Key videos of competitive AoW3 play and new video library (Video)
2017 has seen a big increase in the number of high-level videos and players looking to learn intermediate to advanced strategies and tactics now have many choices of tutorials and matches to watch! From casual single players to veteran multiplayers, these videos, published by the AoW3 competitive community (PBEM and live multiplayer) offer both entertainment and valuable advice and examples. Basically all the classes and races and all the sites (for site clearing tactics) have been covered by the videos published by Marcuspers, Hiliadan, DreadReapr, Fluksen, Nemesis Zero, gabthegab, Techno, Tussel and others!
An Article by Hiliadan
A first article had been published about videos from the 2015 PBEM Duel Tournament in July 2016. Then one post on the official forum and one post on the Steam forum had been listing the latest videos of competitive play.
In December 2017, a new video library was launched on the AoW3 Wikia. This library aims to gather videos that can help players improve their skills, both in terms of strategy (what to build and research, and when? how to move troops wisely? what are good strategies against certain classes/races? etc.) and of tactics (tactical battles). All readers of this article are strongly advised to have a look at this library, and consider it as an extension to this article, listing all the good videos to learn and improve at AoW3.
So the video library lists all the good videos but what about the best videos? Which ones should be watched if one has limited time? Here are some of the key videos of 2017 in my opinion:
Fluksen (Halfling Dreadnought) vs Techno (Draconian Arch Druid) - Live MP
Constantly harassed by hordes of animals from Techno's Arch Druid, the jolly Halflings of Fluksen desperately try to develop Party Golems and other funky machines. At one point, Techno takes the Throne of Fluksen and the Halfling player makes a bad move, sending his Leader to take back a city alone, giving the opportunity to Techno to pounce on him with a Panther and a Gryphon. Guess what? Fluksen gets out alive thanks to a Critical on the Panther and a well-timed Lucky!
Fluksen did a great job editing a 6 hour match into an entertaining 1 hours 20 min of video that he commented post-match.
Exalted Martyr rush
Theocrat's Martyrs may look like nice but weak units that are barely good enough to Absorb Pain on your front line units? Well, you may be missing a key strategy involving them! Marcuspers guides us on how to realize the full potential of Martyrs. The tech Exalted Martyrs allows your little Martyrs to evolve into vigorous Exalted, that in addition to Flying, have the Resurgence ability. Exalted Martyrs can be obtained early and Exalted who evolve from Martyrs keep the Absorb Pain ability (as well as any Mystical City Upgrade they may possess, like Mercenary from Trading Posts), which works wonder combined with Resurgence!
Through a series of commented videos, Marcus shows how to quickly build enough Martyrs, research Exalted Martyrs and then evolve the believers into Exalted! By turn 18, he has almost a full stack of Elite Exalted (this video and a similar performance by DarkRider in a tournament game led to nerfs for this strategy in the PBEM & Single Player balance mod).
Hiliadan (Tigran Warlord) vs El Lobo (Human Necromancer) - Heptatopia and Monoculture in a duel
This series of videos of a 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament match shows that it's possible to get Heptatopia and Monoculture even on a small map ("Tournament size" to be precise; that's an additional map size provided by the PBEM & Single Player balance mod). The comments on the video associated to each turn are not focused solely on Heptatopia and Monoculture (unlike the videos on the Exalted Martyr rush) but strategic considerations related to these two Empire Quests are nonetheless regularly mentioned.
The full strategic breakdown of the constructions required and the turns when each Racial Governance upgrades are obtained is detailed on the AoW3 Strategy and Tactical Guide from Academy Games on the Battlefield.com
Hiliadan (Dwarf Dreadnought) & rickyroo222 (Frostling Theocrat) vs rrrrookie (Frostling Arch Druid) & Jonny Thunder (Halfling Rogue) - Epic game!
