Battle for Middle Earth

thx elven
HERO's micro = insane...

Tbh, i don't think i saw anything too extraordinary on hero's part. I can't wait for recs vs people like netty.

Also chen, glad to see you can play again.

My comments on my comments. No flaming here, just wanted to get something clear.

Do you play Gondor? If you do, you'd understand some of these "flaws" that you see here.

Let me say, first and foremost that this game was Gondor vs a turtling PIKED Isengard. I lost 2 horse bats of horses max, and that was to a Isengard base, towered and FILLED with 8+ pike units. You vastly misunderstood the situation that he is in. My objective: My SOLE objective is to harras, raid and constantly pressure Isengard to buy Gondor time. If I let him have any money or control, he will eventually raise siege and other battle advantages.

Let me analyze my flaws as I see them. Some are correct, some are misunderstood. Let me explain to you from a underpowered Gondor player's perspective when fighting a stronger adversary.

didn't always use right forms during shield rushes b4 UPs (attacking in line, running in wedge)

Probably the most useless "mistake" because this factor changed nothing. I used wedge to attack, and wedge to navigate around his pikes. I used line to attack and line to navigate. I used wedge more in the beginning to increase damage in the beginning when I had no upgrades and used Line more towards the end because I had ups. Watch closer.

trampled pikes in form a few times (lost a cav batt here and there to them)

Look at Isengard's base. It had more pikes than Jesus has followers. I lost 2 knight units the entire game. Truely sorry.

faster UPs would've made cav rushes more effective earlier

No. You're wrong. The purpose of early knight harrassment and raids is to keep Isengard busy, and to give you time to save for Stoneworks, Market and other IMPORTANT things. Money is a luxury for FoD NOT FoL. Gondor is given a specific amount of time to obtain the resources it needs to prevent its ass raping, so plz consider the order of purchases that I got. Upgraded towers stopped the ram + FU pikes. Upgraded, forged blades wouldnt.

cast EW when u knew he had TL (pikes were dead so didn't need it for bug)

I don't bug EW. And the EW was to give my knights + Gandalf the increase in armor so they wouldn't take damage as bad. There's more than 1 reason to use EW, take note from this replay and the replay I had vs BaLL. There are OTHER more important reasons to drop EW, even when you know that your opponent has TL ready. TL protects their men, EW protects mine. My only motive was to lessen the damage taken. Get my drift?

stopped spamming EW too early

2 EWs is the safest number to drop early game. I know this because I've dropped a lot of EW in my Gondor vs Isen career. If you mean bugging EW and taking advantage of a unfair game flaw, then find someone else. I don't cheat.

no fire for trebs (had the cash and would've made them more effective)

Trebs were used for base defense. That was the only reason for their creation. Would you have fire trebs protecting your base vs Isengard? I certainly hope not. I only brought them out because I was getting bored watching them sit in my base for a good 20+ minutes.

slow to grab top OP (would've shut down upper mill faster b/c it's close to it)

The only flaw I agree with. I'm happy you noticed that too. Thank you.

slow to take back some of your settlements pikes had killed

Aww.. This must be early game. When I had THREE units of knights and no stables because I destroyed it. Sorry if harrassing the enemy base + buying me time is more important than feeding my already strong Gondor economy.

could've attacked lower mill earlier w/ soldiers + didn't go for laborers 1st

Did you see the life on that Mill? 1 more slash buddy.. one more slash.. Taking that down takes 5 seconds to regain ownership, and another who knows how long to rebuild. With 2 mills down, how much do you think Isengard would be set back? I think I made the right decission. That Mill was 1 more slash away from going down.

wasted WB trying to kill moving pikes

I was busy. As long as Lurtz isn't there, I'm not too concerned.

let Elf summons die each time (could've moved them to castle once they did their job)

They're very good at killing unarmored pikes. Very effective the first use, as shown in the replay, and absolutely useless in the end. Arrows vs FU pikes = worthless. All in all, they're heroic deaths had a purpose. Just like the valient soldiers that died in the beginning. I should of moved them back to the castle as well huh.

had an Eagle just hovering above Isen base until towers killed it

He did his job. Good night Saruman. Sorry for not making him do something afterwards, he had no life and I was busy doing something else.

Btw, Chen chose to post this. Not me. Nothing spectacular in watching a Gondor trying to siege Isengard. Things were kinda backwards in this game. I didn't even bother rating this game. It's funny watching Gondor trying to siege Isengard though... that has happened only 1 other time to me.

