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Title: MM 708: 1v1, Rank Giant
Host: Nobody
Game version: Zero-K v1.8.3.5
Engine version: 104.0.1-1435-g79d77ca
Started: 4 years ago
Duration: 41 minutes
Players: 2
Bots: False
Mission: False
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Team 1
Chance of victory: 59.8%

USrankbrianfreeman
Team 2
Chance of victory: 40.2%

CArankTarkin
Spectators
USrankunomvae

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4 years ago
This was my most embarrassing battle. Any tips on how I could have won?
+0 / -0


4 years ago
Go hovercraft, spam daggers and attack with them in large groups. Map solved.
+0 / -0
4 years ago
It wasnt the map, it was I made mistakes....
+0 / -0

4 years ago
I've had a look at your replay and given some advice (if any of it appears harsh, it's not my intention!), I've watched only the first half of the game but I think there's enough to take from that to concentrate on for improving.

Initial build order needs some work, 4 mex and then making your winds results in a lot of E stall making your first buildings, try 2 mex and then 2-3 winds (theres a nice ridge near your mex line that your Engineer Commander could reach to place better winds), then back to some mex. This small change should improve your start by a few seconds. You then went on to overbuild energy massively. Before you're getting to the overcharge stage, look to have your energy income higher than your metal by 10-20% only, much more is a waste.

You sent out a cheap unit (Duck) out to scout early, good! The things you're trying to find out with this and what things you should be thinking about:
1) Enemy factory choice -
- Which units do I need to be wary of in the early game?
- What advantages do I have with this lab matchup (and on this map)?
- What disadvantages/things to be cautiout of?
2) Starting location - The expected spot? If not is there a reason he's chosen elsewhere (rushing and wanted a shorter distance?)
3) What the opponents build is - Is he making many cons, lots of units or somewhere inbetween?

Good choice getting a radar in the middle area early, it gave a lot of valuable intel on if he was moving up the middle or right water side, be aware of your coverage black spots (left water side) and that he could attack that way and you would have little notice.

While doing your early attack with ducks/archers, your commander and one of two construction units were idle while excessing metal (+30/-10). Any damage you're doing during this attack is being offset by the opportunity cost of not using your resources effectively. You corrected this by placing a couple of caretakers after the battle which is good, also consider throwing a couple more cons out on such a large map to help your expansion. At 6:45, compare your metal produced with your metal used, for all your faster expansion and killing of your enemy's, he has been able to use more resources than you.

Metal Produced graph at 6m45s

Metal Used graph at 6m45s


I think there was some overconfidence on your part at this point with your chat message "you should resign" followed by move commanding your army directly towards the enemy's heart and ending up getting caught in a bit of a surround. It often is the case (as it would have been here) that it is easier and safer to take out the enemy's expansion before going for the knock-out blow. Only go for this if you are confident that you can win the battle and end the game, or if you're trying to hit a certain timing attack and failure to win NOW will result in defeat (e.g. having a bigger army but overwhelming economic disadvantage).

In the following battle you proclaim "free metal" whilst excessing (+37/-30), less talk, more doing stuff!

13 minutes in, still no radar, nor defences on the left had side. The enemies units can walk over the shallows and against better opponents they will test your different areas for weaknesses. You stopped expanding at a point and the whole right sea mexes have been ignored (by both you and your opponent, who has not scouted or attempted to attack there), while your enemy has now taken his "half" of the map and has a superior economy, with this advantage he starts to push you back.

Metal Produced graph at 17m

Metal Excess graph at 17m


At this point the game is about 50% and I think thats a good point to stop. I think covering the stages I have so far will be most beneficial from a learning point of view.
Key points to take into your next games:
- Work on your multi tasking and spending all your resources.
- Think about where is best to attack, its often not where his army is!
- Good initial scouting and expanding, but try keep that up throughout the game.

Good luck in your games!
+5 / -0


4 years ago
He asked for a tip and technically, I gave him one ;) No need to dollop those harshvotes Randy.
+0 / -0
I haven't seen the replay, but if I were to give general tips they would be:
1. Excessing is an emergency, avoid it basically at all costs and if you are excessing then unless the thing you're currently paying attention to will win you the game IMMEDIATELY? Go build some caretakers or energy or otherwise spend metal. If the reason for excess is energy stall then put the constructor you've just started building energy on maximum priority.
2. Spam radar everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It's cheap. After 5 minutes in you should have at least 5 radar providing coverage of every area of the map you have access to. One radar per minute of game time is probably a good rule of thumb for you at this stage. :D
3. Never commit your forces to a losing battle, retreat and go elsewhere (and if a battle is hopeless and there's nothing you can do? don't stare at it mournfully, go do something else elsewhere!). You can try a few combinations in a skirmish vs null AI by using the `/cheat` command. Though a good rule of thumb is "who has more metal in their army?". Try watching games and selecting various armies to see their metal values, normally the more expensive army wins. :D
4. Try and continually be pressuring your opponent, finding out where he is and attacking where he's weak. It's not important to do damage, it's important to let your opponent know you're there and that he isn't safe and that he has to deal with these raiders you've got that are stopping him expanding and are hunting for openings.
5. Similarly, expand aggressively, distracting your opponent by point 4 so he doesn't have the attention span to raid your constructors that are taking over the map :D

quote:
1) Enemy factory choice -
- Which units do I need to be wary of in the early game?
- What advantages do I have with this lab matchup (and on this map)?
- What disadvantages/things to be cautiout of?

