Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 623
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 3 Episode 93
32. Ancient Walls (3)
After Pangeo, Almond climbed atop the defensive tower while holding the gakgung.
When archers climbed onto the defensive tower, they didn’t need to use weapons inside it, so they could exceed the tower’s maximum capacity.
So it seemed Cookie was trying to cram nearly six people into each defensive tower.
“It should come out soon.”
Danggeun, squeezed beside Almond, muttered under her breath.
She understood why Rome had to advance now.
“Mm. Good.”
Almond thought this was an extraordinarily boring match and twanged his bowstring.
Twang~
‘Finally time to shoot.’
He aimed at Rome’s tightly closed city gates.
Ready to shoot down anything that came out.
“If we just hold here, we win.”
Just as Danggeun said, if Rome failed to advance here, all hope would be lost.
But…
“?”
Almond’s eyes turned into question marks.
The chat was the same.
-?
-What is this
-??
-!?
Well, they waited for quite a while but nothing came out.
“Nothing’s coming out?”
The soldiers began to murmur among themselves.
“It’s taking a while?”
“What else are they preparing?”
As you’d expect, most of the Civil Empire’s soldiers had fairly competent commanding abilities.
Acting from a first-person perspective to assess and respond to situations wasn’t something you could do with your mind blank.
So occasionally during command vacuums, situations like this arose where there were too many cooks.
“What is this? Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“Just wait.”
“We can’t go into the 3 o’clock era like this?”
At this moment, the troops were most confused and weakest.
Of course, since the current situation itself was chaotic, one couldn’t blame it on too many cooks.
‘What’s going on.’
Almond, far removed from being a cook himself, was also tilting his head in confusion.
Clearly, this situation was far from ordinary.
He finally lowered the bow he’d been holding toward the city gate.
He’d expected them to emerge at any moment, but now there was no sign of them coming out at all.
And then, moments later.
Boom~!
[Rome – Age 3]
The announcement that Rome had advanced to Age 3 echoed across the battlefield.
“!?”
“What?”
“W-we’re slower than them?”
“No, it’s this—they never even recruited a single Age 2 unit from the start.”
Murmurs rippled through the ranks.
The soldiers grew even more confused.
Rome advancing straight to Age 3 meant they’d never intended to expand into Age 2 in the first place.
“Do they even have enough resources to recruit units in Age 3? Danggeun?”
Pangeo grabbed Danggeun and asked.
“…No. It’s impossible with just the main base resources.”
“Th-then what is it!?”
“According to what the mister said…”
Danggeun’s gaze turned toward the rear.
“We’ve been baited.”
Where she was looking—far in the distance.
Where Rome’s secret expansion, hidden from Joseon, likely stood.
Having received some order, the Assistant Commander and several soldiers were frantically rushing in that direction.
“We’re done for.”
* * *
After the Observer revealed the full map view.
King Gul nearly wailed aloud.
“Aaaaaaah!”
An unbelievable reality.
“W-what is this!? He predicted this and held back a worker from the start!?”
“No, this is unbelievable! R-right now, that’s the only way to interpret it!?”
The reason for their shock.
Through the full map view, it became glaringly obvious.
Anto had held back a worker from the very first scout.
“No, holding back a worker for scouting is! Something that almost never happens!?”
It was truly difficult to anticipate.
In the National Team Tournament, unlike other RTS games, players start with 200 soldiers, so precious worker resources are never used for scouting.
“The Civil Empire has dedicated scout troops! There’s no reason to scout with workers!”
“This could be an accident from a drag mistake… Ah, the replay is coming up now?”
The commentators, reluctant to believe Anto had done this intentionally, hypothesized it was coincidence.
“Looking at the replay….”
The replay made it clear.
It was completely intentional play.
“He perfectly protects the worker and withdraws it. As one member of a five-person scout squad.”
“Ha….”
Even the commentators were left speechless, completely played in the palm of Anto’s hand.
The fact that a worker had escaped meant that once resources accumulated, he could build a town hall outside and execute a multi-base strategy.
And indeed, Anto had already completed a secret multi-base.
The multi was already operating, and he’d sealed off its entrance.
“The multi is already operational. And those soldiers who couldn’t return to the main base?”
“Ah! Yes! The ones who couldn’t make it back!?”
“Yes. Those soldiers are protecting the multi.”
Defensive forces were already positioned.
Given the Rome fortress map’s characteristics, it would be quite difficult to breach.
“Aaah! And! Now I understand! Why Rome’s Age 2 was unusually delayed!”
