That’s because you’re still thinking about the whole game (beginning, middle, and end). If you’d learn to live more in the moment, you could lose more often! (;
Seriously, though, that’s fantastic advice.
In retrospect, if I was going to keep the same line, I should have broken his Tech I, leaving the onus on him as to weather to trade his Zane for mine (with a bird poke) or level his Zane and break my Tech I in return. That keeps us at a gimp fight (so I should have teched 2x spells in that case), and while my Tech 0 units are generally stronger than his, one can’t patrol, one can’t patrol after its first turn, one is expensive to “haste” and none of them have a tone of HP. So Tech 0 is really intensive to maintain for me, whereas low cost is one of Blue’s strongest suits. So ultimately, I think Eric still wins in that scenario because he’s likely to get Tech I operational sooner, and I’ve just given up my econ advantage.
I think I went into it being willing to lose the econ advantage because it seems like Peace (with Cadets, esp.) has unlimited money no matter what you throw at them, but I needed to worry about myself. And I should have known from previous tournaments (Frozen vs. Eric in Winter, was it?) that the way to stop Peace Engine (or Gunship) is to find a way to break tech buildings repeatedly or kill key combo pieces, not base race.
Ultimately, though, I just got suckered by a weak defense (which I’m not used to seeing). That base was sitting undefended on turn 1, then mildly defended turn 2. For me, that’s like putting a delicious pie right in front of me. I’m going to eat most of that pie. I may have to pay for the whole pie, and it might be more expensive than I’d like. But I’m going to eat that pie.
I need to remember that just because something is easy to damage at the beginning of the game doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to hit a few turns in. (Though I got him down to 3 HP, so I don’t feel too bad. (: )
I really appreciate the two lines you suggested. I always feel like I want a HH, but don’t know how to fit it in. You gave me an example of how.
In Plan A, I assume you’d put BRO in SQL so Aven can’t kill it?
In Plan B, I assume you mean Build Tech I instead of Float $1, so that we can actually play the Taxmen if we draw them?
Oh, and most of the (few) games I’ve won, I’ve hit Tech II. So yeah, that works out for me more than not hitting Tech II. So maybe I should force myself to do that?