Tonight's RoN match! (Tuesday)

Don't forget tonight's match. Since we had to take the Gamecal blocks down for now, I figured a thread was in order. Usually someone starts a thread anyway. I imagine we'll be using the GWJ teamspeak and it starts at 9:30 EST.

I should be able to make it tonite. I have class from 630-830 but its rarely 2 hours so hopefully i can make it back in time.

I was planning on making it tonight, but it looks like I might have to take the woman out to dinner, she''s been feeling neglected lately. We''ll see...

Remember we usually play 2 games, so if you can''t hit the first one, maybe you can catch the second.

Reminder, if you don''t like big fun don''t play RoN with us. Everyone else be sure and log onto Xfire or Teamspeak before 8:30.

Great set of games tonight guys! Everyone is hitting their stride a bit now so things are getting more and more interesting.

Game One:
With concern to SlyFrog''s incredible skills we played him and myself vs. Sway, Pyro, Demos and Pulse. I had what may have been the best build-up and attack I''ve ever done in a game. Sly and myself took them out fairly easily although Pyro made some good assaults on my point city.

Game Two
Elysium, myself, Pyro and Pulse took on Sly Frog, Sway and Demos. We won this game thanks to Elysium''s quick attack up the middle against Sly and my mildly successful defense against Sly Frog the expander near my border. Once Sly was out it was time for mop up!

Game Three
Now this was a great game. Team GWJ (Certis, Pyro, Sway & Elysium) vs. Demos, Sly Frog, Gaald and Pulse in a Big Huge map. Sway started in the corner right beside Sly so we all assumed he was a dead man. Instead, with Elysium building close to Sway from the beginning of the match they managed to keep Sly Frog contained and eventually beat him near the end. Considering he had two people working him over he put up an incredible defense.

Pyro and myself tried to sweep Demos out early but Pulse and Gaald threw us back on two different occasions. We did however manage to cripple Demos enough that he couldn''t really recover. During the second wave Pyro moved against Gaald and I backed him up a bit, we caused a lot of havoc and I actually pulled out to attack Demos again but Gaald fought Pyro off and I lost the town I took thanks to Pulse''s intervention.

Finally, Pyro skipped Demos on the third push and right when Gaald moved in to give Sly some relief against Elysium Pyro went around to the back of his territory and took out his capital. I moved on his outlying base and attacked Gaald''s army who was after Elysium from behind. It was a crushing move and soon both Gaald and Pulse dumped their resources on Sly and bowed out. Sly crumbled just before Pyro and I could help with the finisher.

That third game was a lot of fun, everyone is getting better and better!

Wow 3 games I''m impressed. I would have played but was trying out NCAA 2005 Xbox online. See you guys next time.

Except for me... I''m getting worse unless I''m the Americans, the rest of you noobs need to buy the expansion so I can be good again dangit!

Poor SlyFrog. You marked yourself as the man to beat, evidently. Every time we were choosing teams, everyone wanted to be on your team. Every time we were playing against you, you were the primary target.

I was having resource issues in all three games. I''m used to playing 1v1 games where there is plenty of room for expansion and, after about five minutes, you can pretty much afford to build/tech as fast as you can click the buttons. With so many people scrambling for space last night, and no thanks to the challenging maps we ended up with, I kept finding myself short on one of the resources.

This destroyed me the second game. I only had one mine. Hell, I only had one mountain in my entire territory. I sent some horsies up to harrass my neighbor, Pulse, for a bit. I giggled as I chomped a few of his citizens and retreated when I saw men with sticks. I went back to city management and suddenly found myself victim of Pulse''s counterattack at the worst possible location, my only mine. Whether I let my citizens continue to mine and die or pull them into my city while the mine was destroyed, I was stuck without any real metal income for several minutes. I was doomed from then on.

I was prepared to be first out of the third game as Elysium told me to ""look up"". My scout was still exploring my capital so I hadn''t uncovered the fact that Sly Frog was right on the other side of the first expansion city I was building. If he had a pair of midly upset citizens, he could have probably taken me out. I panicked and decided to expand in the other open direction, East. I went to plant my second expansion city and ran smack into Elysium''s great green army. Fortunately, he was an ally, but it was a sobering realization that I had already pretty much expanded as far and wide as I would ever be able to that game. It was also sobering seeing that Elysium had about 750 troops compared to my...well...my scout, who had returned to explore my capital some more.

