= = = EDITION 15: May 6th, 2018 = = =
Table of Contents:
Section 1: Weekly Protocoin Drops
Section 2: Map Review: Memories From the Past - Prospects for the Future?
Section 3: SP - What is it good for?
Section 4: Clan War Report
Section 5: 5k Tournament Announcement
"A lie is just a great story someone ruined with the truth"
~ Barney Stinson
1. Weekly Protocoin Drops
Starting from Saturday, the 5th of May, there will be an 1800 Protocoin Drop every week. The prizes will be as follows:
First place: 1000 Protocoins
Second Place: 500 Protocoins
Third Place: 300 Protocoins
The game's will vary across all settings and maps, adding variance to the tournament every week. These settings will be decided by the host, a supporter volunteer who will be assigned each Saturday. The game will open at 8 pm UTC +1, which is 3 pm EST. We the staff hope to see you all there!
2. Map Review
In this section, we'll be talking about a few old maps that were made long ago, but either never became very popular or decayed in popularity over time. If you want to broaden your repository of playable maps or just want to know what we think about them, go ahead and read on!
Memories From the Past - Prospects for the Future?
This week we'll be talking about a map that quite a few people have heard of, but little have played: Destoria
Destoria is a map made by b0nker2 and published on the 2nd of February, 2014. The map contains countries named after well-known players, with the cities named after their special traits or likes. One of the trademarks of the map is its large variety of picks and choices - every strategy can be played here. There are also a large selection of plausible picks in the map.
First, let's look at some of the most popular picks:
Tophatstan
Named after the famous player Tophats, Tophatstan is known to be one of the strongest countries on the map. It has 5 cities, each uniquely descriptive of his playstyle, his likes and dislikes. It has access to many of the important zones of the map, as well as ports to reach the other areas on the map.
Clovistan
Another great pick is Clovistan, named after the then-supporter, now-admin clovis1122. Most of the city names revolve around his quirky sense of humor and quotes from him. The total income is 519 cash per turn, with 21 reinforcements. One of its unique features is being split in two by water. However, units can cross over at the closest point and it possesses two ports.
Now, let's look at a few basic strategies that can be played on this map:
PERFECT DEFENCE
Perfect Defence (PD) is one of the strongest strategies playable on this map. The map has fairly large amounts of water connecting landmasses and cities otherwise far apart, which means that PD players can gain the mobility required to make up for their lack of range.
IMPERIALIST
Imperialist (Imp) is, as usual, a rather flexible strategy. It can be played almost anywhere. For example, in Clovistan, it could be used to spam large amounts of infantry to overwhelm the enemy. On another pick with less reinforcements, for example Zizouprus, it could be used to make tanks to expand widely. Imp players are thus flexible and can adapt to a variety of opponents and play various countries on this map.
NAVAL COMMANDER
Naval commander (NC) seems to be rather lacking in this map. While there is a large amount of water, there are few ports. Hence, the strong destroyers characteristic of NC will be unable to be used to their maximum potential. The normal transport range is also generally sufficient for most needs, hence the boosted transport range will not be as effective as it usually is. However, it is not completely useless, with several capitals and important cities located on the water allowing for use of destroyers and the large Naval Transport range combined with the terrain of the map, allows for some excellent chaining possibilities.
MASTER OF STEALTH
Master of Stealth (MoS) can lead to extremely interesting and fun games. While the marines and infantry are relatively weak, the large range ensures that early expansion can be excellent allowing you to out-expand your opponent. However, tightly packed countries and cities means that the chances of marines slipping through is reduced. Submarines may be used to bypass this, though due to a small carrying capacity for subs and less ports, they're unlikely to be very effective.
GUERRILLA WARFARE
Guerrilla Warfare (GW) has cheap and powerful marines though the infantry have been greatly nerfed. While the marines face much of the same problems of MoS when it comes to sneaking past cities, their cost mitigates this since they can be spammed aplenty and used as your primary attacking unit. Should you survive the early game, the late-game promises to be extremely fun and exciting as the true power of GW comes into play.
Here is an image of the entire map as seen without the Fog of War:
On the 20th of May 2016, b0nker2 made a thread stating that he intended to make a second version, but unfortunately he apparently never completed it. Should anyone be interested in viewing the thread or submitting their name to be part of the new map should b0nker2 ever complete it, the link can be found >>here<<.
3. SP - What is it good for?
More than a month ago there was an interesting topic called "New things to spend SP on" made by b0nker2 where he asked for suggestions on a solution to solve the excess SP problem.
