Mongol
Flank 2 - LobosR Mongol v Slip Viking
Comments -Blind Random comes up as Oasis. With a Viking pocket, it really seems to me that a sling is going to happen and most likely a drush from the Flank in order to keep Slip from completely walling. Don't know though, we will have to see. Flank 1 Slip sneaks a vil and begins walling enemy gold pile. Both flank 1 and flank 2 of LobosR drush. Flank 1 for Slip walls before drush comes and Flank 2 for slip walls and drushes back to defend. Flank 1 Slip gets put under pressure and starts stone walling/housewalling/palisading frantically with 6-7 vils. Flank 1 for LobosR appears to get slung to imp and presses hard trying to get in the Slippy base before they have anything to respond with. Flank 1 for LobosR gets in, but I do not understand how you cannot have bloodlines for CA after being slung...this is a bigggg mistake in my eyes. LobosR's Flank 1 is then forced out easy and Slippy team is almost full boomed with castle slinging vs a feudal slung economy. Flank 1 LobosR upgrades to heavy cavalry archer and still no bloodlines. On Flank 2 Slip has made 5 layer walls and forces the LobosR to go Seige Onagers and Seige Rams to try and get in. The walling and defensive mangonels stall for long enough for Flank 1 to be obliterated. From there it is GG. Good run LobosR ^_^. Slippy wins
Civ Chosen - Hun Viking Mongol v Saracen Viking Mongol
Flank 1 - LobosR Hun v Slip Saracen
Pocket - LobosR Viking v Slip Mongol
Flank 2 - LobosR Mongol v Slip Viking
Comments -Blind Random comes up as Oasis. With a Viking pocket, it really seems to me that a sling is going to happen and most likely a drush from the Flank in order to keep Slip from completely walling. Don't know though, we will have to see. Flank 1 Slip sneaks a vil and begins walling enemy gold pile. Both flank 1 and flank 2 of LobosR drush. Flank 1 for Slip walls before drush comes and Flank 2 for slip walls and drushes back to defend. Flank 1 Slip gets put under pressure and starts stone walling/housewalling/palisading frantically with 6-7 vils. Flank 1 for LobosR appears to get slung to imp and presses hard trying to get in the Slippy base before they have anything to respond with. Flank 1 for LobosR gets in, but I do not understand how you cannot have bloodlines for CA after being slung...this is a bigggg mistake in my eyes. LobosR's Flank 1 is then forced out easy and Slippy team is almost full boomed with castle slinging vs a feudal slung economy. Flank 1 LobosR upgrades to heavy cavalry archer and still no bloodlines. On Flank 2 Slip has made 5 layer walls and forces the LobosR to go Seige Onagers and Seige Rams to try and get in. The walling and defensive mangonels stall for long enough for Flank 1 to be obliterated. From there it is GG. Good run LobosR ^_^. Slippy wins
SlipKn0T wins (2-1) in the two games we can view, they were landslide victories for Slippy, but the Nomad one must have been different.
Match 4 - RoR v UsK
Prediction from last week - (2-0)
Game 1
Arabia
Civ Chosen - Hun Mongol Maya v Hun Mongol Maya
Flank 1 - Hun v Hun
Pocket - RoR Maya v UsK Mongol
Flank 2 - RoR Mongol v UsK Maya
Comments - It is always fun to watch how different teams play with the maya as pocket. Initially it is a major disadvantage, but getting past those initial few minutes of Castle Age hell often leads to a super powered Mayan in Imp before anyone else and ready to flood Eplumes or EEW. Anyway, this game starts off pretty evenly with both teams having rather poor maps. Both UsK Flanks drush. Flank 2 for RoR defends with militia at base and Flank 1 for RoR does some walling and goes archer in Feudal. The pocket for UsK ups to feudal very early as Mongol but it seems to be a bit of a waste to do a 23 pop up as pocket when you won't have the resources to go castle immediately. Flank 1 for RoR gets into a bit of trouble when bloodlined knights show up and he is still in feudal. RoR pocket comes to help run them off. Flank 2 for RoR decides to be very defensive and try and establish economy and just stay back and protect with xbows instead of raiding. Most of the fighting happens on Flank 1's side. While Flank 2's side is more of an economy battle until the RoR goes forward with 25+ xbow and a mangonel and destroys much of the UsK's army. But Flank 1 RoR looks to be in a lot of trouble after losing a big battle. The pocket RoR has gone imperial though and builds up to help as Flank 1 tries to survive. Both of Flank 2 imp as well and it looks like it is going to be emangudai vs mayan eew. Instead, Flank 2 RoR goes to Flank 1 and it becomes a big battle at Flank 1 UsK's base. After RoR wins that one, it is GG. RoR wins.
