Oh yeah, may we trade that banked time for vacations honoured?

No vacations are pay to win, since members get more. It's a great shame that a lot of comparative events honors vacation and it threatens the whole integrity of this arena. I would kindly ask my fellow enlightened members of society to petition this sites creator to fully remove this "feature" in it's entirety. After all, we have recently seen that the best of the best on the ladder got achieved their peek performance with their impressive skills in preventing a vacation from their opponents. After all, the most impressive win, is one where you don't even have to fight and as such there is no greater feet then a win by boot.

And now Master of disaster join MASTERS again...

one Q: does Apprentice still get the points in MoD wins his games? Will MoD still be invited to Apprentice's games he was supposed to be in?

Yes and yes.

Well I was slow on a couple game creations, but we've got our first 1v1s:

Battle Islands V:

Apprentice ({{Nero}}) v. One! (89th Lap)
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20572013

Outlaws (Njord) v. Lynx (AI)
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20572012

GG(JV) v. WG (Hunta)
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20572011

We have our first real result as AI defeats Njord on battle islands to give Lynx an early lead in this rivalry. I'm on mobile for the next few days so a full recap will be given once I'm done traveling.

Update:

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20572012

Njord picks #1 and #2 the Torabia-Zorway 4-5 combo in the Southeast and then a series of picks in the Southwest getting his #3 pick Zarathia. AI picks coverage getting #1 Chralanka in the Southwest, Impora in the Northwest, loses picks #3 and #4 as the Torabia-Zorway combo, and gets pick #5 Yarmany in the center.

Turns 1-3 both players expand efficiently with AI completing all 3 bonuses for 15 income and Njord completing the Torabia-Zorway combo for 14. Turn 4 Njord uses reconaissance to find AI in Chralanka, AI uses reconaissance to find Njord in Azathia. Njord complete last bonus while AI goes strong into Nothland. The players meet in Lockesia.

Turn 6 AI denies Njord's expansion in Liconia, and blockades Lockesia, while also completing Nothland. Turn 7 AI opens a front on Azathia.

Turns 8-11 the two sides battle it out in Azathia and Liconia with mild expansion. AI has a consistent 1 income advantage and does better on the predicts at the front.

Turn 12 AI breaks Azathia and completes Liconia while Njord breaks Yarmany giving AI a significant advantage. A turn later AI completes Yesmenia and gains an unassailable lead. Njord surrenders Turn 14.

Edited 1/25/2020 19:01:49

Thread is now upto date. I'm going to stop tracking game creation as with over half the tournaments started we're getting lots of games and it's easy enough to find them on the CLOT.

Nice summary. Turn 6 was a bit greedy by Njord :/

@Glass, but you are going to post the results of the games still? (Like who beats who?)

Yes I will still be posting results. Wouldn't be much of a scorekeeper if I didn't.

Calendar turns to February and division A kicks into gear.

French Brawl:

GuestNWHSzY (WG) beats Soldier of Orange (GG)
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20687987

Soldier gets the north double +1 bonuses while Guest gets the +3 out west. First two turns they both gain these respective spots. Soldier moves to counter the +3 while Guest elims one of Soldier's spots in the east of the board.

Guest holds the +3 for a turn and uses the extra armies to build a territory/army advantage that nearly neutralizes losing the +3 a turn later. Orange foolishly doesn't invest enough in the +3 allowing a retake while Guest flanks the north bonuses. A significant income, territory and army bonus assures Guest the victory.

In Biomes 3v3. WG is surrendering to Lynx after just 3 turns. Recap once that game finishes and we can see beyond the fog.

Edited 2/13/2020 00:32:48

Lots has happened in Division A. Recaps will be two games per post starting with the 1v1s:

Battles Islands V Njord (Outlaws) defeats JV (GG): https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20621958

Picks: Each player gets 1-2-3. Njord takes the Southwest 4-5 combo. and the Southeast 3. JV takes the Northeast 3 and Central 5 combo.

Turns 1-5: Both players convert their initial bonuses. Recon cards reveal main source of income. They encounter each other in the East in Lockesia. Income stands equal at 17 a piece. Importantly Njord has set himself to take the Southwest 4 while JV goes strong to defend in the North.

Turns 6-9: The two players standoff in Lockesia while expanding from their positions until they open a second front in the West. Njord has 27 to JV's income of 20 while JV has Lockesia stack advantage 75-64.

Turns 10-14: Njord's superior income allows him to break in the West and Center while JV fails to break in the East leading to an easy win.

Biomes of America Hergul (Sninja) defeats SloppyFatGinger (Apprentice): https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20707353

Picks: Both players take Lima and Alaska with first 4 picks. Hergul focuses 5-6-7 on Central American Rainforest while Sloppy goes for Southern Great Plains and Sao Paulo and Rio 5-6 with Central American Rainforest 7-8. Hergul takes these 8-9, and the Caatinga counter 10-11. Both players round out their picks with Islands and Sloppy takes Eastern US green picks 13-14. The result is they split the major regions and islands with Sloppy getting Southern Great Plains.