I don't think this is worth thinking about under 2200 ELO.
As long as you know the basic raider/riot/skirm/arti/assault classifications you have way lower hanging fruit until you're doing pretty high level play than learning all the individual unit matchups.
After that point the main thing to know is "can this unit kite that unit?" until like 2500 ELO.
+0 / -0

4 years ago
quote:
He asked for a tip and technically, I gave him one ;) No need to dollop those harshvotes Randy.


Fine I'll remove it :P but he was asking for help specific to his play, not whats the best factory for a map! <3
+0 / -0

4 years ago
quote:
quote:

1) Enemy factory choice -
- Which units do I need to be wary of in the early game?
- What advantages do I have with this lab matchup (and on this map)?
- What disadvantages/things to be cautiout of?


I don't think this is worth thinking about under 2200 ELO.
As long as you know the basic raider/riot/skirm/arti/assault classifications you have way lower hanging fruit until you're doing pretty high level play than learning all the individual unit matchups.
After that point the main thing to know is "can this unit kite that unit?" until like 2500 ELO.


I disagree, I think it's good practice to at least be aware of and to try and think about these kind of things during a game. You may not have the right answers right away, but thinking about problems is the first step to generating solutions for yourself. Training yourself to think clearly in the heat of a game is an important trait to have for RTS.

You see it a lot in high level 1v1s if a game pauses for a couple of minutes, players that have had their mental capacity saturated during the game have time to really think about the situation, and you often see armies turn direction or a tech switch put in place when the game unpauses. Practicing critical thinking during the game will help players to make these kind of decisions in the heat of battle.
+1 / -0
4 years ago
Really useful tips that I will attempt to implement. However, I would like more information on a starting build order. Instead of building 3-4 mex and then e stalling, should I build 2 mex and some wind?

Also, how much e generation do you recommend, 45-70 to more or less?
as for build pattern, is a raider, con then 2 more raiders good? should I build more raiders or cons?

When taking new mex areas, should Ibuild defenses and radar first or the mexes?
How many raiders should I have to guard and con?

also how to counter bolas?

+0 / -0
A pattern I tend to follow for resources early on is to make sure both resources are climbing at the same pace. 10-10 -> 12-12 -> 20-20 etc. Works for me because you can't use one resource well without the other. You can never have enough resources really. If you get to the stage where you've got too much energy, make sure you are overdriving, reclaiming and providing enough cons/caretakers.

As for your starting build order, to help guide you in that decision first evaluate the map. If it's huge, you can afford to build constructors first. If not, you may want to decide between rushing the enemy or trying to out eco them. Unfortunately, until you've scouted you won't know what the best decision to have made was. So tend to think of the first 2-3 units as gambling with the meta.

Taking new areas is always dependant on what you've scouted ahead for, and depends upon a lot - the map, your fac, their fac, the build orders. Generally, if you're going to naked expand, you better be keeping pressure in the enemy base. If you're going to do it protected, make sure you send a proportionate escort to the size of the enemy's raiding force. By the time you get a tower up you should be ok (unless vs fencers). It's always good to have radar vision of your next expanse before moving there, if possible.

Bolas dies to scallop or numerous ducks bursting it. From hover factory, you can use scalpel or outnumber it with daggers.
+0 / -0


4 years ago
Queue all your mexes and Space+Shift click a Solar whenever your energy income is less than or equal to your mex income. After about 2 minutes tell a constructor to make a line of Solars.
+0 / -0

4 years ago
quote:
However, I would like more information on a starting build order. Instead of building 3-4 mex and then e stalling, should I build 2 mex and some wind?


It just needs to be a bit more balanced, look at how your resource bars react to what you're making. Currently going 4 mex you e stall quite a bit, slowing down your next few buildings. (e.g you can try mex/wind/mex/wind, mex/mex/wind/wind/wind/mex, mex/mex/solar/solar/mex)

quote:
Also, how much e generation do you recommend, 45-70 to more or less?


It just needs to be slightly higher than metal income, as some things cost E such as cloak, and you may get some metal reclaim at some point giving you a surplus. e.g. 20 metal income? aim to be +20 to +25 energy.

quote:
as for build pattern, is a raider, con then 2 more raiders good? should I build more raiders or cons?


There's no black and white "this is good", "this is bad" answer to this, it depends on a few variables. Generally, larger maps = longer rush distances and you can normally get away with a few more cons for faster expansion. Smaller maps you tend to need to be more careful. Also what are your intentions - are you looking to rush your opponent? What has your scout seen, can you punish a greedy opening, or is your opponent looking to get aggressive?

quote:
When taking new mex areas, should Ibuild defenses and radar first or the mexes?


Again, not as straight forward as "X" is best. Depends how likely it is that place will be attacked, and if you are currently being aggressive yourself it is less likely the opponent will have the spare units or mental capacity to be attacking, letting you get your mex first for the better eco. Often it is good to get a radar first, and if you see an attack coming you can react appropriately (send units to defend/run cons away/build towers if multiple cons there)

quote:
How many raiders should I have to guard and con?


None if it is not going to be attacked, or if you have radar to give you time to react.

quote:
also how to counter bolas?


I have not had the experience using/playing against them yet enough to give you a decent answer here.
+0 / -0