AKM Mixes it up!!

[Prozerran]

For all the Human players out there who are tired of watching the same, dull, repetitive replays of Human replays, this is for you!! AKM (Angry_Korea_Man), one of my favorite Human players for his stubborn usage of the BM/No Rax Tech, is at it again. These are his more recent replays, and I won't post his 5 second win. It's funny tho. His opponent, realizing who he's matched up against, promptly drops the game saying, "I don't play you." Ok, for those of you who want to know what these are, AKM changed his approach to his strategy, and I'm convinced it works much better. I've seen him against good and not so good opponents. You can determine the quality of the replays for yourselves and post your reactions. I hope you all enjoy.

EDIT: Replays moved to this thread (http://www.warboards.org/showthread.php?p=430895#post430895).

[Nedech]

This is great, i love watching replays of AKM.

I've seen him beating good players. I saw him doing a double rax towerrpush on Fire_de once. With BM as first hero, ofcourse.

[GroG]

I'll end up watching them eventually, but for right now I can't. What does he do that's so different from his regular style?

[Prozerran]

I'll end up watching them eventually, but for right now I can't. What does he do that's so different from his regular style?

He fast expands every game for the quick level 2 and siphon mana so he can keep feeding his Flamestrike harass early game while simultaneously gaining a resource advantage (towering the goldmine before starting the hall). He uses about 8-10 peasants to clear the expo early on (sending injured ones back to base to work, losing some in the process), and if he can't get to lvl 3 on his initial harass, he'll go creep another yellow camp for the lvl 2 FS. Completely different AKM than before, pumping roughly 30 control worth of peasants before he techs. He still uses his dual Sanctum/Workshop mix adding Barracks against UD and Hu, and invisi-mortar as an expo killer is just cruel and unusual punishment. Fun stuff for human players.

[GenocideAlive]

The emerging HU style is getting difficult to stomach, imo. It's nothing against the players, but moreso Blizzard. HUs tier 1 is so weak that they're reliant on towers to compensate. So HUs end up overusing towers to keep them from being totally raped in the early game by an overpowered HU harass. But then due to Masonry upgrades, towers stay viable in all tiers of the game. When you hit tier 3, they've still got the best towers possible.

Once two armies clash and someone has to push a HU base with tier 1 Masonry towers, it's pretty easy to put them down. Once two armies clash and an army has to push tier 3 Masonry towers, they're going to lose pretty much everything.

As far as AKM's style, I don't get why he always lets peasants die during expo.

[Prozerran]

As far as AKM's style, I don't get why he always lets peasants die during expo.

He doesn't let peasants die. He micros them back but not all of them survive. It's not really that big of a deal considering the number he uses.

[GenocideAlive]

He doesn't let peasants die. He micros them back but not all of them survive. It's not really that big of a deal considering the number he uses.
I disagree. I've seen multiple AKM replays where he literally lets peasants die. They just take too much damage meleeing whatever unit, and croak on the spot. I've seen some die even after micro, and while that's sloppy that's not the ones I find to be so grossly negligent. I realize that he's "using a lot" and that overall it might not matter in the long run, but for as much as he runs that same strat, I wonder how much more he could get out of it if he weren't throwing away peasants.

It's been a while since I've watched any of his replays, though, so maybe he's cleaned that up a little. I really don't watch them very much because I find him to be such a grossly one-dimensional player (much like Philbot).

[Prozerran]

I disagree. I've seen multiple AKM replays where he literally lets peasants die. They just take too much damage meleeing whatever unit, and croak on the spot. I've seen some die even after micro, and while that's sloppy that's not the ones I find to be so grossly negligent. I realize that he's "using a lot" and that overall it might not matter in the long run, but for as much as he runs that same strat, I wonder how much more he could get out of it if he weren't throwing away peasants.

It's been a while since I've watched any of his replays, though, so maybe he's cleaned that up a little. I really don't watch them very much because I find him to be such a grossly one-dimensional player (much like Philbot).

That's the trade-off, I suppose. I don't see the significance of being so concerned with losing peasants to creeps, especially if you're just sending those peasants back to base to be slaughtered by a DH, FS, DK, or AM and forking over exp points before you can get a scroll of regen. Not that it's going to matter in the long run, like you said, but I wonder if microing so all of them survive is worth the small advantage your opponent gets from one shot kills on all 8 of those peasants instead of 2-3 of them. I'd rather give the creep the kill than give it to my opponent.

Also, as you can see from the replays, AKM speed builds the alter for the 5s edge he needs to get level 2. What's the harm?

[GenocideAlive]

This is something that I also considered, what the overall impact of the loss of peasants will have upon the early game harassment dynamic. If you permit those peasants to die outright, you save yourself the possibility of a harassing enemy hero booking it into your base and stealing the easy kills there. But then, if that harassing hero never shows up, you've just basically wasted 75-225G on a safeguard that has no function.