For months now, the AW Community has been clamoring for new upgrades and other features they can use their SP for, and for good reason. At the moment, to purchase all the upgrades you need 618,030 SP which means a player can acquire all upgrades before even reaching
Rank 11. Due to this, these days we have high ranked players with over 2 million SP sitting around, which is quite ridiculous.Sadly, the only thing they can currently do with their SP is changing their username (if not a premium player), and create or rename coalitions. The Aristokrats coalition used to regularly change its name before going inactive, and the Amigos clan was recently founded, partly for the reason that the founder, ~Heat Check, had a lot of SP and nothing to use it on.
To bring greater awareness to this topic, we've collected ideas suggested by players from this thread and compiled it into a strawpoll (link below), and want you guys to vote for what you would like to see. Hopefully we get clovis' attention.
- New colors for players to choose from
- Implementing a new 'Prestige' system;
- Unlocking the option to buy Partisans in a game for 1 day (or 5 games) costs SP (ex: 10,000 SP). They will then be available in the player's Units Menu and and could be bought for a certain amount of cash like any other unit.
Vote your favourite method of utilising excess SP in the Strawpoll >>here<<
4. Clan War Report
The competitive scene has seen a new surge of life in the past two weeks, with there being four active clans playing daily. This reporter managed to catch a Coalition War between Valkyria and Mortal Kombat. Let's take a look at what happened:
THE TEAMS
Representing Valkyria we have The GrandMaster and The GrandSlave, previously known as 'G.R.O.M' and 'Aspect' respectively. Valkyria are currently in first place this season, with many of their competitive games being in the 2v2 format. Grom will be looking to tilt West in his clan's favour as Germany, with Aspect hoping to shake up East with Turkey.
Over to the Mortal Kombat side now we have Mauzer Panteri and Eagle pairing up to contest Valkyria. Eagle will be up against Grom, while playing as the United Kingdom, and Mauzer will be seeking victory in the east as Ukraine. Mauzer and Eagle have continued to lead Mortal Kombat together, maintaining the well-known duo that is ever-present in atWar.
TURN 2
Turn 2 shows us each player's Turn 1 expansion, for those newer to the game. Starting off with west, Eagle goes for Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain as his first turn, avoiding Paris, perhaps anticipating a rush from Grom. That prediction proves to be correct as Grom sends 23+ units and his General to Paris as part of his first turn. Grom additionally takes Czech Republic, but is contested and loses in Austria to Mauzer, who appears to be playing Sky Menace. He also expands to Moscow, Belarus and Lithuania within his first turn. Aspect opts for a modest Turkey expansion by stacking Greece, Bulgaria and Romania while double walling Ankara.
TURN 3
In the following turn, each player tries to expand as much as possible in the fight for income and reinforcements. Grom expands from Paris to the French ports of Nantes and Bordeaux, posing a threat to both Madrid and London. He moves his general back to Hamburg, along with a stack of infantry. This is a major threat to London, but a rush is unlikely due to Mauzer's stack in Warsaw. Eagle decides to stack Belgium which he takes without contest, as well as capturing Zaragoza and Barcelona, making capturing Rome next turn a possibility, but an unlikely one, due to Aspect's ability to stack it and Grom's high pressure. Mauzer's stack was clearly targeted by Aspect, but Mauzer manages to escape to Warsaw and gain five reinforcements. Aspect now gains Balkan control.
TURN 4
This turn proves to be a huge turning point in the game. Aspect eliminates Mauzer's stack in Warsaw and Grom maintains full Germany, as well as expanding to Norway. Eagle now has a choice to make; should he capture Paris with his stack, or go for Berlin? It's clear Mortal Kombat need to make a play this turn to salvage the game, especially since the next turn is reinforcements turn.
TURN 5
And that's a wrap with victory going to Valkryia. Grom holds Paris and Berlin while also capturing Eagle's capital of London, while Aspect maintains control over the entirety of the Balkans, Turkey, Poland and Russia South.
This turned out to be quite an interesting and fast paced Coalition War. Good game!
5. 5k Tournament Announcement
Due to some confusion over name changes in the tournament, the end of round 2 has been extended to Sunday, May 20th. The reward for the winner will be 1000 Protocoins, with a smaller prize for 2nd and 3rd place.
The current standings in the tournament are as follows:
All participants in the tournament have been notified of their opponent. Good luck and have fun!
Credits
Map Review: LukeTan
SP - What is it good for?: Sascha
Clan War Report: Wheelo
Editing and Formatting: Darth.
