After watching the comments section on my last TA br (which got a "9", btw) grow VERY VERY SLOWLY for an hour or two, I decided I'd find another TA game to play and possibly br if it was any good. Before you continue you might want to read my last one here so you understand the game better, since I'm not going to repeat much of what I said about the game in the last one. :-)

So anyway, I log into Boneyards again and take a look around. The planet that had been the site of the vast majority of the GW battles last night had been taken by the Arm (those bastards) so I can't play any more GW games on that map. I take a look at all the possibilities, and notice that there is only one planet with any sort of significant activity. I go to it and see if anybody wants to play. I get messaged my somebody named TC_Gollum. He, of course, wants to play GW. I say sure, I create, he says he might be a little late getting in. I create the game and wait for about 20 seconds or so, and then whisper him to see if he's still coming. Just as I do he shows up. He apologizes for being late, and I say it's no problem. I ask if it's alright if I record, and he says "not at all". I start the recorder, he says "gl / hf" and I say "u2" and the game starts.

Ioti

vs

TC_Gollum

Map: Great Divide

Some details about the map. It's only got one choke point on the whole map, (as you can see) and two tall hills. I thought when I started that you could walk over the hills, I later found this out to be incorrect. Fairly tall hills that make long-range artillery hard to use unless placed well.

I modify my build slightly since this time there are more metal deposits right next to my starting spot, I build two MEs, three SCs, another ME, and a KBot lab. I also have a nice little chat with my opponent, asking if he's ever heard of battlereports.com, he says no, I tell him about it, and he says it sounds cool and that he'll go check it out. I also told him that if this was a good game I'd do a report on it and he replied "excellent".

My beginning build

I build a storm, and a radar tower, and then move my commander out to try to claim metal spots. Things happened a little faster this game, after I my first Construction KBot was completed a Flash came into my base looking for blood. Er... oil? Something... anyway, I had a Storm at the time, and an AK, and a Construction KBot, and I pulled a move that I've not done in a while. Construction KBots (or any other construction unit, for that matter) don't have weapons, per se. What they do have is a "reverse nanolathe", which allows them to do such things as reclaim wreckage to gain metal, and to harvest trees and such for energy. It also allows you to remove structures that you don't want any more. And a final detail, it WILL work on living units. Yes, my friends, with the help from the AK, I used a Construction KBot to kill his Flash. That thing just sucked it right down.

Construction KBots have a large appetite

He did manage to kill a couple of MEs before it died, but I rebuilt them quickly. Right around this time he also attacked my commander with a Flash, but the D-Gun showed him the error of his ways. After the MEs were rebuilt another Construction KBot had completed, and since there was a Thermal Vent right next to my base I build a Geothermal Plant on top of it to harness greater amounts of energy. With one of these things it's hard to run out of energy, at least in early game. I continued claming metal spots with my commander and then I scouted him with an AK. It managed to sneak past a couple Flashes take out a radar tower before getting blasted by his missile towers. The fighting set a small chunk of forest ablaze.

Radar towers are even weaker than MEs

I continued producing storms while I fortified my front a little bit with some Dragon's teeth, or at least attempted to because then he sent a medium-sized force of Flashes, Samsons, and Rockos (Arm's version of the Storm) at me. I lost the Construction KBot that I had in the area, the Radar Tower, and two of the three MEs. My commander D-Gunned a lot of them, and my Storms killed a bunch but he managed to get a flash and two samsons up into my main base and killed another two MEs and my other Radar Tower before I finally got them all. I also built some Thuds at this time, which are KBots that have artillery cannons on them. I'm not sure of this but I think they may do damage more quickly than Storms, but I do know they have lighter armor and can't shoot quite as far (the difference in range is negligable though).

He was really getting ahead at this point because I only had two MEs and I knew he had to have a bunch since I hadn't managed to kill any yet. I rebuilt the MEs and radar tower, and then built some MEs in a different part of the map and started work on another KBot lab. And then a large splotch of red showed up from the east on my radar. Bad thing. My southern part of the base was my most defended area. Actually it was the only defended area. I may have been able to kill one flash with a Construction KBot but I wasn't gonna be able to get this many, no way. I hurriedly rushed my commander up there to show the Arm the power of the D-Gun but he still managed to kill six more MEs, my newly build KBot lab and another Construction KBot. Grr. I rebuilt the MEs and reclaimed the wreckage from my KBot lab (544 units of metal, I wasn't about to throw that away considering I was in the red for metal production) and rebuilt it. In hindsight I really should have reclaimed more of the metal wreckage that was sitting around from all the fighting, it would have helped me greatly. Live and learn, I guess.

