RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.5

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netnazgul
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RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.5

Post by netnazgul »

This was a very fast season so far as we are into the last week of Masters matches - Minions still have one more during Masters playoffs. Still, it seemed that players' attention span didn't cover the passed weeks as most of the games were delayed or redelayed for later. The later is now however, and we are in for a grand finale of either top tier playoff deciders or a bunch of season forfeits.

One of those is already in, as Happy succumbed to his university studies and decided not to have an attempt at playing the remaining matches which he had quite a bunch of.

Let's see what matches did occur during the week.


Notable weekly highlights

Season 6 Scoreboards and Fixtures thread.

:: Barf 1-1 Orb
With the fixtures coming into the last week for Masters, this one was the first match between the Big Four of this season (if that is a Big Four though). And immediately there was skillful fast thinking on display at Snakes and Ladders.
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Then it was Barf's medic to still make enough difference to throw Orb from the derrick and make it 2:2 on grabs. Barf continued pushing through, increasing the inf count and adding a light tank into the mix, which resulted in a destroyed power plant. He also had a faster expansion out, and while mining-wise both had relatively even capacity, Barf had a solid lead on assets which he immediately tried to enforce by basepushing with his original MCV onto Orb's natural; still Orb was faster on the spot and prevented the immediate disaster, so MCV hanged on the outer cliff instead.
This was where the things got interesting, as Orb completely turned the game by a bold move into Barf's main and destroyed War Factory, Service Depot and a couple of power plants; Barf had the second WF ready, but was low power and missing tech, and successive attack on the cliff base bottom-left forced him into retreat and behind on assets. By this time Orb had the option to either tech up or scale the tank force. He chose something of both and went 2WF production, queueing the Dome afterwards; Barf was slightly faster on his Dome. Somehow the massive tank force by Orb only managed to raze the forward conyard and move the front away a few tiles before getting dismantled; Barf also used this opportunity to flank Orb's main with a couple of light tanks and got one ore truck.
The game proceeded into mid-to-late stage with a huge but ineffectual confrontation in the middle; Orb teched up to T3, started to pop mammonths and got Iron Curtain going; Barf managed to delay the assault for some time by sniping the Curtain at the cost of several Hinds, but this was over as he had practically no army to stop his opponent.

Badger Hills was the retaliation for Barf. Orb attempted a 3dog-2grenadier rush and lost everything to 2 rifles swiping the incoming forces. The following buildup was mostly identical, but Barf having it some seconds faster allowed him to unpack MCV in the middle earlier and have the first shot with tesla which decided the outcome of the game.
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:: Barf 2-0 Unano
Shadowfiend II (probably picked by Barf) is definitely a home map for Barf as ranger excels in these conditions. And this proved to be the case again, as Barf picked Unano's engineer off and then recaptured the majority of oil derricks. Somehow Barf also had vehicle superiority with 2 light tanks and a ranger while Unano only upped his opponent on 6 ore trucks against 5. The engagement between the players favoured Unano though, at which point it was more or less even. But then Unano decided he is strong enough to do a basepush onto Barf's natural. First exchange was of course not in Unano's favour, and his reluctance to retreat to an ore patch and expand/tech cost him the game as Barf outscaled and outteched him, driving Unano's bases into the ground and capturing an MCV husk in the process.
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It took more time for players to resolve the score at Stanitsa. Again, Barf caught Unano's engineer napping, this time with rifles. This was even a bigger loss than in the first game, as now Unano did 1ref-wf and Barf went double ref. Again, Barf's MCV was faster as was his assets acquisition; not helped by triple flak buildup by Unano. And again Unano went into basepushing, this time slightly more cautious, but at the same time Barf attacked from the top and got 2 ore trucks, which hurt Unano's economy quite a lot. Continued into the backyard of Unano's main, getting also a refinery and blocking the ore for a good minute; Unano defended against an infantry squad with a rocket-only blob. Barf started to pick his opponent apart by attacking the expansion while his infantry still blocked Unano's main ore. Technically, the game was over by 10min mark, as Unano had neither money nor assets to continue.


:: Punsho 2-0 SirCake
Ending the highlights list with some cheese fun - two 5-minute sprints from Punsho and SirCake.
First one played on Snakes and Ladders with Ukraine mirror and dog vision. SirCake didn't have much luck with that, lost his dogs and his engineer, went fast Dome and Airfield, got 2 Yaks by 4min on 2 ore trucks, didn't snipe the MCV, dumped the army into a flak truck.

Return game on Map X had SirCake going 1ref-wf and then producing second refinery while still being on a single power plant. Grenadier drop failed miserably, and Punsho's grenadiers waited for just the right moment to kill the lone power plant.


Also check last week's streams:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/335512921
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/335099073


Events to watch for
Grand RAGL stream is planned today (which is Tuesday Nov 20) starting at 18:00 UTC, hopefully catching most of the remaining matches to be played; be sure not to miss it, being casted by FiveAces, ZxGanon, me and likely some other guests! If we catch some of the scheduled games on stream, the playoff spots are probably going to be decided today


Follow the competition through forums and Discord server and don't miss on weekly streams by FiveAces (Tuesday EU evenings) and netnazgul (somewhere around the weekend)!

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FRenzy
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.5

Post by FRenzy »

Text and images / gifs are quite immersive. Thx for the report !

SirCake
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.5

Post by SirCake »

Of all the matches you could have featured... :/
For games where the same stuff actually worked see Jjkramok vs SirCake ;)

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netnazgul
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.5

Post by netnazgul »

SirCake wrote:
Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:42 am
Of all the matches you could have featured... :/
For games where the same stuff actually worked see Jjkramok vs SirCake ;)
Yeah well, I had to choose between yours and beuk vs Zaqzorn, yours were shorter :lol:

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