The deciding factor on whether this is idiotic or just preventative maintenance would be determined by towers, IMO. If he has an arcane and a guard going by the time those peasants get back, it's utterly stupid for him to waste them. The arcane and guard will basically guarantee that any harassment is rapidly shut down or costs the harassing hero at least his ENTIRE mana pool and half his health. Worth it, IMO, for the paltry half-level he'd get for 3 peasant kills. Especially if you'd let them die anyway, what's the harm?

I just don't really see those 2-3 peasants soaking up UBER damage to save 5-6 others. Microing units is almost always worthwhile, especially since if that enemy DK, DH, FS, or whatever comes romping into your base he's probably going to nail some peasants regardless.

Edit: Great to have you active again, Proz. You gots a great potential and it's nice to see you working things out.

[Prozerran]

GA: Hey, thanks! It's good to be here getting some insight from you. You've always got a great, credible perspective on the dynamics of the game, and your strategic input is well worth all of our time (if I may say so). When I get more time in the coming weeks, we'll have to get together on BNet and get some games/workshop sessions going. I haven't had any BNet time at the moment, but I'll be in to continually check on that Solo Random article you keep revising.

[h0bgawblin]

Always good to see different human strats, i'm really trying to get some of "my" strats implimented into my play. It's unfortunate that I can't practice, but i'm really thinking hard about how to confuse my opponents. Especially against orc and human. I've actually been considering a tier 3 tech with towers against orc because I have so much trouble against them. Then again, orc towers out range human towers, so I don't think its an option.

[GenocideAlive]

Always good to see different human strats, i'm really trying to get some of "my" strats implimented into my play. It's unfortunate that I can't practice, but i'm really thinking hard about how to confuse my opponents. Especially against orc and human. I've actually been considering a tier 3 tech with towers against orc because I have so much trouble against them. Then again, orc towers out range human towers, so I don't think its an option.
You don't have to beat able to beat their range, you simply have to be able to prevent them from going up. Call militia, buy a HU shop heal scroll, and attack. They Chainwave, hit the healscroll and run the militia back. They just tanked an assload of damage for you and you can use the WEs + casters to put them down.

Once they start bringing in Catapults, no big deal. Those can be Slowed, too. Hit one of those with a Slow spell and they can only fire 10 times a minute (!). Just make sure that you've made up your mind, though. If they start trying to tower push with siege, get those aviaries up NOW, and get out 1-2 hawks with Cloud. Then when tier 3 hits, get your Animal War Training at the same time you start your Gryphs. Then you can hit back, and they're finished. Towers & Catas vs. Gryphs = Instaloss. Just ask Cole1. :)

[h0bgawblin]

This brings up fond memories of the 1 time I beat redrag. It was so fun, it's like I almost didn't even need to try! I almost beat him on echo isles once with mercs+cookie cutter, but that was actually a REALLY hard game for me. gryphons are cheese, when I get my comps back, I'm going to give this a shot. thanks GA

[GenocideAlive]

My lameass AKM style gay:

[Prozerran]

GA,

If I may comment on your replay...

First, criticisms. I generally see in replays of other players trying to use this strategy a sense of hurriedness. This urgency, while extremely important, should not interfere with the methodology of the strategy. Don't get in a huge hurry to go harass your opponent, and don't worry yourself with the timetable of getting to Tier 2 faster than your opponent (there's nothing your opponent can do to end the game in the first two tiers of the NE game that cannot be handled by your towers). Going to your opponent's base with a level 1 flamestrike is a pretty big waste of mana. Don't harass until you're almost to or at level 3 because level 2 flamestrike will give you much better results. Sure, poke your head around some if you're being pressured, try to get a few wisp kills, but don't waste your mana if it won't advance you to another level. Militia are there for more than defending your base as you can use them to clear an expo fairly easily with little reward to your opponent if he catches you doing so. You don't have to wait until Tier 2 or until you have invisi-mortar to try to gain levels. I know it can be a waste of a couple of peasants, but clearing the expo (even if you intend to tech before expanding) will give you level 2 for mana siphon. As a rule of thumb, make it a practice not to tech until you reach level 2 on your BM. This is the real key to AKM's success with using the Bloodmage. Also, priests before sorcs. You really only need 2 to 3 Sorcs to invis all your Mortars, and your caster upgrades need to be researched in a separate Sanctum in order to keep them from interfering with your macro production.

As far as good points, your base layout was nice and effective (the NE sort of surprised me with the Archer/Hippo on your wood peasants, which ended up sealing the game when FM's came out), and your TP was pretty well-timed, giving you some extra time to earn some kills with your towers. Good job overall with implementing the key tactics of Tier 2 to earn you the win.

Something tells me that you haven't really performed this strategy very much and you're trying it for, maybe, the first time. I hope I don't sound condescending here, but I appreciate you taking a stab at it if this is your first time trying it out. I don't imagine myself as nearly involved in the game as you, so when I post some non-standard strategy and you give it a good-faith effort, I consider it a compliment. Give it a few more tries, if you're willing, to see what you can do to speed up your levelling on the BM to make your flamestrikes on wisps and archers just dominate the game.

I hope this feedback is helpful, and thanks for playing.

[RedRagToAnOrc]

This brings up fond memories of the 1 time I beat redrag.

