You Only Live Twice Tournament [Won by Hellraider].

[psycho guy]

uh no

[psycho guy]

left
1
OS build
BM move
2
OS move
BM move
3
OS move
BM capture
4
OS attack

right
1
OS build
BM build
2
OS move
BM move
3
OS move
BM move
4
OS capture
BM attack

of course, that assumes you want the com towers right away

They can easily be reclaimed by getting extra funding from cities early on

which will get you combat units earlier to punish the opponent for being stupid and stuff

[Shini Laser]

Okay, that is true, however, you are wasting your opening inf. where BM gets to use his freebie Com Tower. Even, securing a Com tower can be helpful in getting, let alone keeping those cities.

[psycho guy]

lurn2ply

[Shini Laser]

I had a typo, let alone I know how to play.

[psycho guy]

both sides get marginal advantage of 1 infantry on their turns

translates to marginal income advantage for capturing

learn to count

2 vs 1
2 vs 3
4 vs 3
4 vs 5

etc

there's no such thing as wasting, both sides expend the same amount of infantry if they use the same tactics

[Ultra Storm]

Gyroptic IS balanced. JS can send his infantery west on turn 1, AB can send his infantery east on turn 2. Both JS and AB can build a recon turn 3. Thus, the map is perfectly balanced, I really don't see where your problem is.
(well, after seeing your game, I see that your problem is that you sent your infantery south and not west. But it's your fault, not the map's).

If I sent the infantry west, I would capture the southern base one turn later which would be quite bad. Me building a recon on day 3 doesn't have the same result as AB, as it can't damage the infantry AB has sent east before it attacks the infantry capturing the base.

[benbever]

Gyroptic IS balanced. JS can send his infantery west on turn 1, AB can send his infantery east on turn 2.

Or AB can send his infantry north. AB can interfere with one base capturing JS infantry while safely capturing the other base. I agree with ultra, this map has fta, because of the two corner bases that AB will just reach sooner. A tournament game should be about strategic battle, not perfect opening moves (that can be exploited by one player), thus this map was a bad pick.
(you should have picked a map with dedicated bases instead of two capturable bases on the frontline, those maps very often have balance issues.)

But since this a fun tournament I'll just play the game and shut up about it. Everyone had equal chances in getting the fta or not

[psycho guy]

well my round 2 game doesn't have either of us trying to pull recon fta or do infantry harass so I guess I'm fine there

[Ultra Storm]

Gyroptic IS balanced. JS can send his infantery west on turn 1, AB can send his infantery east on turn 2.

Or AB can send his infantry north. AB can interfere with one base capturing JS infantry while safely capturing the other base. I agree with ultra, this map has fta, because of the two corner bases that AB will just reach sooner. A tournament game should be about strategic battle, not perfect opening moves (that can be exploited by one player), thus this map was a bad pick.
(you should have picked a map with dedicated bases instead of two capturable bases on the frontline, those maps very often have balance issues.)

But since this a fun tournament I'll just play the game and shut up about it. Everyone had equal chances in getting the fta or not

I agree with benbever that choosing a map that requires a perfect combination of opening moves for a tournament is a bad idea. It gives a huge advantage to players who have played on the map before.

What happened to the concept of middle bases being a bad idea on maps?

[Taz]

If AB sends both infanteries north, then JS can interfer with AB's capture, while AB won't be able to interfer with JS's capture: good for JS. The fact that JS completes the capture of his forward factory the turn after AB completes his is not as such a problem. It might give AB a very slight FTA in the center, but this can't be avoided (virtually any map has some residual FTA, and I think that this is an acceptable level of residual FTA).
Building a recon on turn 3 has exactly the same consequences for AB and JS if JS did send his FTA infantery west.
However, I admit that the fact that the best opening move is to move the infantery west is far from obvious, and JS is more likely than AB to make a mistake on his first move. However, even in this case, both sides can secure their factory in the end, so I don't think it affects much AB's chances.

By the way, I think that middle bases are not bad when one side is almost sure to get them, which is the case on Gyroptic and Let's Kill Melon Land.

[benbever]

I don't know if the map has fta if perfectly played, but it had pretty big fta if the opening is not perfect. A map that revolves around perfect opening with infantry and recon rushin the first 10 or more days isn't my cup of tea.

[Ultra Storm]

If AB sends both infanteries north, then JS can interfer with AB's capture, while AB won't be able to interfer with JS's capture: good for JS. The fact that JS completes the capture of his forward factory the turn after AB completes his is not as such a problem. It might give AB a very slight FTA in the center, but this can't be avoided (virtually any map has some residual FTA, and I think that this is an acceptable level of residual FTA).
Building a recon on turn 3 has exactly the same consequences for AB and JS if JS did send his FTA infantery west.
However, I admit that the fact that the best opening move is to move the infantery west is far from obvious, and JS is more likely than AB to make a mistake on his first move. However, even in this case, both sides can secure their factory in the end, so I don't think it affects much AB's chances.

By the way, I think that middle bases are not bad when one side is almost sure to get them, which is the case on Gyroptic and Let's Kill Melon Land.

I wouldn't call Gyroptic "almost sure to get them". Moving the infantry south seems like an obvious move since it can start capturing the southern base 1 turn sooner and the infantry that JS moves west on day 2 can still intercept AB's capture of the northern base, if it weren't for the AB recon severely damaging JS's infantry moving east.

I did some testing and AB building a recon on day 2 had big consequences. If JS sent the predeployed infantry west, this forces JS to build a recon on day 2 as well or AB will get the eastern base.

If JS sends the recon south, JS can cover the base with the recon but can't get an infantry on top of the base and the JS infantry is vurnerable to the AB recon. In this case AB can start capturing the northern base normally without having to worry about the JS recon. The JS infantries will intercept this, however. But AB can build another recon on day 4 and send it there to intercept with JS's possible capture of the base. It is a bit unclear what exactly will happen after that.

If JS sends the recon west, AB can easily take the southern base but the JS recon and infantries can destroy the AB infantry capturing the northern base. So, in this case, the players swap the bases.

If JS moved the predeployed infantry south, AB can just move the recon north to harass the JS infantries there or move it east to support the infantries intercepting with JS's capture. Or, as we all know, AB can just build the recon on day 3 and proceed to abuse it like usually.

One can ask if a map with such ridiculously complicated starting patterns can be called balanced. A player (especially as JS) must literally learn the patterns by heart before he can play on even ground. There are probably some other possible start patterns that I haven't tested so there could be more problems.

We could be much safer on balanced if we didn't play on maps with middle bases that can't be captured in peace before the enemy starts interrupting the captures. These interruptions tend to cause strange consequences.

[psycho guy]

summary

ambiguous base placement (both bases around same # of days to reach by both players) = fail

[psycho guy]

bah my manuevering in opening failed

combat units killing my infantry

now I'm gonna lose

I attacked stuff because I figured that would give me my best chance of winning lol, since moving stuff the other way to get to the front would take too long