Scallywag Turtles

[Syvan]

(09-19-2012 03:53 AM)Harti Wrote:  Talking about it abstractively is not gonna be very useful in regards to grasping the issue. I myself can hardly imagine getting two Bombshells out in the earlygame, for instance.

I agree. Unfortunately, I don't keep many of those replays because I don't think they are very informative, but I have a couple that might illustrate the points I want to make.

First though, since many people may not make it to the end, I think that this is not necessarily a problem with unit balance, but could be solved by the map pool. If you notice, people don't really complain about bombshells on the large maps. I think the reason for this is that there are multiple attack lanes, which leave one of them weak. By simply exploiting the weak one, it is possible to win. On maps like sharkfood or peekaboo, there is really only 1 attack lane. Locking it down is the key to victory.

If you follow starcraft, initially the game heavily favored Terran over Zerg. In the end, the way the game was balanced was by increasing the size of the maps, which allowed Zerg slightly more time to defend terran rushes.

My point is that a soldier bombshell wall might be intended to be similar to a wall of siege tanks. If it is intended that I should not attack into a siege line, I should be given some alternative.

Sharkfood Island bombshells

This is a game I decided to try out bombshells. Skip to turn 18. You can watch the beginning, but it's bad and I throw away FTA. The game itself isn't a good match, but I want to show you the formation.

Using a soldier wall on sharkfood just behind that gap allows you to maintain a wall that cannot be broken in 1 turn. A buffed bombshell requires 2 gaps to be opened unless you can sneak a sniper into range, which is itself quite costly. The bombshell can then cover the Sharkfood fulcrum, allowing me to position my units into the critical top portion of the map largely uncontested.

Also, in this game between me and Alvendor, he uses similar positioning to lock down the top area. Skip to turn 28. It takes so long because I try to pressure the bombshell right after it is built, but he eventually gets to carry his plan out.

Here's an example I've complained about on Peekaboo. I'm not even sure how this is breakable as Adorable. You can see me trying and failing, leaving me further and further behind. We can theorycraft about mobis but the fact is that the soldier wall supported by Bombshells requires 12 wit in move/attack cost alone to take out 2 soldiers to open the two spaces required to destroy the bombshell.

I think that the logical response to these points is that it is wise to attack before the bomshell is set up. The question is: how do you know whether they have built a bomshell, or are massing soldiers? Each should have a different response, but scouting isn't really feasible in many situations.

In a little while I will post some games where I defeat bombshells, because I do think they can inform anti-bombshell responses.