Smackdown is Back! (And so Am I)

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United States of America CurassierAndCurassier
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Smackdown is Back! (And so Am I)

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Post by CurassierAndCurassier »

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Itā€™s been a minute, hasnā€™t it?

Before coming to an end in 2016, Saturday Smackdown stood as one of the communityā€™s best features. It was the perfect middle ground of competition and fun-- the show featured top players playing at full strength, but rare was a Smackdown without one or two unorthodox builds on display.

As of December, 2018, itā€™s back.

The new Smackdown is familiar and new at the same time. Play-by-play Brit @Interjection returns, joined now with the Canadian wonder @Mitoe doing the color commentary, replacing ZutaZuta. The best of 7 format remains, but not every series will be played in the standard way. And, the biggest, most inconceivable, absolutely shocking change of all: It is now played on Sunday. Sunday Smackdown debuted with a best of 7 between @Aizamk and @Kaiserklein , with game 1 pitting Aizamkā€™s Germany versus Kaiserā€™s Dutch.

And my god, what a game to kick things off with.

(Want to watch the game for yourself?
Just click this!)

[spoiler=The Battle]A Recipe for Disaster

OK forgive me, Iā€™m a bit rusty. But if my memory serves, Germany-Dutch tends to be a bit lopsided in favor of the former, with Germanyā€™s early Fortress push coming just too fast and too furious for the slow-burn Dutch to handle. But, this wasnā€™t a standard game. There was one small, but critical, difference.

Interjection has promised some more experimentation in formats for Sunday Smackdown, and to kick things off in the inaugural series the rules stated that Aizamk and Kaiserklein were strong independent players who don't need no Discovery Age. All games started in Colonial.

Personally Iā€™m excited to see slight tweaks to the standard AOE3 settings getting featured more often. (And if youā€™re a purist, donā€™t worry, the hosts made it clear it wonā€™t be different every time.) Making this game even funkier was the map: Deccan. Extra resources, Colonial start... you might be thinking that it seems like a recipe for disaster when playing against Germany. And youā€™d be right.

Aizamk on the Offensive

Now to be fair, there were plenty of good reasons to pick the Dutch in this scenario. The extra resources meant that Kaiser had four banks up in 3:30. (As a Dutch player myself, the very thought of it makes me giddy.) The banks also racked up XP quickly, giving him quick access to military shipments that were all the more important in this faster format. But Aizamk got boosts too. He built five trading posts, effectively cancelling out the XP advantage Kaiser got from his banks, and built a forward base on the southern edge of the Deccan plateau. Absolutely swimming in shipments, he quickly had some Uhlans to go raiding with. He accompanied them with crossbows from the forward base.

Kaiser was vulnerable. He went for a naked FF, and did not train any units before clicking up. But to Aizamkā€™s dismay, he protected his villagers skillfully, and fended off Aizamkā€™s first few pokes with only shipment pikes and militia, and even cleaned up a batch of Aizamkā€™s infantry.

But it was not a strong position for Kaiser. Aizamk wasnā€™t going for a rush, just a raid to slow Kaiserā€™s economy down while he aged behind it. Soon Aizamk had followed Kaiser up to Age 3, and he wielded complete command of the field. A superior economy and military reigned over a forward base and quintuple trading posts, as opposed to Kaiserā€™s enclosed town, boxed in on all sides by enemies.

Kaiser needed to make something happen. Fast.

Jaeger Bomb

Kaiser decided to make his sally at the trading post nearest to him. What followed was an extremely fun to watch seesaw battle as the two traded victories back and forth in and around the trade post site. Kaiser successfully razed it, but his explorer was slain when trying to build it back. A pattern quickly emerged-- Kaiser was relying more on cavalry, and Aizamk more on infantry. Aizamkā€™s forward base proved a smart investment, as every time Kaiser got a Hussar drop on unprotected skirmishers, Aizamk would swoop in with Uhlans just in time. And every time Kaiser got his Ruyters on the Uhlans, Aizamk would send in skirmishers to push the light dragoons back. In the end, the battle for the trading post could safely be considered a draw-- Kaiser had destroyed it, but was unable to break Aizamkā€™s containment.