My biggest concern was just keeping SlyFrog out for as long as possible. I wouldn''t be able to put up much of a fight, but I did shield one of Elysium''s sides. I put as many units as I could muster, both of them, right up on the front line on SlyFrog''s southern border. I was hoping if they made enough noise, he wouldn''t notice the paper buildings behind them. I was effectively cut off from any other action on the map. Elysium would push on SlyFrog, SlyFrog would counter, and I would run in behind SlyFrog and pick off as many loose soldiers as I could. Certis mentioned after he went out early in Saturday''s game that it was almost easier to be effective when you only had a handful of troops to control. I''d have to agree. Since my army was so small, I could usually pick the right unit to pick at SlyFrog and get back to my territory before being completely wiped out. It was fun, but I was at risk of him simply mowing clean over me at his whim. Luckily he and Elysium duked it out mostly and, when Pyro and Certis finally worked the other side of the map into submission, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

I''m enjoying the games and I''m free for more most evenings. You know where to find me.

I feel that last game redeemed me from all the other pitiful showings I made in RoN. Once I started making an army, with Certis running a little interference, I steamrolled Demos, then Gaald (though I stupidly thought I could take down his city with the bunch of Heavy Infantry I had left instead of just killing his units and waiting for Artillery, so he cleaned me up on that one). Then I went back and snuck in behind his lines and took his capital. I fended off a good counter attack from Pulse and defeated Gaald, which at that point it was over for team SlyFrog. Of course alot of it was luck, I had Certis backing me up and I didn''t have to deal with SlyFrog or anybody else in the early game. It took me a while to start cranking out any military. Still, I managed to actually kill Gaald, which is almost enough to make up for the ""hay guyz I can fight too!"" showing the other two games. Despite SlyFrog losing twice, he''s still one bad mutha, fending off Elysium and Sway in that third game must''ve been tough.

Awesome games last night. My personal best was the second. I can''t explain it, but everything seemed to work as planned. I went in to attack Sway, expecting to face fierce résistance, but his first city fell in a matter of minutes and my allies totally destroyed everyone else.

The third game was a bit of a disaster for me. I had an awesome location on the map (top left and up on a hill), but it was seriously lacking resources. All was going well until I needed oil. With limited oil and an army that was 85% wiped out from trying to help allies I knew I was done for. I had to respectfully resign while not even defending my own territory (plus it was 12:15AM).

I learned quite a bit and am looking forward to the next game....maybe I''ll try and use these ""hotkey"" thingies.

I''m horrible in RTS multiplayer, but I still may pick up the expansion and play with you guys one of these nights. I guess I''m just a glutton for punishment.

I have trouble playing during weeknights, because I get home so late. Anybody interested in playing on the weekends?

[This weekend is out for me, but the next few should work.]

Sorry I missed you guys last night, I will definitely try to join in on the next game. Is it possible to view recordings of other people''s games? Like if I wanted to view one of yours from last night?

Yeah, pm me an email address and I''ll send you the recorded games and how to view them.

I''m having a blast. My only sadness is the rate at which you people appear to cycle through games, knowing that some other game will soon catch your eye and this will be like a brief Prague spring before the tanks roll in (I need to stop as this is getting decidely close to the somehow creepy/disturbing Battlefield: Vietnam thread). Of course, given my exponential rate of decline, by the time this all wraps up in roughly 2.4 weeks, my play will be openly mocked as that coming from a slightly precocious monkey.

Seriously though, I''m digging the games, and have been playing for awhile. If I''m around, I''m up for a weekend game or two or other times as well. I really need to quit my job to focus on RoN.

y only sadness is the rate at which you people appear to cycle through games, knowing that some other game will soon catch your eye and this will be like a brief Prague spring before the tanks roll in (I need to stop as this is getting decidely close to the somehow creepy/disturbing Battlefield: Vietnam thread). Of course, given my exponential rate of decline, by the time this all wraps up in roughly 2.4 weeks, my play will be openly mocked as that coming from a slightly precocious monkey.

Usually as long as we limit playing the game to once or twice a week, it lasts fine. We''ve been playing Raven Shield off and on for a year or so. It''s these ""Play Every Night This Week!"" games that don''t last, ala BF:V.

I really need to quit my job to focus on RoN.

That''s what Elysium is doing