Gray Officer
11-19-2006, 02:54 PM
I was pretty bored today and dropped my stats all the way to 100, by quitting all the games where I was sure of victory after a few moves ;)
I was bringing it up (485) while I saw killmonky (1443) online. I have heard from my real life friend how well he plays with a "default" gray setup. I always wanted to see how well an expert handles the default setup. It should suffice to say right now that he brought out the beauty of it quite nicely (could see his experience of two years in each move). Since we both both were in †Hells Angels†, I asked him for a Dropless Gray game, and he agreed readily.
So, we started. He with his "TAO Default" setup and mine with my Bottle's turtle (that I have been using almost since I started - a year).
He started with moving his vulnerable units away from my turtle's reach - Chanty and Pyro. I used my scout carefully and attacked his well hidden pyro from the flank. I started bringing my knights opposite his center in the time he took to make his protective turtle in the center. There were some boring regular moves after that till I had a chance to kill off his other pyro with my scout, but risk the witch attack. But since it was within barrier ward's range, I did take the chance and the pyro did die. He used the witch once on the scout and I barriered it. But, the beauty of this position was that I could not move my scout anywhere unless the witch waits a turn. So, basically my scout was useless. Since I already am playing with a lightning and barrier ward which he does not have, technically, even with his pyro killed, I was one attacking unit less. But since he would not be willing to use his witch also on anything else, we were kind of even.
He had this extremely good time tested policy of forcing the opposition to hit each of his units a little and wait for healing while at the same time, taking out one unit at a time. Though I was playing with almost the same idea, he was better at this than me. As a result, two of my knights were under 25. One took an attack from a knight and went to 10. I retreated it just in front of my lightning. This was the biggest mistake I made in the game. I should have seen his pyro earlier and retreated then itself. Waiting for so long and trying to entice his witch to do the finishing off was a blunder. But, the good thing about this was that he had two knights and pyro in one column so his witch can't come to a place where she can attack the scout if I move it on the same line but risk the attack by the knight. I took it, hit his pyro. He was not in a position to heal, but instead of taking a chance, he moved one of his knights to get the witch into a position to hit the scout. So, I could not take off the pyro that turn. I barriered it, but eventually got around to killing the pyro without losing anything else. So, that was a pyro for a knight. Really pathetic. But I continued to play.
After a battery of retreats, safe attacks and healing on both sides, he started the attack with his knights and assassin. Instead of defending, I took my two knights up for an attack, but keeping them at a safe distance apart for the chanty, since my scout was near my back rank healing.
Then we had regular moves where I managed to kill his assassin, and his witch but lost my beloved scout. The game was still downhill for me with him having three knights, scout, chanty and a cleric for my two knights, assassin, chanty and the cleric (plus the barrier ward and lightning). Then I decided to take chance. I hit my assassin from the side with my knight. It went to 16 with blocking of +40. Scout was waiting one turn. So, next turn, moved it behind my lightning and faced the scout. His knight came close to attacking. He could reach it in 2 more turns. I healed. Went to 28. Moved his other knight closer. Used my lightning. Assassin on 2. He couldn't retreat both his knights now. I took one. Game was still out of my hands, and he was playing extremely well, and careful, taking very few chances. He retreated the other knight.
After a few turns, there was such a beautiful position on board that gorgeous is not a word that could describe it. It was like seeing a similar complicated one in Chess. Without a scout, I went and hit his chanty. He paralyzed my knight along with his two knights. I moved the other knight around. He used his scout and blocked one side of chanty. I moved the knight again. Now, he used his only other unit, cleric to block that side. Now, I went to a position and hit the scout at which position, the only way he could paralyze both my knights was if he paralyzed ALL his units too. He used the scout to hit my paralyzed knight. I healed. He healed. I hit the scout again. He blocked. There wasn't much for him to do. He passed, I passed. I hit the scout from front again, he hit. I won the game.
I finished off the enchantress, and then the cleric but lost one of my knights in the process. Now, he had two knights for my Knight, Chanty, Barrier Ward, Cleric, and Assassin. He surrendered.
The game lasted an hour and a half, and he would have won it if only he had a barrier ward instead of a pyro. But, nevertheless, it was an awesome game. It may not be a game where I played my best moves or I was at the best form, but it was the most thrilling game I have ever played here, just for the beautiful static positions encountered in the game and how everything revolved around it. And killmonky, he is awesome. Not only at the game, but also as a person. We are so lucky to have him here.
Three cheers for Chris Limone! Thanks for the awesome game.
P.S.: Sorry, I took only one screenshot, at the end of the game:
http://www.stan.in/killmonky.jpg
Cheers!