The commentators recalled their earlier confusion about Rome’s delayed Age 2 transition.
“One worker’s difference makes a big impact in the early game!?”
“Exactly! But after the multi is built and activated! How is it now!”
Once the multi became operational, resource income became far superior.
Moreover, even if the main base’s resources were depleted, resources would continue flowing in.
“So Rome reached Age 3 first, but! Resources aren’t lacking!”
“Meanwhile, Cookie prepared for Age 2 combat… so his resource situation is falling behind!”
“When these conflict in the middle, both their resources equalize, right? Then sealing the exit becomes pointless!?”
Indeed, Rome, who had advanced to Age 3 first, was maintaining resource income equal to Joseon’s.
“Just one worker! A single worker being out there! And the entire strategy collapses!”
The Caster then asked in disbelief.
“But Cookie’s play of blocking the enemy exit was also an unpredictable gambit, wasn’t it? And Anto predicted that too!?”
Cookie’s play of sealing off the enemy’s exit was itself a difficult move to anticipate.
Yet Rome had anticipated it.
“Exactly!? It doesn’t make sense! He didn’t even know the Rome fortress map would appear beforehand! Anto’s mental processing! It’s truly breathtaking!”
He’d predicted an improvised strategy with improvisation of his own.
-For real
-I’m speechless
-Bug-tier
-No wonder he’s 1st place
The Caster cried out while watching the minimap as if in agony.
“Cookie’s scouting right now! Didn’t he notice!?”
“Well… he will soon… but he should have noticed back in the first era!”
“Why didn’t he scout in the first era!?”
-The Caster’s wailing lol
Why aren’t you doing it ㅠ
-Ah so frustrating, he was doing well
-He couldn’t do it back then, you noobs
-Maybe there are too many newbies who don’t know
-Anto’s insane
King Gul shook his head.
“It’s impossible.”
From the moment Anto predicted it, victory was already out of reach.
No matter how many simulations he ran, there was no scenario where Cookie would pull scouts in the first era.
“What we call a logical impossibility, right? Cookie couldn’t send scouts in the first era.”
“Huh? But why!?”
“First, he’d think a worker couldn’t possibly have left, so there’d be no reason to scout. But what if he predicted that?”
“Yes.”
“To scout properly, he’d need to scatter about 30 Joseon soldiers blocking this entrance to scout around. But if those 30 are pulled out?”
Civil Empire is a virtual reality RTS.
Since the ratio of buildings to units (players) matched real-world proportions, the map size had to be massive.
Proper scouting with just 1-2 people was impossible.
You needed at least 20-30 people spread out to make it work.
“Then the main force loses troops, right? Then Rome could call back the 30-40 troops outside to his base and immediately sandwich the Joseon soldiers.”
“Ah…! Both flanks would be caught!?”
If he pulled even a few scouts, Rome would have initiated combat.
“Yes. And in the worst case, the scout force could all die, right?”
What if the Joseon scouts encountered Rome’s remaining 30-40 soldiers?
They’d suffer massive casualties.
“Even if Cookie escapes and survives, if we just block it off, reconnaissance becomes impossible at minimum, right? Cookie wouldn’t even consider that the enemy has a multi-base. They’d need to confirm the main base completely. But they can’t.”
“I see….”
“As a result, Age 1 reconnaissance had too many variables. Cookie thought they had the upper hand from the start, so there was no reason to create variables.”
In this case, not scouting created fewer variables than scouting would have.
There’s only one way to reduce variables.
“But if we just advance to Age 2 first and then scout after, it’s safe, right? The Roman remnant soldiers would still be Age 1 equipped.”
The strategy was to begin scouting in Age 2.
So Cookie only sent soldiers out to different locations after equipping them in Age 2.
“If they’d discovered it right after reaching Age 2, it would’ve been manageable…!”
“Ah….”
But of course, it wasn’t that simple.
Cookie’s forces are still scouting now, but they still haven’t found anything.
“And here! Again! Anto’s brilliant move shines through, doesn’t it?”
“That’s right… The location… is a position that’s difficult to discover even knowing a multi-base exists.”
The secret multi-base location is at 2 o’clock.
It’s actually quite far from Rome’s main base positioned at 11 o’clock.
It was actually closer to Joseon’s side.
The lamp’s base was dark.
“Ah… The scouts are heading toward 2 o’clock!”
Cookie ends up visiting 2 o’clock last of all.
Luck wasn’t on their side.
“This requires direct visual confirmation!”
Even scouting couldn’t be completed perfectly.
