RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.4

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netnazgul
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RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.4

Post by netnazgul »

If there could be a quiet RAGL week - this would be one. But a single match happened in Masters over the course of the last seven days, the only other table-impactful event being bµg succumb to a season forfeit.
KSK_Nico and PieChild lost the mathematical chances to break the Top Four of Minions Alfa, meaning we are into endgame here. Of course, JackoDerp, Barf, Misery and Blackened all start to exhibit Masters feats of delaying the inevitable, so we are likely to wait for resolution till the final week here.
In Minions Bravo, Dualwarhead is now assured of at least 4th place, as only goat, eskimo and Hermann are able to overtake him now. Eskimo still has a handful of matches to play, and Hermann G' didn't show a worthy form yet, so it's up in the air.


Weekly highlights

:: Dualwarhead 2-0 Tailix Killa Mentor
This one was played a week ago, but it was reported to be quite close, and also it turns out Dualwarhead went under the radar of Frontline Reports until now, so let's finally look at the play.
River Crossing saw the first game. Tailix went double ref and infantry push for some reason here, expectedly losing most of his rifles in the process. The follow-up was more successful as Dualwarhead just about planned to move his MCV out, and that resulted in power losses and emergency save from him, in total giving Tailix the map and tech advantage. Being on the defensive, Dualwarhead managed to get some luck with getting out to a gem expansion nearby and then just had a better army punch, but lacking in rocket count he lost some assets against heavy tanks in Tailix' composition. Still that turned the tide of the game and equalized the chances as Tailix had a bit better economy and Dualwarhead a better army. Tailix aggressively basepushed the front of his opponent's main with two MCVs, probably forgetting he already had one there; second one was quickly rerouted into side expansion. The basepush split the supply lines for Dualwarhead, but he was already at two War Factories, and sheer tank superiority coupled with a faster army reinforcement decided the outcome of this engagement, though took some time as Dualwarhead sent his tanks right through Tesla Coils of Tailix unprotected. This was the time where Tailix emerged at enemy's expansion with a V2, opening another phase of this volatile game. Multiple fights across the map ended in Dualwarhead's favour, and at that point it didn't look good for Tailix anymore as he had one working expansion and 10K cash float which meant he didn't have enough troops to defend his main or his expansion; though Dualwarhead's tanks were all wounded so Tesla Coil coupled with some new recruits stopped them before they did major impact. Ore Truck count was halved, Tech Center was built, and Tailix managed to get a shock blob rolling. Dualwarhead stopped that at the back entrance to his main and started to build up a tesla force of his own. Couple more exchanges later the game came down to a base fight over pieces of a middle ore expansion while Tailix mono-shocked the main of Dualwarhead, stopped by Mammonth Tanks. Yak raids by Tailix were mostly unsuccessful and could even be attributed as a decisive factor in his ultimate loss this game, as Dualwarhead finally combined a better and bigger army to fight off all the small squads around, and Tailix couldn't do much against the increasing Mammonth snowball covered by several Migs that did a lot of damage as well.
The next game on Mountain Ridge Redux wasn't as prolonged and erratic as the first one. Now both players going standard double-ref, and again Tailix running raw rifles into a Flame Tower of Dualwarhead, this assets loss keeping all the way through the game further as Dualwarhead safely but steadily expanded both economy and army, while Tailix built 3 APCs in total that didn't do much, got late on his MCV and lost several Ore Trucks to an attack on his main. He did a counter-base push though and denied mining on Dualwarhead's main for some time, but Dualwarhead already had 2 expansions and a Radar Dome. First destroying the army and then eliminating the basepush threat, Dualwarhead left Tailix on zero economy, so it was over.


:: BigBadBain X-X Anjew
Here should have been a match report of an entertaining fight between Bain and Anjew, but one of the games was played on Season 5 map which makes it invalid for this tournament cause it doesn't have the proper balance patch in; we'll have to wait for it to be replayed.


