Wicc
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A small manual on fast play.
Players who only practice long controls often simply do everything faster when playing short controls, rather than actually changing their approach. However, one often needs to do things slightly differently...
I am writing this for the WT version and WT hotkeys, so some ideas might be missing or may require adaptation for SoD+HDmod.
Suggestions and feedback are welcome; the topic is quite fresh and underdeveloped.
1. General thoughts.
When playing with long controls (4000+500 and the like), players usually spend a significant portion of their time as early as the 1st week; some hit time pressure in the middle of the 2nd week, and by the middle of the 3rd, most are there.
This approach seems fundamentally wrong to me, as the most complex moves requiring deliberation occur precisely during the 3rd and 4th weeks. Therefore, I personally try to accumulate time, approaching the 3rd week with a reserve of at least 2000 seconds. Thanks to this, I have won many "running" endgames — opponents in time pressure would expose themselves, make suboptimal decisions, or only manage basic actions, missing out on additional ones. While catching a "free" papa or taking the main castle didn't happen often, killing noobs and taking secondary castles from opponents in time pressure happened constantly.
But overall, the strategy of spending time preferentially at the start of the game is quite viable, if only because so many players follow it. However, it is designed for a classic scenario: collect everything, move to the center, and crush the opponent at the end of the 2nd or middle of the 3rd week.
On short controls, however, the "cockroach races" begin from the first few days, and the accompanying mistakes do too. Therefore, what becomes important here is not so much the tempo, but the absence of "out-of-nowhere" fails — simple and reliable play can bring many victories simply based on opponents throwing the game, even before the first contact.
Also, since long moves will be required from time to time, it is desirable to have a time reserve for them. This is also needed for correcting mistakes — for example, if you accidentally enter a dangerous battle, the cost of an error increases sharply, and time is needed to make the correct decision.
Specifically on Diamond, there is an additional feature: the road network is quite rich and branched, so the phase of fighting noobs and snatching castles from each other can be very intense and time-consuming. That is, if one player reaches the contact phase with zero on the timer, and the second has accumulated 1500, it will give them a serious advantage in guerrilla actions.
To summarize, the main factors on short controls are:
a) Reliable play, absence of errors on level ground.
b) Simple play, absence of complex maneuvers requiring deliberation and accounting for non-obvious risks.
c) Economical execution of game actions, allowing time to be accumulated for complex moves in the mid-to-late game.
2. Planning actions.
You should think about your plans for the turn during your opponent's turn. That is, upon receiving your turn, you should already know exactly what you are going to do — which heroes will go where, in what sequence, and what they will do.
Similarly with battles — the formation for them should be thought out in advance, so as not to waste an extra 10-30 seconds on your own turn.
If you plan to build a chain, the placement points for the heroes should also be determined before the turn begins.
If the information allows, you can even calculate castle buildings, especially those that will be built at the beginning or middle of the turn, before the heroes finish moving.
And it is also useful to estimate how many and which resources will be available in the morning, primarily gold. If a resource trade is planned, it should also be calculated — how many and which resources to sell; sometimes this takes up to a minute. If it's unclear exactly how much money is needed, you can simply designate a "untouchable" resource reserve that cannot be traded.
3. Hero Specializations
I am referring not to in-game specializations, but to the functional role of these heroes in your game.
In games with long controls, most heroes usually act in various capacities — collecting resources, scouting, transporting troops, and even fighting. This allows for a strong game but spends a lot of time creating the optimal algorithm of actions.
Therefore, on short controls, it is desirable to give heroes a narrower spectrum of authority, specializing them in something. Obviously, depending on the situation, they can be used differently, but there should be a "default" specialization for each hero, which they will implement if there isn't enough time to find a more reasonable application.
The main specializations are: scout/free-loot collector, transporter, combatant.
Usually, it's necessary to separate the roles of scouts and transporters; often it's more profitable to simply place a hero in a chain than to calculate whether they can also snag a pile of wood off-road before that. If this is not a critical resource for building, spending 30-60 seconds here is usually not justified.
to be continued ...
