Hello this is DesConnor here with another replay commentary. First I'd like to mention my sponsors [this will cost you- real money] and that I'm available for internet commentaries and LAN parties.
Astax's team were Astax as TEC, Efejao as TEC, snoodie, who had chosen TEC, and frog, who was another TEC fan.
The other team were lepar as Advent, who seemed to have somewhat gallantly volunteered to be captain, Warfleet as Advent, nelmr as TEC and Slackah Chicken as TEC. Not the best of adverts for PUG matches.
The teams were split into pairs, Astax and frog, Slackah and nelmr, snoodie and Efejao and Warfleet and lepar.
frog was the quickest off the mark and the only player I saw take his roid with just a colony frigate in the 'pro' style. Slackah could really have done with this move as his roid was retarded. Lepar was slow at the start and compounded this by going for a volcanic between him and Warfleet. However the worst start was made by nelmr, with the typical new player trick of colonising toward his partner Slackah, right up to his homeworld.. which allowed snoodie to take the volcanic adjacent to his own homeworld. How often do the new players have to be told to expand toward the enemy? Every game, its 'expand toward the enemy, build enough fleet', they never listen. nelmr practically costs his team the game on his own.
However the early action is between Efe and Warfleet. They have 3 roids between them and Efe is first to the centre one with an Akkan.. but he also wants his retarded ice, while Warfleet is not distracted and has his two Halcyons there. Efe can colonise the roid but not hold it. Also, Efe misses a neutral gravwell with two extractors right next to his first roid, a golden opportunity. Efe's next mistake is not to upgrade the defences on his own roid or research repair, so Warfleets Halcyons can quickly bomb the roid out and deprive him of his only factories while his Akkan is absent from the fight waiting to repair and colonise the ice. Then he scuttles two civics at his home to build more factories... However he manages somehow to do enough to fight Warfleet's first push off, where a lesser player might have gone down straight away. It's not easy to be under the hammer of a competent and very aggressive player.
Meanwhile lepar has finally got his mothership to a critical ice only one neutral gravwell from his home, unfortunately the rest of his fleet is at the volcanic between him and Warfleet, and all of frogs fleet turns up, fresh from a series of triumphs over militia, and having left a tough terran well alone. So the ice is gone, and frog even takes another adjacent ice nearer the star. lepar and nelmr have allowed frog and snoodie too much space. Warfleet may be beating Efe but he is not getting much from it.. though he does expand to a couple of roids while ignoring an easy ice.
Slackah finally has some advice for nelmr, who has occupied all the planets between them and is sitting at home defending because snoodie has the volcanic next door... 'your fleet is stagnant' The response is 'thanks'. This is another typical failure to communicate with a newer player.. nelmr has taken all the 'free' space between him and Slackah and imagines that it is then okay to 'build up', without even scouting next door! When he is eventually goaded into an attack he has a great opportunity to take down a starbase that is just building and misses it... though I have to comment that I hate the 'anti-animosity' power of starbases, so that you have to retarget them when they begin to build. nelmr harasses for a while and then retreats... to 'build up' again, this time with ogrovs.
Astax and Slackah have three ice planets betwen them and Astax is quicker to the centre one. They face off for a while, then Astax takes a volcanic on his side. He also has another ice on Slackah's side for a while but loses it. There isn't much fighting. Astax has more easy planets to take if he wants, Slackah is stuck on a roid and an ice, plus the ice nearer the star when he retakes it from Astax.
The last critical fight is between lepar and frog. Lepar catches frog's fleet away from the ice planet that allows access to his home. He also has great counters... bombers and disciples to flak and hoshis. If he could have taken down frog's factories then perhaps he had a chance. But he has wasted fleet on purge ships and frog builds javelis, lepar retreats and the danger is gone. Frog had upgraded the planets defenses, unlike Efe earlier when Warfleet was able to bomb out his roid and prevent him from building.
Warfleet is near to a concession, but announces that he will make a last attack on Efe. This succeeds, the roid is bombed out again and despite feed from snoodie it seems that Efe will be knocked out. But lepar is crumbling quicker. Worse, nelmr has conceded so much space to snoodie, and cannot pressure him, that snoodie has a huge economic advantage even while ignoring a three extractor neutral between two of his volcanics. frog is almost as strong and also has planets still to take. So Warfleet quits on 48 minutes and the game is then over.
I made a few balance notes from the game. Warfleet and Efe obviously still believe in the utility of scouts against LRF, so perhaps the nerf hasn't affected them that much, especially scouts against Illuminators. Also, though Halcyons are supreme in the absence of Skirantras, it showed the disadvantage of the Advent capital ship set as a whole.. frog had a Marza, a useful ship for both sieges and late game play, while lepar who needed to take down a planet quickly didn't really have the option of a siege capital because of the poor Revelation- which doesn't have a siege ability until L6, and then only gets a poor ultimate! Also the Revelations best ability is hurt by the preeminence of carrier capitals.
Always something to learn though, my personal strategy note was on the advantages of a 'defensive' placement of factories, on the side of the planet away from the enemy. This helped Slackah against Astax. Something to consider, though Slackah never mounted any serious attacks during the game and seemed fairly happy to lose.