Turn 1: Hergul strikes Sloppy first in Alaska to prevent conversion from -3 to 0, but Sloppy blockades Alaska anyways. Sloppy also blockades Central American Rainforest preventing Hergul from later completing that bonus. Hergul invests in Caatinga to absorb taps and completes that bonus while going strong in Lima. Both complete their islands/easy expansions. Turn ends Hergul 5 Sloppy 4.

Turn 2: Sloppy defends in Lima and completes Southern Great Plains. Hergul invests in the south breaking Sloppy's Island and denting Sao Paulo and Rio. Turn ends Hergul 4, Sloppy 3.

Turn 3: Sloppy goes all out in Lima. Hergul invests 1 to absorb the attack and goes strong in Sao Paulo and Rio. Hergul also expands to islands from Central American Rainforest. Hergul blockades the island taken a turn ago. Turn ends Hergul 4, Sloppy 1.

Turn 4: Outgunned and out-positioned Sloppy Surrenders.

Edited 2/13/2020 18:26:34

Biomes of America SloppyFatGinger (Apprentice) defeats Thrall (GG)

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20798043

Picks: Sloppy makes reasonable picks taking California and Lima with first 3 picks, Northern Great Plains 4, Northern Amazon 5 and 6 and then a few islands 7,8 followed by Central Arctic 9 and 10, and rounding out with some more Islands, Patagonia, and Jeff's Bear Garden. Thrall on the other hand goes for the rarely seen Island strategy taking 3 islands 1,2,3 and Northern Amazon 4,5. I could go through the rest of his picks, but really I think that's all that needs to be said. He instantly cedes all red picks to Sloppy, and doesn't even get all of Northern Amazon. Needless to say this game does not go his way.

Turn 1: Sloppy invests 4 in Northern Amazon for blockade, adding income in both red zones and northern great plains while completing Central Arctic for 5 income. If Thrall hadn't already lost at picks he assures it this turn by max investing and slamming into Sloppy in Northern Amazon leaving him with 1 income. A wiser plan may have been to blockade the amazon and then expand from the islands to the red zones.

Turn 2-4: Sloppy expands his income to double digits while Thrall struggles to get above 1, for an easy victory for the Apprentice squad. This game a short 4 turns goes 3 turns too long.

Landria GuestNWHSzY (WG) defeats Thrall (GG)

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20753585

Picks: Here we go again as somehow Thrall is playing two 1v1 slots for GG. Thrall eschews either 3 FTB in favor of triple picking the 4-2 combo on the west. The result is Guest gets both FTBs with his first 5 picks. Giving your opponent a free +6 on the first turn is usually not a winning strategy. Thrall takes the southern 4 with his 6 and 7, but doesn't take the counter pick that could have potentially saved him from losing before the turns began.

Turns 1-2: Guest completes all 3 of his bonuses while countering the southern 4. Thrall completes his Western 4.

Turns 3-6: Guest's superior income allows him to expand and play around Thrall until he can break the Western 4. Even with some questionable decisions netting Guest significant border penalties he overwhelms Thrall.

Great updates Glass

3v3 Biomes of America: Lynx (Jo Jo, Jimmy, Alexclusive) defeats WG ([WG] Reza, Super Smoove, Andersault)

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20490091

Smoove gave me permission to publish his comments on the match. They have been edited to be family friendly.

"for a tldr on biomes we [were disadvantaged] by andersault being last pick of our team and otherwise we have a great position in East coast
we also got a bit unlucky with me losing the llanos pick and the northern amazon pick that bordered it too off pick order
then we made a bad call on what andersault should do turn 1 in pampas
when pampas showed he was coast mountains player game was over
we played an extra turn and nothing changed
we surrendered
they had more income, better position, better expansion, and were about to wipe pampas so that player could run wild
we wanted andersault to have 2 of east coast picks and one of us to be in contention for one as a fall back
instead because of andersault was last pick, reza and my last pick was east coast instead of andersault getting his 1 3 there
was just [real bad]"

So that's the WG perspective and explains their east coast strategy/Pampas strategy. Lynx appeared to have gone for a similar strategy pairing their Pampas picks with Coast Mountains picks. Since WG strategy didn't work and Lynx's did WG surrenders before the game gets out of hand.

3v3 Biomes of America: WG ([WG] Reza, Super Smoove, Andersault) defeats GG (ADHDnl, Thrall, Po1onius)

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=20565101

Picks: 3v3 biomes have 108 picks between both teams. I'm not reviewing them.

Turn 1: Smoove moves from Coast Mountains into California blockading behind him to save income and also make it difficult for ADHD to take the +3 from that bonus. Reza strikes ADHD hard to begin the purge of GG from eastern North America. ADHD survives this turn. Andersault beats Thrall to the spot in Lima. Andersault also transfers to the LLanos adjacent island blockading behind himself. Around the rest of the board people expand normally.

Turn 2: ADHD moves strong into Alaska Coastline to contest Reza there. Reza in turn elims ADHD in southern great plains. Smoove invests next to Thrall. Thrall strikes Andersault hard in Lima while Andersault completes his island and preps a defensive stack in Lima for a gift next turn.

