This game, which you can download here, was the finals match for the recent BLuT Gangbang Tourney last Saturday. By virtue of the high level of play alone, it would serve as our Spotlight Game. However, there are several interesting lessons from this game that we can observe:

• The winner was Japanese vs. Koreans. So even an uber-civ can lose Any Given Sunday (or Saturday, as in this case).


• El_Capitan attempts an Expansion Rush! Vs. Koreans! And fails! But wins the game! Whew. Korean repair and a quick tower prevented Capitan from taking the town. However, he did manage to kill off a mechant, a farm, a caravan, and, more importantly, the university. Just goes to show that rushing can work and is a Viable Strat, even among good players.


• You can still boom after rushing. Capitan gets little to show for his SCI1, MIL1 start, but still manages to outboom Richter. The key to this, IMO, was killing the university. Richter couldn't get COM2 for quite awhile and this made greater number of villagers worthless. After this point, the game was pretty much in Capitan's favor as Richter never could catch up economically.


• Meanwhile, Capitan researched SCI3 before getting COM2. This seems rather unusual, and he had to wait for a long time to collect the 112 knowledge to afford COM2, but it worked out great for him in the end. Personally, I'd prefer an early COM2 because it allows trade. Later COM research could be sacrificed for advancing SCI research, but what do I know?


• Capitan forces the issue by some excellent border flanking that results in a Decapitation Strike on Seoul. Capitan sacks Richter's capital. Richter rushes back to recapture, but then Capitan's main force sacks a city on the middle frontline. Game over.

This game had it all. Good rushing, good defending, good raiding, good booming, good strategy at the end. There was some really great micro on the part of both players as they skirmished in the beginning. WATCH THIS GAME.
posted by Tim at 11:43 AM