Winter World Cup Final Game Commentary

[poweewee]

With the World Cup finally over, I decided to share one of the most exciting games I've been in:

http://osn.codepenguin.com/replays/view/...--nnAww#52

With so much to learn from the game, and so many interesting scenarios, I decided to share the game along with some commentaries.

I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to discuss some of the turns in the game. The labels for the hexes are seen on the attached image (taken from the America vs Eurasia thread).

Without further ado:

TURN 1:
I did this set of moves in order to save up for an early Mobi next turn.

Turn 5:
I was quite surprised with the hit-and-run attack. One disadvantage this attack did though, was that I was able to quickly calculate how many wits he had used up, and how many he had left. This is a crucial piece of information, which will turn out to be quite useful later on.

[ST TIP #1] Counting your opponents wits is useful, if it is possible.
[ST TIP #2] Hit-and-runs are not always wit efficient, especially if you are pulling back a unit at an advantageous position, back to a useless space.

Turn 7:
As soon as I moved my runner, I knew exactly how many wits he had, and where his units were positioned. I decided to move forward....

[PUZZLE #1] Red has 8 wits for next turn. Is it possible to kill Blue's Mobi? If yes, is it to Red's advantage to kill the mobi?

Turn 9:
It was a huge sigh of relief that my Mobi didn't get killed. Its position at K5 is both safe and advanced. What conspires next are a forced set of exchanges.

Turn 13:
I killed his Mobi! It should be over in a few moves........

Turn 15:
I miscalculated the number of wits that he had! I thought that he moved the sniper back, when in fact it had been there all along. It could have been over here had I retreated my Mobi, but.....

Turn 16:
Alas he had enough wits to spawn a mobi and tele snipe my Mobi (You could only imagine how many times I kicked myself. Literally)

Turn 17:
At this point, with him having the mobi and mine getting killed, I tried to make the most of the situation by try to reduce the number of wits he had, and thus forcing the next set of moves.

Turn 18:
Surprisingly, it is still a tricky situation because of the advanced nature of my runners.

[PUZZLE #2] What set of moves save the game for Red?

Turn 19:
Again, a lot of possible moves, but I decided that in order to compete with Red, I had to spawn my own Mobi. Better now than never.

Turn 21:
Before looking at my moves,

[PUZZLE #3] With 7 wits at hand, is it possible to kill Red's Mobi? Is it to Blue's advantage?

Now what I moved was....

[ST TIP #3] H3 and F9 are some of the safest, yet mobile positions for the Mobi on Thorn Gulley.

Turn 23:
I'm not sure what he was thinking here; perhaps he was hoping that he could tele-snipe my mobi. As of Turn 22, I thought he had a slight advantage, but it all turns from here.

[ST TIP #4] F6 and H6 are safe havens for runners on Thorn Gulley. They are unreachable by newly spawned runners.

Turn 27:
With a large number of wits and a huge advantage on unit count, I decide to press the attack once again. My Mobi is quite vulnerable here, but there is no way for Red to kill mine without letting his getting killed.

Turn 29:
I almost kicked myself again! Another miscalculation! I thought my Mobi would be safe, but..

[PUZZLE #4] How does Red kill Blue's mobi? (He has 7 wits)

Turn 33:
Thankfully, I still had a unit advantage, and my buffed soldiers were at advanced positions. Finally, I was able to force the win on turn 35!

[ST TIP #5] Do not waste wits hitting the enemy's base, unless you have a definitive plan on how to reduce the base life to 0.