This epic struggle is part of the 2016 PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament. After a catastrophic start, Hiliadan tried to get back to steam but his team faced waves after waves of attacks from rrrrookie and his team-mate. Combined with big mistakes on Phoenix Rising (Hiliadan + rickyroo)'s side, this led to some difficult times! Highlights:
– rush of rrrrookie on turn 19 and how Phoenix Rising responded to it, check out the turns 19 to 23
-> 2nd wave of attack from rrrrookie from turn 28 to 32
-> 3rd wave attack from Jonny Thunder on team Phoenix Rising, killing rickyroo (and illustrating why your Leader always have to be together with strong stacks): turn 35 to 37
-> 4th wave attack immediately after the 3rd wave, also from Jonny Thunder: turn 38 and 39
-> 5th wave attack, led by rrrrookie: turn 47 and 48
-> final wave of attack by Jonny Thunder and tentative of sneaky attack with a single Tireless Life Drain hero by Hiliadan: turn 54 to 56 (check out videos from turn 52 and 53 to see how the hero, Mira, got her gears, succeeding the might Tara to lead the sneaky attack vs rrrrookie)
How to use blocking, splitting and positioning? Guide to tactical combat - Example with a Trading Post
This video, which is actually the recap of turn 5 of the 2vs2 game mentioned above (Hiliadan & rickyroo vs Jonny & rrrrookie), shows in details a tactical battle at a Trading Post. It illustrates several concepts defined in the AoW3 Strategy and Tactical Guide from Academy Games on the Battlefield.com and can be considered a video "to watch" for all those who want to get the basic tactics to beat the AI defending sites in difficult settings.
How to clear a Lost City before turn 10?
Finally, this video is part of the "Advanced Tutorials" and is probably the most impressive in terms of timing: the clearing of a Lost City happens on turn 8. It shows how to abuse the weakness of AI's behaviours and maximize the use of Necromancer's spells and Cadavers' abilities. Similarly to the video above, it's part of a tournament match, Hiliadan vs DarkRider on round 2 of the 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament. Despite this impressive early game clearing, I (Hiliadan) lost that game in the end: very early clearing of high level sites is not sufficient to win games fortunately!
If you're still hungry for more videos after watching these key videos of 2017, the best is probably to subscribe to the channels of these three players (click on their name to reach their channel):
Hiliadan: a veteran AoW3 PBEM player, currently ranked #4 in the general ranking and #9 in the PBEM ranking. I play only PBEM (and Arena mode now!) and I record short and concentrated commented summaries at the end of each of my turn for high-stakes games. No small-talk, relatively short, commented, videos focused on advanced PBEM tactics and strategies, with all classes and races.
Marcuspers: a veteran AoW3 player but experienced both with PBEM (ranked #6) and live MP. He is currently ranked #5 in the general ranking. Marcus also does commented summaries of his PBEM turns, compared to Hiliadan's videos, his are usually relatively longer and show more tactical battles. He also published several strategic guides (rushes for Exalted, Shadow Stalkers, and Eldritch Horrors). His videos are commented summaries of PBEM turns and video guides for advanced strategies.
DreadReapr: one of the best live MP players but an impatient PBEM players who dislikes manual tactical combats vs the AI, his #33 ranking does not make justice to his skills (very few live MP games are reported so it's mainly PBEM that lowered his ranking). DreadReapr is very good at optimizing his building and research on the strategic map and can get T4 and strong armies very early, especially when playing Tigran Warlord (beware of the Manticores raining on you!). His videos are full recording of his live MP matches and are not commented.
There have been many more videos published by the competitive community, too many to list them all here! You can find them back in the video library on the AoW3 Wikia. In addition to videos from Hiliadan, Marcuspers, DreadReapr and Fluksen (live MP, cut and commented), you'll also find videos from Nemesis Zero (live MP, not commented), gabthegab (PBEM, full turn, not commented), Techno (live MP, not commented) and Tussel (PBEM, full game, not commented).
These few bullet points provide an overview of what is on the library:
- Intermediate level tutorials:
- A gathering of videos providing advanced tips for AoW3 players. The topics covered include:
- clearing of low and intermediary sites (up to Epic)
- general tips on how to play on the strategic map - Advanced level tutorials:
- A gathering of videos providing advanced tips for AoW3 players. The topics covered include:
- advanced strategies: Theocrat's Exalted Martyr rush, Rogue's Shadow Stalker rush, Sorcerer's Eldritch Horror rush, and example of Monoculture & Heptatopia rush.
- advanced tactics like clearing of high-level sites (Legendary and Mystical) with relatively low level units in early turns - Full matches
You can search videos by sites cleared, by class, by race and the best videos are tagged ("Good example" and "To watch!").
The library will be regularly updated to include the latest videos. You can follow it if you have a Fandom account ("Follow" link at the bottom left if you're logged in) to get alerted by the latest updates. New videos will be flagged to be easily identifiable, and will always be at the top of each table.
Feel free to propose videos to add to the library (through comments here or on the forum).
If you're looking for more videos, you can also check the PBEM & Single Player Balance Mod presentation video and the videos from the July 2017 Live Chat Event that presented the Shadow Realm Community Expansion, the Arena mode and a lot of other great content from the community.
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Created on: 19.01.2018 at 17:36:11