Turtling Discussion

[Syvan]

I've thought about posting a thread just like this, but I wasn't sure other people were experiencing the same problem. It's especially bad if P1 decides to turtle, since P2 has almost no way to apply pressure in a cost effective way early in the game. The disincentive to turtling on most maps is simply the desire to have fun. Maps like peekaboo, glitch, and sharkfood have no way to punish a P1 turtle.

This match is especially bad, even after watching it several times, I can't imagine how I could have prevented it. I think the lazy response is to suggest applying pressure to the wit space. I don't think this is viable. Since P1 has several wits saved to purchase the bombshell, they can use those wits to crush my push, then go back to turtling. I think/hope the eventual plan is to slowly move those bombshells forward, while keeping them in range of the others. At the end, I just wanted to finish it so I could have the replay.

I had another game with the same player that I was able to win using 3 mobi's to bust a hole in the turtle and end the game in a single turn. I forgot to save the reply because I was so disgusted. In fact I had 4 games in a row against the same person who applied literally the same strategy. Go first, play defense, build many bombshells.

Here's another match where I find a bombshell as P2, and figure I have a slight enough advantage to apply pressure. In the end the bombshell wins the way that Alvendor intended. In response to swimj, I did pop in with a runner and apply pressure in this situation, but FTA combined with bombshell's defensive abilities handily won the day.

The typical response to a turtle is to choke their resources, buildup an overwhelming force and crush them. However, the resource system in outwitters does not allow turtling on small maps to be punished since the wit spaces are often included in the defense. In fact, due to the small size of these maps, area denial units like the bombshell and sniper are all the more effective.

If anyone watches those games and sees a legitimate path to victory that doesn't include 30 turns of accruing units and jostling for position, I would absolutely love to hear it since I nearly rage-deleted the app 2 days ago.

I don't think it's a huge problem yet because people care more about having fun than seeing who gets bored faster. But I would be willing to bet that if we had a tournament for money, the ensuing games would be an absolutely horrific experience.

Edit: weird grammer