Jan 5th 2011, 22:21:29
Mikers is an old friend of mine, who just recently came back to EE after some time off. It was a great surprise to me to find out that he was the "mystery" new winner of 2A this past set.
BobbyATA alright first question: " congrats on the big win in 2A mikers, looks like you have come back after some time off and gone straight back to the top. So what strat did u play?
mikers I played a straight theo-techer after a minor farm->indy startup (to about 2k acres).
mikers And thank you. :)
BobbyATA so I'm assuming you grabbed a little along the way? How'd you find the grabbing environment?
mikers So my first round back I just wanted to get a feel for the surroundings, particularly the lower numbers in B/C, so I did an all-x commie to familiarize myself.
mikers However, as a techer grabbing is a necessity, and I was surprised that despite the numbers, the grabbing available was actually pretty decent.
mikers I did hit a speed bump when I grabbed a facist farmer with a bit of a stock and got myself retalled, but overall 2A was full of fatties ripe for the picking, especially given a huge tech base and the income that quickly comes along with it.
mikers Of course, the grabbing is made easier with the removal of defensive allies, and instead of the one-PS a day I was used to, it was possible to perform a few SS attacks prior to sending out the mother grab PS for the day.
BobbyATA I agree the lack of allies makes grabbing easier, but it can also make retalling easier. Did this change affect how you balanced offense/defense as compared to sets past in 2A?
mikers Well, given that I typically am not used to having tanker defensive allies, I felt the removal of alliances helped me more than hurt. I was pretty thin (as techers usually are), and after the retals I did absorb, I made a day of grabs and then jumped to what I was pretty sure was a safe military level on the defense side.
BobbyATA Fair enough=), so when did you start stocking and when you got there did you think there was a good chance at comign home with the win come end of set?
mikers I got to 10k acres, and at that point I thought the land was good, so I started stocking then (I don't really remember when in the set that was). Tech prices were high and I was selling it as fast as I could for over $3k a point.
mikers At that point one other techer seemed like they might be competition until I saw they were having a missile war with someone else, and at that point I was pretty sure I'd finish in the lead.
BobbyATA So do you have any advice for a player who has never played tournament before about what to expect and how to finish well?
mikers The phrase "get fat and win" does not apply here. Rep cashers are often food for techers and C/Is when they are underdefended.
mikers That is not to say that rep-casher is not a viable strat, as it certainly is, but it's vital to make sure you are not the fat-boy on the scores list.
BobbyATA Great advice I think, so will we see you on any of the other servers now that you are back or is tournament enough for ya?
mikers Tournament is about all the earth I have time for currently.
BobbyATA I'll get you out of here on an easy one, would you say SKA is a great or the greatest alliance in the history of E2025?
mikers SKA Rules - hopefully so does SoF still too!
Finally, congratulations to mikers on his 6 month old baby daughter. Great news buddy!