Because Rome’s forces were waiting for it.
[Heavy Infantry]
[Genoese Crossbowman]
Roman soldiers equipped with Age 3 gear.
“Those Roman soldiers who were just holding clubs are now Age 3 soldiers! If we force a scout, they’ll all die!”
“But we have to go in! Cookie has no choice!”
Cookie had to confirm it regardless….
“They finally clash!”
Heavy Infantry clad in weighty armor and wielding maces, along with Age 3 forces armed with Genoese crossbows, met Joseon soldiers equipped with Age 2 gear.
──Thud!
As a bolt flew in and struck, a Joseon soldier was nearly sent flying backward.
Even when Spearmen engaged, they were quickly overwhelmed by maces and flails.
Archers fired their bows.
But Age 2 shortbows weren’t enough.
Heavy Infantry were essentially soldiers in armor comparable to knights.
While they simply absorbed the hits, the crossbowmen eliminated the archers.
“Moreover, since all the troop-related buildings are already constructed at the multi-base! The soldiers outside are actually stronger! This is also Anto’s brilliant move, isn’t it!?”
The soldiers at Rome’s main base haven’t received any weapon supplies yet, but the soldiers at the multi-base have.
“Cookie has caught on now. Why are the remnants of Rome armed? There must be a multi-base! A worker must have gone out there!!”
“Cookie! We’ve marked it near the 2 o’clock position. So there is a multi-base. His expression looks pretty grim right now?”
“Meanwhile, Anto is completely dominating in strategy!”
-Scary
-Insane
-Wow, so this is what it feels like to get completely outplayed strategically from the start
-No wonder he’s 1st Place
What do I do? ㅠㅠ
“Of course! It’s not over yet!?”
The moment those words left the commentator’s mouth, good news chimed in.
[Joseon – Age 3]
Boom!
Following Rome, Joseon also advanced to Age 3.
Joseon had fallen slightly behind in time due to preparing for the Age 2 battle.
“Joseon! Age 3! This is still unknown!”
Joseon also had a fully functioning multi-base, and Age 3 was a particularly strong era for their civilization.
“Right!? Rome also wasted time and resources secretly running that multi-base!? Joseon also spent time and money buying Age 2 equipment!”
There’s a reason why the secret multi-base strategy isn’t used easily.
The time it takes to walk to a location far enough not to be discovered, and the time for a single worker to build every structure one by one.
There are surprisingly many variables.
The commentators were mentioning those variables and instilling hope.
“Ah… Rome’s cavalry for reconnaissance right now… they’re lighting up the map’s vision one by one.”
Cavalry riding swiftly on horseback. With them, reconnaissance becomes much easier.
Rome, having advanced to Age 3 first, discovered Joseon’s multi-base thanks to that.
It’s the multi-base at 6 o’clock.
“As soon as they discover it, 30 troops from the multi-base! Head toward Joseon’s 6 o’clock multi!?”
Despite their slow speed as infantry, dozens of soldiers marched completely across the map.
King Gul swallowed hard.
‘This is really bad.’
Anto was strategically far ahead of what I’d anticipated.
A wall.
It felt like hitting a very large wall.
When you hit such a wall, the pain is intense and the bleeding is severe.
But the truly difficult part isn’t such physical pain.
‘I can’t overcome it….’
Even after bleeding, I couldn’t overcome it.
That would be true suffering.
“Ah, right now! Even if Joseon destroys the multi-base, it’s not enough! The multi-base could be destroyed in return! There are no defensive troops here!? All the troops are currently in front of the 11 o’clock enemy main base!”
Joseon’s 6 o’clock multi-base was in danger, but there was no movement to support it.
“This is tricky to reinforce! If we pull too many troops back from the main base, we’ll be overrun in an instant!?”
“The only advantage Joseon has right now is blocking Rome’s main base exit! But even that could disappear!?”
“Exactly! So sending large reinforcements is difficult….”
There was perhaps only one element that could turn the tide for Joseon here.
‘It’s coming.’
That one element was arriving now.
“Now! But!”
King Gul knew the timing for its arrival and injected power into his voice.
“What if the Gakgung appears!?”
Clang!
[Gakgung – 1%]
At last, the strongest weapon of the third era was being manufactured at the weapon forge.
Joseon’s Gakgung had begun production.
-Finally it’s here
-I think this is my first time seeing this?
Oh no, the curved bow came out ㅠㅠ
-It’s here, the Gakgung style!
And the Archers who would receive these Gakgungs were called forth.
Almond was among them.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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