[Complete] PYRA Mudcrawler Is Devastating - The Tournament

[Snowman]

nagafono vs Snowman, second game on Weldyn Channel, chaotic pick against a loyal one, lots of village stealing.

Spoiler:

And I won.

[Abstract]

Danniel_BR Vs Abstract Round 1 Match 1

And the winner is:

Spoiler:

Abstract

[amikrop]

map: Fallenstar Lake
p1: amikrop, Drake Warrior - Elvish Fighter, Orcish Grunt, Dark Adept, Naga Fighter, Gryphon Rider, Footpad
p2: Danniel_BR, Elvish Marksman - Elvish Fighter, Orcish Grunt, Dark Adept, Naga Fighter, Elvish Rider, Young Ogre, Thief

Spoiler:

Winner: amikrop

[amikrop]

map: Ruphus Isle
p1: Abstract, Lieutenant - Spearman, Sergeant, Elvish Archer, Drake Fighter, Drake Glider, Mage
p2: amikrop, Drake Warrior - Drake Fighter, Drake Burner, Drake Glider, Saurian Skirmisher, Orcish Grunt, Dark Adept

Spoiler:

Winner: amikrop

[SalsaRocoto]

Horus2 vs Salsa round 1 game 2 is starting now on .... cynsaun battlefield

[amikrop]

map: Sablestone Delta
p1: amikrop, Elvish Marksman - Orcish Grunt, Dark Adept, Footpad, Spearman, Wolf, Bat, Orcish Assassin
p2: Oook, Lieutenant - Orcish Grunt, Dark Adept, Footpad, Saurian Skirmisher

Spoiler:

Winner: amikrop

[abhijit]

szdik570 vs abhijit on Sablestone Delta.

"Speed..."

In case you were thinking:

Yes, there was a mudcrawler, and he is... slow.

[Horus2]

Attention every PYRAMID player!

Due to making the opening post of the round in a hurry, i had to find that i made the inapprehensibly awkward mistake of writing the wrong month; it supposed to be June, not July.
Despite i mentioned at other opportunities that the round will last for 5 weeks maximum, i am aware that this could cause quite a confusion and maybe some of you with low game count are planning the games according the cozy pace of this. My apologies for my clumsiness.
To compensate my error, i set a new deadline, with one and a half extra week, hopefully it will be enough. If you feel you are negatively affected by this, please pm me and we can probably think up an acceptable solution.

New deadline is June 22! (Sunday)

Thanks for reading.

[Horus2]

I'm not playing but if I could offer a comment:

You're running into the problem of trying to balance units against units instead of factions against factions hard here. And I can see the reasoning shaping. You talk about paying for an overpriced cold attack when fighting skeletons which is based on theoretical efficency. The fact is, that in any situation the effective state is frequently different. Fact is that a dark adept does a significant amount of damage to skeletons due to arcane weakness (significant as by proportion of the skeletons hitpoints, the effect amplified by them both being the same allignment, and the fact that no skeleton is ever resiliant). Skeletons also deal a significant amount of damage to adepts however it is easier to be in a situation where a dark adept will be able to smash a skeleton than vice versa for a few reasons:
-Skeletons are more likely to be in the front line than dark adepts.
(in general)You're more likely to have melee units being your meatwall as they have on average lower cost and higher hp. With units like skeletons and heavy infantry sometimes you don't want them to be a meatwall but in those events you're paying a lot for them to not do what they're strong at). Heavy Infantry and (and in PYR skeletons) are priced to be meatwalls despite occasionally not being much better at it than much cheaper infantry (like when adepts are around).
-Adepts can get the quick trait and are thus more likely to be able to land first strike and/or reach an addital hex.
-If an Adept is standing on high defense terrain he becomes much more resistant to a skeletons attack whereas there's nothing that can stop a skeleton who is attacked by two adepts at night from having a good chance to die.

Any one of those would be enough to tip the fact that skeletons and adepts are roughly equally deadly to each other (factoring in that 2/3 adepts are resiliant) in favor of adepts but all three of them together I'd say amounts to a definate counter.

