Analyzing a game from

In this mechabellum analysis video we are revieweing a game from a fellow KZbinr @Drone_101.
It's a standard vs standard game and it has been a while since I have played one of those. So let's see what info I could provide!
00:00 Intro
00:38 Game starts
Music by Karl Casey @WhiteBatAudio

[@Drone_101]

Thanks for the breakdown dude! Knew it was a rough start as I was playing it but I really appreciate you explaining the "why" of it being weak and also how to improve my approach to the opening board state. Defo should've picked the Amp Core and sold the Steelballs. I didn't consider oil at all, and liked your idea for the strong side/weak side layout for the double boats away from the big Scorp and then use Oil to tarpit it. Think my turn 1 line on reflection would've been Arclights but I like the idea of forcing the Chaff earlier then focusing on developing higher value Carries later on when we know direction our opponent is heading. Thanks again dude, really appreciate your insights!

[@SurreyEZ]

No prob! Always nice to see some standard games :D Yea the arclight r1 is ok but the fang is a lot better. If the enemy goes fang you don't really want to develop arcs (and for example if the enemy is expecting a steel ball push he should always go fang). The fangs also keep you a lot more flexible if for example there is a fire badger drop on round 2 or something like that. You played the game pretty good i think aside from the r1. The scorp card was on a brutal turn because it was so much better for the enemy. You could pick something else like boat or phoenix and sell the marksmen you just deployed but the correct play is i think to pick the scorp and pray that the enemy somehow doesn't pick it. Every round it was just a mirror match but the enemy was ahead because of the start. But very small decisions early game can snowball the game very quickly to an unwinnable position.

[@JackFr0st5]

Oooh, I love drn. Great to see y'all collaborating!

[@SurreyEZ]

Check out what drn was thinking while he was playing this game: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3jReoFul81_n6M He puts a lot of effort into his videos and many people seem to like them a lot so check him out. Somethings I didn't mention or explained poorly: - When you see the enemy taking the scorpion, you can start selling the balls immediately so you have more economy to switch into the counter - I talk about the vulcan in the game. Enemy has many crawlers in the middle and if you put a vertical forward fang in front of your both towers they pull all the center crawlers to the sides so you only need 2 vulcans and they are pretty efficient when all the enemy chaff is channeled in front of it by the fangs. (you put them too far in the sides) - Orbital vs laser sight: The laser sight is better long term and I suspect many people would go orbital here because they think they are losing and are looking for a way back into the game. But the reality is that if you are far behind and the enemy build is more efficient, you just cheese one round with the orbital and then lose even harder. It's better to develop a better end game board. - The ground cannon on the boats is probably the only chance to live, but it's not good for the long term. Even if we survive with the ground cannon I think we always lose the late game against ranged phoenix. The enemy can just oil our board to slow down the sledges/chaff and the boats will die.

[@StarKech6010]

Nice man , good job , time well spent watching. You earn my like and comment !

[@Mortis_XII]

I like drn i like rat, what a time to be alive

[@jessebrunette4915]

Very cool breakdown! I watch both your channels... very neat to watch both videos and perspectives. I enjoyed that immensely. 😊

[@benjiro8793]

Phoenix is in my opinion a very versatile unit. Best use for them is spend 50 for redeployment and then using them to fly behind or middle of enemies with waypoint to snipe the towers. One of the problems with Phoenix vs Marksmen, is that phoenix are stacked units. All too often, both units target the exact same enemy and you have no ability to space them out like 2x marksmen. What can mean a massive DPM reduction on low health pool units, where both phoenix attack the same unit at the same time, when a single shot kills it. Advantage is, if you want to sell them down the line, you get rid of both units with one sale, unlike 2x marksmen. And yes, there are plenty of games where your phoenix may become useless and its better to sell them, to recycle the money in better unit. Slowly been going from 800 to 1200 over time, simply by more using the sales and waypoint. Change strategies mid game, enemy is too much AA focused because of your few flying units, go heavy ground. Enemy is going heavy anti-missile because you have storms, well, sell those and go Scorps. Again, and again ... I noticed over time, people have difficult adapting to changing stacks and they focus too much on creating a doomstack that does everything (but does only a medium job at everything). What in turn makes breaking them easier.

[@Lorrin81]

Agree w/ Surrey on choosing Marks over Fangs Round 1. Also, you probably should have sold your Balls after Scorps were on the board. They didn't do much for you.

[@ianstandardYT]

Collabs!! Love it!!

[@xMasaox]

I like Marksman (not here on round 1, fangs was far better), but mostly because it does not require the range tech to do things even quite far in the game sometimes. Now if you are round 3 or later phoenix is just more efficient in terms of deployment, the only case being a play like 3 lvl 2 marksman with AA to counter overlord/wraith. After scorpion drop + phoenix for the opponent, there's no reason to not sell the balls on the left, then on the right. AmpCore was better than missile, clearly. The boats seems "good" at first glance, but we don't clear well on the right and left, and the boat on the rigth, should be aligned with the rhino atleast, maybe it would have helped the clear a little and allows the steelball to kill the rhino. Personnaly i find range alone on boats mostly useless, it doesn't really improve the unit that much, (range + overload is really great), so i do understand going ground cannon here for a one tech, try to deal with big things (range + overload being better, but more costly).

[@cubandarknez]

Felt their opener just set them up to fall behind in exp early. Current meta feels like we are back in "exp matters" territory with the repeated "nerfs" to the free unit total value (which are a good thing) and the nerfs to sledges and overlords meaning there are more viable late game comps. I used to like phoenixes over marksmen, but I have actually swung back around to marksmen a bit just because they have better carry potential. I never get them early though, leveling them up from level 1 is only for assmen strats. I like to use them as insurance vs some comps, so if I see a good point to start leveling marksmen I drop them at level 2 or grab them leveled from free unit rotation. If you have tempo adv and your marksmen keep getting levels you just lock your opponent out of so many options just by having high lvl marksmen on the ground.

[@c.l.3806]

I'll try to analyze too. Round 1 Take Arclights, Fangs or more Crawlers Round 2 It's uncommon to mix balls with Sledgehammer. Go Wasp. The balls protect em. Round 3 Take the Overlord. Overlord with Range should beat Phoenix. Later on get Firebadgers or Vulcans or Stormcallers and lay Fire against Fangs and Mustang.

[@Drone_101]

Thanks for the insights! Yeah, I totally didn't even think of Wasps R2. Always struggle with them in the mid game unless I'm playing aggro to hem my opponent in and deny them the space to setup Mustang pockets. Tend to rely on them more late game as flying chaff or as super carries when given a few level 3 sets. R3 Overlord looks playable for sure! Of late I've been playing a pretty simple "see a free Scorpion pick a free Scorpion" approach especially when facing tanks. Thanks again for the input!

[@Fadeways]

lol when you said there's only one correct pick t1 against sledge arc, i thought you're gonna recommend the cheeki t1 wasp

[@SurreyEZ]

thats not a good play ! :D fun though

[@cubandarknez]

For a few days it seemed the current patch meta would be decent, but now all I see is carry arc + marksman games. Is this just the mmr I'm at or are others seeing this too?

[@SurreyEZ]

i see arclights quite a lot, marksmen not so much