:: Hermann G' 1-1 Sigil
Hermann still has some outside chance to get into promotion spots, so let's see whether he can make it.
First game on Trapped, Hermann started on a real agressive footing with a middle oil grab. Sigil got a lucky shot at Hermann's engineer bottom right, though losing 3 grenadiers as APC cargo there playing mostly a distraction role. The action then moved to the left side of the map where both players went to expand. Sigil got a better trade and routed Hermann's MCV with the rest of the army, which basically meant Hermann would be out of money if he were not to hold the line on the last of the three bottom-left ore patches. He did force Sigil to retreat there and launched a counter-attack at Sigil's main, but that, even though looking promising and onto a mostly unprotected mining operations, didn't do much, and Sigil combined forces into an all-out frontal attack that won him the game.
The second game on Snakes and Ladders was a whole another story, starting with a gren rush by Sigil destroying Hermann's Power Plant and missing the second one. Map control contest turned into a stand off, again in Sigil's favour as he either had better vision from Mobile Flak or got attacked into a standing position; Hermann lost two Flaks of his own there. Even then though Hermann has a 1-2K asset lead. Expansions were set (with Sigil having a later SD but earlier MCV placemnt and Hermann using MCV to push out of his main), and there came an interesting 3-stage attack from Hermann.
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It didn't really do any immediate harm to Sigil, but forced him to move Ore Trucks from the main, while Hermann also expanded into top-right corner; counter-attack by Sigil was met by a fortified troops at the expansion, so Sigil went around it through the corner and into Hermann's main. This in turn required Hermann to get his army back, so Sigil had the time to occupy bottom-left corner as well as denied Hermann's expansion nearby. A very peculiar situation happened as fights were occuring at the opposite corners of the map at the same time, both players balancing their army and defences between bases. Hermann emerged victorious bottom-left, so Sigil got stripped of a viable money source; top-right corner then got the attention, and Sigil managed to route his opponent, as well as get some so much needed money.
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(the next thief got massacred by an angry civilian mob). Hermann has already progressed to T3 and amassed a formidable force of Yaks, V2s and Mammonths knocking at Sigil's main base; all the while Sigil attacked Hermann's main which had no build radius and got pretty much all the economy there. The attack at his main then commenced, and that's where Thieves got handy again.
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A counter attack spearheaded by a trophy Mammonth Tank got some assets for Sigil, though he was massively underteched at that point, having lost a Radar some time ago as Hermann started converting infantry to Tesla power. Next couple of minutes got both players regrouping and utilizing their air mostly (which Hermann had more, but probably used to lesser extent and then flunked into a group of Mobile Flaks). The positioning was probably the reason of Sigil's ongoing demise at this moment, as he concentrated all his forces on the left side, leaving Hermann all the space in the middle. Sigil managed to get an MCV on the left and pushed ferociously, but defending for Hermann was all the more easy there in a choke, and a single V2 got quite a value of money shots. All-infantry counter-attack by Hermann met no resistance as it rolled over the top of the map. By the time Sigil started doing something about it it was already over - Hermann pressed Sigil to the left side and slowly killed what remained of Sigil's main base; transferring to Migs and building up another base bottom-right only prolonged Sigil's agony. Even then Sigil had an outside chance at getting back, but Hermann denied that with groups of V2s chipping both corners.
Overall, this game looks to be the Game of The Season so far, even comparing to some nice plays in Masters!


FiveAces' stream links as always:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/498166273
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/498170613
Don't know whether any RAGL matches happened on this stream, feel free to check it out for yourself at .1's twitch.
You can also check Tailix' games from his perspective, though those videos are temporary so I don't post the links that are going to expire soon.


Agenda
No backing up is possible anymore as we are into the last third of the group stage, with half of players almost finished the season and the other half having 5-7 matches (up to 14 games) to play in 14 days. All the group deciders still weren't played, so follow the announcements and streams, starting with today's weekly from FiveAces that might get some of those casted.


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Strauss
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Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 7:13 pm

Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.4

Post by Strauss »

Fucking great job. Really entertaining read.

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Upps
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:54 pm
Location: Germany

Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.4

Post by Upps »

Good Thief play!

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