Of the options given I'd go for A (never had problems with throwing updates into tournaments, if they're really good they'd be able to adapt) but I think you have it backward: the reason adepts are so good, is because they're so powerful with proper support and grunts are extremely good support. In the role of a melee meatshields there is nothing as efficent as a grunt which is why I find it odd that you choose it as your baseline for everything. By the standard of the grunt for the roll it fills, every other unit is subpar. Now grunts don't do everything but they don't have to they just have to be the best at doing the needed roll. If you want to balance this fact out, no amount of making the things a grunt supports worse will make the grunt worse; if you want grunts to be seen/used less you can't do it by making the things they support worse (they'll just be used to support something else) you have to make it so that other things can compete with them better which would be eaisest by making them just a hair more expensive. They'd still be distinct from these other units and quite efficent.

Because i promised to try my best to answer this, even if my brain leaks 24/7:

In the past days, i tried to construct a page-long argument for defending my statement of DA being suboptimal against Skeleton despite having a secondary attack form, but in the end it just collapsed. It would work in a state when the caused average damage would be still under the output of the main attack against a 0% resistance. But as long as the secondary does more damage, it can be considered as a counter. I really overcomplicated it, sorry for the disappointment.

However, your last paragraph is still very disputable and it is you who have it backward. The scenarios that validated the change of the magi were actually featuring underperforming support (against different armoured units), and DAs went solo. The low cost of the magi is why armoured units cannot exceed the grunts as meatshield, and even in the current meta they being better baseline than Spearman, Elvish Fighter, Dwarvish Fighter, Young Ogre or even Bowman is questionable. At one point Mint agreed that in this tournament they are not that overly dominant as in the first. People are just starting to discover the alternatives - but the DA and Mage has no such for their current cost, and they are countering the grunt's counter.

I am preparing with a little homework for all those who think Orcish Grunt for 13 gold is a fair price, so stay tuned (for graphs, charts, and empirical curves).

[tekelili]

You're running into the problem of trying to balance units against units instead of factions against factions hard here.

Imho opinion that is a bright, sharp and concise analysis. Velensk often surprise me finding the right words to exprese thoughs I have barely formed in my head in a confuse way.

It is really off topic, but this coment remembered me a proposal I did a year ago in Ladder Council page and could interest to PYRA lovers: create random factions at start of game and let players bid on them (substracting from strating gold winner bid). I really think dynamic balance is better and more fun, than static balance. Just my 2 cents.

[Horus2]

Attention every PYRAMID player!

A new PYRA version, 1.6.1 is shipped with two bugfixes and two new maps! Because one of the fixes generates OOS errors, thus informing your opponents about you picking a bat (although nothing that can cause a crash), make sure both of you downloaded this new version and ask your opponent before!
The two new maps are not meant to be played during the tournament, but to test how suitable they are with the era, although 4p_Geothermal can be chosen as a finalist map if those players personally find it fitting for their taste. The other is Heart Mountains' Caves by Sulik, a pleasant-looking rhombus-shaped map that you might already saw in lobbies being tested for Default.

So, give these lava-filled maps a warm welcome and update your era!

[Mint]

26 days after starting, SalsaRocoto vs Mint game 2 is continuing now!

[SalsaRocoto]

A very nice 33 turns game on CotB,

Mint, leader marksman, with a special anti DAOG task force: HIs, saurians skirms, ulfs, spears, footies and mages
SR, same leader, DA, OG, naga, horseman, elvish archer, drake fighter.

Spoiler:

My attack on the right side goes wrong, but Mint fails to level an ulf on a 3hp elvish archer, giving me a chance to stay in the game. More slaughter on the right, and on a side switch, DAs hitting x2 leaves Mint's leader vulnerable. gg well played

[SalsaRocoto]

Horus vs SR on Cynsaun battlefield

Spoiler:

gliders overcame wolves and gave me the game. Thx for playing these adventurous maps horus !

Always had a feeling p1 is at a disadvantage on this map. Does anyone feel the same ?

[Velensk]

Yes, for Cysaurian I have always felt that p2 gets a better setup.

That said, gliders will always have an edge over wolves on that map.