And Aizamk had other plans anyway.

Aiz shipped 13 Jaegers, a massive powerspike. He marched straight for Kaiserā€™s town, perhaps knowing that, for the moment, Kaiserā€™s army consisted of a ragtag group of skirmishers and Ruyters. I.e., the kinds of things Jaegers love to kill. Indeed Kaiser for a moment didnā€™t look like he even wanted to fight, pulling his forces out to the edge of town while letting Aizamk take the center. But it was a trap. Ten Hussars dropped right on top of the German Jaegers, nullifying them before they could do any harm. Again Aizamk tried to push into Kaiserā€™s base with a mainly infantry army. And again a timely Hussar drop cleaned him up.

Some powerspike...

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Go Kaiser Go!

Seizing his momentum, Kaiser launched wave after wave against Aizamkā€™s forward base. He transitioned to almost entirely a Hussar/Ruyter composition, that made quick work out of Aizamkā€™s Skirmisher/Uhlan one. Aizamk scrambled, throwing a bit of everything at Kaiser to try and slow him down. Crossbows. Doppelsoldners. War Wagons. The War Wagons were the most successful, but such a drain on his economy that he could not longer afford to make skirmishers at all. He was stuck with crossbows if he wanted to keep up the War Wagon production.

Kaiserā€™s highly mobile army got off a raid in Aizamkā€™s base before coming back home for a timing push. A big red ball of Dutch superpower advanced on the sleepy little forward base Aizamk had built. They razed it all to the ground. The tables were turned, Kaiserā€™s army, superior in number and upgrades, controlled the map and had put Aizamk on the defensive. It should have been a commanding position. But Kaiser was about to realize that his victory was a pyrrhic one.

Aizamk, cheeky little guy he is, had gotten off a devastating villager raid as Kaiser had been busy focusing on trying to take control of the map. Kaiser, who had been keeping up with Aizamk economically all game, now faced a 30 villager deficit.

Heā€™d won the battle, but was losing the war.

Go For The Throat

Kaiser probably had a feeling that Aizamk was aging up when his army encountered no resistance when destroying Aizamkā€™s trading posts, but when the notification came and those bucolic German homes got a makeover, Kaiser went for the throat.

The mission was very simple: Destroy Aizamkā€™s Town Center before he could ship heavy cannons.

The German force opposing him was a small ragtag bunch, with way more pikemen than anyone besides AI Spain would want to see in age 4. The Dutch snowball of death swarmed the Town Center and Aizamkā€™s position seemed dire. Both players knew that the battle, and in all likelihood the game, came down to the arrival of the heavy cannons.

Aizamk played keep away for a bit, letting his Town Center take a beating. He knew he didnā€™t have a chance until the cannons came. And when they came, if they came, they would be exposed. But if he could time things just right... he would have a chance.

The ragtag German army charged in against the superior Dutch just as the cannons arrived. Aizamk timed it perfectly.
The cannons were immediately protected by the army and Kaiser had no chance at getting to them. Dual catastrophic blows obliterated his infantry while the upstart pikemen took down his Hussars. Just when it seemed as though he would go for the throat, all was lost. Yet another entry into the book of miraculous timings from Aizamk.

The game didnā€™t end right there, Kaiser held on for a couple minutes more but after the crushing defeat at the hands of Aizā€™s cannons any hope of winning was gone. He resigned after 33 minutes of incredibly entertaining back and forth gameplay. But that was only game 1! Would Kaiser get his revenge and take the first ever Sunday Smackdown series? Click here and find out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vooROQioV4[/spoiler]
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Great Britain Interjection
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Re: Smackdown is Back! (And so Am I)

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Post by Interjection »

Brilliant! You're a great story teller and made it sound like some sports recap/history documentary haha

I burst out laughing when "As a Dutch player myself, the very thought of it makes me giddy"

Thanks for putting this together! And here's to more brilliant games to recap

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