Fast expansion on Lost Temple, followed by Mass Gryphons. Ah, fond memories. Luckily, that was back in 1.20, and the replay is lost. :)

[GenocideAlive]

Well, I struggle a lot with NE. I hate playing with HU against them, because when they get the DH, they're basically WAITING for you to creep. Running out with a bunch of militia seems pointless, especially since I'm just going to be jacked by a DH and however many archers. If you'll notice, my opponent even got BOS on his DH. He was clearly trying to jack at every opportunity.

In those circumstances when he's not creeping aggressively and just waiting for me to creep, I prefer to simply spare myself the goldcost that would be involved with trying to keep my Bloodmage alive. I spend 750G to creep up one level, worth it? I don't think so. Especially since I'll probably feed him a level and possibly an item with the attempts.

As it was, L1 flamestrike wasn't really designed to SLAUGHTER THE WISPS MUAHAHAHAHA...it was to keep him from creeping aggressively. I got a few wisps anyway, if I recall, but the main point was to keep him running back to base. Screwing around trying to get L3 would have just cost me tons of gold and gotten me nowhere. As it was, my plan was invisimortar, not L5 Flamestrike. I think it would hurt me more than anything else to try something that wouldn't work anyway.

I'm sure AKM loves to get L3 and speedcreep camps and all that, but I don't. I think it's a flawed idea, which is highlighted when you're facing a DH using NE. He just jacks you, steals some peasant kills, and you Siphon Mana from him for what? So he can burn it from you again? No thanks. Spending ridiculous amounts of gold for one hero level when your strategy is to do sneak attacks seems pointless.

Edit: Additionally, I'd like to point out that AKM gets WTFPWNED often in ladder. People that are familiar with his style of play and strategies stomp him pretty outright. I have beaten him before (in mirror) simply by using WEs and rallied foots at his main to hit-and-run destroy his towers before he could put them up. No base defense means peasant kills over and over and over.

Once the AM hits L3 for the L2 Water Tauren it's over. Flamestrike and Siphon Mana don't work on decent opponents unless you can pin their forces. Otherwise, that 1-2s lag just means that you get tagged with 50 dmg per footie. Nothing that's going to help him finish them.

[GenocideAlive]

Perhaps a better AKM offering. I use about a quarter as many towers as he does, though.

:/

[Prozerran]

That'll do, GA. You handled the initial harass very well, and you had your BM always working. I believe you showed this strategy very well. My only caution here is getting caught during your Tier 2 tech to Keep. I don't remember how many peasants you had at that point (I only watched the replay once watching your BM usage), but I know it's during tech when this strategy is at its weakest. You managed to time it well, however, perhaps because your sense of the rhythm of the game at that point was absolutely on target. It doesn't always work out that you get to tech as fast.

You were a surgeon with your Flamestrike harass, and you seemed way more confident with your use of the Bloodmage. Since you really had no big battles to speak of, I don't have a whole lot more I can say at the moment. How did your opponent fair playing UD (other than quitting, obviously)? Was he terrible, or did he play decent?

[GenocideAlive]

Well, his harass was either really good or just fair, depending on how you look at it. He managed at least one creep steal and a peasant kill (or two), but he overcommitted at the end. It's my belief he thought that I had some militia finishing off the wizard and was looking to either steal the kill with Coil or steal the item. When he ran in to try and grab the kill, he realized the wiz was at full health and turned around--but the wiz Purged him. In the meantime, I had run my militia out into an arc around the entrance, preventing any escape. He had to TP out or die. Bad luck, you could say.

In regard to the tech, yeah, that's something I noticed that was a gross deviation from what AKM does. I teched at 21 pop, he waits until 30 and usually starts an expansion first. My reasoning is that without a TP scroll and being about 20HP at TP, the DK isn't going to be a very effective harasser. I ended up getting slightly lucky with his lackluster scouting with his DK, as I began creeping the expo just as it ran up to my base.

His most debatable move was here at tier 2, when he pumped around sixish gargs. Gargs are mainly for harass, but he didn't use them. He just started creeping (??) and putting up a Slaughterhouse for statues. He finally spots my expo and makes a good beeline over to cancel one of my towers, but fails to arrive in time to stop the other 3. He could have stayed and butchered all of my peasants before he left, but he instead elects to leave and creep.

He spends entirely too long in tier 2, but it actually comes to work as an advantage for him because I Flamestrike all 5 of his acolytes dead with one shot. I think FS his mine before TP staffing out. He builds a sac pit, but a shade (or a stun hero) never makes the scene--so I keep it up, basically putting him out of the game. Once he finally makes his tech to tier 3 (with 7 acos, I might add), I still manage to kill 5 of them before TPing out, leaving him with a scant two. He runs his gargs in for defense, I run in Flying Machines and kill every one of them while losing 5 or 6 of my own.

At this point he's got two acos mid-tech, no gargs, two heroes, and a statue. The heroes have rather poor levels, and my BM has a gauntlets and a bracer of spell resistance. Pretty much GG for his nuke.

He didn't play badly, he just made 1-2 mistakes, which loses you the game when you play someone that happens to not make any mistakes.