Those first 2 games by Andy were insane, crazy strategy. The 3rd game was the most insane, long drawn out game. Lierrey did it in the 3rd game, and shout outs to Andy he tried his best for a very long time against P{ortuguese Feitoria, Arcabeus bombard cannons and Mass Organ guns. They both played really well in 3rd game. Wow, very good 4th game migration, that monk play conversion and battle, not completely losing water, changed the game. gg wp!
SPOILERS I really hope freakinandy doesn't kick himself too much for this. An absolute brilliant series and he was up 3-1 on the hidden cup 5 finalist. I'm a big freakinandy fan, I really hope he keeps training and wins some S tiers one day! GG to Liereyy for the comeback as well
That was an absolute grind of a game 3. All the while I was thinking "why no forward walls from Liereyy?". He added halbs to protect the siege from cav, but the siege kept dying anyways because the cav can just go around the halbs. A palisade to make an artificial choke would have made it much easier to defend the siege.
I don't think it was possible considering the dynamic of the fights, like at one point he was getting pushed all the way to his castle and the other time he had the huge push. I don't think the forward wall would keep up with the army. Also, lierey did make some forward barracks, but as it turns out it wasn't all that necessary since the point of the battle switch almost instantly. So I think that proof forward building won't usefull. What I did wonder is that why dont he walls the south part, at least toward the edge of the map so Andy would have to tunnel his hussar passing directly under lierey's castle if he wants to raid
This series was mad intense!! Took me four nights to get through it on the edge of my seat every game. How the players maintain their focus one game after the next like that is pure insanity.
Spoilers: I've been saying it for a while that Turks are strong on Arena, and one of the biggest reasons is because of the free light cavalry upgrade for map control in Castle Age. Andy was investing into economy upgrades when he should have been pumping spears and scouts to stop the forwards castle and to regain map control. I can see a potential argument being that with a back gold and stone, that you can just defend with a superior economy and push back in Imperial Age. However, if that was the strategy you don't invest in the light cavalry and build a monastery. The forwards castle strategy isn't actually that good if the other player reacts properly and defends. Keep your scout posted outside the enemy gates to see villagers coming through. Sometimes if you patrol the walls you can see the stone as well. As soon as you scout it then make military units. I would personally bring out my own villagers to build a tower if needed because if you defend it you will be ahead economically. The best case scenario is you ambush the enemy villagers walking across the map and they don't even have loom. The worst case is that they are forced to build the castle in the middle of the map or inside their base.
As sad as it is for Andy, he can be proud of himself for playing extremely well. Pushing a player as accomplished as Liereyy to the brink of losing is no small thing. I'm pretty sure Andy will be one of the top players, in time.
I think t90 overestimates vill kills, because players outside the top 20 are too bad at replacing them timely. if you are well over 100 vills a a kill is 50 food + maybe 20-30 missed collection depending on how many you need to replace.
If you are at no-idle-TC time (i.e. early game) then you can't "just replace" a vill (you'll always be behind until you reach the point where you would otherwise have stopped creating vills. Late game, absolutely, it's more of an inconvenience. SoTL did good video on this a few years back!
Game 3 was painful to watch, not boring but the back and forth and amount of units killed. I wonder if seige ram would've helped Andy, tank some shots from the organs and help push the buildings.
