Week 1 - Map - HiHigher

Portions of the ACS curriculum for public consumption.
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Clay_Pigeon
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Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:00 am
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Post by Clay_Pigeon »



This is the most common map played on Allegiance, so there are a number of good strategies that you can use.

Shiz writes:

Capturing the middle
Begin with putting your outpost in 2 or 4 and your tp in the opposite sector (4 or 2, respectively). Plant your ref behind the op (1 or 5) and begin building a loop from your home, to the middle sector (3) and back. This loop will provide plenty of money for adv tech, and keeps your miners from having to backtrack. Many clueless comms (I don't understand) place their refs in 10 or 6. I cannot understand how this benefits them, as it exposes miners and increases their travel distance to their next drop off point.

If you do not have many teammates, you may not want to split your team. I usually send my op to the middle sector (2 or 4) that protects my tech rock (1 or 5), so I can build my tech in a safe place. If the enemy commander does not then take the opposing middle, be quick and get it right away. If you can seal the middle you will be at a great advantage.

This is the most common strat used on this map, and to counter it simple take one of the middle sectors (2 or 4), disrupting the miner's path. Planting an op high or low will also give you easy access to their miners.

Bastard maneuver
I learned this one from watching Bastard do it to me. Whether or not he invented it, I don't really care. Send your op to 2 or 4. If his op is heading to the opposing mid sector, you've almost sealed the deal already. Now that you've sent your op midlow (for example), send your tp high (or visa versa). Once the tp goes up, quickly buy another op and push it "behind" their outpost sector (11 or 12 if you are yellow; 1 or 5 if you are blue). You've backdoored his op, sealed the map, disrupted his econ and generally made life painful for the enemy comm. This method is less applicable if the enemy's op goes to the same sector as yours, but you can adapt the principle to fit many different situations. Note that because of ripping miners, this approach is less effective vs ic.

Anguriel writes:

Extended Middle
The 10/6 mining strategy is as follows -- 1 and 5 are safer sectors to mine, so early game you expose your miners while you can and pull them back once tech is up. This gives you one extra sector mined out before you complete the middle loop. As an example: OP to 2 or 11, first ref to 10. If you intend to push to 11, TP to 2 or 3 with OP con so you don't need to split Con D, giving you one or two extra for miner D. Second OP goes from TP to 4, second TP plants at home, second Ref goes into 1 or 2 (2 is a special strategy that only works with specific settings -- if you mine a sector out in a single pass, send your ref to 2 and you can mine 1 in passing and dock your miners at the ref in 2, then mine 2 and dock there, then be ready to head to 3).

After that, you usually need to react to what the other team has done, so I can't spell out exactly what you intend to do. I like to try to take 9 or 7 next, usually with TP + second tech base so I have a forward tech for them to futz on while I build up my primary and mine smoothly.

Taking Top or Bottom
Taking the middle is nice, but you can leave your flanks very exposed while doing it (to something like this or the Bastard maneuver). This sort of strategy is only going to work with a strong starting faction. Dreg, Early Exp or Sup Giga, Rix, IC. Belts, Bios, Other Giga, and GT just aren't likely to manage it. First OP high or low - you want 9 or 7 first. I recommend a home TP for this one, since home TPs are usually very useful. Let's assume you went for 9. The rest of this strategy requires knowledge of what the enemy has done...

If they went for 2 or 1, you are now placed perfectly to kill their miners in their home and 11. Buy your 2nd tp immediately after your home tp builds (your first op probably hasn't built yet). Put your 2nd tp in 4 or 7, depending on what you can reach safely. If you can plant at 7, OP to 12 from it (timing wise, this should be almost perfect unless 6 is very large or 10 is very small). They now have no safe sectors to mine. Neither do you, but that's a sacrifice you need to make and anticipate until you can claim low. Mine 10, then send one miner to 9 to distract them (and maybe bring in a little cash), moving the other miners through your home to 6. If they fail to claim 4 when you have 12, you can go for 4 or 3 with an OP and mine 5 and then 4.

Back to only having 9... If they went for 4, 5, or 6, you finish claiming high. Second TP to 2, OP to 11 and then OP to 3 or (if at all possible) 4. Caltrop off your front sectors when your miners are forward, Caltrop off 3->4 or 2->3 when your miners come back to 2. Build up your tech and expand anywhere they fail to claim, or get ready to push into their sectors.

Weedman writes:



Here is a common scenario. You have taken middle high and your opponent took middle low. What do you do next? Well, Allegiance is a game of economics: miners are the key to success. Take away your opponents miners, and you should win. So knowing that, look at where he plans to mine.

He put his refinery behind his outpost, which is always a good, safe position. After the refinery sector is mined out, some of his miners will then go to his outpost to mine. If you are quick enough, you can push a teleport or outpost low next to his refinery, and totally disrupt miners in that sector. Better yet, build your second teleport low and rip an outpost con in and build it in his refinery sector (Bastard manuver) thus cutting his miners off from his outpost. Now your opponent must either push some miners to his outpost, or try to remote mine sectors high or middle high. This slows down his economy.



This too is a common scenario. You discovered your opponent bought a tactical laboratory. It is behind his first outpost, which is again a safe position. You will have a limited time to deal with it before your miners are dead, and stealth bombers take the map from you.

My advice is always, always just bomb the thing. I used to try to out-tech the other team in this situation. I would expand, and then keep some players on my miners, and try to get Heavy Troop Transports, or Advanced Fighters with Galvs to deal with the situation. What usually happens is that your miner defense gets lax. They respond to defend a base from a bomber or something, and the next thing you know, all of your miners are dead because your miner defense left them (or you did not keep the miners in base).

My advice is push a constructor adjacent to the tac, and blow it right the hell up. In this picture, the commander sent an escorted teleport constructor low and ordered his team multiple times to bomb the tac. Now you can try this with any tech path your opponent went, but I feel it's only absolutely necessary when you discover a tac. Player skills obviously can sway the favor to a given team, but technology also plays a role. An average player with a Hunter 3 Advanced Stealth Fighter will usually beat a very skilled player in a gat2/dumb2 Enhanced Fighter. You want to kill the tac as soon as possible before the enemy destroys your miners and gains the technological edge. Allegiance is about money, and getting your side the tech needed to finish the job. No miners, no tech, no wins.
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