SCAR'S MATCH ANALYSIS
BELGIUM & NETHERLANDS VERSUS POLAND
Poland versus Belgium & Netherlands. Not many would have predicted this match to be the final of the Nations Cup 2015. Both teams surprised us with outstanding matches, both in terms of player skill and tactical decision making., but more about that later. Without further ado, let's get started with the analysis.
(IM-) MOBILITY
Field by the River is without a doubt one of, if not the, most open map in the tournament. Now when we look at the play style and set-ups both teams used, Poland did what I expected them to do. They went for a three archer set-up, as they have done on most open maps throughout the tournament, putting a lot of emphasis on their rangers to create crossfires on their opponents. In order to do that they have to split up however, as they don't want their rangers to shoot from the same angle, and this is where BeNe's set-up comes into play. I did expect them to run a mass cavalry build with dragoons in order to be able to push these splits. BeNe opted for 2 Infantry and 4 cavalry however, which makes pushing a lot more difficult, as your infantry are a lot slower than dragoons and thus easier to kite.
BeNe start the first round quite convincingly nevertheless. They see Poland has split up to approach the flag from multiple angles for their archer, and immediately push one side to avoid getting cross fired on the flags. Poland try to fall back into the river to make it harder for the BeNe cavalry to support their infantry during the push, but at this point it is too late as the majority of their players died already.
The round after, flag spawns in the same position, but this time BeNe do not push. They sit on the flags far too long, and when they finally try to punish Poland's split, their rangers have encircled them already, allowing them to shoot freely on the flags from three positions. At this point BeNe is lost really, it doesn't matter which side they push any more, they will get shot from the remaining two positions, making it easy for the rest of the team to kite BeNe.
Third round, BeNe realise their mistake from the previous round and decide to push quicker and more aggressively, just like in the first round. However this time, after losing two of their cavalry, Poland do manage to get into the river. Now the river is actually the worst spot for the BeNe cavalry to be in, they can barely move making them very vulnerable to rangers, and it is almost impossible for them to support their infantry. So even after losing two of their cavalry, Poland effectively have a numerical advantage for the fight in the river, as cavalry have become largely irrelevant at this point. BeNe make the mistake of following them into the river, eventually losing the round as the Polish rangers pick off one player after another. BeNe should have simply gone to the flags after they killed two of the Polish cavalry, forcing the remaining Polish side to come out of the riverbed and make a move.
For the second set Poland change their setup. Yes they did win the first set, but that was more due to BeNe making a couple of crucial mistakes rather than the Polish set-up working as intended. They exchange their Infantry for two dragoons, in reaction to BeNe's heavy push approach. BeNe opt to change their set-up as well, going with 2 infantry, 3 rangers and 3 cavalry just like Poland last set. Now these changes have two implications. First one being that Poland is literally unpushable at this point. Their dragoons are way faster than the BeNe infantry, so whenever BeNe decides to go for a Polish ranger, they will have to fight both dragoons as they can just dismount right on top of their rangers, and the three Polish cavalry. Now this - and here is the second implication - allows Poland to split up as much as they want, whilst BeNe themselves actually can't afford to split up any more since their Infantry simply do not have the mobility to reach and support their rangers if Poland pushes them.
In my opinion Poland just have a massive set-up advantage over BeNe here – as long as they play it smart and do not commit to stupid pushes themselves, they should win the round. Poland mostly just waits for the flags or BeNe to make a move, support their rangers if needed or pick off BeNe rangers when they see the opportunity. As BeNe has no chance to deal with Poland's mobility, they should have probably switched to two dragoons themselves in order to neutralize the mobility advantage Poland has over them. They do manage to win the last round of the second set, as Poland is too slow to react, but that round really just was an exception to the rule.
ANGLES & CROSSFIRES
The second map starts out way better for BeNe however. They play just like they did against Turkey in the semifinals, setting up in defensive positions around the flag, that their opponents have to push into. The second round serves as a prime example. The flags spawns in the market behind the area BeNe is holding. All they do now is look for which side Poland is approaching the flags. As soon as they see them going towards their spawn, BeNe set-up their infantry in the choke point where Poland has to push through whilst setting their rangers up in very sharp angles on the fight. After two early kills the round is already lost for Poland, their rangers get forced into melee, whilst the BeNe rangers can shoot completely uncontested and with one more cavalry up than Poland, their infantry receives better support in the melee as well. Same story in the fourth round – BeNe hold the area in front of the central tower where Poland is coming from. BeNe sort of give up their positions as they are trying to push a ranger, but they get the better of the melee anyway, evening out the total score. As I showed above, Poland relies on getting their rangers in sharp angels to create crossfires on their opponents but they weren't really able to do that in the third set, since BeNe set up in good defensive positions that Poland had to push into. Their rangers can only shoot from behind their infantry, or are even forced into melee themselves, so the ranged support wasn't really there for Poland.
The last set was fairly standard I would say in terms of tactical play. The second round looked like a very desperate push by BeNe into the tower. I'm not really sure why they wanted to push that, they were playing Veagir, a stronger cavalry faction than Rhodok, so what they should have done is looking to fight in opened up areas to allow their cavalry to have an impact. This is exactly what happened in the third round. BeNe set up in defensive positions, Poland have to split up in order to deal with the crossfire, creating an ideal situation for the BeNe cavalry really – the fight is really split up, lots of 1v1s that are easier to support for them due to the higher manoeuvrability on their horses. Now the rounds that made the difference in the end were the first and last round. The flag spawn in the stable area, where it is very easy for Poland to create crossfires, as they can just put one ranger on the platform in front of the tower, and one at the trees near their spawn, which is exactly what they did. What I would have done differently from BeNe's perspective, I would have pushed the platform area, take that position away from Poland – hurting their crossfire significantly – and leaving one of your archers there, and then push to the flags through the Polish spawn. This way you create a crossfire on the flags yourself whilst taking these two very important positions for that flag away from Poland.
CONGRATULATIONS
But … all easier said than done. Easy for me to sit here and criticize both teams when I didn't even make it to the finals. Therefore, once again, congratulations to both sides for their outstanding play throughout the tournament. Nobody expected you to reach the finals, you proved as all wrong. We have seen some very interesting, new approaches to the game, especially from Poland earning them a well deserved first place.