Things weren't calm for long. I had barely enough time to build some Immolator turrets (this time surrounding them with Dragon's teeth) before another large splotch of red appeared on my radar, to the south. But it wasn't moving. I didn't know how much time I had. Not much. I had time to reclaim a couple of wrecks and finish the Immolator turrets before the red splotch moved. North. And west. Directly towards my most fortified zone. I cheered slightly. Didn't do me much good though, though I did lose less than he did, thanks to my commander's D-Gun. I made a note to put the D-Gun up on an altar after the game if I won. He did kill a construction KBot, a ME, and a radar tower though. Little matter, I thought. I was getting back on my feet economy wise and I rebuilt them without much effort. My commander was at about half health after this battle, but the fact that he regenerates and the fact that I had a Construction KBot repairing him meant he wasn't gonna die yet.

Arm army on the Move

I've been using the D-Gun a lot this game

No rest for the weary, however, as about thirty seconds later he sent another force up northeast and then west at my base. This is what killed my KBot lab earlier but I had fortified the area somewhat by putting about 12 Storms there. For those of you who can't add, 6 Peewees + 2 Samsons + 1 Rocko < 12 Storms.

Yet again he sends more forces at my front line, perhaps hoping that my Storm clump in the north was my "main" Storm clump. No such luck. He managed to kill a Construction KBot that ventured out into the fighting like a moron. Sigh... He also managed to kill three Storms, one that got seperated and shot like a rat, and then when he brought in a Maverick that took out two more Storms before getting pounded to crap. Quickly, a Maverick is an Arm Heavy KBot, with two large guns, designed to take out light KBots. But just like 16 Marines > 1 Lurker, 16 Storms > 1 Maverick.

I had started an Advanced KBot lab not too long ago, and it was well underway. I knew that I couldn't get this guy with just basic troops. He was too good. Especially on a map like Great Divide, where there's only one choke point (though I didn't think this at the time). The last game I won because there were no less than six seperate entrances to his base that I was able to get through.

I sent my commander over to the northeast to claim the metal spots up there since I hadn't yet done so, but while I was doing that he send a small force at my commander. Several D-Guns later and his force was yet again turned into paste. I love this thing. What he was able to run from my commander, plus a little more he had at the time, he sent at my front lines again. Killed a Construction KBot that ventured too far into the fighting. Again. Grr. Killed a ME too. Plus a few storms, as always. Things were calm for a bit, my Advanced KBot lab finished, and suddenly I heard my weapons firing but nothing firing back... what the hell? I looked at the radar and saw a couple of peepers. These are very, VERY light planes, no weapons, designed to scout your opponent. Impossible to hit without a missile tower or crasher, and even then it's still difficult because they move and turn so fast. Ok, minor annoyance, I'm thinking.

He scouts me with a few peepers

I tell my construction KBot in the area to build a Pulverizer to kill them since I A) Don't like units in my base and B) And info he gets is a bad thing. The Pulverizer finishes and shoots them down, but the damage was done. He knew I had an Advanced KBot lab. And he didn't like that. And he could do something about it. The sound of a Big Bertha shook the ground in his base and a shell came screaming out of the heavens and plastered my Advanced KBot lab in the first shot. I almost had a coronary. For two reasons A) I really needed that thing and B) I thought that the hills were too tall to shoot Big Berthas over. Turns out they aren't. Bad thing.

That WAS my Advanced KBot Lab...

This is not cool

It was right about now that I decided I was going to attack. Two things wrong here. A) I didn't realize that you can't go over the middle hill because it's too steep, meaning you HAVE to go through the choke point. B) I didn't have a good mix of units like I did last time. I pretty much had nothing but Storms. Gah. What was I thinking?

Marching towards doom....

A Sentinel chews the crap out of my troops

To make a long painful story short my Storms got the crap chewed out of them for two reasons. A) They aren't designed to take out Sentinels (heavy laser towers) that are fortified behind dragon's teeth, which he had one of, B) I told them to go over the hill, which they couldn't, so they took the worst way in. I think I killed a missile tower, and maybe some of his troops. Wonderful. And now the Big Bertha is firing at my Commander. I know I've lost, but I know that maybe, just MAYBE if I get lucky I can pull a win out of my ass. Riiiiight. I send my commander south to see if I can possibly D-Gun anything as a final blow to my opponent. He survives for a little while until he gets swarmed. The thing about the D-Gun is that it uses a large chunk of Energy. Energy that I was no longer producing. The geothermal would have kept the D-Gun running. But I lost that ages ago. I say "gg" to my opponent as my commander levels everything on the side of the hill as a final revenge. Too bad it was mostly trees.

Antimatter ain't that stable my friends

Lessons learned:

1. My opponent kept the pressure on me the whole game and he won because of it. Watching the playback I realized there were many times I could have used a Storm squad to kill off quite a bit of stuff. In the beginning anyway.

2. You CAN shoot a Big Bertha over the hills in Great Divide.

3. However, you CAN'T walk over them.

4. Construction KBots are morons that don't know when to stay out of the line of fire.

Looking at the score screen I noticed he produced more than twice as much metal as me. I had more kills though, which I thought was interesting.

To TC_Gollum, if you're reading this, good game.