Civ Chosen - Hun Mongol Maya v Hun Mongol Maya
Flank 1 - Hun v Hun
Pocket - RoR Maya v UsK Mongol
Flank 2 - RoR Mongol v UsK Maya
Comments - It is always fun to watch how different teams play with the maya as pocket. Initially it is a major disadvantage, but getting past those initial few minutes of Castle Age hell often leads to a super powered Mayan in Imp before anyone else and ready to flood Eplumes or EEW. Anyway, this game starts off pretty evenly with both teams having rather poor maps. Both UsK Flanks drush. Flank 2 for RoR defends with militia at base and Flank 1 for RoR does some walling and goes archer in Feudal. The pocket for UsK ups to feudal very early as Mongol but it seems to be a bit of a waste to do a 23 pop up as pocket when you won't have the resources to go castle immediately. Flank 1 for RoR gets into a bit of trouble when bloodlined knights show up and he is still in feudal. RoR pocket comes to help run them off. Flank 2 for RoR decides to be very defensive and try and establish economy and just stay back and protect with xbows instead of raiding. Most of the fighting happens on Flank 1's side. While Flank 2's side is more of an economy battle until the RoR goes forward with 25+ xbow and a mangonel and destroys much of the UsK's army. But Flank 1 RoR looks to be in a lot of trouble after losing a big battle. The pocket RoR has gone imperial though and builds up to help as Flank 1 tries to survive. Both of Flank 2 imp as well and it looks like it is going to be emangudai vs mayan eew. Instead, Flank 2 RoR goes to Flank 1 and it becomes a big battle at Flank 1 UsK's base. After RoR wins that one, it is GG. RoR wins.
Game 2
Arena
Civ Chosen - Maya Goth Spain v Maya Goth Persia
Flank 1 - RoR Maya v UsK Pers
Pocket - RoR Goth v UsK Maya
Flank 2 - RoR Spain v UsK Goth
Comments - I think this civ layout definitely favours RoR. I also think that Spain is a better choice than Persia in arena under the circumstances. The versatility is so much greater with Spain in going FU paladin late game or going Econqs. And yes Persia is the best booming civ but I do not think it is good enough to pick them in this situation. Only option with Persia really is to super-boom then paladin. If you are going to do that, then why not pick Franks? Just my opinion aha. Anyway this is a very "clean" game. No attempted boar/sheep steals. No surprise forwarding attacks or petarding into a base and flooding in knights or conqs. It is an entire 6 way boom war. 11. I think a total of 1 unit was killed in the first 28 minutes of the game and it was a monk going for a relic at 26 mins. At 30~31 minutes everything explodes and fighting is happening everywhere at once, but ALL seem to be 1v1s until the UsK pocket is forced to help Flank 1 who is getting destroyed by rams and eews. As soon as RoR pocket sends Huskarls to UsK pocket it is over very fast. Clean was not the way to go for UsK being in rather poor civ matchups. RoR wins.
Civ Chosen - Maya Goth Spain v Maya Goth Persia
Flank 1 - RoR Maya v UsK Pers
Pocket - RoR Goth v UsK Maya
Flank 2 - RoR Spain v UsK Goth
Comments - I think this civ layout definitely favours RoR. I also think that Spain is a better choice than Persia in arena under the circumstances. The versatility is so much greater with Spain in going FU paladin late game or going Econqs. And yes Persia is the best booming civ but I do not think it is good enough to pick them in this situation. Only option with Persia really is to super-boom then paladin. If you are going to do that, then why not pick Franks? Just my opinion aha. Anyway this is a very "clean" game. No attempted boar/sheep steals. No surprise forwarding attacks or petarding into a base and flooding in knights or conqs. It is an entire 6 way boom war. 11. I think a total of 1 unit was killed in the first 28 minutes of the game and it was a monk going for a relic at 26 mins. At 30~31 minutes everything explodes and fighting is happening everywhere at once, but ALL seem to be 1v1s until the UsK pocket is forced to help Flank 1 who is getting destroyed by rams and eews. As soon as RoR pocket sends Huskarls to UsK pocket it is over very fast. Clean was not the way to go for UsK being in rather poor civ matchups. RoR wins.
Game 3
No Game 3
RoR advances after beating UsK (2-0) RoR's arena skills are quite powerful and may be a danger to their upcoming competitors.
Summary:
All in all I guessed rather poorly this week. But when the level of play is this high and teams are very close in skill there are bound to be a few that people get wrong. _XJL_ looks very impressive and I expect them to have a shot at winning this entire thing after showing their might versus wW. Maybe it was just lucky but it was very fun to watch the high calibre play. My upset alert came decently close to coming true with a 2-1 instead of a 1-2 result. LobosR will be back I am sure and will be getting stronger all the time. PiA looks very solid as well and seem to be able to fight with anyone in this league. RoR continues to win as well in fun fashion and the chats are usually quite fun to read. SlipKn0T is definitely a team to fear, but I do not think they won over LobosR convincingly enough to put them through to the finals. They are definitely good, but I do not think the best.
Next Week's predictions:
_XJL_ v PiA (2-1)
You know...I have not gone with XJL a single time in this playoffs, I hope I do not jinx them by choosing them this time. After winning in impressive manner over wW I think that they can win this game. PiA is definitely not an underdog here though. This will be a good match-up and really is anyone's game. I hope both teams bring an all star line up and fight it out.
SlipKn0T v RoR (0-2)
After having a bit of a struggle with LobosR (though the games could not really be viewed) I think that the depth of the Slippy team is lacking a bit. It seems that Feage plays exceptionally every single game and that the others play very well MOST of the time. I think if RoR brings a top tier team this will be a victory for them.
Finally, thank you again to all teams that have participated in this season whether you have been knocked out or not. Keep this game alive and keep getting better and better. I really do enjoy watching all of these recs and writing about them so keep providing them for me. ^_^ Good Luck and Have Fun to all the remaining teams and play your best.
~Nainai