Ok I already said b4 the actual review that they were just minor things that could've slightly improved gameplay. No need to get upset, I know how the game works and even w/ good micro, shit happens. I was just pointing out bad things that happen, yes they can't always necessarily be avoided but I'd be remiss in my duties as RR if I didn't pay attention to the details. As far as if I am a Gondor player, yes I do use it fr/ time to time. In fact, mpastor taught me Gondor not too long b4 he left. However, I use Rohan more often now but that doesn't mean I don't know how all the factions work. Maybe I should've put a little disclaimer in my review, it's a new strat and obviously having not really seen it b4, it's not easy to review it, no need to take it personally and rip my review to shreds.



I was aware of that fr/ the beginning.



Read closer, I had early on u didn't make the best use of formations, not later when u had UPs b/c it doesn't matter much at that point. And in the beginning, as u were retreating, u were in line. Not all your batts were doing this but I noticed 1-2 at times seemed to be in the wrong one. I know how diff it is to micro them all around, I'm just pointing it out.



Once again, I know how diff it is to micro around all that. I'm just pointing it out, would u prefer in my reviews I just praise everything u do?



Where did I say to get them b4 stone or market. I said they could've come sooner, I meant after those things, u were still a little slow to get them out. I didn't go into detail about the specific minute it occured b/c the review was long as it was and a lot of ppl prefer condensed reviews.



He could've instantly cancelled it w/ TL, it wouldn't be of much use to u for 3 seconds. As it was, I'm surprised he didn't cancel it further. EW is useless when it's cancelled 3 seconds later. U weren't really reducing damage much and u gave him a spot right in front of his base that cancelled Gandy's LD to knights/Elves as well as buffed his units. I never implied that u abuse bugs, don't put words in my mouth. And in any case, it is a current feature of the game, it's like asking Isen not to cast Rain b/c it cancels BM, GC, etc.



Fair enough, but I can't be expected to know if you're bored or it was a planned offense. In any case, u had total MC, u knew he wasn't getting mines out b/c u were on his ass the entire time.



Just picking out something I noticed, and u had knights nearby at some points, 1 second wouldn't of killed u.



And if he had cast WC properly and affected the 2nd uruk batt as well, it wouldn't of been 1 slash. I am very familiar w/ how important mills are to Isen esp when it's all he starts off w/ in his BO.



I said they were effective at beginning but then u had them killed by units w/ armor. The soldiers died for a reason, the Elves had already done their job, no reason to give free xp to Isen.

As far as the comments where u stated I was busy, well I was just pointing it out. It's my job to pick out the details and since there wasn't much to be said about the strat, I decided I'd talk more about the minor things u could've done better. I know u have an excellent Gondor and I'm not saying I don't agree, but u are being ridiculous going thru my review and disagreeing w/ just about every con I stated. As a strat mod, I thought u'd know better that I'm just doing my job.

Take caution in giving reviews with a shitload of cons. It will certainly lead negative responses. No one, and I mean NO ONE likes being told every little "mistake" from someone else's eyes. It makes YOU (the reviewer) sound omnipotent.

Any other arguments between us will be discussed in PM or MSN. Take it easy Elven. Thanks for reading Gondor's standpoint (in my actions).

When you're as good as HERO you need to look a little harder to find areas for improvement in the gameplay as the bar is a little higher b/c while we all know it's great play, simply praising isn't the best either tbh. There's always room for improvement, however minor the scale (to a point i agree, but issues with the Elves or Eagles are fairball). I thought Elven's review was fair and well done. Nevertheless, great game - was fun to watch.

Definetly.

There's ALWAYS room for improvement. I'm not questioning that at all. Don't get me wrong, I liked the review, it was very (almost too) thorough.

I'm sorry if I seemed a little hostile in my reply Hero. I realize the long list of cons isn't pleasant to see, my style is just very thorough and ppl can take it for what they want, I'm only trying to help them and I have this bizarre knack for detail. The thing is, when I'm looking at a rep, u did so many things well, the strat was creative which I love to see, but it also makes it harder to review b/c I'm not always certain what you're doing . I did think the list was a little long and was looking for ways to condense it. If anything, the review was more for other players watching who don't have quite the lvl of understanding we do. I have no issues w/ u and I'm sorry if my reply sounded a little hostile, I have great respect for u as a player and a strat mod .

Someone killed this game in terms of rating..

Anyway, I suggest Gondor players looking here if you like watching horsies move. Also a great replay for Gondor in terms of Build order and money managment.