CNC Zero Hour

My first review ever, on a 40 minute game. It says: keep it short and to the point. We all know that isn't going to happen.

The matchup was China (Juscophant0m) vs Stealth (HunEmpire) on Vendetta.

China opened with 2 supplies, a barrack and a war factory. The supplies were the ones in the back. From the barrack, a tank hunter was made and garrisoned a building in the middle.

Not a great opening for China. Barrack + tank hunter cost $800, the same prize as an outpost, but then you have 2 tank hunters and a unit to detect stealth (which is handy against stealth). Also it would have been better if the front supply was taken, when skipping the barrack, this would come up fast and a truck rush can be used. This would have been very powerful seeing the opening for stealth.

Stealth opened for 3 supplies, and didn't box them. A truck rush would have set back stealth big time. The tunnels were going up too late, 1 truck could have won the game already.

The first attack was done by stealth, a simple tech rpg harrassing the main supply. It got 1 truck, damaged another before it was cleared by China's gats. Meanwhile China had a second war factory up, and produced a dragon tank. Said flamer sneaked into the base, forced a selloff of a supply and took down a barrack before going down itself.

At 2.30, stealth dropped down a palace already. Quite fast, China made the propaganda center around 4.00.

China pushed through the middle wit gats and a single outpost. It got one tunnel, but another tunnel killed some units and China decided to go back. Meanwhile a Lotus was out, taking the oils. A more than welcome eco boom for China (at 6.00 minutes it had both oils, it took more than 20 minutes (!) before China got the third supply.

Another push by China forced stealth to sell of both arms dealers and this meant that stealth did not have any production, outside the barracks. An overlord joined the army, with the speaker tower and its upgrade, it was a good addition to the army. Stealth did not attack this, but went for the counter push. It had an arms dealer, almost near the China war factory. This could and should have been denied. Now the push did some good damage and killed 2 war factories and an airfield. China had to pull back with the forward army to clear this up.

After this, China clear up the base on the right near the oils. Another push by stealth got denied by some remaining units in China's base. China continued the push, destroying some defences and the palace. It took quite some units, and only an overlord survived. It took down a black market before it retrieved just in time (hijacker was coming). First hijacker for stealth, after 21 minutes. Same time the third supply went up for China, 2 major mistakes for both players.

China finally attacked the stronghold near its base and killed both arms dealers. It was not able to push any further, due to the many tunnels and stingers. After 33 minutes, a sneak attack took down some buildings from China, a welltimed sneak attack got some units too. At this time, it was already quite clear that China could not win it. Stealth had the eco and a big base, defended very well. China's last oils got destroyed, meaning it was out of eco. It took another 7 minutes before China realized its bad position before it surrendered.

Sloppy play, with quite some (major) mistakes by either player.
Juscophant0m: bad opening with the rax and single war factory. As China, you already had the weaker army. A forward supply with a truck rush would have put you in a good position, behind this attack 2 war factory spam could have keep up the pressure.

The 3rd supply was way too late. 21 minutes, against a better and/or more aggresive player, you wouldn't make it until 21 minutes. The supply on the left was also an option in the midgame, as it wasn't protected by any tunnels.

The unit choice from China was also not great. Gats are good vs quads and rpgs, but to clear up a base quickly, dragon tanks are the way to go. Spam them like crazy, make sure they won't get captured by hijackers, and you have a better time killing buildings. Also the lack of ecms in the late® game was a big mistakes. Without the ecms, your army got killed too easily.

Another important aspect is map awareness. You had stealth on his knees, but you allowed him to rebuild near your own war factory. This was another key moment, if this was denied early on, stealth would not have made a comeback.

HunEmpire: A risky opening with 3 supplies, it did pay off. However, it was quite vulnerable and a defending terrorist would be better for a truck rush. Luckily, this wasn't coming. The first hijacker was made after 21 (!) minutes. Hijackers are a great unit for stealth, and if there isn't an outpost, you can easily win the game with them. A single hijacker on the left war factory would have captured the flamer, and that flamer could wiped out the whole base.

A quick palace after 2.30 is risky, but with the 3 supplies, it wasn't that bad of a choice. 3 barracks were made, 2 arms dealers were up also. However, no busses were produced. Seeing the units from China (mainly gats), 1 or 2 busses would have wrecked the whole army. Also, you could have captured the oils before China did, or could have destroyed them right after (and not after 25/30 minutes, 1 oil gives $1,200 per minute. Having those oils survive for that long got him around $75,000).

Also a lack of aggression put you in a bad position. A tech rpg was the only attack after a counter push around 10 minutes. Seeing the amount of tunnels, you could have easily made 2 technicals with a few rpgs and take down the trucks. That would have lowered the spam from China, and from there you could have expanded your base, tech up etc.