Archived News From April 2002

Due to the old age of most of these news items, all hyperlinks have been disabled. It is also not possible to comment on any of news. They are presented in their current form purely for your reading pleasure – it’s the closest thing to a time machine we can offer you!

Tournament With A Twist!
Posted by Thunder on April 30th, 2002 @ 11:04 p.m.
Medium resources? Fortress map? 2v2? There’s some settings you don’t see in many tournaments. LittleDagger was a little tired of all of the 1v1 stuff going on and decided to go against the grain by organizing an event with some funky settings:

“Settings:
2v2
Random Match
Fortress
4 Player Map
Medium Resources
Dark Age
Normal Speed
Record Game
No All Techs
Standard Exploration

Date – All rounds are to be played in 1 week incriments starting May 14th.”

Source – MFO

Sign-ups are open until May 13th, so you have plenty of time to grab a partner and play a few games with these settings. To sing-up, head to the forums on the ME clan page. Best of luck! …not a flush friendly event if I’ve ever seen one… ; )

Grumpy Ol’ Get Together…
Posted by Thunder on April 30th, 2002 @ 10:52 p.m.
Many of the members of the Grumpy Old Farts (gOf) clan got together recently to…do what their kind does. They grumped and gamed, and even took a few pictures to share with us. Many thanks to those blokes for sharing their gOf spirit with us, it looks like a good time was had by all: gOf Fest 2002 a Success

AOKH Ladder Standings…
Posted by Thunder on April 30th, 2002 @ 4:03 a.m.
Long live the king! Souyrar_ has defended his crown as the ladder champion and remains on top for awhile longer. The infamous petard_rusher has jumped up a few ladder spots, and may be poised to make a run at the top rung. As is the weekly tradition, here is the top ten:

  1. 221: Souyrar_
  2. 208: petard_rusher
  3. 197: Myll_Slaghter
  4. 195: Gary__Payton
  5. 192: _Final_Boss
  6. 190: Flank
  7. 186: Pezeteros_ [aka redhair_LOLITA]
  8. 183: Annoyomous [aka Qwerty_Donkey]
  9. 178: Myll_Barka
  10. 172: _HitMeHardPls_

Source – AOKH Ladder
In Dark Side of Day‘s list of Ladder Warriors of the Week, LKS_Pacasac tops the list. He played something like 17 ladder games in one day, taking on all comers! Flank, who played the ladder champion and a former ladder champ also made the list, along with Nexphor, who has been playing up a storm. Good show guys!

Interested in joining the ladder? Just visit this post and leave your zone name and a request to join in a post. It’s that simple! …just jump right in! ; )

Arbalet Wrap-Up…
Posted by Thunder on April 29th, 2002 @ 10:41 a.m.
No surprise in the finals, as Arch_Koven_ defeated _IamChris to claim first place, and $3000, in FOPT’s Arbalet Cup tournament! Chris was certainly the underdog going in, and Koven was on a hot streak after having knocked off several amazing players including CNS_Grunt, MS Tournament champion and runner-up at WCG last year. Congrats to all those players who earned a little extra spending money!

Recorded games, the brackets, and other such tournament goodies can be had at the FOPT Clan page. …micro on proud beauty… ; )

Forum Party Today…
Posted by Thunder on April 27th, 2002 @ 10:00 a.m.

Some technical difficulties have jumped on me over the last few hours, which have delayed the posting of our usual invitation for everyone to come out and join us at our Forum Party. Apologies to you all, but rest assured that the event is still a “GO”, as always. Stop by today for some ladder games, or those wild team games, on the Zone! The details on exactly where and when can be found in the trusty Forum Party Post.

See you on the battlefield! …I’m ducking out early though for a hockey game… ; )

Chris vs Koven…
Posted by Thunder on April 26th, 2002 @ 3:20 a.m.
It was a talented field, but it is now down to the final two players in the Arbalet Cup, being hosted at the FOPT Clan page. Arch_Koven_, from Korea, didn’t have an easy road into the final as he met several of his talented countrymen in the later rounds. He will face off against _IamChris, the young fella from Canada, in the final set of games to decide a winner. Good luck to the both of them, and stay glued to the FOPT site for the latest results, as well as the recorded games! …may well have been an all Korean final if Koven hadn’t knocked his countrymen out… ; )

Blacksmith Feature: The Shogun – Tokugawa Ieyusa
Posted by Thunder on April 26th, 2002 @ 2:59 a.m.
For this week’s Blacksmith feature we have a relatively new campaign, and a very new addition to our Best of AOK listing. It got high marks from reviewer veteran BrandNewCar, and with good reason. Let’s get to it:

The Shogun – Tokugawa Ieyusa — This creation by The Vampire Slayer is quite an adventure, obviously set in Japan. The two scenarios put you in control of two important figures in Japan at different times. The story is very engaging, and may sound familiar as The Vampire Slayer points out: “This campaign takes place in Japan from the late 16th Century to the early 17th Century and is based on the the history of Tokugawa Ieyusa. In the first scenario, you play as Tokugawa Ieyusa through his journey as he rose to power. In the second scenario you start off playing as an English man named William Adams, who arrived in the Japans. Then in the last chapter of the scenario, you take command of Tokugawa Ieyusa in the final battle to become Shogun. If you’ve seen the mini-series Shogun, or read Clarvel’s [Clavell] novel Shogun, the story to the second scenario will be relitively simular.”

Along with the campaign zip file, there are some optional music files that you can get that really add to the atmosphere. In fact, this campaign makes great use of asian sounds to set the scene. This combined with lovely map design and the great looking asian buildings are a feast for the senses.

In both scenarios, the story is quite complex and the objectives vary greatly. You are often in control of one unit, Tokugawa Ieyusa or William Adams in the second scenario, but it’s not uncommon to control a squad or army of other units. With the varying objectives come varying difficulties. Some may have you simple move from point A to B, but others are very challenging attacks. To be sure, there is plenty here to keep you interested.

In BrandNewCar‘s review, he gave this campaign a 4.6 overall, with perfect fives in playability, creativity, and map design. I must agree that this is an epic campaign drive by an epic story. Well worth the download! …you can download the optional music files from the description page: here… ; )<div class="clear"