Turn 3: Smoove elims Thrall in North America creating a large safe zone for the WG team. Andersault gifts Lima to Smoove. Skirmishes occur along the South America coastline and in Alaska, but it's already too late for GG.

Turn 4-8: With all of East North America a safe zone for the WG players, they overwhelm their GG counterparts in the contested regions around the rest of the map.

Edited 2/15/2020 17:38:00

Thanks for the summaries since I can never be arsed to watch Biomes games

Thx for the updates Glass (and for your name, because of it I have watched the Split and planning watch that last film too ;) )

Ah, I did an "analysis", but as I see it, four more matches have been completed :) (FSG FTW! ONE!'s first real win! ;) )
I recognized (before these 4 newly completed games) that only SNinja and Lynx won games not against GG (= against rivals), all the other teams won games only against GG :O

Of course, after those 4 games the situation have changed a bit, first GG win by JV, first ONE! (real, not boot) win by FSG, first Lynx defeat...
...only the SNinja are still deadly (and flawless) cruel killers ;)
Tof won an important game against Outlaws, so now clearly lead the division
(ok, still so few finished game, and ONE! will come... ;) )

Edited 2/17/2020 05:14:46

Thanks @Hades, @FSG, @ Ekstone.

@Ekstone, I'll do a analysis of the state of race if I ever catch up on reviewing games, but yeah I would say in the early going SNinja and Lynx are doing the best with other clans beating up on GG who is doing by far the worst. It's still super early and for the most part no wins/defeats have been "unexpected" with the exception being I was surprised to see Tof best Njord.

Since I still have a lot of games to recap, I thought I'd procrastinate on that and give a state of the race recap. The standings on the first page have been updated in full here's the summary table:

1) SNinja           - 100% points contested, 12 total points, 240 max points
2) ONE!             - 72.7% points contested, 8 total points, 237 max points
3) Lynx             - 70.0% points contested, 14 total points, 234 max points
4) Outlaws          - 57.1% points contested, 8 total points, 234 max points
5) WG               - 52.9% points contested, 18 total points, 224 max points
6) Apprentice       - 40.0% points contested, 6 total points, 231 max points
7) GG               - 9.3% points contested, 3 total points, 211 max points

The defending champs are killing it having yet to lose a game, although the sample size is small. Hergul leads the 1v1 biomes tournament at 2-0 while AlmostTricky and Tof chip in wins on Battle Islands and French Brawl respectively. SNinja has yet to complete a team game, but they did get multiple first round byes.

The beneficiary of a GG non-join on 3v3 Biomes, ONE! is just 50% in real games going 1-1 with FiveStarGeneral winning on French Brawl and Muli losing on Biomes.

Lynx's season so far is highlighted by a 3v3 biomes win over WG. AI adds 2 wins and a loss on battle Islands, Wini takes a win on French Brawl, while Kurdistan drops a game on Greece.

Outlaws gets a WG non-join on dRoR to bolster their point total. Their real games have all been played by Njord who is off to a rocky start. 1-1 on battles islands, while finding himself subbed after going 0-1 on French Brawl.

WG has been the most active clan completing the most games and acquitting themselves reasonably well. Their 3v3 biomes team is 1-1. Hunta on Battle Islands V and Guest on French Brawl both go 1-1, while Guest also adds a win on Landria. A Szeurope win rounds out WG's early going. Cause for concern is that literally all of their wins have come against GG, while all their losses have come to clans not named GG.

Apprentice has found their new home in A to be a rough neighborhood. Sloppy goes 1-1 on Biomes and Cowboy adds a win on Greece, but Nero and Marcus Aurelius both start 0-1. While relegation rival WG has some concern based on only winning against GG, Apps has some hope in that they have lost only to division leaders SNinja and One!

For GG, JV got a win on Battle Islands and that is all the good news they get as they stand at an abysmal 9.3% points contested. It looks like they will spend this season as a punching bag for all the other clans.

As for individual tournaments. Battle Islands is the furthest along. AI has gone 2-1 and beaten two other players (Njord, Hunta) that are 1-1 while losing to JV (1-2). AlmostTricky and Nero have each played a game each with AlmostTricky winning it and 89th Lap ! has yet to finish a game. No other tournaments have really taken shape although Hergul is 2-0 on biomes.

Edited 2/18/2020 06:40:54

Thank you very much for the cool and very up-to-date race recap!

Guys, check (and be amazed! ;) ) my prediction:
https://www.warzone.com/Forum/396662-clan-league-12-official-predictions?Offset=40
Ok, we still are very early on, but I even hit the exact clan order! ;)

(I have a few other thoughts, but now I have no more time, so I'll come back later to share)

WG is 5-0 vs. GG, but 0-4 against the rest (Lynx 0-3, Outlaws 0-1)

Meanwhile Apprentice has lost to SNinja twice, and ONE! once :P
While beating Lynx and WG along the way. Don't count us out yet!