Players who only practice long controls often simply do everything faster when playing short controls, rather than actually changing their approach. However, one often needs to do things slightly differently...
I am writing this for the WT version and WT hotkeys, so some ideas might be missing or may require adaptation for SoD+HDmod.
Suggestions and feedback are welcome; the topic is quite fresh and underdeveloped.
1. General thoughts.
When playing with long controls (4000+500 and the like), players usually spend a significant portion of their time as early as the 1st week; some hit time pressure in the middle of the 2nd week, and by the middle of the 3rd, most are there.
This approach seems fundamentally wrong to me, as the most complex moves requiring deliberation occur precisely during the 3rd and 4th weeks. Therefore, I personally try to accumulate time, approaching the 3rd week with a reserve of at least 2000 seconds. Thanks to this, I have won many "running" endgames — opponents in time pressure would expose themselves, make suboptimal decisions, or only manage basic actions, missing out on additional ones. While catching a "free" papa or taking the main castle didn't happen often, killing noobs and taking secondary castles from opponents in time pressure happened constantly.
But overall, the strategy of spending time preferentially at the start of the game is quite viable, if only because so many players follow it. However, it is designed for a classic scenario: collect everything, move to the center, and crush the opponent at the end of the 2nd or middle of the 3rd week.
On short controls, however, the "cockroach races" begin from the first few days, and the accompanying mistakes do too. Therefore, what becomes important here is not so much the tempo, but the absence of "out-of-nowhere" fails — simple and reliable play can bring many victories simply based on opponents throwing the game, even before the first contact.
Also, since long moves will be required from time to time, it is desirable to have a time reserve for them. This is also needed for correcting mistakes — for example, if you accidentally enter a dangerous battle, the cost of an error increases sharply, and time is needed to make the correct decision.
Specifically on Diamond, there is an additional feature: the road network is quite rich and branched, so the phase of fighting noobs and snatching castles from each other can be very intense and time-consuming. That is, if one player reaches the contact phase with zero on the timer, and the second has accumulated 1500, it will give them a serious advantage in guerrilla actions.
To summarize, the main factors on short controls are:
a) Reliable play, absence of errors on level ground.
b) Simple play, absence of complex maneuvers requiring deliberation and accounting for non-obvious risks.
c) Economical execution of game actions, allowing time to be accumulated for complex moves in the mid-to-late game.
2. Planning actions.
You should think about your plans for the turn during your opponent's turn. That is, upon receiving your turn, you should already know exactly what you are going to do — which heroes will go where, in what sequence, and what they will do.
Similarly with battles — the formation for them should be thought out in advance, so as not to waste an extra 10-30 seconds on your own turn.
If you plan to build a chain, the placement points for the heroes should also be determined before the turn begins.
If the information allows, you can even calculate castle buildings, especially those that will be built at the beginning or middle of the turn, before the heroes finish moving.
And it is also useful to estimate how many and which resources will be available in the morning, primarily gold. If a resource trade is planned, it should also be calculated — how many and which resources to sell; sometimes this takes up to a minute. If it's unclear exactly how much money is needed, you can simply designate a "untouchable" resource reserve that cannot be traded.
3. Hero Specializations
I am referring not to in-game specializations, but to the functional role of these heroes in your game.
In games with long controls, most heroes usually act in various capacities — collecting resources, scouting, transporting troops, and even fighting. This allows for a strong game but spends a lot of time creating the optimal algorithm of actions.
Therefore, on short controls, it is desirable to give heroes a narrower spectrum of authority, specializing them in something. Obviously, depending on the situation, they can be used differently, but there should be a "default" specialization for each hero, which they will implement if there isn't enough time to find a more reasonable application.
The main specializations are: scout/free-loot collector, transporter, combatant.
Usually, it's necessary to separate the roles of scouts and transporters; often it's more profitable to simply place a hero in a chain than to calculate whether they can also snag a pile of wood off-road before that. If this is not a critical resource for building, spending 30-60 seconds here is usually not justified.
to be continued ...