Stanley Lyndon.
I was bringing it up (485) while I saw killmonky (1443) online. I have heard from my real life friend how well he plays with a "default" gray setup. I always wanted to see how well an expert handles the default setup. It should suffice to say right now that he brought out the beauty of it quite nicely (could see his experience of two years in each move). Since we both both were in †Hells Angels†, I asked him for a Dropless Gray game, and he agreed readily.
So, we started. He with his "TAO Default" setup and mine with my Bottle's turtle (that I have been using almost since I started - a year).
He started with moving his vulnerable units away from my turtle's reach - Chanty and Pyro. I used my scout carefully and attacked his well hidden pyro from the flank. I started bringing my knights opposite his center in the time he took to make his protective turtle in the center. There were some boring regular moves after that till I had a chance to kill off his other pyro with my scout, but risk the witch attack. But since it was within barrier ward's range, I did take the chance and the pyro did die. He used the witch once on the scout and I barriered it. But, the beauty of this position was that I could not move my scout anywhere unless the witch waits a turn. So, basically my scout was useless. Since I already am playing with a lightning and barrier ward which he does not have, technically, even with his pyro killed, I was one attacking unit less. But since he would not be willing to use his witch also on anything else, we were kind of even.
He had this extremely good time tested policy of forcing the opposition to hit each of his units a little and wait for healing while at the same time, taking out one unit at a time. Though I was playing with almost the same idea, he was better at this than me. As a result, two of my knights were under 25. One took an attack from a knight and went to 10. I retreated it just in front of my lightning. This was the biggest mistake I made in the game. I should have seen his pyro earlier and retreated then itself. Waiting for so long and trying to entice his witch to do the finishing off was a blunder. But, the good thing about this was that he had two knights and pyro in one column so his witch can't come to a place where she can attack the scout if I move it on the same line but risk the attack by the knight. I took it, hit his pyro. He was not in a position to heal, but instead of taking a chance, he moved one of his knights to get the witch into a position to hit the scout. So, I could not take off the pyro that turn. I barriered it, but eventually got around to killing the pyro without losing anything else. So, that was a pyro for a knight. Really pathetic. But I continued to play.
After a battery of retreats, safe attacks and healing on both sides, he started the attack with his knights and assassin. Instead of defending, I took my two knights up for an attack, but keeping them at a safe distance apart for the chanty, since my scout was near my back rank healing.
Then we had regular moves where I managed to kill his assassin, and his witch but lost my beloved scout. The game was still downhill for me with him having three knights, scout, chanty and a cleric for my two knights, assassin, chanty and the cleric (plus the barrier ward and lightning). Then I decided to take chance. I hit my assassin from the side with my knight. It went to 16 with blocking of +40. Scout was waiting one turn. So, next turn, moved it behind my lightning and faced the scout. His knight came close to attacking. He could reach it in 2 more turns. I healed. Went to 28. Moved his other knight closer. Used my lightning. Assassin on 2. He couldn't retreat both his knights now. I took one. Game was still out of my hands, and he was playing extremely well, and careful, taking very few chances. He retreated the other knight.
After a few turns, there was such a beautiful position on board that gorgeous is not a word that could describe it. It was like seeing a similar complicated one in Chess. Without a scout, I went and hit his chanty. He paralyzed my knight along with his two knights. I moved the other knight around. He used his scout and blocked one side of chanty. I moved the knight again. Now, he used his only other unit, cleric to block that side. Now, I went to a position and hit the scout at which position, the only way he could paralyze both my knights was if he paralyzed ALL his units too. He used the scout to hit my paralyzed knight. I healed. He healed. I hit the scout again. He blocked. There wasn't much for him to do. He passed, I passed. I hit the scout from front again, he hit. I won the game.
I finished off the enchantress, and then the cleric but lost one of my knights in the process. Now, he had two knights for my Knight, Chanty, Barrier Ward, Cleric, and Assassin. He surrendered.
The game lasted an hour and a half, and he would have won it if only he had a barrier ward instead of a pyro. But, nevertheless, it was an awesome game. It may not be a game where I played my best moves or I was at the best form, but it was the most thrilling game I have ever played here, just for the beautiful static positions encountered in the game and how everything revolved around it. And killmonky, he is awesome. Not only at the game, but also as a person. We are so lucky to have him here.
Three cheers for Chris Limone! Thanks for the awesome game.
P.S.: Sorry, I took only one screenshot, at the end of the game:
http://www.stan.in/killmonky.jpg
Cheers!
Stanley Lyndon.